Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All!
Created especially for beginners, the Easy Tarot kit is the easiest way to learn to read Tarot cards. In the Easy Tarot Handbook, author Josephine Ellershaw shares tips, shortcuts, and time-saving techniques gained from more than thirty years of experience reading tarot cards.

Using the beautiful Gilded Tarot deck, you'll learn how the seventy-eight cards link to one another and provide insight as their unique energies merge in the Cross of Truth, the Celtic Cross, and other spreads. There is even a list of card combinations that commonly indicate specific events—such as pregnancy, a wedding, a new job, and more. Also included in the Easy Tarot Handbook:

  • A quick guide to card meanings
  • Sample readings, safeguards, and ethical guidelines
  • Tips on keeping a tarot diary
  • Troubleshooting advice that addresses questions such as, "What if the cards don't seem to connect?"
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Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All!
Created especially for beginners, the Easy Tarot kit is the easiest way to learn to read Tarot cards. In the Easy Tarot Handbook, author Josephine Ellershaw shares tips, shortcuts, and time-saving techniques gained from more than thirty years of experience reading tarot cards.

Using the beautiful Gilded Tarot deck, you'll learn how the seventy-eight cards link to one another and provide insight as their unique energies merge in the Cross of Truth, the Celtic Cross, and other spreads. There is even a list of card combinations that commonly indicate specific events—such as pregnancy, a wedding, a new job, and more. Also included in the Easy Tarot Handbook:

  • A quick guide to card meanings
  • Sample readings, safeguards, and ethical guidelines
  • Tips on keeping a tarot diary
  • Troubleshooting advice that addresses questions such as, "What if the cards don't seem to connect?"
19.95 In Stock
Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All!

Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All!

by Josephine Ellershaw, Ciro Marchetti
Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All!

Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All!

by Josephine Ellershaw, Ciro Marchetti

(Cards with 240-Pp. Book ed.)

$19.95 
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Overview

Created especially for beginners, the Easy Tarot kit is the easiest way to learn to read Tarot cards. In the Easy Tarot Handbook, author Josephine Ellershaw shares tips, shortcuts, and time-saving techniques gained from more than thirty years of experience reading tarot cards.

Using the beautiful Gilded Tarot deck, you'll learn how the seventy-eight cards link to one another and provide insight as their unique energies merge in the Cross of Truth, the Celtic Cross, and other spreads. There is even a list of card combinations that commonly indicate specific events—such as pregnancy, a wedding, a new job, and more. Also included in the Easy Tarot Handbook:

  • A quick guide to card meanings
  • Sample readings, safeguards, and ethical guidelines
  • Tips on keeping a tarot diary
  • Troubleshooting advice that addresses questions such as, "What if the cards don't seem to connect?"

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780738711508
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Publication date: 05/08/2007
Edition description: Cards with 240-Pp. Book ed.
Pages: 240
Sales rank: 91,830
Product dimensions: 5.20(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

For Josephine Ellershaw, the Tarot has been a constant life companion on a personal journey that spans more than three decades. Alongside her business background she has many years of experience providing readings, healing, and metaphysical guidance to an international clientele and is the author of the international bestseller Easy Tarot: Learn to Read the Cards Once and For All. Ellershaw lives in North Yorkshire, England, with her family and a large menagerie of pets, including waifs, strays, and rescues.


Ciro Marchetti (Florida) is an award-winning artist from the United Kingdom. He studied art in London, followed by a career working in Europe and South America where he cofounded what became the largest graphic design agency in the region. He later transferred to the United States where he opened a branch office based in Miami. In addition to managing his company, Ciro also gave workshops and lectures on digital imagery and illustration at the Fort Lauderdale Art Institute, and continues to create his own personal style of visionary art. Ciro's eclectic portfolio of offerings includes award-winning cartomancy decks, posters, and jigsaw puzzles along with tarot-themed ceramic inlayed wooden boxes, reading cloths, bags, and kimono-style gowns. Visit him at CiroMarchetti.com.

Read an Excerpt

I feel it is important for you to understand your own reasons for wanting to learn Tarot. You may not have really considered this before. Perhaps you just feel attracted to the cards sufficiently enough to want to learn more about them. That's fine, nothing wrong with that, but your reason is probably the main thing that will keep you going. Being able to receive personal guidance is quite a good reason—and I can honestly say, the Tarot has never let me down.

So if you can, identify your reason or reasons now—and write them down! Having a goal to aim for will help you achieve your objective, rather than aimlessly drifting along. It is your underlying reason that will encourage your perseverance. Since this is a rather one-sided conversation, I shall assume that you are a complete beginner to the world of Tarot. So forgive me if you have traveled this road before, but this way I can ensure that nothing is left out or left unexplained, leaving you dangling in mid-air somewhere.

Perhaps your first introduction to the Tarot was through actually having a reading yourself, but in whatever way you came into contact with the cards, their mysterious images resonated somewhere deep within and beckoned you to follow.

No History Lesson
There seems to be an endless supply of theories over the origin of Tarot cards, and most books usually include some version of their history. However, I won't go into detail about that here, as it is an issue of continuing debate.

The history of the Tarot appears to be as mysterious as the cards themselves, with many different cultures laying claim to some connection, along with varying theories and speculation as to how they evolved. I find it most apt that their universal appeal can be traced to so many cultures. No matter which civilization, continent, or timeline we examine, there appears to be a common thread; a theory that emerges throughout-that the Tarot was created using a secret code of symbols and images, to preserve the knowledge of a secret doctrine.

Factual history traced so far leads to fourteenth-century Italy, and while the Tarot in whatever form may have existed centuries before, there is considerable conjecture (but inconclusive evidence) to support these theories at the present time...perhaps it will always remain so. If you are interested, many books explore the history of the Tarot in depth.

