What’s the Best Tarot Book?
One thing that really helped me learn more about tarot was reading about the cards. I always say the best tarot book is the book that helps you learn. So I created this post to help tarot readers at different stages of their journey learn more about the cards.
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For what it’s worth, I taught at a university for five years. Before that, I designed training materials for the government. I know a thing or two about learning.
That’s why I won’t give you a one-size-fits-all answer here. You won’t get a “best tarot books 2023” list from me, simply because I don’t think always chasing after the newest book is a good idea.
(I’m a used book girly at heart, gang, and I love me some older books.)
So, with that, let’s talk about tarot learning resources and how you can find the best tarot book for you.
What’s the Best Tarot Book?
In my opinion, the best tarot book is the one that helps you the most. That means that two people may have wildly different opinions about what the best book might be.
It also means that the best tarot book for the beginning of your journey may not be the book that you think is the best in the middle of your journey.
The key to finding any sort of tarot resources to help you learn tarot reading fast is to find out what you need. That also means you need to know how you learn.
If you do best with a printed book, get a printed book. But if you do best with audio resources like podcasts or audiobooks, get those. Your tarot reading essentials are what you need for your practice, and it stands to reason that your learning resources are going to be unique to your learning style and practice too.
And decks are just as important as learning resources too. The right deck will make it easier for you to read with your intuition and not rely so much on looking up card meanings all the time. For more on this, check out this post on what is a good beginner tarot deck and this post on finding your essential tarot deck.
How to Find Your Best Tarot Book
Personally, I think the best way to learn more about tarot is with community.
There’s a local meetup group here in Oklahoma City that gets together every other Monday. It’s super chill and informal, and it’s people meeting at a brewery to share resources and talk about tarot, crystals, pendulums, and palmistry.
Meetups like that are great ways to find book recommendations or even exchange books with people.
But if you don’t have any in-person options, the internet is there for you. Hit up online community forums and see what tarot books people are talking about. If you type “best tarot books reddit” into Google, you’re bound to get some good recommendations.
Your local library will also have tarot books too. So don’t hesitate to ask your local librarian for a book or two, or use Libby to get an ebook or audiobook.
And of course, I have a few recommendations for you too.
Best Tarot Guide Book for Beginners
Finding tarot books for beginners can be tough. The key to a good tarot book for beginners is that it can’t be too much all at once.
Tarot, like anything else, is a skill you build over time. So if you get a book that goes deep into theory and symbolism and history, it may be too much for you at the beginning of your journey. And nothing makes you give up on something new like getting lost in the sauce on day one.
I wrote this post on the best tarot books for beginners, and it has some recommendations that will help you hit the ground running on your tarot journey.
If you’re out in the wild and looking for books, here’s what you need to look for in your beginner tarot book:
- Short and portable. The easier it is to take a book with you, the more likely you are to have it on hand when you need it. And no one wants to carry chonky textbooks around-not even teachers who use them to teach.
- Card meaning focused. Learning card meanings is a surefire way to help you feel confident in your tarot skills. I recommend finding resources that focus on that so you can build that confidence and then dive into deeper tarot topics.
- Published in the past 20 years. Older resources can have some really weird, really gendered ideas about the cards. Some of these books have more fire and brimstone than a southern preacher’s sermon. Save yourself the pain of having to read them.
And, of course, you can always search “best tarot books for beginners reddit” and see the recent community posts on the topic.
Thinking about how to practice tarot reading, and what you need for your journey will help you find good beginner resources too.
Advanced Tarot Books
If you’re a little further in your tarot practice and you want dive deeper into the weirder stuff, I have a few ideas about the best tarot books for advanced readers.
Of course, every reader has different ideas about what matters in the tarot, and every reader’s life informs how they read the cards. So, there is no right or wrong advanced tarot book here. I have this post on books on tarot card meanings for every tarot reader, and those recommendations may be the right books for you right now.
Here’s some books that are definitely worth a read:
- Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow
- Advanced Tarot Secrets by Dusty White
- The Secret Language of Tarot by Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone
- Tarot and Astrology by Corrinne Kenner
This list isn’t comprehensive, and these recommendations may not be what you’re looking for. I definitely recommend thinking about what areas of the tarot you want to explore (like gender, race, history, etc.) and searching for books with that in the title.
And of course, find you tarot community. You’re going to learn just as much, if not more from your peers, especially when it comes to the more advanced and philosophical side of the tarot.
What Tarot Resources Do You Recommend?
What resources do you recommend for tarot readers? Is there a tarot book that changed the game for you? Drop them in the comments!
Originally published at https://marisamohi.com on November 13, 2023.
