Archetypal Tarot, a reprint of the classic text, Who You are in the Tarot, is a deep dive into the reader's birth and constellation cards. Part journal, part guide book, Archetypal Tarot provides depth and insight to one's personal destiny.

Studying this book is an intimate journey. The deeper you go, the more you learn about yourself and how your life plays out through the constellation of cards that outlines your destiny. Every page is an epiphany, told by the Master of Tarot herself. The language is beautiful, the illustrations clear and easily understandable, and the instructions on how to determine one's birth card and, subsequently, the constellations it forms are very easy to understand. And best of all, the math is not intimidating. Even I  who have little number sense, could could calculate my birth card in a matter of minutes.

For those of us who turn cards for others, using the client's birth card as a significator card provides a far deeper in depth reading that makes for a more intimate reading for the client. I find that using birth cards in my readings for others provides the seeker another layer of understanding in every spread I do.  And I'll tell you a secret: you can calculate a couple's relationship card using the same techniques. Find the anniversary date of a couple's relationship, marriage, hand fasting, etc, then reduce the numbers down until you find their relationship's “birth” card. Using it as a significator card for a couple's reading is very revealing.

This is one of those classic texts that I will never stop reading. Every time I go over a chapter, I find something new that I had missed in the first reading. There is always one more insight, one more epiphany, one more piece of wisdom that is revealed. I have been reading and studying Tarot for over 40 years, and Archetypal Tarot shows that I have only scratched the surface.

~review by Patricia Snodgrass

Author: Mary K. Greer
Red Wheel/Weiser, 2021
p. $22.95 pp. 269