We are not always dealt the gentlest cards in life. Sometimes we’re dealt a very difficult hand. At some point all of us will be confronted by life’s inevitable tough passages: the loss of loved ones, a health crisis or illness, the endless thrum of national and global tragedies—as well as the empty nest, the loss of a job, the loss of a relationship, the loss of youth.
When we’re going through a difficult time, tarot can be a source of comfort, catharsis, healing, and connection to a power greater than ourselves. Doing a tarot reading can help you tune into your instincts and make better choices. It can help you think clearly during those moments when nothing feels simple or clear. And when you realize, “I have three options, and frankly, all of them are lousy and this whole situation is just really sad,” tarot can help you find acceptance and bear the pain with a little more grace.
But even in difficult times, we can find purpose and hope. With tarot as a tool, we can make wiser choices and steer things in a more positive direction. In this guidebook, Theresa provides:
-Card meanings and how to interpret them in the context of difficult passages
-Tarot spreads, practices, rituals, and exercises
-Personal reflections and journaling prompts
The Cards You’re Dealt will help you deepen your connection to the tarot and find what you need to help you, and your clients, begin the healing process.
The tagline “how to deal when things get real” is an incredibly accurate assessment of the power of this book. Not only are the individual card meanings really helpful, but the personal story of what led Theresa to write this book made it a really captivating read. The subject matter of the book is heavy, but the message in the end is one of lightness and calm.
“That is the secret to a live well lived: being present with every moment, no matter whether that moment is filled with joy, sorrow, or other such things. Nothing is permanent, which means we need to make every moment count, from our first breath to our last. I don’t want to miss a thing.”
Theresa Reed
The first half of the book is a functional tarot guide – each card is explained and a meaning is given with context for trying situations. This is so helpful. Often the guides that come with our decks or that are available online are so broad and universal, that you have to sift through to find the message that applies to your actual situation. A card means something a little different if you’re asking about love than it does if you’re asking about your job, and if you’re asking about grief, death, or health those meanings can be even less helpful. Every card also includes a journal prompt, which I found to be really insightful. They add context to the reading, and are also just good journal prompts when you’re struggling. I tried pulling a card simply to pick a journal prompt, and it worked super well even without looking at the meaning of the card. Major Arcana cards also include a practice, something you can do in real life to make progress with your issue, and these are all different. The High Priestess’s practice involves pulling all the cards from your deck that feature moon imagery and seeing if that moon is a common thread between the meanings of those cards. The Magician gives advice for dealing with health care practitioners that are dismissive, the Justice card encourages you to get legal affairs in order, the Sun tells you to go outside and play and let your inner child take the reins for a minute. (It also mentioned getting ice cream, which I certainly did when I pulled this card one day haha!) This really solves a regular problem I have with readings- I’m all jazzed up from my reading and ready to get out there and make things happen and follow the advice of the card, but don’t always know how. Often I’ll end up forgetting the reading’s message because I don’t actually bring that focus out of the reading and into my day.
The second half of the book, though, is the real star of this show. I have never found a section of a tarot book with sample spreads and readings SO helpful before. I think this is the very first time I’ve seen an ACTUAL sample reading. So for example, the Recovery Spread is for dealing with some fear while recovering from illness or injury or addiction – whatever it is. Theresa gives a very simple reading to help you navigate that situation without invalidating your feelings with 3 cards. Then she gives you a sample situation, in this case it’s a person who is completing their last round of chemotherapy, and though their prognosis is good, there is still some fear and anxiety there. She actually shows you how the reading would go, pulls a card for each and explains how that card applies here. If you read for others, this is obviously a great guide to help you talk with a client, but even in your personal readings it helps you take the relevant meanings from a wider description of the card so you can get a clear answer. Then she gives you a journaling practice that matches the spread, and some advice for when someone you love is in a state of recovery and you want to be supportive. I absolutely ADORE this format.
This whole section was really helpful. It’s divided into different topics like reading the cards about health and illness, or reading for children. The health and illness section was really helpful for me, as this is an area I’m generally kind of uncomfortable with when reading – especially when reading for others. Theresa explains how to ask questions about health effectively, without trying to diagnose or take the place of actual medical care. She gives a list of good questions to ask the cards, and ones that are just not helpful or that can’t be answered by tarot cards. There’s some advice about taking to someone going through a health crisis, including again – what NOT to say like “you manifested this through negative thinking. be positive!” which is a shockingly common sentiment in spiritual circles.
