Beginners Guide to Tarot (Cards & Book Set) by Juliet Sharman-Burke

Guest Review by Vernon Marshall

As a great lover of tarot decks I never cease to be excited about the different range of decks and I am constantly surprised at the ingenuity and creativity of the artwork. Reinterpretation is a good thing even though some of the modern decks sometimes fail to instigate my intuition. If I were a beginner today I would not know where to start. Nevertheless, for those out there who are beginners, there is a good place to start. The Sharman-Caselli deck, sold as The Beginner’s Guide to the Tarot, is perfect for those new to Tarot who may be put off by anything too complicated. It is the deck I used to learn to read the Tarot and it made the learning of it as manageable as it was fun.

It is not at first clear that the box contains a deck of cards as it just markets itself as a “guide.” The reference to the cards is in small print on the box’s cover. The box also refers to it, though only on the side of the box, as “a new classic” deck. This is perhaps an inappropriate statement. Before pursuing the Tarot seriously I had attempted to have a go with a real “classic” deck, the ancient one that has no real pictures for the Minor Arcana. The Rider-Waite deck, with its lovely artwork for all the cards, Minor Arcana as well as Major Arcana, was a great innovation and my discovery of it inspired me to learn the Tarot seriously. The Sharman-Caselli deck is a reworking of the Rider-Waite deck, though there are other sources of inspiration too, and I hope that others are not discouraged by the reference to it as “a classic.”

This deck works well because of the clarity and easy presentation of the book, written by Juliet Sharman-Burke, as well as by the well-designed artwork on the cards, produced by Giovanni Caselli. The book is written with sufficient detail to be really useful, but staged so that the reader is not overwhelmed. For example, and this is a novel idea, the Minor Arcana is dealt with first. The writer explains how each suit is depicted in a different prominent colour to represent the four different elements of earth, air, fire and water. Each of the twelve court cards represents one of the signs of the Zodiac. The four suits represent the different character types of feeling, intuition, thinking and sensation. In order to become familiar with the different suits the reader is asked to engage with them in a reflective manner. For example, with the suit of Cups one should reflect on how one’s feelings “ebb and flow.” One should imagine how it feels to witness water flowing through different containers or to recall the feelings of being splashed with cold water on a hot day. The reader should then examine each card of the suit of Cups to look for watery symbols such as fish or mermaids.

The text in this first part of the book includes sample readings, using only the Minor Arcana, based on a five-card horseshoe spread, followed by a sample reading using a Celtic Cross spread, using ten cards. Again, only the Minor Arcana cards are dealt with at this stage. I must admit that I have never before considered using only the Minor Arcana cards for a reading but, giving it a try myself, I have found that there is something to be said for it. For a learner, it is a useful way of becoming more accomplished before adding the extra perceptions acquired from the rest of the deck. The Major Arcana is introduced to the reader towards the end of the book. Again, there is a sample reading but this time using a seven-card Star spread with the Major Arcana cards only. It is only at the end of the book that a sample reading is given using the whole deck, but this time using only a five-card Horseshoe Spread. I am glad to say also that the traditional archetypes for the Major Arcana are used. The serious Tarot user will be able to make sense of newer and more radical characters when they are competent. For a learner, it is helpful for many reasons to master the use of the Fool, the Hierophant, the Wheel of Fortune and so on.

The cards themselves are very well designed and full of clear symbolism. The King of Pentacles, for example, depicts the castle with great clarity, meaning, according to Sharman, “wealth and status.” The goats that represent the sign of Capricorn, are clearly visible, as are the grapes, indicating sweetness. The Rider-Waite deck version of the card is a little gloomy and the symbols are unclear and imprecise whilst the Classic Tarot just shows us a man in blue holding a large disc.

There are a few things about the Sharman-Caselli deck that I would question, but they are not massively significant. The 192-page book is excellent, but it is a pity that the printers did not use black ink. The blue is a little tricky when reading the words surrounding the illustrations of the cards and the symbols on the cards are just a little indistinct for those of us who are short-sighted. Also, for a beginner’s deck I would have preferred the Major Arcana cards to have been numbered, as they are in the Classic Deck and in the Rider-Waite Tarot. Also, it is a little unimaginative to have no illustration or device on the back of the cards. But I am perhaps being needlessly picky.

In conclusion, this is an excellent deck for beginners. It worked for me some years ago, it works just as well for me now that I am an experienced Tarot user, and I am sure it will work well for others. For those who are not beginners, who prefer something less experimental and closer to Rider-Waite, this works very well indeed.