Really enjoying Mary K. Greer's 'Tarot for Yourself'

ficbot

I want to hank whoever recommended this. It is a fantastic book and it has really opened my mind to how eerily well the tarot works. One exercise she had in there was to have you graph the year cards for every year of your life. This card is calculated by adding up the digits in the year and corresponding them to major arcana cards. There were some things which really jumped out at me when I did this:

1) The most common 'cycle' was in the area around Lovers-Chariot-Strength-Hermit, which repeated, with slightly varying start numbers or end numbers, five times. Hermit is both my soul and personality card, so that explains why this area of the spectrum appeared so often.

2) The hermit years actually did correspond to key events in my life, as she predicted. There were some years when I have no idea why a card was significant (the moon appearing only once, the year I was 3? Ooookay...) But the hermit years were significant. One of them was my bat mitzvah, one was second-year university (the first time I lived on my own, outside of a dorm situation or my parents), and the year I lived overseas for grad school.

3) The Emperor was the year card the year I met my husband! I had not expected that. And the lovers was the year we moved in together.

4) The Wheel of Fortune was the year I started with my current boss. It is the longest employment I have ever had, and it affected me very significantly when she told me she was not renewing my contract after this year.

5) Speaking of which, this year was is Strength, the year I have to figure out the next phase f my life after working for her. The last Strength year was the year I came back after grad school and started my career in the first place. Interesting!

6) Next year will be my first year married, and it is a hermit year again. We are hoping for a family. I wonder if the hermit represents a nesting instinct, and the hopeful fulfillment of that wish?

This book is the first 'workbook' type book I have read where I actually stopped to do the exercises rather than just bookmarking them for later. I could not believe how the traits on the cards lined up with my life events when I plotted them this way!

Has anyone else read this book? I can't wait to see what else it will teach me!
 

Citrin

Yes, I've also found that the year cards are very accurate to me. :) I'm right now in a Hermit year, and oh man, right on lol...

It's a fantastic book really. I prefer those workbook type of books so much to the traditional "Here you have 78 pages with each page describing each tarot card in detail" that stuff just makes me fall asleep to be honest...
 

Nemia

Oh yes, I love that book as well! Just yesterday I took it out of the house move box and put it into place in my tarot library - it's the one book in my library that has the most hand written text inside! Each note with date. I went through this book at different points in time and learned something new each time. It's really a work book, and for me, it was a turning point in learning tarot.

There are different ways of learning. Theoretical learning is very important, but learning by experience is no less important. Both ways of learning back and support each other. I always "knew" that Taurus and Scorpio are on opposite spots on the Zodiac, but now that I recognize Scorpio on the SouthWestern skies in the evening... and get up early in order to see Taurus rise in the East... I really understand were these two sit on the ecliptic band. I see one, and I can feel where the other is.

And it's the same way of experiencing the card meanings for my personal life with Tarot for Yourself. It's an eye opener and goes together so well with all the knowledge acquired through other books. Tt gives a depth to tarot studies and practice that I found in no other book. I could feel that immediately in my readings.
 

Teyata

Wow, y'all have given "Tarot For Your Self" a great review here! I was already convinced I'd gel with this book before I bought "21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card" a few weeks ago. Once I finish going through 21 Ways (at least once!), I plan to check out Tarot For Your Self. Greer's writing style is so clear to me; I feel like every single word is placed exactly where it needs to be!