I’m relatively new to tarot cards, and have been reading a few books to familiarize myself with this art, and learn more about the cards and their meanings. While there are no shortage of books that can explain how to do a spread and what each of the cards mean, Black offers a whole new perspective on the art.

The first thing that I noticed while reading this book is that it is so much more than simply a book explaining cards. The author relates cards from the major arcana to emotions, and shares experiences from her own life, often painful experiences, but also plenty of joyful experiences, that she’s gotten to with the help of therapy and tarot. I especially liked how she related the way that tarot cards assisted her in moving through obstacles and getting through various experiences, whether they involved making changes, in relationships, or in processing emotions.

Black explores each card in depth, explaining how they relate to different emotions that are commonly experienced, and how we can process them. I’ve never quite seen the cards explained this way, but it all seemed to make a lot of sense when laid out this way. Throughout each of the chapters, readers are offered in-depth emotional and life-oriented questions to think about and pull three tarot cards to journal about and then discuss with friends or a therapist. It allows readers to put the principles practiced in the text into practice, and really view how tarot therapy can occur in real-time.

This was my first experience reading a book about tarot that was written by a Black woman, or even a person of color, and I loved the diverse perspective that was offered. The author talks about her experience of processing feelings such as anger, which is very different from the white experience of processing anger, especially when viewed through a societal and historical lens. Through her practice of sharing life experiences, she also discussed the influences that her family and religion has had on her later life and how she processes emotions, and I loved the idea of incorporating therapeutic principles with tarot. She also includes a quick reference guide of the minor arcana at the end of the book, along with a matrix to follow when completing an exercise that she provides at the completion of the last chapter.

Overall, this was a fantastic read. It’s incredibly informative, and I can already tell that I’ll be referring back to this book often. The questions posed throughout the text aren’t the kind that you ask once and are finished with, but can be asked over and over again, and will have different responses at different points in my life. And it opens a whole new world of opportunities for the use of tarot.

I absolutely love the idea for this book - using tarot to work through things in your life. I also love the way the author approaches the tarot, ex. you can have your own deck and follow along or you can just listen/read and absorb the information that you need. This book is like a mix between personal development (through journaling and exercises) and an intro to the tarot book. Each section is based on a few cards, and has multiple prompts for you to pull cards and reflect/journal about. I really enjoyed this book, and I look forward do using Tarot Therapy often moving forward.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book.

Strategies about how to use tarot in your life as a tool for healing. Great book for folks who need ideas on incorporating their tarot healing practice.

Read this book through NetGalley and so glad I did. Reading Tarot Therapy helped me see the major arcana in a much clearer way. This is not the typical go through each card with definitions etc. book. There are keywords to every card in the end of the book for quick reference. The author shares some of her painful life experiences and dives into the major cards. Short book but it’s good! Thank you for this Leona. I absolutely loved it and definitely recommend!

Tarot therapy by Leona Nichole Black is a wonderful introspective tool and guide allowing the reader to connect the tarot to their present moment and past experiences.

This book will be a delightful read and useful tool for those with some familiarity with using tarot as a divination tool looking to expand their application of and relationship to their knowledge of the cards .

tl;dr A fantastic read that really challenges you. The author invites you to engage deeply with yourself, including stepping into those dark and uncomfortable places. I loved the semi-autobiographical nature. Not only was it interesting and relatable at times, but also sets the mood for each themed chapter. I'd say this book is friendly to both secular and spiritual readers, as well as to those who do not use tarot. The discussion questions in each chapter can easily be done without a deck. (As the author mentions in the book, you can work alongside this with your therapist!)

The book covers eight themes and includes discussions of three major arcana each, apart from the last chapter which is just the Magician. In each chapter, you follow the author on their life journey as you reflect on your own.

I was disappointed that the second to last chapter was what it was. As a book about self-care and therapy, to suddenly read an entire chapter of the author ranting about the industry and discussing building a career around tarot reading, it felt entirely out of left-field and irrelevant to the point of the book, that it was jarring to see it there and read through it. For this reason, I rated the book 4/5 stars. Otherwise was a fantastic book.

