Just got Tarot Tells the Tale..

by James Ricklef. Someone here suggested it a couple of weeks ago but my bookstore had to order it, & I've come to learn & value others' advice here. Thanks, it looks like something I'll like & need. I really wanted to go get it yesterday but the snow said no, impossible, not today. I've only read to page 4 & I can't wait to burrow in! Tonite. After dinner.

great book. cannot type much more due to broken arm.

his books are two of the best I own re tarot. No doubt. Creating your own characters after reading it is fun and inspirational

Davina

Excellent book and fun read. I love the Celtic Cross spread from this book. There is a great thread on this book somewhere in this forum ...

I did like this book, but ultimately found it to be a little bit....

well.... Contrived is too negative a word for what I'm trying to say. It's just that the whole idea of doing predictive readings for fictional or historical characters when you already know what their "future" path will be bothered me. It is a good exercize for a reader, but maybe not worthy of an entire book with a collection of such readings (and little else). Am I alone here?

I will say that he does write really intelligently about how cards might be read, and he brings a lot of great ideas to the table (especially about how to interpret reversals). That alone makes the book worth reading.

-tb

try doing it fo characters fom tv where you don't fully know where storylines are heading.

that takes away the previous knowledge issue in some ways.

I think it also depends on how you ask the question?

if you are interested i could let you knowwho i chose for my readings.

Davina

I think it may be my favorite "modern" tarot book. I really enjoyed his take and style. It is not mine, but I enjoyed reading it. Very upbeat writer.

I agree with TB and TCO. I found it to be a fun read, and his discussion on the cards in each reading was enlightening. I did have the same issue with the readings that TB did, though; furthermore, I wondered sometimes (nastily, I know) whether he'd simply chosen the cards to illustrate his point, rather than doing the normal shuffle-deal process. Nasty, I know, and I'm sorry for it . . . just it sometimes seemed too . . . neat.

All that having been said, I found that his writing made me slow down in my own readings and take a bit more time with each card. He has a great reading style which I'd love to see in action sometime. I also hope to adopt some of his techniques for linking cards and one day perhaps his reversals.

\m/ Kat

and he has produced his own deck.

have not had chance to use it due to emigrating etc but may try it sometime with a few characters I have in mind

I can say for certain my readings involved genuinely shuffled/random cards, and were always very apt.

made 3 card readings appear almost sexy to use if that makes sense

This books is among my favorites, I read it few years ago and really helped me improving my reading skills as the explanations given after each reading cleared many doubts I had about connecting cards and working with reversals, a really good book for "reading theory".

As for reading for "fictional characters" this fact didn't bother me at all (but then I've already read for an actual puppet time before knowing the book), as we all know the future of those fictional characters even before reading the explanation of the reading one starts processing on the back of the mind what does the cards mean, I can not recommend this book enough.

I have no problem at all for readings for fictional characters. It was the idea that he was doing readings for characters in situations where he already knew the outcome of the situation.

I use tarot all the time as a writing tool, and sometimes it helps me determine the actual outcome of my fictional characters. Like Kat said- it sometimes seemed too neat, which raised a flag for me, and several times I found myself thinking that maybe he planted the cards rather than pulling random cards.

It's really just a small thing in the grand scheme- even if he did select cards, it hardly takes away from the value of the book as a teaching tool for how to link different cards to bring depth to a reading. It's still a very worthwhile book.

-tb