One Of My Masters

Paul Fenton-Smith

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.

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:

What do I need to know right now?

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.