Return to Cauldron Home Page

Please donate now to pay our monthly server fees:
Donate to The Cauldron
[More Info]

Community Menu
Community Home

Message Board
Board Home
Board Rules
Board Extras:
   Arcade
   Calendar
   Links

CauldronMUX [Client]
Sister Forums:
   Asatru Lore

Menu

Home
Site Info & Rules
Site Archives
Volunteers Needed
Advertise Here

Pagan Supplies
Buy Pagan Books
Buy Pagan Supplies

Books & Media
Books Home
Games Home
Music: Free | Pagan
Online Books
Pagan Book Browser
Reviews:
   Academic Books
   Divination Decks
   Fiction Books
   Pagan Books
   Speculative Books
   DVD & Videotape
Submit Review

Pagan Features
Article Library
Auctions
Chat Log Index
File Library
Humor
Lessons
Pagan Holidays
Pagan Primer
Pagan Rituals
Pagan Supplies
Pagan Youth
Polls
Reconstructionism
Spell Grimoire [Blog]
Web Resources

Pagan Living
Cauldron Cookbook
Take Political Action

Newsletter
Back Issues
Subscribe

Other Features
eCauldronMail
Greeting Cards
Syndicated Articles
World News/Opinion

Shopping
Cheap Web Hosting
Doxy's Bazaar
Witchcraft Course
Zazzle

Old Indexes
Article Index
Webcrafting Index

Network Sites
Cauldron and Candle
Cauldron's Grimoire
RetroRoleplaying
RetroRoleplaying: The Blog
Software Gadgets
The Terran Empire

Site Search
Google
Entire Web
The Cauldron

Member - Pagan Forum Alliance
Charter Member

Get Firefox! While this web site is designed to work in all major browsers, we recommend Firefox.

This site hosted on
a Linode VPS
Formerly hosted by

Why Use Dreamhost?

Site copyright
© 1998-2009
by Randall

Home > Books & Reviews > Pagan > Tarot for All Seasons Search

Book Review:
Tarot for All Seasons: Celebrating the Days & Nights of Power


Author: Christine Jette
Trade Paperback, 154 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: November 2001
ISBN: 073870105X
Price & More Info: Click Here

Additional books by this author


 

Tarot for All Seasons is Christine Jette's third book. As I was fairly impressed with her Tarot for the Healing Heart when I reviewed it a few months ago, I was looking forward to reading this book -- even with its Wiccan orientation. For the most part, I was not disappointed. Christine is a registered nurse and professional tarot reader with a degree in psychology. This gives her a slightly different, but interesting, point of view on the cards.

The marketing hype on the back cover describes Tarot for All Seasons as "Part spellbook, part ritual guide, this book includes twelve unique tarot layouts for the waxing, full, and waning moons, and the eight solar festivals of the Wheel of the Year." Calling this book a spellbook or a ritual guide strikes me as a bit too generous given that the book is mainly about tarot layouts, but the author cannot be held responsible for the zeal of the publisher's marketing department.

This fairly short book is divided into six chapters. The first two chapters are brief and contain introductory matter. The first chapter starts with a couple of pages of on the Wiccan Sabbats and Esbats and then provides a brief introduction to the Tarot. The second chapter discusses ritual design, how to use the sample readings in later chapters, and gives several ways to read a three-card spread to expand on difficult points in any reading. The third chapter discusses esbat rituals very briefly and provides an original tarot layout and sample reading for the full moon, the waxing moon, and the waning moon. Tarot layouts, sample readings, and a few ritual suggestions are provided in the fourth and fifth chapters for each of the eight Wiccan Sabbats. The last chapter is quite short, but full of suggestions for further work. Tarot for All Seasons wraps up with an appendix listing the author's Tarot card interpretations.

The real meat of this book is the original tarot layouts. They are well-designed and each one ties nicely into the sabbat or moon phase it is for. The layouts themselves are simple. There aren't any Golden Dawn style full deck layouts here. The most complex uses nine cards. Many only use five or six cards. The author wisely leaves any complexity to the interpretation rather than the layout. The sample readings are detailed and interesting. The reader, especially a Tarot beginner, can learn a lot about interpreting the Tarot cards from these samples.

The book's main flaw is its short length. Tarot for All Seasons left me feeling somewhat disappointed that there wasn't more. There is so much more that could be done along these lines. Nevertheless, any Wiccan (or Neo-Pagan following a non-Wiccan path which celebrates the same holy days as Wicca) interested in the Tarot should take a serious look at this book. Tarot readers following a path with different holy days, however, will find it much less useful.

Reviewed by Randall


Additional Books by Christine Jette


Top | Home | Message Board | Site Info & Rules | Report Site Problems
Thanks to Cauldron Sponsors
(Sponsor The Cauldron!)

Cheap Web Hosting Report | Pagan & Magick Supplies
Witchcraft Course
Download Hundreds of Magic Spells