Our concern here is in learning the cards in order to receive their guidance and, thankfully, knowledge of their history won't improve your ability to read Tarot cards any better.

The most important fact is that they work! The rest of this book is laid out in such a way as to show you how they work and how to gain access to their knowledge.

About the Tarot deck
Firstly, let us consider the actual Tarot itself, how it is ordered,

and what it consists of. The Gilded Tarot contains a total of seventy-eight cards, of which twenty-two are known as the major arcana, using Roman numerals 0–XXI. The remaining fifty-six are referred to as the minor arcana.

The minor arcana is then broken down into four different suits—wands, cups, swords, and pentacles. Each suit contains an ace through a ten, followed by a page, knight, queen, and king (known as court cards). Each of the suits represents

one of the four elements: Wands: Fire, Cups: Water, Swords: Air, Pentacles: Earth.

The cards contain archetypal images, pictures, and symbols that make a connection with one's subconscious mind. The major arcana focuses on the higher matters of life, while the minor arcana indicates situations in our daily existence. But both are important. Think of the major arcana as the bricks and the minor as the mortar that fills the spaces, holding it all together.

Introducing the Gilded Tarot
Somehow I have the sneaking suspicion that you have already unwrapped your new Tarot cards to take a peek—and who could resist such a temptation?

I have purchased a great many cards over the years; in fact, my home is littered with unused Tarot decks. There is nothing more disappointing than thinking you have found the deck, only to discover that you can't work with it. There have been quite a number that have fit into that category for me—once laid out, the cards all appeared muted, with no solar plexus reaction, or the interpretations that I'm happy with just didn't fit with the images.

Like most people who love Tarot, I was constantly searching for the "perfect" working deck, like the search for the Holy Grail...and finally I found it in the Gilded Tarot, created by Ciro Marchetti and published by Llewellyn. Now I use nothing else. I believe they are the most visually stunning Tarot cards available and they immediately became the favorite deck for many in the Tarot community, readers and collectors alike.

The Gilded Tarot is breathtakingly beautiful; the magic and mystery of its images instantly transport you into another dimension. This is really most important, for your cards should provoke an instant inner response, regardless of whether you understand it. With each image presented, it is akin to becoming immersed in the scene and merging into the story. How I wish these cards had been available when I first began to learn!

Most people learn with what is termed "a beginner's deck," and then transfer to one they prefer later. There is a huge number of Tarot decks available, but many of the images and interpretations vary, so if you do change it can be like learning all over again. By using the Gilded Tarot, you will be saved from major frustrations from the beginning and if you don't feel the need to transfer to something else afterward, you get the best of both worlds—a double whammy!

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword xiii

Part one: Good Foundations 1

Step 1: Background 4
No history lesson 5
About the Tarot deck 6
Introducing the Gilded Tarot 6

Step 2: Answering Your Questions 8
How does Tarot work? 8
Who uses Tarot cards? 9
Do I need to be psychic? 9
How soon will I be able to do readings? 10
Fate or free will? 12
Disposing of a few myths and misconceptions 13
About other ancient sciences 13

Step 3: Making Preparations 15
Caring for your Tarot cards 15
Guidance and protection 16
Using a crystal 17
Preparing your Tarot deck 18

Step 4: Keys to Learning 20
Your number one learning tool 20
What kind to use? 20
How to record information and why 21
viii – Easy Tarot Handbook
About dreams and psychic development 22
Your intuition 24
Tying it all together 25

Step 5: Just Before We Begin . . . 27
One card does not a reading make 28
About reversed cards 29
About Tarot spreads 30
Getting started 30
Following completion of each suit 32
Congratulations 32

Part Two: Meeting the Tarot 33

Step 6: The Minor Arcana—Suit of Wands 34
Step 7: The Minor Arcana—Suit of Cups 46
Step 8: The Minor Arcana—Suit of Swords 58
Step 9: The Minor Arcana—Suit of Pentacles 69
Step 10: About the Court Cards 80
Step 11: The Minor Arcana—The Pages 84
Step 12: The Minor Arcana—The Knights 89
Step 13: The Minor Arcana—The Queens 94
Step 14: The Minor Arcana—The Kings 102
Step 15: The Major Arcana 108
Part Three: Preparation for readings 139
Step 16: Getting Ready to Read 140

Reading for yourself 141

Preparation 141

Asking the Tarot 141
Shuffling and cutting 143
Using a significator 145
Recording readings in your diary 146
Example of a Tarot diary record 147
Before you begin, some helpful advice 148

Part Four: Various Tarot spreads in depth 151
What type, when, and why? 152

Step 17: The Cross of Truth 154
About your reading 156
What if the cards seem unrelated? 157
Checking your accuracy 158
Sample reading: The Cross of Truth 159
Points to note 162
Step 18: The Nine-Card Spread 163
Step 19: The Celtic Cross 165
Further insights from the Celtic Cross 169
The “what-if ” scenarios 172
Timing with the Celtic Cross 176
Step 20: The Life Spread and the Anchor
179

Life Spread positions 182
The Anchor 183
How “non-fixed” spreads differ and rules that apply 184
The key cards 185
Impact on area groupings 185
Connection to the Anchor Spread 187
Timing for the Life Spread 189

Part Five: The Final Touches 191

Step 21: Card Associations 192
Sample from the Life Spread 194
The cards you can’t relate to 196
About the “awkward” cards 197
Putting it into perspective 199
About illness 200
Card combinations 203
Step 22: Living with Tarot 208
Reading for others 209
Reading for minors 211
Some final words 213


Part six: Useful Tools and Templates 215

Minor arcana cheat sheet 216
Major arcana cheat sheet 218
The Cross of Truth template 220
The Celtic Cross template 221
The Life Spread template 222
The Anchor template 223
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