Exploring the Patterns of the Tarot

By Norma Cowie

Explore: the step by step journey of the Higher Arcana. The step by step journey of each one of the suits. Reincarnation and the Life Reading. The patterns within the symbols. Many teachers use this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0969140312
• ISBN13: 9780969140313
• Release Date: March 1987
• Publisher: NC Publishing
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

My favorite tarot book - clear, consice, lots of pictures

I purchased this book almost twenty years ago and have never found a tarot guide that I like better. Although I've absorbed much of the knowledge (and perspective) that Norma Cowie shares in this book, I still find it a useful reference. It is always in the most accessible book on my tarot book shelf. Norma Cowie begins the book with descriptions of patterns in the tarot, ideas that recur throughout the deck. These patterns include defensiveness, imagination, absorption, communication, balance, control, and reason. For example, the pattern she calls imagination includes the Eight of Cups, the Queen of Cups, The Moon, and The Devil and the appearance of these cards indicates that imagination is at work, whether as a means of avoiding reality or of creating future circumstances. Next she discusses other groups of cards associated with patterns of learning, the laws of life, and life lessons. She provides a Reincarnation Life Reading in the next chapter, and then a clear and concise, five-page chapter on numerology and the cards. The bulk of the book addresses each individual card within a larger story, or journey through the cards. She provides two phrases that summarize the general meaning of the card, a description of the image and its symbolism, and then a brief explanation of the card's meaning when it appears in a reading. While her descriptions are thorough and clear, they are never much longer than one page. When I was a new tarot reader, I could read about each of the ten cards in a spread in a reasonable amount of time. After describing each minor and major arcana card, she writes about a few more patterns, explains three spreads (Celtic Cross, Dolly's Method, and a short general reading) and provides sample readings using each spread. The book ends with a glossary of terms and symbols. Norma Cowie relies on the Rider-Waite deck and since today's readers may use one of the many other decks that are available now, it's great that the book is fully illustrated with Rider-Waite images. Each pattern is illustrated with all the cards in that group, and when each card is discussed individually, a picture is also provided. The only negative thing I can say about the book is that my copy is poorly bound. I very quickly wore out the binding and had to put it in a small, three-ring binder. (About five years ago, I bought another copy as a gift and it appeared to have the same, inadequate binding.) Despite that, I give the book five stars because its contents are excellent.