Phew! I finally finished by re-write of Holistic Tarot for the audiobook version! Earlier this year I shared here that I was doing an abridged and revised, updated version of my inaugural 2015 book, Holistic Tarot to be narrated as an audiobook.

I think it’s funny how writing 250,000 words back in 2012 took me one Thanksgiving holiday break to complete (not really, it’s a bit more complicated and nuanced than that), whereas editing it into a 78,000 word book took me the greater part of a whole year.

Though again, that’s reductive and not really an accurate representation. What I actually did that Thanksgiving 2012 was spend a week assembling a binder of old tarot journal notes gathered over 20 years and stitched it into a tarot fundamentals book by working on it obsessively every single minute, day to night, pulling all-nighters, for seven days straight, no breaks.

Whereas this revised, shortened version was me working on it a few hours at a time, here and there, bit by bit, and going weeks without touching it at all.

For the audiobook, I had to reduce the word count from 250K to a contractually bound “50,000 – 70,000 words and will not exceed 85,000 words.”

Some major reconstructive surgery later, this version is now — get this — 7 chapters (a septenary), featuring 21 guided tarot exercises listed in the table of contents, but actually 22 total exercises– one of them is not explicitly labeled as “Exercise #__” but precedes Exercise #21, immediately following Exercise #20. =) Just a little RWS Pictorial Key easter egg.

Funnier yet, I finished the manuscript and turned the complete version in on 7/7. Final word count is 78k words and some change.

I’m super proud of this audiobook manuscript. It’s still Holistic Tarot, but definitely refreshed. It’s me re-reading the entire old book, word for word, some 15 years after I first wrote these words, and getting to reaffirm some of the stuff I wrote that long ago, and modify to update some of the stuff that I felt didn’t age very well.

This audiobook version can function as either a standalone beginner’s guide to the tarot, without requiring access to the print version, but also, it is a supplement for tarot study to accompany your print copy of HT, without significant redundancies. It can be either or. How cool is that!

When I first signed up to “edit” the original HT manuscript so it could be converted into an audiobook, I thought the project would be fairly simple, but no. The assignment changed so much mid-stream, not because of anybody else, but because of me.

It wasn’t just a matter of culling the “see Table 3.4” references. HT (2015) was a reference book. People don’t listen to reference books. So I had to think about how to deliver a beginner’s guide to tarot as oral instruction.

It’s also been crazy hard figuring out how to cut 260,000 words down to a contractually “not to exceed 85,000 words” without losing substance. Or at least, I mean literally you’re going to be losing significant substance, but at least trying to preserve the spirit of the book and not lose any of the necessary parts for actually learning tarot.

But also, as a writer, you almost can’t help yourself from adding to anything you’re re-reading and now editing. So while I’m frantically trying to cut sections, I’m also adding new sections. Ack.

I’m pretty excited to see what people who have worked with Holistic Tarot the print book version have to say about this audiobook version.

I really think you’re gonna get a kick out of how it’s evolved.

Over the last 11 years, I had the opportunity to really sit with some of the constructive criticism the book got. And seriously reflect on what I wanted to change, or at least better explain, and what I wanted to double, nay, triple down on.

And I am genuinely curious whether my edits will surprise you.

I probably shouldn’t be admitting this, but when I first signed up to help modify the HT manuscript for audiobook purposes, I was “meh” about the project. Just another Thing to do. And a few times in the midst of it, I did kinda groan, wondering, ugh, whyyyy did I agree to this.

But now that it’s done, I’m so happy this will be out there as an offering for folks. I really thought about how beginner-level tarot — without over-simplifying, being reductive, or dumbing down — could be taught via voice narration, without reading anything off any pages, just listening, with your deck of cards in hand.

Ooh, fun background info: There are a couple of sections I had intended on including in this new, updated version of HT, like “Is Tarot Inherently Political?”  “Evolution of Tarot and Technology” and “Tarot and Literary Studies” to name a few. I also had an updated “The Professional Practice of Tarot” chapter. But ultimately I made the editorial decision to cut them out from here, and maybe at some future point turn into a blog post, Substack article, or something.