Alison Davies is making tarot and astrology acessible.

The Tales Behing Tarot is one of the books I would recommend to everyone that is beginnig their cartomancy studies, because you will learn thought the storytelling of each card with such an easy and acessible metodology, it will be possible for you to learn the meanings and symbolism through their story with illustrations and more.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the ARC.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Tales Behind Tarot by Alison Davies is a captivating book that brings the stories and symbolism of each tarot card to life. Whether you are new to tarot reading or have been practicing for years, this book is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of the cards.

Alison Davies takes readers on a journey through the tarot, introducing us to all 78 cards in the deck through short stories. Each card has its own unique story filled with rich symbolic meaning, making it easy for readers to grasp the essence of each card. The book also provides key words and themes to help readers understand the meanings of each card.

The stunning illustrations throughout this book enhance readers’ experiences while flipping through these pages. They are visually stimulating and provide additional context to enrich your understanding.

Overall, I found The Tales Behind Tarot by Alison Davies to be an insightful and engaging read that will benefit any tarot reader looking for new perspectives or anyone interested in learning more about tarot symbolism. It truly delivers knowledge which empowers individuals who want to decode and apply wisdom into their everyday lives. With its beautiful cover art, short but meaningful stories about each tarot card, and helpful insights provided along with them make this book perfect for beginners or those wishing to dive deeper into their practice alike.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

This book has some really in depth stories about the tarot cards. I really enjoyed reading them and the interesting tales behind them. It is one I will be dipping into again and again as I enjoyed it so much.

3.7 Stars
One Liner: For beginners and intermediary tarot readers

Tarot cards have myriad interpretations. It can be overwhelming for new readers to understand the meanings, interpretations, and symbolism of each of the 78 cards in the deck. This book explains the history/ story behind each card to help readers understand and connect better with the deck and the art.

My Thoughts:
The book is a little different from other works and presents the story behind the cards rather than the meanings. The symbolism and meanings are interwoven into the stories, and this makes things easier if you have an idea about how the cards look (Raider Waithe Smith deck).
There isn’t anything deep or intricate in this one. It works well for beginners and intermediary readers learning to connect the cards and tell a story (reading individual cards is easier, but combining them and seeing the patterns takes practice).
The Major Arcana has Fool’s journey, and the Minor Arcana have individual stories for each suit (cups, pentacles, swords, and wands). I like the Pentacles story the best, though the others are decent, too (nothing wow).
These are pretty much surface-level versions. You need to dig deeper to learn and look beyond the standard Christian/ Western interpretations, especially with cards like Hierophant. The book should work as one of the many stepping stones to familiarize oneself with tarot cards.

To summarize, The Tales Behind Tarot is a good book to gain some insights about tarot cards and understand how we can connect the cards to tell a story. The book doesn’t deal with reversals.
Thank you, NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group –Leaping Hare, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
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Links to Goodreads and Amazon reviews will be added later.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing and Netgalley for this eARC! This review is entirely my own.

This is a very interesting take on how to learn the meaning of the Tarot cards. Memorizing the meaning of the cards is the hardest task when it comes to learning how to read Tarot, and I picked this book up hoping it would help me with those tricky cards that I can never seem to remember. This method definitely helped, particularly by linking the cards together rin a single story rather than each having their own individual tale. It truly is taking a basic memorization technique and applying it to a very large number of cards. This book was not quite as helpful for me, who already had a basic understanding of a majority of the cards, but would be very helpful for a beginner. I would highly recommend this to those looking to pick up the cards for the first time.

This book is ideal for people who want a deeper connection to their tarot cards through stories and connections to the cards themselves. The watermarks on the pages in the main chapter section/heading made it hard to read, however, so that was a little annoying.

I've always loved tarot cards and I was really pleased to be able to read The tales behind Tarot, I wasn't sure what to expect but it was surprisingly interesting and Alison Davies has used a classic tarot deck and made a small story for each one by following the fool and his journey, it does make it easier to remember the key details of each card now. Also it is really nicely illustrated it would make a beautiful gift for any one interested in the telling of tarot.

I wasn’t able to read this before it was archived but I am interested in deepening my understanding of the meaning behind each tarot card

I became interested in Tarot after reading a series of books (Caroline O Donoghue - All Our Hidden Gifts) and wanted to know more.

This book was ideal and so clearly presented. I found this was perfect as a beginner to tarot and hope to continue learning as well as having a reading one day! This book has beautiful images and is well written and informative (as well as intriguing - I really had no idea the depth behind card reading and their stories and interpretations!).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who just started connecting to Tarot I found this to be a wonderful primer to the art of Tarot. The beautiful prose and insightful guidance make it approachable, interesting, and engaging. I will be recommending this title to my Tarot friends!

This is a very helpful tool. I have connected with the tarot in a new light. This book is a must for beginners and seasoned readers alike.

