Book Review – ‘Tarot Masters’ by Kim Arnold:
Kim Arnold
In her book Tarot Masters, Kim Arnold, founder of the UK Tarot Conference, has created a delightful collection of Tarot wisdom. It features articles from the biggest names in the Tarot world: Alfred Douglas, Caitlin Matthews, Carrie Paris, Ciro Marchetti, Corrine Kenner, John Matthews, Juliet Sharman Burke, Lyn Howarth-Olds, Mark Ryan, Mary K. Greer, Rachel Pollack, Sasha Fenton, and many more! And it has been beautifully illustrated with Kati Oppermann’s line drawings of all the cards.
Tarot Masters was inspired by Lyn Howarth-Olds Letters to the Past project, in which Lyn asked 22 Tarot authors to write a Tarot-related letter to someone from days gone by. In a similar manner, Kim asked a selection of her favourite Tarot writers (thirty-eight in total) to describe how their adventure with Tarot began. She also assigned a Major Arcana card for each author and asked them to write about the image and to give an interpretation of the card. The second half of the book continues with a similar format, except those writers were able to choose a card that they loved or loathed.
Each writer only has about three pages to describe their card, and to tell their story of what stirred them into picking up their first deck of Tarot, so you might expect to skim through this book fairly fast…but no, you’ll be reading and stopping and contemplating the interpretations given for each card. And then you’ll re-read them before moving to the next one because there will be so many insightful phrases that will change the way that you look at the cards from that moment on. For example, words from the very first chapter resonated within me as I read about The Fool. Kim Arnold wrote that chapter, and the following sentence gave that sparkle of enchantment that you get when you gain new awareness of the card’s energy…‘The main aspect of The Fool is that the road ahead is full of potential and invites change. However, the way we handle that change dictates whether the experience will be positive or negative.’ It’s such a simple, yet beautiful explanation for that card’s meaning, and one that will be remembered by me for a long time.
Carrie Paris
Caitlin Matthews connects her card The Empress with the Celtic Triple Mothers, while her husband John sees The Emperor as, ‘the Green Man, King Arthur, the Emperor of Rome and the god of change and fecundity.’ Rachel Pollack included a poem about The Wheel of Fortune, and in her description of her own journey with Tarot, she wrote, ‘Tarot is as open as life and imagination, and Tarot people are among the finest in the world.’ That’s a lovely sentiment, but the best quote from the book (in my humble opinion) has to go to Carrie Paris who gave this gem of illumination about the card called The Tower, ‘The thunderous crack that follows the lightning in this card makes a loud, radical cry for change. It transmits its message through a variety of earth-shaking notes and, like the music from the Gods, some notes will soothe the soul while others will shatter everything you know.’ I’m so impressed with that explanation!
At the start of this superb collection of stories, Kim mentioned that she hoped that the book would ‘become a legacy and inspire future generations of Tarot enthusiasts.’ I believe that it will live up to this ideal. It’s a treasure-trove of useful interpretations from the world’s most influential and inspirational Tarot Masters on the planet, and it’s destined to become a must-have book on any Tarot reader’s bookshelf.