REVIEW OF TAROT JOURNALING, by Corrine Kenner

Tarot Journaling:
Using the Celtic Cross to Unveil Your Hidden Story
(Llewellyn Worldwide, ISBN 0-7387-0643-4)

by Corrine Kenner

If you are new to Tarot or journaling, read this book! If you are an experienced Tarot reader or journalor, read this book! If you have ever even vaguely considered journaling – with or without Tarot – read this book! Author Corrine Kenner has created an amazingly accessible and thorough introduction to the rich world of journaling based in use of the Tarot.

Let me stress first, as the author does, you need not know anything about either Tarot or journaling to benefit from this book. Kenner offers clear, concise, uncomplicated Tarot basics, including how to choose a deck if you do not have one. Suggestions for choosing one’s physical journal (spiral, looseleaf, electronic, etc.) and the styles of journaling are also included. On the other hand, I have kept various journals (dreams, Tarot, daily, etc.) for many, many years and I found a great deal of value in her book.

Kenner’s outlining of the many benefits of journaling is not only accurate based on my own experiences and the shared experiences of many friends over the years, but is backed up by reference to research. She addresses the various inner hitches you may come across in journaling, always emphasizing that we respect ourselves as we would another person. The ethics of journaling are covered, including the issue of whether to read Tarot cards about someone else without their knowledge.

The author suggests that a journal can be the foundation for in-depth work with the Tarot, offering exercises and ideas for deepening your relationship to each of the cards. A great many of her ideas are gold mines for creative writers, even those not specifically suggested for such a use. And her suggestions for Tarot journaling from the time frames of past and future could be not only a great deal of fun, but offer healing, enlightening insights and fresh perspectives.

The chapter on family and friends is rich and intense. (As with all of the author’s suggestions throughout, one can pick and choose what one wishes to work with, or not.) In another chapter, Kenner carefully addresses the issues of “fortune telling,” and intuition vs. psychic talent. She stresses that the cards are not “psychic,” that only the reader may be – though you need not be to work with the Tarot. She nicely defines the various psychic abilities some folk may have. And Kenner ends the book with very good suggestions on how to best approach developing your psychic abilities which, as she states earlier, the cards can help you do.

Many Tarot readers, including myself, find that they have lost interest in the well-known, several card Celtic Cross layout for Tarot cards. Progressing through the Celtic Cross, Kenner uses a position meaning of the layout as a springboard for each of the chapters. By the end of her book, I found the Celtic Cross layout had been revivified for me.

The appendices are very helpful and uncomplicated, including Tarot card reading templates for journal records, and brief definitions for each of the 78 cards in a standard deck.

In my early years with the Tarot I read every new (and old) Tarot book I could afford or get my hands on. But in recent years, too many new books seemed to be re-hashing previous ones and I stopped (for the most part) doing more than reading online reviews. When I recently came across an ad for “Tarot Journaling” I was immediately excited by the fresh subject and I have not been disappointed. I believe “Tarot Journaling” is the single best book about Tarot, journaling, self-healing and inner worlds exploration that I have read in many years. It is also, by far, the most accessible and “user friendly” for readers of all levels of interest and experience.

* * * *

P.S. I'm working on a review of the wonderful Babylonian Tarot deck and book by Sandra Tabatha Cicero.

‘til next time, keep enjoying The Tarot cards, and recording your readings and responses to them,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)**** SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm for some articles about Tarot.****