Cartomancy with the Lenormand and the Tarot

Disclosure: I received an PDF ARC copy of this book from netgalley.com. However, due to the LOVE of this book, I purchased the ePub version as SOON as I found out that google Play had a copy. Yes, this book is that good.

Patrick Dunn's Cartomancy with the Lenormand and the Tarot blew my expectations out of the water, turned what I thought good tarot books were, and indulged my love for language and cartomancy divination techniques. When I requested this title for review, I figured that this book would represent the first in a trend of books that showed tarot/Lenormand enthusiasts how to combine their love of the cartomancy techniques to blend together. I was wrong, but happily so.

This book explains both cartomancy styles side by side. There's a bit of linguistic lore and alchemical history in this book, but it's not enough to scare the layman away. Dunn discusses how the spiritual beliefs at the time each deck influenced their structure, and therefore, their strengths and weaknesses. Much of the later chapters in the book focus on the more practical side of how to use the decks for reading, magic, and other exploration.

Dunn's wit is great (tarot of the fraternities, tarot of the autobots, etc.) and reading the PDF became almost impossible due to the amount of information I wanted to highlight and reference for later. Once I purchased my own copy, I devoured this book quickly and bookmarked the exercises and techniques that I wanted to explore further.

Dunn's passion for languages is well suited to discuss the symbolic language of both these cartomancy types. The way that Dunn presents learning tarot mirrors my own toss the LWB and build your own symbolic language with the cards directly. Readings are explained in the terms of telling the story and relating the symbols in a meaningful way.

Bottom Line: I heartily recommend this to everyone interested in cartomancy. It's become a new favorite of mine and one that I'll be re-reading throughout the years.