Book Review: The Mysteries of Tarot

I’ve been a tarot reader since the 90s, so I’ve read my fair share of tarot how too works. Written at least one of them as well. The premise of this book intrigued me, and I was pleased to choose it to review.

If you thought to pick up this book thinking you were going to read a detailed guide to the tarot cards, you’re right. And if you picked up this book thinking you were going to read a mystery, well you’re also right. This is a genre bending, genre blending work, one that at once seems easy to categorize–mystery, tarot how to–and yet complex all at once. Read this for the tarot explanations, and you’ll find them as easy to understand and nuanced as many other tarot how to books. Read this for the mystery, and that’s a little more interesting, and yet intriguing. Read it for both and it becomes an almost surreal blending of worlds, a constant reminder that the “I” in the book isn’t the author as it would be with most nonfiction, and yet would that be wrong since the character of author of a tarot book actually wrote it. One doesn’t need to delve so deeply into these mysteries to enjoy this book, but if you want an existential dive into the nature of genres, authors, and the “I” as narrator, well then this book will provide that too.

Blurb

When Tarot reader Hyperion Night sent his manuscript, The Mysteries of Tarot, to a friend to edit, it was a simple guide to reading Tarot. Hyperion couldn’t anticipate that his editor’s notes would evolve into a murder mystery, or that his friend would go missing. Shockingly, the annotated manuscript eventually made its way back to Hyperion, who forwarded it to the authorities.

Now this astonishing Tarot guide is available as a book. The Tarot guidebook features:

• Tarot basics―How to manage different interpretations of cards in a spread, how to read court cards, and a clear and simple method for dealing with reversals.

• Detailed card breakdowns― Keywords, flash non-fiction narratives, and a deep dive into the symbols of each of the 78 cards of the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana.

• Questions to apply to the cards for transforming your life―Insightful questions for each card to help you dig deeper into your Tarot reading practice.

Bonus feature: the guidebook also includes his editor’s comments on the more esoteric and philosophical interpretations of the Tarot, as well as his notes on the baffling mystery that engulfed him.

Gain deep insight from the cards, transform yourself, and solve The Mysteries of Tarot with this work of experimental fiction that’s part Tarot guidebook, part murder mystery.

Excerpt

The Suit of Pentacles

Earth

Abundance

Foundations

Fertility

The physical world

Health and home²

Notes: Suit of Pentacles

I’m regrouping with a thorough cleaning of my temporary home. And yes, the caretaker’s cottage was already clean, but I felt driven to… Start fresh now that my father’s gone?

Adelaide stopped by, catching me in the middle of scrubbing behind the stove. She thought I was mad not to call in the servants. But that wasn’t the point. The point was rolling up my sleeves and getting dirty. Laughing, she left me to it.

What finally stopped me was discovering an old plastic yellow house at the back of the closet. It was my mother’s. When we were kids, she’d bring it out for Christmas and create a little village beneath the tree. An old mirror became an ice skating rink. Cotton for snow. This was before my father got big and mom got cancer. You know the rest. I cried for the first time since his death, not just for the past but for what could have been. Could things have changed between us? It seemed like he was trying. Like something had changed. Why, Hyperion? Why did he do it? -T

About the Author

Kirsten Weiss writes laugh-out-loud, page-turning mysteries, and now a Tarot guidebook that’s a work of experimental fiction. Her heroes and heroines aren’t perfect, but they’re smart, they struggle, and they succeed. Kirsten writes in a house high on a hill in the Colorado woods and occasionally ventures out for wine and chocolate. Or for a visit to the local pie shop.

Kirsten is best known for her Wits’ End, Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and Tea & Tarot cozy mystery books. So if you like funny, action-packed mysteries with complicated heroines, just turn the page…

You can find Kirsten at KirstenWeiss.com
Twitter: twitter.com/SBPM_Museum