Category: beginner tarot deck

Bright Future Tarot (Keywords Edition) by Saskia Lee

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, deck review5 Comments

Sure, the artwork is beautiful, but I wasn’t prepared for how fond I’d be of this deck. While it was designed for those who are more rational-based, psychology-oriented readers, this deck also appeals to those open to beginner steps of exploration into their own spirituality.

The Bright Future Tarot is a deck hand-drawn and painted by clairvoyant artist Saskia Lee. “I was inspired to create this deck through a Spirit message from my father,” writes Lee. “And in a world where so much is digital, I wanted to create something unique and easy to connect with. Using acrylics and my dad’s old paint brushes, each card is hand drawn and painted by me, at my studio near London.”

She has achieved exactly that. This post is going to be a review of the keywords edition. The standard version is the one without keywords. You can select your option when you go to purchase here on Lee’s Etsy shop.

Lee notes that her decks are printed and made in the UK by a London-based company that has won awards for their carbon neutral production methods. What’s more, the quality is luxe, at 400 gsm, with a satin-like matte finish.

Continue reading “Bright Future Tarot (Keywords Edition) by Saskia Lee” →

Download Major Arcana Card Meanings

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, cartomancy, divination, Learn the Tarot, personal spirituality, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot, tarot card meanings, tarot community, tarot symbolism3 Comments

These were prepared specifically for enrollees of the Witchcraft Fundamentals course, but maybe you might find them helpful, too. Pictured above is the back pocket folder I recommend you making with the last pages of your Doctrinal Basis workbook.

Oftentimes tarot books with card meanings focus on the practical, mundane indications of the cards. Heck, that’s what Holistic Tarot did, and did so almost exclusively.

That means when you’re using the deck for readings where the purpose is spiritual (meaning, directed more toward religiosity or aspirations of personal transcendence), reading for card meanings out of a text like…. well, I’ll just keep throwing myself under the bus… like Holistic Tarot is not going to be too insightful. Maybe a little bit. (I’m proud of that book.)

But trying to make sense of Pictorial Key or Book of Thoth if you’re not already acclimated to that style of writing may be presenting a barrier of entry that we can quite easily break down right now.

Continue reading “Download Major Arcana Card Meanings” →

Tarot Card Meanings with Benebell: Video Series

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, cartomancy, free download, Holistic Tarot (book), Learn the Tarot, tarot, tarot community, tarot symbolism35 Comments

Tarot Card Meanings with Benebell is going to be an educational video series covering the 78 keys or cards of the tarot, showcasing the distinct attributions for four different deck systems: the TdM, the RWS, the Thoth, and my own deck, the SKT.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Here are my objectives for the course:

(1) Facilitate familiarity of the TdM, RWS, Thoth, and SKT so you become proficient at reading any and all of the four systems,

(2) Offer a card by card primer designed to help memory retention of the key meanings in a more visually engaging way than studying them out of a book, and

(3) Supplement your course work with Holistic Tarot (North Atlantic Books, 2015).

Continue reading “Tarot Card Meanings with Benebell: Video Series” →

Giveaway: The Simple Tarot Beginner’s Kit by Angie Green

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, cartomancy, promotional, tarot community13 Comments

Angie Green, the creator of the Simple Tarot, is running an incredible giveaway for the Beginner’s Kit! You can read a review I did of the deck here.

I get the incredible opportunity to team up with her and run a giveaway through my channel for one of her Simple Tarot Beginner Kits!

Deadline for Giveaway: March 15, 2019

Winner Announced: March 16, 2019

From Angie:

The winner will receive a Simple Tarot Beginner Kit by Angie Green.

From Me:

In addition to winning Angie’s Simple Tarot Beginner’s Kit, you will also win and receive a signed copy of Holistic Tarot.

About the copy of my book: Note that this is from the first print run of Holistic Tarot. There have been subsequent edits, revisions, and many other print runs, so just know that this edition has all the original typos and errors. It’s from the very first batch of HT ever printed. So maybe it’ll be worth money someday? Who knows. Anyway.

I’m also going to include the following in a magical tarot starter kit:

  • a consecrated crystal,
  • a bottle of aura, energy, and space clearing spray,
  • a blank tarot journal that I will intuitively hand-select for you, and
  • a plush velveteen drawstring bag for your tarot deck.

Eligibility for the Giveaway

U.S. residents only. This giveaway is limited to those living in the United States.

Second, I ask that more seasoned tarot readers to please sit back on this giveaway. I’d like this giveaway to be reserved for those just starting out on their tarot learning journey.

So, how do you enter? To enter, complete To-Do #1, To-Do #2, and To-Do #3. That’s it. =)

To-Do #1:

Share any one of the below photos of the Simple Tarot on Twitter, Instagram, or as a public Facebook post with the hashtags #thesimpletarot and tag the deck creator @thesimpletarot and in your caption, share why you’re excited about this tarot deck and giveaway! Or you can gush about all the cool free tarot resources Angie gives away here: https://thesimpletarot.com/resources and share that link.

