Monday, January 11, 2010

Book Review: The Sacred Circle Tarot: A Celtic Pagan Journey by Anna Franklin


Review: The Sacred Circle Tarot: A Celtic Pagan Journey
Author: Anna Franklin
No. Of Pages: 332

Release Date: November 2001

Enter the powerful dreamscape of The Sacred Circle Tarot. Walk the spiral path of wisdom. Seventy-eight haunting images draw your spirit into Britain and Ireland’s most sacred places, linking you with the spiritual legacy of the Pagan Celts: their reverence for the great web of being, the cycles of life, the divine energy of the Goddess and God, and the land’s ancient magic.
This book explains the imagery of The Sacred Circle Tarot cards and how to use them to enrich the circle of your own life. Divine the meaning of the currents, energies, and events surrounding you when you lay out the cards in the Zodiac Spread, the Circle Spread, the Planetary Spread, the Romany Spread, the Web Spread, or the Celtic Cross. Expand your spiritual reach as you meditate on mysteries such as the Goddess in Her aspects, the Seasons, the Eight Festivals, or the symbolic battle between winter and summer.
Join the dance of the sacred circle. These mystical cards will attune your inner rhythms so they vibrate with the pulse of the earth itself.



My thoughts:
Ok, ok, I know I must have really freaked you out by now, two tarot reviews in a row! But I promise this is the last one, because I also promised that I would do a review for every challenge book I read, and this was one of them.
A second point, for those that may slam me for reading cards, I’m not actually a pagan (yes, I know this is a pagan book), funnily enough I’m an Anglican Christian – so there – now that that’s cleared up, onto the review.
I have been dreaming about Celtic everything for a while now, almost like a calling to delve deeper into my Celtic roots – of which I have many – I knew I wanted to read Celtic cards – which is a bit better than buying a traditional Irish flute ($1,200) – and I am so glad that I found this deck.
It differs slightly from the traditional tarot to better encompass the Celtic pagan belief. Some cards are replaced by new ones of the same meaning e.g. The Green Man replaces The Fool, and some change places completely in the Major Arcana.
I would not recommend this deck to a beginner, because the book is extremely in depth and fully covers reversals, which basically means you are learning 156 meanings instead of 78.
The deck itself is spiritual, beautiful, earthy and simple. The book is a wonderful resource to have to skim over Celtic beliefs as with each of the cards comes a small back story of why the card represents that part of our lives and also how it relates back to the Celts.
I love reading these cards and I felt a connection to them as soon as I looked at them. Anyone who wishes to explore the Celtic beliefs and also come out of it with a comprehensive book and a beautiful deck of cards, I recommend this set to you.
5 stars



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