This was such a fun and engaging way to learn about the tarot. I've definitely heard many approaches to learning and have heard similar approaches as this, but think Davies does an excellent job expanding upon and telling hte tarot stories in a rich way. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

The pictures in this book are beautiful! It is a great book for beginners or those who do not have a lot of experience in tarot cards but it also great for experienced tarot readers. It was refreshing to see a book that provided a format that was concise and not overloaded with an exuberant amount of text. It gives you a brief history of each and relevant information for each card. This book was very easy to comprehend, and the visuals helped to enhance the text and experience. I wish I had been able to download it to my kindle, but I did not see an option which made it a bit harder and cumbersome to read off my phone as I had to pull it up and down due to the fact that the photos and texts are outlined on the same page which makes the text pretty small on an iPhone; thus I had to pull it in and out, and I have 20/20 vision.
I am glad I had a chance to read this one. It is informative and a pretty quick read.
Thank you to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing group for providing me with this arc for an honest review.

I’ll admit I didn’t read all of the stories because I don’t like to read on my phone or computer and this wasn’t available for my Kindle. However, the did enjoy the stories I did read and I think this book would be helpful to tarot beginners when it comes to remembering key characteristics of the major arcana cards.

This was a throroughly wonderful and different approach to learning tarot through story. As a lifelong fan of beautiful tarot cards this book has definitely helped me to grasp a better understanding of the cards from this unique perspective. Instead of ruching to Google meanings I will be more inclined to reflect on the imagery of the card and think on how that corresponds to my current situation or the question being asked. I will remember the stories from this book and perhaps come up with a more modern version whilst allowing myself time to evaluate the original stories themes and meanings and work out how that all applies in the grand scheme of things.

I highly recommend this book to beginner and intermediate tarot readers and enthusiasts alike as there is always something to be learned from the tarot cards and it is always a good idea to learn from multiple perspectives and interpretations.

It’s a 4⭐️Review from me - I would definitely buy this as gift for a like minded friend without question.
This review was made possible by #netgalley & #quartopublishing #leapinghare #thetalesoftarot
All appreciated - never a chore.
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This book has a lovely, dreamy quality. Reading it, I thought that it would make ideal nighttime reading. It is a beautiful walkthrough of the Fool's Journey. You are entertained by the story while learning more insights along the way. It can get a little twee at points, but that's fine. I usu judge a deck by the High Priestess and I've come to judge books by how well they describe her as well. The author does it very well here. I particularly liked how she wove in the lunar cycles.

The Tales Behind Tarot is a wonderful introduction to the meanings of the cards. Unique from all other tarot books that I've read, Alison Davies creates beautiful stories for each suit that take you on a journey from the Ace to King, providing deeper meaning for each card individually and context within the entire deck.

The major arcana follow the journey of the Fool, the first card of the deck. His journey has its ups and downs, but by the time he reaches the final major arcana- the World- the Fool has changed for the better. He has learned a great deal and completed his quest. While all of the major arcana cards are depicted as a part of the Fool's story, they also include individual themes and summaries at the end of each section, helping to give the cards meaning beyond the Fool's journey- in ways you can interpret into your own life and readings.

Each minor arcana are their own story, told from beginning to end through the cards of each suit. Each card has their own themes given, representing the meanings that you're likely to see in other tarot dictionaries, but also includes a piece of the larger story.

I also loved that an index was included at the very end. This mentions each card and it's placement in the book, but also common themes that you can see overlap with certain cards.

One small issue I noticed is that the image for the Five of Wands card is the same as the Four of Wands. Hopefully that will be fixed before it's published, because I definitely plan to purchase a physical copy of this book for my own collection!

The Tales Behind Tarot did exactly what it set out to do and I am grateful for the chance to read it. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an eARC.

In an effort to keep my mind nimble and continue to grow as a person, I am prioritizing learning new things. Whether it is a new recipe to cook, new music to listen to, new body movement to explore, or something like tarot, I want to remain curious. This book was very helpful to me as a tarot novice. I learn through story and the narrative structure made understanding and remembering the cards easier. I read through the book with a favorite deck, seeing how the story works with different imagery. This was exactly the resource I needed. I can't speak for people at different stages in their journey, but for me it was the right book at the right time.

This is a useful addition to the many books about tarot and I think it is most helpful as an aide to memorising and understanding the consensus meanings of the cards. An experienced tarot reader probably won't need it, but beginner-level readers? Definitely. I haven't been reading for a long time, but I read regularly. Yet I find there are some cards (looking at you, Star and pretty much all the Aces) that I just don't 'get'. I think that incorporating the cards into stories helps considerably.

I have read before about the 'Fool's Journey' through the Major Arcana, and I particularly liked the Major Arcana stories in this book. Also included here are stories related to each of the four suits and these introduced a range of interesting characters that relate to the characteristics of the suits. Again, this is very helpful in gaining an understanding of the suit, and card, meanings.

I reviewed an e-book, but the physical book looks to be beautifully illustrated and with a lovely cover. The stories use the Waite-Smith deck so the images and symbols discussed in them will obviously be different to readers of different decks. However, I wouldn't let this put you off as the bones of the stories can be understood in relation to any deck (at least those based on Waite-Smith). I think it would be interesting to use them as springboards into meditating on the cards and writing your own stories too.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book for review.

Very cool! I enjoyed this. The stories are just the right length to satisfy and not be overwhelming. The artwork of the cards feels very traditional - but I'm still an amateur so I could be totally wrong about that!