Book Review: The Time Changer’s Tarot 

Title:  “The Time Changer’s Tarot: Reading for Yourself, Your Community,
and Your World with the Waite-Smith Tarot”    (Product Bundle)
Author:  Caitlin Matthews
Publisher:  REDFeather
Release Date:  October 28, 2023
Pages:  360-Page Guidebook and Travel-Size Tarot Deck

To negotiate the chaos, uncertainty, and changes of the time in which we live, Caitlin Matthews developed a new approach to an old system by offering a wider perspective and helpful strategies when reading tarot cards for the individual and their world.

Each entry has a color picture of the card, a description of the image, three meanings on which to focus, and a paragraph of background. Then come the upright and reversed meanings for the four widening circles of relating to the the world. Patterned after the Hierocess concept of “household of the earth,” Matthews’ model gives meanings for the person getting the reading; their family and ancestry; their community, group, tribe, or nation; and the universe, the earth’s environment, all that is living on Earth, and the spiritual world. Lastly come three questions the tarot card is asking the querent to provide even more information about the issue. 

Matthews calls readers taromancers, and asks them to became time changers by turning to the wisdom of Indigenous peoples by being aware of our ancestors and conscious that actions taken now will ripple forward through time, affecting those who will come after us. 

Multiple meanings for multiple categories give each card different points of view. General strategies for reading cards, creative spreads, sample readings, and ways the tarot can be used to help heal the earth are among the topics in this book. 

Adding another level to the cards, Matthews uses them to represent people, situations, and time of year. For instance she pairs up the four virtues: Temperance / Temperance, Fortitude / Strength, Justice / Justice, and Wisdom / The Hermit or The World. Representing her circles of life are The Fool for yourself; the Ten of Pentacles of your family and ancestors; the Six of Wands for your community, nation, or group; and The World for the universe, nature, environment, and spirit. Because the reading centers around a question, she stresses the importance of wording it properly, giving advice to get the most out of the cards. 

In her efforts to help broaden and deepen a taromancer’s practice in ways that also address the world’s needs, Matthews wrote an encyclopedia. The amount of detailed information in this handbook can be overwhelming, especially to beginners, but it can be taken in smaller bites.  

Along with this book is a travel-size deck of Waite-Smith tarot cards, 2 1/8″ x 3 1/2″.

About the Author:
Caitlin (Kth’LEEN) Matthews lives in England with her partner, John Matthews, and assorted cats. Although she is the author of more than seventy books, most of her work is spoken rather than written. She travels and teaches ancestral, shamanic and metaphysical traditions. With her partner and colleague Felicity Wombwell, Matthews co-founded The Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies, which is dedicated to the mythic, oracular and sacred arts. For nearly thirty years she has healed soul sickness and ancestral fragmentation as a shamanic practitioner. Learn more about courses, events and books at www.hallowquest.org.uk.

About the Reviewer:
As an eclectic solitary practitioner, I travel the country in a converted school bus and share magick with those I meet. Find me at https://thewitchonwheels.com/ and on Facebook.