While rummaging around the internet, I ran into the name of Benebell Wen on quite a few occasions, and I often saw her book, Holistic Tarot (published in 2015), listed among the results. For one reason or another, I never looked into either the author or the book.

Until a few days ago.

And oh my, was my mind blown away.

I saw a book for which Benebell Wen had written the blurb, no idea which one, because I look at so many, but the name stuck in my mind. Then one day, while looking things up online, aka procrastinating, I remembered the name and decided to search for it.

It turns out Benebell Wen is not the author’s real name, but an alias with a special meaning to her. I’ll let you discover that for yourself on her About Me page.

I was deeply impressed -and honestly elated to have found her- by the amazing structure of the study guides and the clear instructions on how a tarot enthusiast (me) can go about learning more and developing their craft.

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The information on her site is so well structured and beautifully laid out that I genuinely feel I should pay for it somehow, just to reward all the work that clearly went into it. I will definitely work on finding the book, if only to repay her in that small way.

I was taken to her website, and in the tarot section I found this abundance of free documentation, study guides, templates, and videos. Mind-boggling that all of that is freely available and anyone can simply learn from it! And these are not random bits thrown together, they are genuinely excellent resources, very well researched and carefully worked on.

Sadly, I do not have the book yet, and it is not easily available in Europe, but I will find it for sure. I always do.

I was also stunned to discover that despite having built this incredible body of work, she still has a day job. So she does all this while also working full-time. That honestly made me feel like maybe I can do more myself and stop whining all day that I have no time, that I work too much, etc. etc. etc.

She even provides templates for what you need to do when starting your practice, how to make yourself known through social media, and so on. I’m telling you, it is a wealth of information, all available for free. I kept thinking there had to be a catch somewhere, but I could not find one. And I still have so much left to discover there!

I also watched some of her videos, very useful and very caringly done.

What can I say? I became an instant fan, and I am incredibly grateful for all this support given to novice tarot enthusiasts. And not only novice ones!

I wholeheartedly recommend her to any tarot enthusiast.

So happy to have found her!

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An Australian clairvoyant, palmist, writer and tarot reader Paul Fenton-Smith has quite a few very good books on the tarot.

I like his works a lot because he accompanies his card descriptions with actual examples of readings he has done for clients, and that is so useful, when as a beginner you are confused about how to make sense of the cards in front of you and actually read them.

What is interesting about Paul Fenton-Smith is that he is a tarot reader like those that you see in the movies. He seems capable to tell you your life story and where it might be going from just a few cards. I find that level of detail fascinating.

My favorite of his books on the tarot is Advanced Tarot - An in-Depth Guide to Practical & Intuitive Tarot Reading. Published in 2021 is a biggish book of 556 pages. The quality of the paper is exquisite, it is a bit more like thin cardboard than paper, so the book itself is a bit impressive in size, but a pleasure to handle.

I have to say that having gone through his other books, happily I was able to find all of the ones he wrote on the tarot, (even the very first one, which is now very difficult to find titled Mastering the Tarot: A Guide to Advanced Tarot Reading and Practice), sometimes the stories of the querents are the same.

Sometimes, not always, and I assume that has all the sense in the world, as it is difficult to find new instances to make a point all the time. Maybe that in itself is proof of his authenticity.

I mention this because, you might not need to buy all his books, but just one that really speaks to you. All of them are good and all of them a pleasure to read and learn from.

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The Advanced Tarot one is a chunky book and very pleasant to learn from. Although the images in the book itself are not color, at the beginning of the book there are a few shiny plates with the tarot cards in color, and the book cover doubles back on itself and displays some of the cards.

You will find in the book information on the cards, on spreads, a very good section on asking questions which I loved, cause sometimes it is difficult to know how to ask the tarot something that would lead to a meaningful answer.

And of course the sections with examples from real life readings, I think this is where the strength of the book lies. Working with real life examples of questions, readings and outcomes helps deepen understanding and learning, supporting us, the tarot enthusiasts, to broaden our knowledge.

Also, the book, through these examples, is full of other people’s lives and their stories, so it is a wonderful blending of the tarot with the human existence.

I found fascinating the fact that Paul Fenton-Smith is actually a very exact tarot reader. He tells you about people in your life, events, if you are sleeping well, what will happen with that job or the other, will your love show up or not, and so on.

It is very entertaining and educational at the same time, because I think, Paul Fenton-Smith delivers in his readings exactly what people usually expect when they go for a reading, some exact details and a bit of direction, of which most often it is they themselves that make sense of.

Free will is present and that is great to see, the tarot shows the possible path if nothing changes from the moment of the reading on. If you make changes to your circumstances, if you make changes to yourself, the path also changes. And that is not a realization that many people have and they just feel condemned to a life of dreary repetition or self-fulfilling prophecies.

At any time, at any age, any of us can change their path, making it this way or the other. If you do not know what to ask the tarot, as Paul Fenton-Smith says, ask it:

And the tarot will give you an idea, and by thinking about it, ruminating, digging deep into yourself you will find the answer to carry you over.

If you know Paul Fenton-Smith’s work, I would love to hear your opinions and if he was a good resource for you.

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My Tarot book collection is a nice size. Not too big, not too little, just the right amount of books for me to feel like a real tarot enthusiast, but not so big that I am mistaken for an expert.

I have some really good ones, and although out there, there are many more exceptional books I am happy with what I have and work from them without longing for other.

Recently though, I stumbled upon a book I did not know existed and I just had to have.

On a beautiful day in Kilkenny, while out enjoying the amazing weather, we went into a small book shop we always visit when in town. Their site seems to be under construction as it is missing some info, but I am linking it here nevertheless, in gratitude for having some really amazing books.

While looking through the book section on spirituality, my heart skipped a beat when I saw a large, blue book with the word Tarot beautifully written in gold lettering on its cover.

Intrigued, I moved books about and got to it.

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The complete title of the book was: The Tarot: A Collection of Secret Wisdom from Tarot’s Mystical Origins.

The book was nicely wrapped in a tight plastic film, so I could not browse through it, but when I saw I just had to have it.

The book is published in 2021, but strangely enough I did not stumble upon it in all my internet discovery expeditions. I assume things happen, when they need to happen, and not before.

The amazing thing about this book is that it is a collection of old texts about the tarot, and for a person interested in everything about the tarot, it is an outstanding resource. Below, in the image showing its back, you can see info about the texts in it.

This is not a book to read just so, this is a book to consult, to study and understand. Some of the old texts are strange to the contemporary reader and I think that is part of what makes them fascinating.

At a weighty 956 pages and a pretty large format, this is a home study tool, as carrying it around is not very practical. But what an amazing resource to have!

The quality of the book is outstanding with sturdy hardcover, good printing and nice feeling paper.

I am so happy I stumbled upon it and, although I do not understand all of the information in it yet, I love trying to understand and reading it.

I am pleased it has in it some texts that I read about in other books, giving me the chance to consult them myself.

This is a great resource and, if, as it happened to me, it crosses your path, give it a browse, see if you want to give it some space in your library. It has pride of place in mine.

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