Not tl;dr My thoughts as I read the book:

"A few weeks ago it took me thirty minutes to re-box and pack away all the cards that were sprawled across the living room floor as I sought to coach myself through a difficult weekend. Picking cards and laying them out in spreads like a math equation, giving my stress and my questions a place to go. Now I can't imagine ever again struggling through the challenges of life disoriented, confused, and alone. I can't imagine not having a perspective to root my hope in. I can't imagine not having the cryptic empathy of seeing my mental and emotional state unfold as a story in front of me one card at a time. I can't imagine not living with the peace that comes from the wise counsel of a Tarot Therapy practice"

I really resonated with this book. Despite the author mentioning she, nowadays, has a more spiritual approach, the book itself is very approachable and friendly for secular users. And even non-tarot users, as the book itself's focus is more on the topic if therapy, self care/love, and healing. You do not need a deck nor need to be into tarot to get value from this book.

It was actually wildly fascinating to read the author's history with tarot. As a black woman, she has a unique perspective I don't hear from often in this community, which I appreciated. Reading through her journey of self-discovery, her explorations with her faith, her motivations and passions, along with her struggles, was engaging and touching. Effectively all the books I've read on tarot so far do include some bits of the author's personal experiences with tarot, but here, it goes so much deeper than that. I felt I could relate a lot to several of the author's experiences, and seeing those experiences tied with tarot was a unique and special factor that made me think a lot about my own life and experiences, and how tarot has affected them.

While I'm not a spiritual reader, nor a Pagan in much any sense, I did still find it interesting to hear from the perspective of someone who grabbled with their religious upbringing (something I have also done), going through a phase of questioning and confusion, and ultimately finding their own unique path. It also opened me up to a deeper sympathy of the spiritual side, something I still respected, but found difficult to relate to myself personally, but the way things were described here gave me more to consider. Common things you may hear in tarot circles are 'lunar cycles' or 'Mercury retrograde'. Terms that I have come to understand, but found no use for me in my life. But as the author put it, "Using a Mercury retrograde as a period of time to review, edit, or change plans. Or using tarot and astrology to give particular time periods a specific purpose. For example, pulling cards for the theme of the month," is something easily transferable to secular readings, and also makes me feel more in touch with fellow spiritual readers.

Also their constant bashing of capitalism was actually really relieving to see, haha. As someone fairly deeply involved and passionate about politics, it was interesting to see someone overlap the two, but I have no doubt the author's personal life experiences lead those two things to be so intertwined. A black woman, even in the UK, and not just the States, has so much to deal with, and I'm grateful tarot is there to be an outlet for them and their community.

Honestly this book was very therapeutic to read, not to make any pun on the title. But the questions asked in each (thematic) chapter were very deep and blunt. The author did not hold back when getting you to confront parts of yourself that are not easy, but are important, to confront.

"The Tower is a force of destruction. But the lightning as the alarming instrument of the divine does not directly hit the people--it could, but it decisively hits the building instead, showing that The Tower is a force of liberation."

There are many instances in this book where, through the lens of someone else, see much more into the cards and their imagery and meanings than I have previously. That's part of why I love reading such a variety of tarot books, to learn from so many different perspectives. (I especially loved The Emperor in this book!) It gives me a lot to think about and consider for when I read these cards myself in the future. It opens a lot more doors into my interpretations, and how things may apply to the questions or situations being inquired about. It can give much more depth and opportunity to explore my mind, finding answers I might not have thought of otherwise. In mixing up the order of the cards, organizing them uniquely by the themes of the author's making, also gave me a new perspective in how the cards and ideas behind them connect or relate to each other.

"We can be hopeful and sad, hopeful and worried, hopeful and angry."

I'm not gonna lie, this I got emotional several times reading this. Not just from empathizing with her story, but also in analyzing mine. This books is a difficult one to get through, because it asks you to look deep within yourself in places you normally prefer to avoid. But like with therapy, that's its purpose. Because leaving these things unaddressed is why we hurt and keep searching for answers.

