Once upon a time, there was a girl who like divination and fairy tales

It's not often these days that I read a whole tarot book, because most tarot decks come with useless little booklets instead of proper guidebooks, and there's all sorts of apps and other things that aren't books that I can use to study.

 

This is not the case for my newest deck, The Fairy Tale Tarot by Lisa Hunt, which was a gift from Kyle and Jess as they purge their apartment. Each card in the deck illustrates a fairy tale; for each card, the guidebook contains a retelling of the fairy tale, a short guide to the symbolism in the card, and a brief discussion of the card meanings. The result is that the tarot guidebook doubles as a fairy tale anthology, making it extremely relevant to my interests. I read it this weekend before and after the convention when I could not brain; the ultrashort versions of these tales--just two or three pages apiece--was just what I needed.

 

The fairy tales are more or less from around the world, although the selection is a bit heavy on the European tales. The labels for which culture the tales come from is also a little inconsistent--one tale will be "Welsh" and another will be "Celtic" but with names in it that are clearly Welsh; another tale is labeled "Native American" but then within the text it's specifically identified as Ojibwe. This might in part be due to the source materials Hunt was working from, which are listed in a bibliography at the back of the book and feature several fairy tale anthologies that I own, because I'm a dork like that.

 

While the ultrashort versions of the tales aren't always the most satisfying retellings, they were very charming, and they served to remind me of the tales I did know and educate me a bit on the tales I didn't know. Lesser-known favorites of mine that made it into the book include Tatterhood, East of the Sun West of the Moon, and The White Cat. I mean, nobody retells Tatterhood, ever. Which is a pity, because it's a great story.

 

Anyway. Did reading this entire book help me memorize my card meanings? No, I still have to do flashcards for that. But was it a delightful use of my time and did it help familiarize me with this new deck specifically? Yes on both counts.