I got this book a while back, and I'm sorry I didn't get to  review it sooner.  This is a very handy little guide for tarot collectors and students alike.  I call it little but it is really quite nicely packed with information.  The subtitle on the book is "An Essential Reference Guide" and, while I'm not sure I would call it essential (the way I consider the Kaplan encyclopedias essential) this book surely does serve a unique purpose among tarot books, and is worth having on any tarotist's shelf.

The book begins with a section devoted to "traditional" divinatory meanings for the cards.  These are packed fairly tightly in so that they don't take up a whole lot of room, yet right away the meanings given here are much more fully fleshed out than most books which offer "divinatory meanings" at all.  Already a beginning tarotist will get more out of this book than most tarot books which tell you the meanings of the cards.  The only real weakness of these descriptions is in the court cards, which is where everyone lacks in their descriptions, and which is why I am writing my own book on court cards.

A section explaining "the makeup of the tarot" analyzes the actual structure of the deck and the connections between various parts of the deck when they come up in readings.  There is also a chapter discussing the "people in the tarot" which many may find useful.  Chapters on Timing during readings and Combinations of cards to look for are extremely helpful when one is stuck on these parts of a reading.  Many people get hung up on the timing aspects when giving a reading.

Some of the best sections of the book are the fairly comprehensive directory of symbolism within the tarot, explaining the symbols themselves much like you would in a dream dictionary or such.  A person trying to study a particular card can come to this directory and look up each symbol one by one in order to help gain more insight into the card's design.  There is also a chapter on Numerology as it relates to the tarot, as well as Cabala (that's how Porter spells it, don't crucify me!), Astrology, "Elemental Astrology," Color, Chakras, and the I Ching.  In light of recent discussion threads on the Tarot-L mailing list, I know the I Ching correspondences will be of great interest to some.

A lengthy Appendix is provided which discusses spreads in decent detail, providing many spreads but also describing how to use not just the spreads provided but how to use any spread and how to make your own.  What is nice is that the various spreads offered here seem to tap into each of the chapters discussed above; a chakra spread, astrology spread, and so on.  This provides a nice feeling of continuity to the book.

The recommended reading list at the end of the book is very interesting and not at all what I anticipated.  Especially in light of the fact that many tarot books just seem to use the same basic list.  Most of the books on this list are not tarot books but explore in more depth the concepts which Porter *ties in* with the tarot in this book.  There are tarot books on the list.  Frankly, while I liked many of the nontarot books on Porter's list, I didn't think terribly much of the *tarot* books Porter recommends.  They seemed for the most part to be fairly simplistic, almost as though Porter didn't want to dive too deeply for fear of overwhelming the book with too much tarot.  Since this book is supposed to pull together various related types of divination, it would probably not be to its best advantage to have tarot material that went into *too* much depth.
 
One thing I found annoying was that the cover of the book is illustrated with cards from the Sacred Circle Tarot by Anna Franklin and Paul Mason; however, the illustrations inside the book are from the Rider-Waite Tarot.  I'm not sure why this was done.  It would seem that if one had permission to use the Rider-Waite deck at all, one could use it on the cover.  Then again, perhaps the publisher wanted to use the Sacred Circle Tarot throughout, but it was not feasible in a black and white printing; or perhaps because the symbolism is not as consistently traditional as the Rider-Waite.  Whatever the reason, I think it is possibly slightly misleading.

I do recommend this book to those who are looking to do a serious study on a comparative or symbolic level, since whether you totally agree with what Porter says on a particular symbol or not, it provides food for thought.  I do like the idea of drawing together all the different various systems.

Click here to purchase this book

or here to return

Review Copyright 2001 by Gina M. Pace

Tarot Companion by Tracy Porter, 2000
published by Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN.
ISBN 1-56718-574-6