is just another book on tarot, but if my

dry, academic, research-intense approach

resonates with you, then let me guide you

through one way you could learn tarot.

Go to the Holistic Tarot Study Guides

page on my website to download the

syllabi for beginner, intermediate, and

advanced level tarot study. Download any

of the supplemental handouts that pique

your interest. Start with the Beginner

syllabus if you're completely new to

tarot. Or go to the Intermediate if you

can hold your own in a tarot reading but

now want to advance to the next level of

study. The advanced syllabus gets into

esoteric applications and reading tarot

professionally. This video is an

orientation for how I'd approach

learning tarot with my book, the syllabi,

and the free supplemental guides. When I

walk through an art museum I always get

the optional headphones and audio guide

that give me the history, cultural

context, and background of each painting

and the artist behind the painting. The

experience you get when you're guided

through an art gallery by an art history

professor is very different from walking

through that same gallery by yourself. Of

course you can still appreciate the art

for art's sake, but if this is a craft

you seek to perfect, then you've got to

understand its legacy. Remember: the

headphones and audio guide are optional.

In tarot, if you want to read with an

improvisational style where you're not

learning technique, or history, or

cultural context, then you don't need

books and you certainly don't need a

book that takes up as much space as

Holistic Tarot. Sidebar: A quick note on

intuitive reading. You often hear tarot

readers talk about intuitive reading

verses a rational or psychological

approach, or textbook reading. Here's the

thing. The words mislead toward a false

dichotomy. You're not either an intuitive

psychic reader and nothing else, or a by-

-the-books analytical tarot reader. No

matter your approach, all forms of tarot

reading will be an exercise of intuition.

So when people say "intuitive reading," I

think what they mean is "improvisational

reading." They mean you don't need to read

a stack of books to learn tarot. They

mean you don't need to know astrology or

numerology or the Kabbalah or theosophy

to become a competent tarot reader. You

can in effect take a card and scry into

the cards

card’s imagery for psychic hits. You can look at

the pictures on the card and tell your

own improvised story based on the

pictures. While I acknowledge that it is

definitely true, that's what you call

improve. If it's about psychic ability,

then it doesn't matter whether it's a

pack of cards splayed out in front of

you, a bunch of rocks, shells, runes, a

pendulum, or you're looking at

clouds and divining with clouds. It's

your psychic ability at play and any

medium that's put in front of you is

just a tool du jour to help you

navigate that psychic ability. I would

say that is a psychic reading, not a per se

tarot reading. My book Holistic Tarot

isn't about teaching psychic or

improvisational tarot reading; it's about

tarot in its classical form. It's about

drawing from the masters, reconciling the

seminal text on tarot from the 17th to the

20th century for an academic examination

of how to read tarot. I propose a method

for tarot reading i call tarot analytics,

reconciling rationalism with intuitive-

creativity. Logical reasoning and

intuition are not mutually exclusive

when you come into the world of tarot

and you've got to remember that. Masters

of this craft are going to have a strong

command over both. I can't teach you

intuition, but I can teach you tarot

analytics and how to exercise your

intuitive muscles so they grow stronger,

more reliable. That's what Holistic

Tarot is about. The Tarot is an incredible

technology for synthesizing your

rational thinking with creative-

intuition. If you want to inherit and

invoke the power that the tarot is

capable of embedded into it by the tarot

masters who have come before us, then

you've got to get a classical training

in tarot. Meaning you've got to know what

those classical masters had to say

about how to read the cards. Otherwise

you're reading tarot in an

improvisational manner, which absolutely

and unequivocally has its uses and

advantages, but isn't the methodology

Holistic Tarot is espousing as tarot

mastery. You don't have to agree with my

characterization of tarot mastery. In

fact, the reason I am inserting that view

point here is to help you make up your

mind on whether my book Holistic Tarot

is right for you. If you disagree vehemently

with what I've said, then you know,

maybe Holistic Tarot isn't

right for you. There are still many texts

on tarot and so many viewpoints and

approaches to tarot mastery that you've

got to find the one that resonates with

you, that stokes your inner fire for

tarot. All that said, if you're the type

who prefers classical training, then

Holistic Tarot is going to be up your

alley.