There are sections on talking to children in difficult moments without invalidating their feelings, dealing with global tragedies and natural disasters, and of course death and grief. Not every section has tarot spreads in them, Theresa also provides rituals and activities like creating altar spaces, breathwork and yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. She talks about gratitude, honouring your feelings, taking care of yourself and others who are struggling, and making changes in your life to make it happier, calmer, or just more in line with what you need right now. At one point she talks about her and her husband having the realization that they want to live a quieter and simpler life and giving up the kinds of dreams other people thing are important like flying all over the world, hustling and grinding, going to conferences and being super social. They wanted to live a more intimate and loving life, and they decided to do that after a bunch of hard times. She encourages you to think about the kind of life that would make you most happy, and not to be ashamed of making changes so you can live it.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who reads tarot, whether that’s for themselves or others. I very strongly recommend it to those of you who want to read for others in a professional capacity. Not every reading is happy-go-lucky and sometimes you’ll see something difficult in the cards and not know how to be honest without being hurtful, and this is the book that can help you. We all struggle sometimes, and tarot can be a great tool to help us get through those moments, as long as we understand how to use it properly.
Get your copy of The Cards You’re Dealt from the following Affiliate Links to support The Fat Feminist Witch Podcast:
Amazon.com US
Amazon.ca CANADA
Tarot journals are a vital tool in personal development and the most effective method for charting your growth as a tarot reader. Keeping a record helps you connect the dots and understand the patterns. Putting it down in words helps solidify the story the cards are trying to tell. In this journal, the tarot story of your life unfolds before you.
In The Weiser Tarot Journal, you’ll find everything you need to get started:
-Fully illustrated layouts and instructions for eight spreads—1-card, 2-card, 3-card, 4-card, Celtic Cross, Horseshoe, Astrological Wheel, and Weiser’s own Ankh spread
-208 journal pages to record your readings and over 1,900 full-color tarot stickers (1 x .6 in.), kiss-cut for easy peeling and application—24 complete sets of tarot cards
-Instruction and guidance on how to keep a journal, including best practices for beginners
-Keywords for all the cards from master tarot reader Theresa Reed
Weiser Books and Theresa Reed have teamed up to create a beautiful journal that contains everything you need to record your tarot journey.
The Weiser Tarot Journal is a portable workbook with rounded corners and a lay-flat binding that makes journaling easy. It includes 24 sets of bound-in peel-off stickers of the Weiser Tarot images and 208 specially designed journal pages for you to record your own tarot readings.
I can’t lie, the number 1 reason I wanted this journal is for the stickers. I fucking love stickers of all kinds, but I especially love the idea of having a visual representation of a card stuck right there in my journal. I have certainly printed out tiny images of the cards I’ve pulled and glued them into many a spiral bound notebook from the dollar store before – much to my wallet and printer’s dismay! Now, you can absolutely journal your readings without stickers or pictures, in a regular journal, and still get a good reading, but this journal has some awesome qualities that improved quite a few of my readings.
First- I love having a dedicated journal for my readings. I don’t know why, but this has always been hard for me to just create organically. I think it’s because I journal so frequently that I fill my notebooks up very fast and can’t really spare a whole book, and end up re-purposing them. Also I usually do my daily readings while I do my daily journaling so they get all mushed together. It’s hard to go back and reflect on past readings because I can’t find them – so this journal has really helped me do that.
The stickers are also more than just fun. I mean, they are SO fun and I love them to death, but to my surprise, they have also been very helpful. Most of my decks are some form of the rider-waite-smith deck, but not all of them, and actually none are simply the RWS. The Herbcrafter’s Tarot is one I use a lot, and I love it, but the imagery is very different and does not have all of the symbolism of the classic deck. When I included the stickers I found that having both the herbal and classic symbolism simultaneously added more depth to the messages I received. Nothing beats those symbols created and included in the deck by Pamela Coleman Smith, they are so expressive!
