tarot spreads book

silvereye

Which book would you recommend for Tarot spreads? Im inclined to Barbara Moores just because how great her companion book for Steampunk Tarot was.
 

Spiffo

I don't know Ms Moores' book but I did find The Deck of A Thousand Spreads (by Tierney Sadler, 2013, Llewellyn, USA) to be very helpful in not only learning about good spread construction, but then actually creating them with the accompanying cards. It's a very clever package.
 

silvereye

I don't know Ms Moores' book but I did find The Deck of A Thousand Spreads (by Tierney Sadler, 2013, Llewellyn, USA) to be very helpful in not only learning about good spread construction, but then actually creating them with the accompanying cards. It's a very clever package.

That sounds intriguing let me look into it!
 

Nemia

I recommend it, too.

I have the book Power Tarot by Trish MacGregor and Phyllis Vega which is a bit older. It was my first spread book. It gives generic card meanings (I never used them, I confess) and spreads, spreads, spreads - from small to large. I.e., when you look for a spread, you can browse according to size. That's nice.

There is no explanation however about the inner logic of spreads. And that's where Tierney Sadler really shines. I also like her deck (it's a kit). On her website, I contributed some of the uses of the deck of 1000 spreads as learning tool but obviously it's also good for creating spreads. And her book is very well structured, clear and gives you all the knowledge you need to build your own spreads.

James Ricklef's book about creating and interpreting spreads is good as well. He gives his Knight Hawk example readings which is really helpful. The wonderful thing is that he reads for people you know, like Clark Gable etc. So as a reader, you have a good picture of the question and the context - and then you see how tarot enters the scene. He makes the cards speak.

In nearly all the books by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin, you'll find ideas for spreads. Their "gated spreads" are a chain of spreads, and often, their spreads include some non-tarot action. They really push the envelope on spreads, and if you feel confident enough, try their books. They're not expensive to read on the Kindle and even where I don't share their ideas (they're often too shorthand, too technical for me), I like their creativity.

In Tarot Face to Face, they present twelve very interesting spreads based on the 12 astrological houses. One could develop variations of these spreads and combine them with astrology etc. Their books are full with ideas, sometimes it's too much :)

Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot gives an interesting way of working with traditional, very complex spreads and reading techniques used by the Golden Dawn.

Barbara Moore's book is more comprehensive and in-depth than any of the other books I mentioned, this is IMO really the royal enclosure of spread books. She gives ideas and inspiration, all grounded in a beautiful understanding of tarot. She explains the basic structure of tarot spreads, the kind of information they can give and how we can get it. And there's a wealth of spreads. Barbara's General spread is one I have used and really liked - it combines the three-card reading technique many here on AT use, and the structure of card-per-position.

I think Moore is your best bet, Ricklef and Sadler are great, too, the rest is optional.
 

gregory

I'm with nemia. Barbara's book is the BIZ. And also - critically - it is actually very readable. She writes so well, as well as knowing her stuff.
 

silvereye

I'm with nemia. Barbara's book is the BIZ. And also - critically - it is actually very readable. She writes so well, as well as knowing her stuff.

Thanks so much all for your input. Did you have a hard copy or a kindle version?
 

Nemia

I have the Kindle version (don't buy hardcopy books any more except for art books - the house is full) and it's great.
 

Barleywine

I've never bought a spread book and probably won't, although I would certainly trust Barbara Moore if I were going to. I guess I don't see a need to know whether there are 1,000 different ways to combine the cards. The modified (by me) Celtic Cross has been my all-purpose spread for decades, and the only cause I've had to deviate from it occurred when I couldn't fit it comfortably into 20-minute professional reading sessions (so I designed a stripped-down version). When I create spreads, they are almost always topic-specific (love, work, health, problem-solving, decision-making, etc.) and I have a good idea where I want to go with them before I start. As Nemia notes, the "inner logic" is the critical part of spread creation, so I try to include what I call "developer's notes" in my spread documents. Any book that doesn't would seem to be deficient.