#thesimpletarot

@thesimpletarot

To-Do #2:

Link to a posting from this website (benebellwen.com) or a video from my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/c/BenebellWen) that you really liked and felt was insightful to you, including a few short words on why you liked it. 

To-Do #3: Most Important!

Leave a comment to this blog post that includes:

(1) Hyperlink to your completed To-Do #1, and

(2) Hyperlink to your completed To-Do #2.

When you leave your comment, please be sure to include the e-mail address that you’ll check in the event you win, because the winner is going to be notified on March 16, 2019 by the e-mail of record per the comment you’ve left to this blog post.

You do not need to publicize your e-mail address in the comment! It can stay private!

When you fill in the comment box, just input the Email address in the Email line only, where it includes the note, “(Address never made public).”

I will see your Email address, while it remains unpublished on the blog post, and will use that Email address to contact you in the event you’ve won.

Only those who leave a comment below with a working e-mail address (and who reply within 24 hours to the notification that you’ve won) are eligible.

The winner will be announced here on this post on March 16, 2019.

I will e-mail you to let you know you’ve won and will need your full mailing address. I’ll mail you the Holistic Tarot starter kit, give your name and address to Angie, and she will mail you the Simple Tarot Beginner’s Kit.

Selection Process:

The name of each commenter to this blog post (To-Do #3) will be written on a slip of paper and put into a container. I’ll pull a name at random and film the drawing, which I will then post to my Instagram on March 16, 2019.

On the same day, I’ll privately notify that individual via e-mail and update this post to announce the winner.

The winner will have 24 hours to reply to my e-mail and claim the prize. If I don’t hear back from the winner in 24 hours, I’m going to draw a second name and the prize will be awarded to the second runner up, who again, will have 24 hours to claim the prize, and so on, and so on, until somebody claims the prize within the 24 hours of e-mail notification. =)

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

3/17/2019 Update

Sorry, sorry I’m late to this! It’s been a hectic weekend!

Image14

#9 is the winner. Hello, Dana! You’ll be getting an e-mail from me in 5, 4, 3, 2…

Website Terms of Use

5 Beginner Tarot Courses for Free

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, free download, tarot, tarot community16 Comments
Deck pictured: Giant Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot by AGM Muller

If you go searching for free tarot resources on the interwebs, you’ll go down a deep rabbit hole of content and for the beginner, that itself could be just as daunting as the process of having to learn tarot. Which one do you really start-start with? Isn’t there an easy linked “Lesson 1” and then you can just go from there?

Here I’ve compiled for you a list of five (5) beginner sources that are essentially free online tarot courses. These courses are self-paced, yet guided by a tarot master, structured, and with substantive content I’ve vetted, reviewed and felt, wow, yeah, okay, this is good stuff. Also, in assembling this list, I tried to look for resources that had some nice polish to them, were well-designed, well-produced, aesthetically-pleasing, and not too smarmy with any efforts to sell you something.

So, to be fair, there were several pretty good sites that I’ve left out from this list because ultimately, it was geared toward selling you something. An important criterion was the site had to be, overall, leaning more toward “educational purposes” than toward “promotional purposes.” Another important criterion was that the tarot lessons were well-organized and easy to follow.

Given those parameters, here are my top five for you. Continue reading “5 Beginner Tarot Courses for Free” →

The Bad Bitches Tarot: A Modern Goddess Deck

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, cartomancy, deck review4 Comments

The Bad Bitches Tarot by Ethony has my kid sister’s name all over it. Okay, it doesn’t literally, and she’s not exactly a “kid” anymore, but if I were to profile who would fall in love with the Bad Bitches Tarot, it would be the yuppie upper east side Manhattan dwelling Millennial fashionista third-wave feminist who thinks it would be really chic to have a tarot deck out on her coffee table.

I showed the deck to my sister by video chat and she just gasped. “Omigod it’s gorgeous. But I don’t know how to read the tarot.” To demonstrate how she could totally use this deck for herself, I pulled a card for her–the Six of Wands–then read the card’s meaning out of the accompanying Guidebook. The meaning, straight out of the book, fit perfectly with her situation.

We then pulled another card, the Seven of Swords. Again, I read that card’s meaning to her straight from the book. The sis major LOL-ed at how blunt the message was. Ethony’s Bad Bitches Tarot Guidebook has attitude, style, and a modern, punchy tone. Sis totally approves.

“So I can just read that tarot deck for myself? Pull a card like you just did and then read about it from the little Guidebook?” (It’s embarrassing to me as a tarot author how minimal my sisters know about the tarot…)

“Yes.” I said. (Or you could read the card meaning from that giant book your sister wrote but whatevs.)

“I love it,” she beams. And really, you can’t help but to love this deck. It’s a goddess deck for the digital Millennial age. It photographs beautifully for Instagram shots, with rose gold gilded edges and a semi-matte finish that’s got just the perfect relaxing ASMR shuffling sound when you riffle the cards.