That said, as much as I was gushing about how great this book is to my partner, I seemed to have hit a road block with it:

The chapter 'Intuition' deals more so with the spiritual side, and despite my secular use of the cards, I still like to learn and pay respects to the spiritual community, not the least of which because they are the primary users of tarot. However, I still found this to be the weakest chapter, I think due to much of it coming off more like a rant that would be better suited for a blog post. For how amazing the previous chapters were, I suppose my expectations were already very high for the rest of the book. For a chapter on intuition, I wish it covered more of that topic specifically, and not just the author's preferences for how and when tarot should be used. The reflection questions subsequently were not in-depth or engaging, nor really even on the topic of intuition either. This didn't feel like 'therapy', as it did the author expressing displeasure with social media and modern uses of the cards. Very little, if anything, had anything to do with intuition as a topic.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed in this chapter, especially since I was very much looking forward to how the author was going to utilize the Devil card, which ended up just reading very bitter and negative. Perhaps have a section like this at the end of the book, if the author really felt the need to complain about the tarot industry, but this chapter was otherwise a waste of time and not at all directed toward nor productive for readers looking for more of what the rest of the book, up until this point, had to offer. I docked a star because of this chapter. Otherwise would've been an easy 5/5 star book for me.

To note: this isn't to say I necessarily disagree with what the author says in this chapter, but the discussions of these topics have nothing to do with the theme of the book or the built up expectations up until this point. Why discuss, for example, making money and building a career from tarot when the entire book is supposed to be about self-care and therapy through tarot? It's irrelevant. That's what bothered me.

I was so thrown off by that chapter, that when reading the next, where we finally get back on topic, took me a bit before I got back into the swing of things. Once again, we're back to the therapy aspect of the book, and the content I was interested in reading. It was a good chapter to close off the book too.

As an aside: The end of the book includes a chart with a keyword for each tarot card. Which was nice :)

I can definitely see this as a book to revisit now and again, especially to compare how you answer your reflection questions over time, see what has, or hasn't, changed. (Albeit, just skipping chapter seven.) I think overall this book was extremely well done, and I'm super grateful to have been given a copy. I wish the intuition chapter was thematically relevant to the rest of the book, but apart from that, I'm very glad I read this book and I very much enjoyed it.

This is a combination between a self help and a learning tarot book. It takes you through different topics like love, purpose and healing. It teaches you how to read the cards and how to ask the questions to learn the answers from yourself. It has you do different card pulls and goes in depth on what each card means. It was very informative. I would also recommend that you don't just use this book. Going to therapy and using this book together can be very helpful.

If you are into tarot this could really be an interesting book to look into. The idea is basically to use the cards as a way to explore your life psychologically instead of to tell the future. Throughout the book, Black gives you questions and then you shuffle and pull three cards. The questions are all deep, introspective questions. Then she discusses ways to read the cards in relation to questions like these. She also mixes in quite a lot of personal history and thoughts.

This could be a good tool even if you don’t believe in tarot, as pulling the cards and thinking of them regarding these questions can help you think in new ways. It’s a bit rambling at times but certainly an interesting take on tarot.

I read a temporary digital arc of this book via NetGalley.

Beautiful book! Loved the concept of combining mental wellness with the art of tarot. The explanations of the cards and their meanings were very in depth but not too complicated. The illustrations in the book are gorgeous!! This is a great reference book for those interested in reflecting on tarot! I love the author's openness with her personal experiences and the lessons she has learned. Interesting interpretation of the deck's various meanings.

Tarot therapy is a valuable supplement to conventional talk therapy. Unlike conventional Tarot, the tarot is used not to predict but to deal with present issues. The chapters arranged around the following issues; love, healing, hope, change, the modern world, purpose and creativity. Each chapter consists of a "jouney" section in which the author discusses her experiences around the issue and an interpretation of a three card spread of major arcana cards. Valuable insights not only about Tarot but about her life as a British black woman and educaror.