Pathworking the Tarot: Spiritual Guidance & Practical Advice from the Cards

I've been reading tarot cards since my long ago college days, and I firmly believe there is always more to learn about this richly valuable tool. When Pathworking the Tarot by Leeza Robertson came into my review stack I was eager to dive right in.

The heart of the book is the author's focus on three kinds of readings: intentional, intuitive, or wandering (a combination of the two others). Using one of these three methods the reader utilizes the practice of pathworking to deepen your connection to and understanding of each of the cards. It is an active practice and meant to carry you further than just the time spent reading the book.

Pathworking is a kind of guided meditation using the cards as sign posts and indicators rather than the more typical divinatory usage. Ms. Robertson's technique is to focus on one card and foster a connection with it through the various methods, ranging from meditation to leaving the house and going for a walk with the card. For me, many of the intuitive readings felt similar (lots of 'step into the shoes' of the card's character as an example). For those who are no longer newcomers to the tarot, this is a valuable approach to deepening one's knowledge.

Two things were jarring for me: Ms. Robertson has written several books about tarot and I know this because they were referred to  . . .frequently. Especially irritating was an assumption that I'd have them to hand to refer to when the occasional “I wrote about this in another book so I won’t do it here” statement came up. As a reader, I don't need the whole previous book regurgitated (as some authors will do, essentaily plagarizing themselves) but if you are going to mention a piece of information, don't tell me to buy your other book to learn it. The second issue is the author's assumption that the reader is as equally interested in the entirety of other New Age topics: angels, candle magic, mantras, etc. Many people who use the tarot are interested in the spectrum of alternate spirituality, many are not.

Overall, this is a good, but not great, book.

~review by Lisa Mc Sherry

Author: Leeza Robertson
Llewellyn Publications, 2019
pp. 216; $16.99

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