At first, I didn’t like the actual layout of the note pages. “Plenty of room to write”? I DON’T THINK SO! Well guess what, I write down way too much when reading. I never noticed how much superfluous info I include in my write ups before. I copy way more out of the book than I should, leaving less room for actual personal interpretation! Each page gives you space to put the date, current moon phase (also something I rarely did before!), the deck you’re using, and a significator if you’re using one. Then you have a block for the actual question, keywords, first impressions, interpretation (the largest section) and a small bit for reflections. For small readings there is a small space for your stickers, with enough space to make tiny notes, and for larger readings you have a whole page. When I actually had to prioritize what I wrote to make it fit in these spaces, I spent a lot more time actually interpreting my cards and less time copying things out of the guidebooks. This has obviously added depth to my readings, and made the message much more usable when the reading is over. I also like the “first impressions” section! When I first pull the cards they trigger memories or ideas that maybe aren’t a part of the general meaning of the card, but are obviously significant to me.
The journal pages are split up into spread types and sizes, so there’s a section for 1,2,3, and 4 card pulls, a section for the celtic cross, a horseshoe spread, an astro wheel, and this cool ankh shape. Each section has an explanation of the spread and the meanings of each position, and some ideas for when to use them. The only one I didn’t try is the celtic cross because oh my god I am celtic crossed out for one lifetime, but I loved all the others! The astro wheel spread is really great, and when I used it for my yearly 13 card reading I actually got a little something extra out of it that I didn’t when I initially wrote it out in my journal. The astrological associations for each position lined up with the cards, even though I’d pulled them to represent months. This is like getting two readings out of one. Then of course there is a big section for your own readings, that have no specific layout. The pages are nice and thick, feature really pretty purple background images like moons and suns and elemental symbols.
I did use the book for readings with oracle decks, and I found it worked just fine. For my yearly reading I actually printed out pictures of my cards and glued them down. For another I quickly drew out the main symbols included on each card so I didn’t miss out on the symbolism.
The book features some instructions and advice from Theresa Reed in the beginning and throughout, and then a really good list of general keywords for each card in both the upright and reversed position.
I love it. When I fill it up, I’ll probably buy another one. If you already have a journal you love, you can also buy the stickers separately, which is very cool. If I was going to change anything. I would probably adjust the sizes of some of the text boxes – I would like the box where I write my question to be a bit bigger. The first impressions box could be smaller. These are just personal preference though, and might not actually apply to others. In either case, the actual title of the boxes was small, and if I wasn’t using it it was very easy to simply cross it out and carry on writing. I would also love a spiral-bound version that still has the nice, solid covers but that I can crank all the way open to balance on my knee more easily when not at home.
Get your copy of The Weiser Tarot Journal from the following Affiliate Links to support The Fat Feminist Witch Podcast:
Amazon.com US
Amazon.ca CANADA
I’m so grateful to Weiser for sending me both of these books, and indeed for reaching out and re-establishing a professional relationship now that I’m back to work. That made me feel very good, and I’m excited to share great books like this with all of you!
Theresa Reed is a great source of information and guidance in reading the tarot, her books and decks are all top notch and often accomplish the same thing The Cards You’re Dealt does – they make tarot reading accessible to everyone and usable in any situation. Her Tarot for Kids deck is honestly one of the coolest and most useful decks I’ve seen lately, as reading for kids can be a real challenge with traditional decks and meanings. I highly recommend all of her work, so I’m very happy to add these two books to my collection and see how my tarot practice continues to grow.
Theresa Reed (“The Tarot Lady”) has been a full-time Tarot card reader for 30 years, and has a side job as a yoga instructor. She is the author of several books including Tarot: No Questions Asked and Astrology For Real Life. She is a prolific writer and sharer of tarot, astrological, and magical knowledge!
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thetarotlady
Threads – https://www.threads.net/@thetarotlady
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/thetarotlady
Twitter – https://twitter.com/thetarotlady
To learn more about her visit https://thetarotlady.com and sign up for one of her awesome newsletters! I’m a big fan of The Metaphysical Author’s Confidential myself. You can also join her community on Patreon for regular tarot and astrological readings and writings about terrestrial AND celestial events.
Paige Vanderbeck, The Fat Feminist Witch 