Tarot without the cards - Paul Fenton-Smith

You don’t necessarily have to have tarot cards to do a tarot reading says Paul Fenton-Smith, author of the The Tarot Revealed:

When The Tarot Revealed was first published in 1995, I gave a friend a copy and she loved it. As she didn’t have a tarot deck, Shelley consulted the book by thinking of a question and tossing it into the air. After catching it, she opened the book at random while thinking of her question. If a card appeared on that page she read the meaning. If the book was upside down when she opened it, she read the reverse meaning for that card.

Over the months I watched her book disintegrate with use, until I couldn’t bear it any longer. For her birthday I gave her another copy of the book, with a tarot deck. Now ten years later, the cards are gradually curling up at the edges but Shelley’s copy of The Tarot Revealed remains intact, though well-used.

She no longer throws the book into the air, which is why it’s lasted so long, but she may well throw it in the air once she hears there is a new edition of The Tarot Revealed available. Better get her a copy for her next birthday!