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For the explanation of Cards combo, i think it is pretty cool, but not very thorough. Sometimes,the groupings of the combo cards are not very organized.
For anyone who is a beginner for tarot or just begun to read reverse and combo cards, it is a relatively good reference. however, i got sick of reading it a few times later. This books doesn't give deeper insight into the combinations and does not offered not too many options.
I would advise looking for other books or try to learn combinations on your own, as individuals may vary in how they read their spread. For these reasons, i would give this a pass.
Starting with the negative side, I didn't agree with many of the card interpretations. They were generally simplistic, however it may be that the author intended it that way in order to better illustrate the concepts that she was trying to convey. Many of the combinations are also simplistic due perhaps to the same principle. The author's approach is to assign a shortlist of keywords to each card, then read them like flashcards. If 4 Staffs is "Peaceful" and 6 Cups is "Often", the two cards together mean "Peaceful Often". Although my own experience is admittedly limited, I do not personally know of anyone that reads so literally.
On the positive side, the author's oversimplification freed me up to not overcomplicate relationships between the cards. While I do feel that the specific examples are oversimplistic, I also think that was useful to break down my fear of allowing it to just be simple. I haven't found that I've directly used the lessons from this book, but it has definately had an influence on the way I link cards together.
One wonderful thing about this book is that the focus on combinations means that it can print repetitive combinations for certain sets. Such as (example is from my head, not book): Ace Wands/Two Wands, Ace Wands/Three Wands, Ace Wands/Four Wands, etc. It clearly can't cover every combination that exists, but it covers enough to allow you to exrapolate your own beyond a certain point. It also makes for easy light reading -- would be easy to read a few pages here and there when you have the time.
I feel that this book is generally most useful for those who have a good feel for what the cards mean on their own, but aren't as comfortable reading them together or in spreads.
Most books I know give more or less detailed description of each card, a couple of spreads, and maybe a few examples.
For a tarot beginner who does not yet have a lot of experience, a book of that type does not give enough examples of how to interpret a few cards together.
And that's where this book fits in - it gives a lot of tarot cards combinations (with both straight and reversed cards) and their meanings.
A previous reviewer wrote that only keyword meanings of cards are given and that the way the combinations meanings are not explained.
The first issue is, in my humble opinion, a minor issue *if* the book is not used as one's first tarot book.
The second is, in my opinion, a good challenge for the reader - figuring out the way the meaning was reached makes for a better studying.
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Having read many of the documents contemporary with Joan's time, as well as numerous biographies (Pernoud, Sakesville-West, et. al.) I was quite familiar with her career. Also, having recently read J.F.C. Fuller's excellent account of the battles of Alexander the Great (The Generalship of Alexander the Great, De Capo Press), I had expected a treatise along similar lines. I was hoping for such things, perhaps, as a review of common fifteenth century tactics, an analysis of how Joan's tactics might have differed from these, information concerning the order of battle for both the French and English during each confrontation, an analysis of how troops were deployed, and so on. Instead, what was presented consisted of basically the same information already presented by Joan's other biographers. Maybe I was expecting too much. For one thing, it may be that medieval warfare was less tactically sophisticated than warfare during more ancient times, despite the advent of gunpowder weapons. For another, it may well be that reliable, detailed documentation of Joan's battles simply does not exist.
The learned clerics at Poitiers asked Joan what need she had of soldiers if God had foreordained the outcome, and she replied, "The soldiers will fight and God will give the victory." Given this supernatural viewpoint, considerations of strategy and tactics become relatively unimportant, little more than a context for a foregone conclusion. Any maybe that's all we really need to know about Joan's military actions.
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