Distributed by Visionary Networks, Inc.
           2641 SW Huber Street, Suite A
  Portland, OR 97219

Imagine you see a castle in the distance. As you approach the castle doors, they open and you enter the courtyard.  You turn left and begin to go to the end of the hall.  As you reach the end of the hall, the wall begins to slide upward revealing a staircase.  You climb the stairs and the door at the top opens as you approach.  Through the door you see a table with 3 deck of cards.  You enter the room. With these opening scenes you are ready to begin the Tarot Magic experience.

You begin Tarot Magic facing the reading table and since I wanted to have the program do a reading, I clicked on the table to approach.  The close-up of view of the top of the table shows a piece of parchment, an open deck of cards, the box of the deck and a symbol to show which spread is in use.  Clicking on the  parchment allows you to type the question you want to ask.  The screen even gives you suggestions to try to steer you from a yes or no type question.  This step is optional but is useful if you plan to save the results.  Pressing the Enter key returns you to the reading table.   Clicking on the box of the deck brings up a selection of 10 decks from which to choose (see below for the listing).  Click on the deck you want and you return to the reading table with that deck ready to go.  An interesting feature is that the program stores the cards for each deck separately.  So if you were to pick a deck and start dealing and then pick a different deck and begin dealing you get different cards.  Go back to the first deck and the card are in the same order that you left them in that first deck just as they would have been if you actually used a different deck.  Clicking in the Spread symbol brings up a choice of 11 spreads (listing at end).  Click on the spread you want and again you are returned to the reading table.  All this can also be done through the menu options that appear when you bring the mouse cursor to the top of the screen.    Here is where you can get details of the spread you choose. You only get a text description of the spread.  I would have liked it if it gave the number of cards used and a layout but you will see that when you begin to deal the cards.  Through the top menu you can also select your preferences for reversed cards, dealing and reading and whether to use the card names from the deck being used or  the standard card names.

There are buttons at the bottom of the screen allowing you to shuffle, cut, riffle, move and deal the cards.  Press shuffle and a paid of white gloved hands pick up the deck and begin to shuffle.  Releasing the mouse button causes the hands to stop, fix the cards and place them on the table.  Clicking on the Deal Cards button changes the screen and allows the cards to be dealt. This screen offers you 3 different ways to deal the cards.  You can choose to deal from a stack of cards, fan the cards out and pick from the fan or fan the cards face up to pick the cards you want. Once you are done dealing the cards, press the read next card button to begin the reading.  During the reading, the screen changes to a bigger picture of the card being read along with a text interpretation of the card.  You also have a voice reading the text description. A unique feature of this program is that the card interpretations are given based on the spread position meaning.  You do not just get the standard card meanings (although they are provided. You have to ask for it).

After the reading is done, you can save it and or print the reading.  The printout gives the images of the cards in the spread you chose.  Saving puts the reading in the journal.

The program also has a library room. On the graphic bookshelf you will find essays on the history of the tarot.  Most are by Christine Payne Towler who is the content author for Tarot Magic.  There is a lot of information here.

Visionary Networks, Inc. says that they will be coming out with addition decks and a utility to allow you to create your own spread.  The utility is to be found on their web site. As of this review (Oct. 2000), the utility has not been produced.  New decks have also not been released.  Their response time to questions is very good.  I had a question on doing a one card spread and they responded with an answer the next day.

Due to the program giving the card definitions based on the positional meaning of the spread being utilized, this program come as close a possible to a live tarot reading. It just lacks the interaction between the reader and client.   It is also a great tool for helping to learn the tarot.

The MS Windows version of the program was used for this review.
Decks included in the program:
Grand Tarot Esoterico, Grand Etteilla, Ibis Tarot, Marseilles, Medieval Scapini, Oswald Wirth, Rider-Waite, Stairs of Gold, Tarot of the Stars, Visconti-Sforza.
(Some lucky CD ROM’s contain an additional deck. The Dali Universal Tarot by Salvadore Dali.  You need to see if you have a directory on your CD ROM called Dali.  Contact Visionary Networks, Inc. and they will provide you with a web page address to unlock the deck for use.)
Spreads included:
Advice Spread, Celtic Cross, Days of the Week, Horoscope Spread, Life Cycle, Relationship Spread, Right Livelihood, Self Knowledge, Star of David, Timeline, Tree of Life.

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Guest Review Copyright 2000 by William Romano
used with permission
 
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