Learn to read the Tarot and get caught up in an intriguing, thoroughly non-conventional mystery at the same time.
Kirsten Weiss—via her character Hyperion Night—doles out Tarot wisdom chapter by chapter in this delightfully creative and thoroughly captivating novel! It starts off like most any Learn to Read Tarot book; each card, whether Major Arcana or suit card, gets its own explanation, along with its possible meanings in a reading. There are also short but effective anecdotes to illustrate examples of that card’s energy in action.
Ah, but there’s far more to it than that. The book about Tarot is written by fictional Hyperion Night, who sends it to his friend and mentor Tom for editorial comment. Tom’s comments on Hyperion’s manuscript appear as footnotes, along with a few personal updates on Tom’s situation. In the beginning those asides are innocent enough, but they become more and more ominous as the days pass. Murder and mystery are in the cards, but there’s no spread to explain what’s happening to Hyperion’s friend.
Weiss has pulled out a brilliant bit of magic here, drawing us into a mildly-dizzying world where card meanings, real life, the writer’s craftiness, and intrigue swirl together seamlessly. Readers may well find themselves breathless now and again as the tale comes together in unexpected and yet perfectly directed moments of revelation.
If this were just a book of Tarot meanings or just a mystery novel, it would be well worth the money. By crossing genres in such an innovative and seamlessly written way, Weiss has created a read that is far more than the sum of its parts.
I don’t need the cards to tell me that Kirsten Weiss has written a book everyone will be talking about for years to come.
Full disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, which I’ve just shared with you. I’ll be buying several print copies to give to friends.
The Mysteries of Tarot: A Work of the Imagination
When Tarot reader Hyperion Night sent his manuscript, The Mysteries of Tarot, to a friend to edit, it was a simple guide to reading Tarot. Hyperion couldn’t anticipate that his editor’s notes would evolve into a murder mystery, or that his friend would go missing. Shockingly, the annotated manuscript eventually made its way back to Hyperion, who forwarded it to the authorities.
Now this astonishing Tarot guide is available as a book. The Tarot guidebook features:
• Tarot basics―How to manage different interpretations of cards in a spread, how to read court cards, and a clear and simple method for dealing with reversals.
• Detailed card breakdowns― Keywords, flash non-fiction narratives, and a deep dive into the symbols of each of the 78 cards of the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana.
• Questions to apply to the cards for transforming your life―Insightful questions for each card to help you dig deeper into your Tarot reading practice.
Bonus feature: the guidebook also includes his editor’s comments on the more esoteric and philosophical interpretations of the Tarot, as well as his notes on the baffling mystery that engulfed him.
Gain deep insight from the cards, transform yourself, and solve The Mysteries of Tarot with this work of experimental fiction that’s part Tarot guidebook, part murder mystery.
EXCERPT from The Mysteries of Tarot
The Moon
Messages from the unconscious. Mystery. Confusion. Dreams. Illusion.
Last night, I dreamt of a departed aunt I’d had a contentious relationship with. She walked down the hallway of my apartment and sat beside me in the living room.
Suddenly I remembered she was dead and understood I was dreaming. But instead of the dream ending, like it usually does when I become aware, we talked—the kind of talk we’d never been able to have when she was alive. She apologized for some things she’d said and done and helped me understand why she’d said and done them. And her reasons weren’t awful. They made a lot of sense.
I apologized too, because I hadn’t been innocent in the turn our relationship had taken. We forgave each other. I woke up feeling lighter. Free.
The Symbols
I’m still not sure if it was “only” a lucid dream or a visitation from my relative. I don’t know if it matters. It was all very lunar, very moonlike. And not just because the Moon card can represent dreams. Moons with their waxing and waning also represents illusion and confusion, messages from the subconscious crawling up out of the muck like that lobster creeping from the water in the card. A dog and a wolf, representing the refined conscious and the more primitive subconscious, howl at the moon’s light.
And all of those things had been at play in my life. I’d created a false—or at least incomplete—story in my mind of the cause of my estrangement from my relative (illusion/confusion). But the truth bubbled up from my subconscious in last night’s dream. If it hadn’t, I’d still be carrying that burden.
What Does This Card Mean for You?
When the Moon card appears in a Tarot reading, it suggests we may not be seeing things clearly. But the truth is out there — or in there, as the case may be.
How can you bring your subconscious impulses or knowledge into conscious light? The road between the two towers in the card is long, dark, and winding. Have patience. Be brave.
Notes: The Moon
44 As to The Moon, I feel like I’m swimming in it. At first my father’s death seemed like an accident, a fall from the balcony outside his bedroom. He’s been drinking more than usual lately. But the servants swear he wasn’t drinking that night. And the balcony railing is low. He could have fallen by accident.
I keep replaying our last conversation. Had he been thinking then of taking his own life? Was that why he’d come to see me? Because he knew I’d been a failure when I’d tried my hand at self-deletion? Maybe he wanted me to talk him out of it?
I don’t understand. But I’ll try to keep up with the daily edits, where I feel I have something to add. I need to keep my mind busy. -T
About the Author
Kirsten Weiss writes laugh-out-loud, page-turning mysteries, and now a Tarot guidebook that’s a work of experimental fiction. Her heroes and heroines aren’t perfect, but they’re smart, they struggle, and they succeed. Kirsten writes in a house high on a hill in the Colorado woods and occasionally ventures out for wine and chocolate. Or for a visit to the local pie shop.
Kirsten is best known for her Wits’ End, Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and Tea & Tarot cozy mystery books. So if you like funny, action-packed mysteries with complicated heroines, just turn the page…
You can find Kirsten at KirstenWeiss.com and Twitter
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