Best Tarot Books To Buy In 2020
Whether you are an expert in the field or are just beginning to take your first steps into Tarot reading, the truth is that you will never stop learning! If you want to add some new knowledge to your already strong tarot foundation or you are wondering where to begin, the following list will help you figure out what your next tarot book should be! Enjoy our reviewed list of the best books on the Tarot that you can read in 2020 and why!
Top 3 Must-Read books in Tarot
21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card offers an approach unlike any other book, and it is my go-to recommendation for any new reader! Readers in an intermediate stage of their tarot journey will benefit from reading Tarot Beyond the Basics or Tarot Interactions by Deborah Lipp (not listed above) if they want to step up their game. Advanced readers should get their hands on Holistic Tarot and learn all that there’s to know on the matter!
What are the best tarot books for beginners?
There’s no unique answer to this question! However, the classic tarot decks are always a good purchase and a solid choice when it comes to beginning your journey in tarot. Tarot Rider, Universal Waite, Morgan Greer, Hanson Roberts or Radiant Wise are fantastic deck options for beginners.
As for books: 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card is a very complete first book to help a new reader take their first steps with tarot.
1. The Ultimate Guide to Tarot - Liz Dean
This is a thorough guide that will help you learn tarot from scratch by exploring the meaning, history, and symbolism behind each card. As well, it delves into mythology, kabbalistic meanings, astrology, and other interpretations to offer you a clear and precise understanding of each one of the 78 images that compose a tarot deck.
This guide includes insights into how to awaken your intuition to complement your base tarot knowledge, as well as additional information on how to actually read and interpret the cards as a whole and a few classic spreads that you can learn to get you all set up as a reader!
The book can be a bit pricey, but it is very well worth the investment, for it has tons of information to offer!
2. The Easiest Way to Learn Tarot - Ever - Dusty White
This book doesn’t only focus on giving you the traditional information behind each card (although it also does this task very well!) but gives you the keys to listen to your intuition and to learn when you need to stick to the more traditional meanings and when you have to go with your inner voice.
The unique approach that this book offers works very well with people that aim to more than memorizing the meanings of the tarot cards, and teaches you how to read cohesively and decipher the message behind each spread.
Unlike other tarot books, this one presents a method in itself, teaching you how to interpret each card into the context of the question and situation of the seeker. As well, there are many different exercises so that the information sinks in! It is fairly easy to acquire and for a very fair price.
3. 365 Tarot Spreads: Revealing the Magic in Each Day - Sasha Graham
Almost as important as knowing what each card means is knowing what spread to use to get the right answers! This is what makes 365 Tarot Spreads one of the best books about tarot cards! The book is presented in a “spread-a-day” format, ideally, for going through it over the course of a year. Each day, you will not only learn a new spread that you can later on use in your own reading practice, but also some tarot fun facts, historical data, curiosities and other pearls of information that will help you widen your tarot knowledge.
As well, it offers some insight into different holidays, rituals, festivities and lore from a range of traditions, from the Judeo-Christian to traditional African spirituality and Pagan traditions.
4. Power Tarot: More Than 100 Spreads - Trish MacGregor
A different option if you are looking to expand your range of spreads! Power Tarot presents you with over 100 different spreads so that you never run out of ideas and make sure that you always have the ideal layout for each question that you can imagine.
This is a book to keep in your library or by your reading table as a consulting book! While it may be a bit dense to digest if you read it in one sit, it is absolutely useful to have around, and you can always use it as a guide to help you decide on the best spread to suit each particular situation: Your querents will love it!
It is divided in different sections, corresponding to different areas of life: Career, romance, family issues, spiritual life, finances and more, to make it easier and more effective for you to look for the perfect spread.
5. Tarot Beyond The Basics: Gain a Deeper Understanding of the Meanings Behind the Cards - Anthony Louis
This is not a book for beginners but for more advanced readers that are looking for a more in-depth approach to tarot. There are countless books about tarot card meanings, but not so many that go beyond that and delve into practical tarot reading as this one does.
Tarot Beyond The Basics invites you to add new layers of meaning to your readings, including elemental and numerological influences, astrology correlations between the cards as well as including the court cards in more comprehensive ways.
This book will definitely mark a before and after in your tarot journey, and it is not particularly expensive, so it looks like a worthy addition to your tarot arsenal once that you have gone through the foundations of tarot.
