People often ask us to recommend our favorite books where they can learn how to read the tarot.
While there are amazing books that teach the history of the tarot or methods for card analysis, one of our favorite books is The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino.
The book is a series of short, fantastic narratives inspired by fifteenth-century tarot cards and their archetypal images. The story begins with a traveler, who after a long journey, arrives at a castle. He is welcomed inside and is invited to enjoy dinner with other guests.
As he raises his glass to give a toast, he finds he cannot speak. He soon realizes that everyone else has also lost their voices.
How can they have a conversation without speaking?
After the meal, the guests take out a tarot deck and turn the cards face up on the table. The traveler soon realizes that they are telling stories with the cards. He then proceeds to interpret the meanings of the cards and shares their stories with the reader.
The cards used in the narratives are shown in the book's margins. So, you don’t need to have your own tarot deck on hand.
This incredible book shows you possible meanings for the cards and how to link them together to create meaningful stories through allegory. This is all taught through the playfulness of short narratives.
If you want to improve your readings, get this book. Plus, it’s affordable at only $14.00.
This book will also be recommended reading material for our upcoming course on the Trumps from our Tarot de Marseille decks.
William Rader
Krisztin Kondor
P.S. Here is a short bio about Italo Calvino:
Italo Calvino (1923–1985) attained worldwide renown as one of the twentieth century’s greatest storytellers. Born in Cuba, he was raised in San Remo, Italy, and later lived in Turin, Paris, Rome, and elsewhere. Among his many works are Invisible Cities, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, The Baron in the Trees, and other novels, as well as numerous collections of fiction, folktales, criticism, and essays. His works have been translated into dozens of languages.
