Book Review: The Complete Book of Tarot Spreads

The Complete Book of Tarot Spreads

by Evelin Burger and Johannes Fiebig

Published by Sterling Ethos, New York

Soft cover, 160 pages.

I was never a reader who was drawn to spread books; right from when I picked up my first Tarot and attempted to tackle a Celtic Cross Spread, I found spread books to be limiting and confining. I prefer to create my own spreads, tailor-made for each of my seekers, and for me the construction of a spread works best if I begin from scratch rather than modifying an existing spread created by someone else.  I was pleasantly intrigued, however, by the Complete Book of Tarot Spreads.

The first 34 pages of this book offer some informative basics on such topics as the setup of a Tarot deck, the Minor Arcana suits, elements, archetypes, numbers, colors and rank, as well as some simple instructions for interpretation methods.  The last 15 pages offer some information regarding astrology and the Tarot, again not in depth, but effective.  There are no detailed stories here, so if you are looking for meatier information regarding correspondences and different ways to interpret your cards, you should look elsewhere.

The remaining 100 pages or so are chock-full of spreads, 122 spreads in total, separated into eleven layout sections with names ranging from Partnerships and Relationships to Searching and Finding to Tendencies and Perspective to Life Journey.  The Major Layouts section has some larger spreads, as large as 43 cards, but most of the other spreads range from one card to 13 cards.  Most of the spreads have very basic card position descriptions, although the spreads in the Relaxation Exercises section offer some slightly more detailed explanations.  Each layout section begins with a small spread, usually one card; this means almost all of the layout sections have a one-card and a two-card spread with a different focus.

Some may feel this book is more for beginners, but for a construct-each-spread-from-scratch reader like me, the spreads in this book offer great ideas for tailoring a unique spread to a specific seeker.  A reader who feels stuck in a rut can find fresh new ideas for spreads, and thanks to the layout sections and the simple card position descriptions, information can be found easily and quickly.  The layout sections make it easy to hone in on a specific question, allowing a nuanced and richly textured reading to be created either by combining spreads for a “big picture” or peeling away layers of an issue by using multiple smaller spreads.

While beginners will certainly benefit from having this many simple spreads at their fingertips, the card position descriptions might not offer enough instruction for readers still learning the basics of reading the Tarot.  The informative basics on the suits, elements, and the like, and the information on astrology and numerology, are great starting points but a novice would need to perform further research elsewhere.

The Complete Book of Tarot Spreads has much to offer, and would make a valuable addition to any reader’s Tarot toolbox