6. Advanced Tarot Secrets (Aphrodite’s Book of Secrets)
Promising to help you multiply the amount of information that you can extract from each reading, this book aims at helping your reading process as a whole, preparing you before, during and after your reading so nothing can escape your intuition!
Advanced Tarot Secrets doesn’t just focus on the reading, but all that leads to it! It covers a wide range of topics, such as preparing before reading, asking the right questions - because this can be harder than you imagine, and asking the right question determines half the quality of the reading you get! - and verifying your information before jumping into conclusions.
Definitely not a book for complete beginners, but one that can enrich your reading style when the time is right, helping you go from amateur to absolute pro!
7. 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card - Mary K. Greer
The tarot master Mary K. Greer, a proficient tarot reader like not many around the world, presents a book that intends to stimulate your creativity and imagination as a reader. In this book, you will find different techniques to read and use tarot cards. This is not a book that focuses only on the predictive part of Tarot, but that includes other uses: meditation, manifestation, writing, character creation and many more!
Here you will find an integral approach to tarot and all that it has to offer in different areas of your life, showing it as a multi-use tool that can help you more than you could have ever imagined.
Although it is not especially aimed at beginners, it is a book that one can take at any stage of their learning journey, for it has plenty of useful information to offer that you can integrate progressively into your practice.
8. Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth - Benebell Wen
Holistic Tarot is very far from being a beginner’s book, so keep that in mind when purchasing! This extremely thorough and comprehensive guide is not for the faint of heart! While it undoubtedly offers an endless amount of information, history, symbolism, and correspondences of the cards, as well as information about historical facts and more, it can be quite intimidating!
This is probably the longest and more detailed book ever written on tarot, but its study can be rather dense. It is not a light lecture in any way! It can be an incredibly useful tool if approached with the right mindset, but a completely new reader is at risk of being put off if this is the first guide they encounter!
Many call it “the only tarot book that you will ever need” and while they may be right, it needs to be taken in the right dosage!
9. The Tarot Coloring Book - Theresa Reed
Theresa Reed, also known as The Tarot Lady is proficient in her field and one of the top tarot people currently around! Her proposal is that you learn the Tarot by coloring each one of the cards. This exercise invites you to learn while you focus completely on coloring one card at a time! By the time you have gone through the 78 arcana, you will have devoted enough time to each image to have gained a deep and thorough understanding!
Those who have trouble concentrating may find this book a lifesaver. Learning at your own pace while deeply focused and relaxed by the coloring process is an experience that involves all of your senses and helps you gain knowledge in a very natural way. One of the best books for learning tarot at any age and stage!
10. Tarot for Beginners: A Practical Guide to Reading the Cards - Barbara Moore
Barbara Moore has authored a good deal of books and decks throughout her career, and her guide for beginners is surely a fine creation! In this book, she will walk you through the ins and outs of tarot reading, offering a solid foundation, while at the same time, she helps you discover your own unique style as a reader!
The book compares the cards of three different decks, giving a unique perspective that will allow you to recognize the essence of each card regardless of the deck that you are using. This is, in my opinion, a valuable skill to learn, for it will make your transition between decks a great deal easier - and will also enable starting your own collection!
Conclusion
Each stage of your learning process will require one book or another. If I were learning how to read tarot again, the best tarot book that I would recommend would be 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card. It is a fantastic beginner’s book, but it also offers more than just meanings and gives you the tools to grow in your reading journey by incorporating the techniques that are presented in the book whenever you feel ready!
FAQ
Can I start practicing tarot after the 1st book I read?
You not only can! You should! Learning tarot is a game of trial and error. You need good books to help you get a solid foundation of meanings and learn about the cards, but the practice is what will truly help you become an outstanding tarot reader! So get your hands on your deck and don’t be afraid to fail!
Do I need a teacher to start reading tarot?
Not necessarily. A tarot mentor can be a fantastic help, and it will probably aid your progress and make you feel comfortable reading tarot in less time, however, it is not necessary to have a teacher or take a course in order to learn tarot.
Is self-education effective in tarot?
Tarot can be self-taught and there is no problem at all if you decide to read tarot for yourself! However; I encourage you to be open to criticism and learn from others every time you can. Sharing your learning process with others will help you greatly!
