Category: Tarot Books

The Symbols of Jennifer Cooper Steidley – A Tarot Disassembled Deck Review

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Tarot, Tarot Books, Tarot Deck Reviews, Tarot Decks

I’m convinced that Jennifer Cooper Steidley is a Symbol Goddess.

I’ve been a longtime fan of her independently released works including Tarot Disassembled, Tarot Assembled and The Symdala Tarot. They are wonders of symbolic imagery held within the tarot and given a new light and life. They take the Rider Waite Smith Tarot, perhaps the most famous tarot deck, and break every card down into the symbols that each card holds.

The decks are full of symbols, and you’d think that would difficult to read with, but it shows us the pieces and players each Tarot card holds and the energy within. What’s more, her cards let us move them around to tell our own story. Tarot Disassembled helps us take a look at the tarot cards we know so well by breaking each card down to the symbols they contain.

Tarot Assembled breaks down the symbols even more by giving us a gorgeous pallet of colour. I can’t be the only one who responds in a different way for different colours. I feel morose or thoughtful when I see grey, joyous when I see yellow, thoughtful when I see green.  Steidley has each let us gaze not upon a card full of symbols, but one single symbol that the Tarot contains. Tarot Assembled has us take a look at the tree that makes up the Tarot and in contemplating the single symbol, we can put the Tarot we know back together.  

The Symdala Tarot takes the symbolic journey of the Tarot even further and creates a mandala out of each card. These mandalas give you space to pause, reflect and see even deeper into what the cards mean. What’s more, the words around the edge of each card and the symbols within these circular cards create windows and portals into different parts of ourselves. The cards ask that we meditate upon the images and words that the card holds and I love that about them.

I love the guidebooks that come with each of the decks. They are compendiums of the symbols to be found within and what these symbols mean. They are a wealth of information and knowledge and each time I open one and delve in, I find myself happily lost in a world of words and symbols.  I love how Steidley has given me a new way to look within the cards that I know so well and see something new even though I’ve been using the RWS Tarot for years now.

Case in point: I was drawing a card for myself from the Symdala Tarot the other night. I have been going through some health issues and wasn’t surprised to draw the 9 of Wands. What intrigued me was the bandage at the centre of the symbolic mandala. I had never seen a band-aid in the 9 of Wands. I went to my RWS and found the corresponding 9 of Wands card and right there on the man’s head was a bandage. I stopped and looked at the card from the Symdala Tarot and the RWS side by side and I really appreciated how Steidley took a card I knew so well and helped me to see something new within it. It’s like this every time when I’m using her cards.

I was beyond thrilled to hear that Tarot Dissembled was being published by Weiser. I love this deck so much because it started me on my journey of looking deeper within the cards. When I first started using the independently published Tarot Disassembled, I would draw a card and find myself being drawn to a particular symbol. Even through the symbols were all separated, if I followed them, they told a story. When I would read with other decks that were based off the RWS Tarot, I would see symbols that Steidley had brought out into the light. I’m can see the symbols so much more clearly.

More than that, she helped me to fall in love with the Tarot again because she made its language simpler to understand. After so many years of reading Tarot cards, things can start to seem a little boring. I sometimes lose my enthusiasm about Tarot, like everything else in life. Sometimes you need a break. I love all of my decks (and there are a lot of them) but there’s just something about going back to Tarot Dissambled that gives me a reset and much needed reboot. Having the symbols laid out for me reveals the language that Tarot uses to communicate. The decks by Jennifer Cooper Steidley are all like this, but Tarot Disassembled has a special place in my heart because it’s where I first saw the skeleton of each card through the images that she created.

Tarot Disassembled brought so much light into my life and not just because of the symbols that were finally given the limelight they deserved. The whole deck is a fabulous riot colour and it was my hope that when the Wieser version of Tarot Disassembled was published that it would honour the spirit of the deck I knew so well.

Thankfully, the Red Wheel/Weiser Books edition of Tarot Disassembled is just as amazing as the independently published version of the deck. The cardstock is lovely, the matte finish whispery and the yellow edges are amazing. My favourite colour is purple, so I was thrilled beyond words to find out that it had been added to the colour pallet of the cards. It was a joy to go through a deck that I knew so well to see if I could spot the differences in the cards.

I think what I love most is the fact that the Red Wheel/Weiser Books edition of Tarot Disassembled preserved the heart and spirit that makes the deck so special. The guidebook is still the wonderful grimoire of symbols, legend and lore and the cards are spectacular. I’ve got my first and second edition of the Tarot Disassembled, and they are thrilled to welcome their new sibling.