Continue reading “The Bad Bitches Tarot: A Modern Goddess Deck” →

Kitchen Table Tarot by Melissa Cynova

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, book review4 Comments
Deck Pictured: Triple Goddess Tarot (Lo Scarabeo)

Imagine a written book that captures the spirit and the style of your best friend, who happens to be a psychic and damn good tarot reader, agreeing to sit down with you at your kitchen table to teach you tarot. That best friend is straight with you, cuts to the chase with no meandering explanatory treatise, and is both encouraging and entertaining.

That’s Kitchen Table Tarot by Melissa Cynova. The book is 288 pages, portable, a book you’ll want to take with you on the go, and forecasted to be Llewellyn Publications’ next big star.

I love the content organization. Cynova presumes you don’t know the top of the deck from the bottom and starts there, guiding you every step of the way. Right from the beginning she addresses many of the common misconceptions and answers the frequently asked questions that tarot novices have.

Continue reading “Kitchen Table Tarot by Melissa Cynova” →

Announcing the Video Companion Course to Holistic Tarot

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, divination, Holistic Tarot (book), personal spirituality, promotional, tarot, tarot community, tarot symbolism9 Comments

B A C K G R O U N D   N O T E S

Some of you may know of the online video companion course to Holistic Tarot already. I put out the first few video lectures for the series this past week. The videos supplement the study guides and handouts, which supplement the book, Holistic Tarot. To check out the course outline and description, click on the above hyperlinked banner. This blog post is just to offer some of the behind-the-scenes commentary.

Offering a Beginner’s Tarot Course

I have been pressed ad nauseum about offering a beginner’s tarot course. While I haven’t felt called to start production of materials with that specific intent in mind, as in an online multi-media course that teaches you how to read a deck of cards, I wrote Holistic Tarot with that specific intent (i.e., to instruct on tarot at the beginner level) in mind. Then when the book launched back in 2015, I created a portfolio of syllabi, study guides, and handouts to help people navigate the 800+ pages. That was my “beginner’s tarot course.”

Still I got pressed. Apparently that wasn’t what many of you folks had in mind when you think “beginner’s tarot course”?

Continue reading “Announcing the Video Companion Course to Holistic Tarot” →

Book Review: Going Beyond the Little White Book by Liz Worth

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, book review, cartomancy, divination, tarot, tarot community7 Comments

going-beyond-the-little-white-book-liz-worth-01-book-cover

Going Beyond the Little White Book: A Contemporary Guide to Tarot was published in 2016 and is one of the best and most readable Tarot 101 books I’ve come across. It’s the book I’d give my sister, along with a tarot deck, if she asked me for a book that will teach her tarot.

(True story: Actually I gave my sister a copy of my own book, Holistic Tarot, but she never touched it and now it collects dust. When I called her out on that, she defended herself by saying she just wanted to know what the Three of Cups means when she pulls it for a question about a guy she’s dating and she isn’t out to earn an advanced doctorate degree in tarot or become the next great tarot master. Ergo, a more palatable and practical guide to the tarot is needed, such as Going Beyond the Little White Book.)

going-beyond-the-little-white-book-liz-worth-04-book-cover

Going Beyond the Little White Book is by Liz Worth, a Toronto-based author, tarot reader, and astrologer. She’s also published previous works of nonfiction (specifically on the Toronto 1970s punk scene), fiction, and poetry. Worth brings that command of language to explaining how to read tarot. It’s incredible. She’s such an incredible writer and it’s a treat to have someone like her teach tarot in a comprehensive, meaty, yet easy-to-read, user-friendly manual.

Continue reading “Book Review: Going Beyond the Little White Book by Liz Worth” →

Beginner Learning and Teaching of Tarot: A Socratic Method

On By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, cartomancy, divination, free download, Holistic Tarot (book), tarot, tarot symbolism8 Comments

learning-tarot-beginner-lesson-1-a

I often get asked how I would teach tarot to a beginner, what Lesson 1 would be, and also how to learn tarot if you are a beginner with no past exposure to tarot.

Recently I had an encounter where I gave my version of Lesson 1 of beginner tarot and I’ve been granted permission to share a transcript of it. Of course, this is paraphrased, but my memory for details is pretty good. I dare say this is a pretty accurate representation of the conversation and discourse that took place. I taught by the Socratic Method, though I wonder if she realized that.

The cards drawn and as identified are the actual cards from the Lesson 1 reading experience. For those who are more familiar with tarot techniques, basically what I did was first have her select her significator card, perform the Opening of the Four Worlds from the First Operation of the Opening of the Key, and then from the card pile she found her significator, draw three cards at random and perform a three-card past, present, and future reading.

learning-tarot-beginner-lesson-1-b

If you’re at all curious how I might teach Lesson 1 of Beginner Tarot, here it is, as a downloadable PDF.

Download “Beginner Learning and Teaching of Tarot: A Socratic Method” (PDF)