I didn’t like this book because I thought that I could have found better information elsewhere. Books like these are a waste of time and money.
Rating: 1 / 5

I originally gave this book only one star. Below you will find the previous review I had written on Nancy Garen’s book Tarot Made Easy. In the basics, my attitude toward the book itself has not changed much. However, some email correspondence with the author made a big difference in how I view the book. I still do not find use of the book intuitive for me, but I understand it a lot better since being in contact with Ms. Garen. I was a little surprised when I received an email from her after submitting the review attached below. However, I am glad that I decided to respond. I found her pleasant and very willing to understand the problems I had with the book. Some information she gave me helped me understand the book much better. I have found that the book works best for me using her Spiritual Guidance Spread or the single-card method. The book is also helpful if I can’t figure out why I keep getting certain cards in readings. It will probably never become my sole source for Tarot, but I believe it will become a useful adjunct to my collection of Tarot books.
***
[Earlier review]
I thought this book looked intriguing so I purchased it. After getting it home and beginning to use it, however, I found that I had wasted my money. This book advocates the use of Tarot to make very specific predictions rather than as a vehicle for spiritual or personal enlightenment. You would think from the title that this would be a good book for people just beginning to use Tarot. However, so much space in the book is used for Garen’s specific interpretations of each card that not much space is left for guiding neophytes on how to do readings. Garen also ignores upright/reversed readings. But she includes both negative and positive interpretations for each card and I don’t always find her categories helpful in deciding which of the many interpretations for that card apply to my situation. So how do I decide which negative or positive intepretation for the same card to apply to my query? I find that for myself I tend to gravitate toward the positive interpretations and to rule out the negative ones when there seems to be little to guide me in how to apply these interpretations. I also just plain find most of her interpretations mundane. I do not use Tarot to know whether I am going to receive a phone call, get a letter, inherit money, or have a love affair. I use Tarot for attempting to understand my inner motivations and attitudes toward the situations in my life. I really don’t find that books that have interpretations that predict specific events very helpful. I also do not find that Garen’s very specific interpretations leave any room for my own ideas and insights. Also many of her interpretations do not seem to be based on symbolism from the cards. So it is very hard to see how she has derived these interpretations. Another drawback is that all these interpretations are so detailed that you will be forever bound to her book and will never learn to interpret for yourself. My favorite Tarot books are Marcia Masino’s “Easy Tarot Guide” which I have had for years and Rachel Pollack’s “Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom” which I have only just purchased. I highly recommend both books. The one thing I like best about these books is that they leave much more room for my own insights and the interpretations are more closely related to the pictorial symbolism of the cards.
Rating: 3 / 5

This book is good for the beginner that feels unsure in their explaination of the Tarot. Tarot Made Easy takes the reader in a simplified way through all the possible ways of interpretation of the Tarot. This book focuses more on the art of fortune telling than the exploration of the personal soul journey that can be the Tarot.
Rating: 2 / 5