The Tarot Disassembled deck and guidebook by Jennifer Cooper Steidley and published by Red Wheel/Weiser Books is absolute magic.

You can learn mor about Jennifer by visiting her website here: https://www.jennifersteidley.com/

The Change Tarot

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Tarot Books, Tarot Deck Reviews, Tarot Decks, Tarot Writing

I got The Change Tarot sight unseen. I’ve been going through a lot of changes lately, and the road has been bumpy. It’s been a lot.

When I saw that it’s a deck geared towards psychological and spiritual exploration, I knew that I had found a tool to get me through whatever came my way.

I adore the color pallet of soft muted shades. It welcomed me into the Rider-Waite Smith world I know so well but gave it a fresh take that changes things up.

The guidebook is where the deck really shines. Each card gives you the interpretation of the card through a psychological lens that gives you bite-sized advice and comfort.

The cardstock is matte, thick, but bendy, and there is no gloss, just the way I love. The box is a sturdy two part clam shell box, and the production is top notch.

The deck exists because of the book Tarot for Change by Jessica Dore, but you need not read the book to use the cards. The Change Tarot does make me want to dive into Tarot for Change again.

Jessica Dore and Xvaiera Lopez have created something beautiful here, and  they have helped to give me clarity as I make my way forward through the mountains, and I can’t thank them enough.

#thechangetarot #jessocadore #xvaieralopez

Fortunate by Kim Rashidi

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Tarot Books

I had the pleasure of reading Fortunate by Kim Rashidi. It’s a lovely book of seventy-eight poems. Each poem is about one card in a deck of Tarot cards. I loved her interpretation of the cards and their meanings. The poems were short, but they were thought provoking and actually helped me see some of the cards in a different way.

The poems are not laid out in the order. They are all randomly ordered, much like a Tarot deck would be. I love how I could open to a page randomly and find sage advice within the poems. A couple of times, I asked a question as I would have when using a Tarot deck. The answers from the poems were on point and very sound.

Now, there are a couple of things that bothered me. I didn’t like the fact that the table of contents is at the back of the book. I really disliked all the blank pages. I know that Rashidi says that the blank pages are for my own notes and doodles, but I really would have preferred a picture of the card the poem is about or just do away with the blank pages entirely. It also bothered me that not all the pages were numbered.

However, once I delved into the poems, it was to find myself enchanted. The poems are brief but no less powerful. The poems take you through an introspective journey and it’s one I plan to take again.

Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.ca/fortunate-kim-rashidi/dp/1725692708

Free Holiday eBook! A Very Tarot Christmas!

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Tarot Books

Hey Everyone!

I’m so excited for you all to read my new holiday novella A Very Tarot Christmas! I write one every year as a gift to all of you for following me along on my journey and as a thank you for reading my work. Writing can be a very lonely profession and because of all of you, I don’t feel so alone.

When I sat down to write this year’s novella, I knew that I wanted to write about the pandemic in some way. The only worry was, how did I write a pandemic Christmas story? One of my friends gave me the idea to write about something that had the feel of the pandemic and the story took off from there.

Here’s a bit about A Very Tarot Christmas:

It doesn’t feel like Christmas, even with all the snow.

It has been snowing for three years and the snow-demic shows no signs of stopping. Joyce would feel totally alone if it weren’t for her best friend Bruno, her cat Anna and her clients. She works as an online Tarot reader, trying to provide guidance to those that need it. The only thing she won’t answer questions on are health issues and how long the snow-demic will last. No one knows the answer to that, not even Spirit.

When one of Joyce’s Tarot clients turns out to be her mother, Joyce’s world is thrown into disbelief. Her mother died when she was a teenager. What could her mother possibly have to say to her now? She turns to Bruno for help. He tells her that she will have to open her mind and listen to what Spirit has to say.

Things are about to change for Joyce and she realizes that, though she often feels alone, there are ways to come together. With a little bit of magic, Tarot cards and cats, it might finally feel like Christmas after all.

You can get your copy here:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1059007

I’ve chosen to give it away through Smashwords because you can download the book in all the different formats for the different types of eReader. It’s free for you to download!

Out of all the holiday stories that I’ve written, this one is my favourite. It has everything you could need for your holiday: Tarot cards, magic, cats and a little love thrown into the mix. I really hope you enjoy Joyce’s story and that it brings the magic of the holiday alive for you.

Happy Holidays!