Author: Christine Jette
Trade Paperback, 154 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: November 2001
ISBN: 073870105X
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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
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