Tarot Elements: Five Readings to Reset Your Life

Melissa Cynova's first book, "Kitchen Table Tarot," was a breath of fresh air - a warm, unvarnished, practical take on Tarot that was a pleasure to read and tremendously useful, regardless of whether one is just starting out or is a well seasoned Tarot veteran. Cynova has followed this up with the marvellously engaging and uniquely useful "Tarot Elements: Five Readings to Reset Your Life," which is as accessible and no-frills as her first book, and such a gift to readers who want to deepen their practice in a real world way. The approach is deceptively simple, nicely grounded, and affords so much room for depth - exploring the elements of air, earth, fire, water, and spirit with an eye to using the Tarot to really address problems, not merely craft bandaids for them. Cynova is a sure-handed writer and reading her books is like sitting down with her to dig into the kind of readings that truly help. She crafts the book in a way that eases one through the work that is being done chapter by chapter. I enjoy her tone, and appreciate both her knowledge and her way of expressing it.Given the "interesting times" we find ourselves, readers need to be prepared to offer deeper work with the Tarot, for ourselves and our querents. "Tarot Elements: Five Readings to Reset Your Life" is a terrific resource to help with that.

I love her books. I am new to tarot and Melissa’s books sound like you’re sitting down and talking with a friend. It’s nowhere close to being a “text book.” She explains the cards in a very friendly tone, and makes it easy to absorb the information. I wish this was the first book I read on the subject.

I really enjoyed this book. As I allude in my title, she gives life advice as much as techniques for tarot reading -- and pretty good advice, too! But what I really like about her books (this one and her first, Kitchen Table Tarot) is that her readings have a positivity I don't think I've seen before. To take one example, the 5 of Pentacles, two people in the snow passing a lighted window (per the usual rendering). Most of the interpretations focus on negatives: you are without resources, you are literally out in the cold, you are shut out, etc. She says, Yes, you are currently lacking resources and out in the cold, but sanctuary is waiting for you just on the other side of that window. Her whole approach to even the most negative cards is like that, which is both refreshing and reassuring.

Melissa Cynova is a gem of a reader, and reading her books is like sitting with a wise friend reading tarot together. These readings are good readings for those who use the tarot for self-development and self-improvement. I love that it has plenty of example readings so that you can see how her spreads are interpreted. Great book for both the experienced and less experienced reader.

Melissa’s “Kitchen Table Tarot” was extremely helpful for this noob to tarot - It spoke in practical language, have learned so much from her. As an astrologer, was really intrigued in looking at tarot from an elemental perspective & “Tarot Elements” is extremely valuable in broadening my learning, in a milieu I am most familiar with - earth, air, fire, water & spirit. The three pragmatic questions, give a solid base for initiating the reader’s intuition. Thanks so much Melissa, for teaching this old dog, new tricks.

After reading Melissa Cynova’s first book, Kitchen Table Tarot, I was excited to pick up this one and see what new readings she would present for tarot readers. This book focuses on the five elements (earth, air, fire, water, spirit) and paring them with areas in your life that need attention. She teaches us to use the elements and tarot spreads to focus on different parts of our bodies and life and slowly fix ourselves.I think this book was a nice addition to Kitchen Table Tarot. It allows you to take what you initially learned about tarot and apply it to parts of your life with these five specific spreads. I did some of them as I was reading through the book but not all of them. If done correctly, it forces you to face your life and your problems with it so expect for these spreads to be emotional and hard to face.Cynova also provides exercises to do along with the spreads that can also help you work through your problems and anxieties. My only real issue with this book was that the specific examples provided for each spread did get a little repetitive as the book went on so I started skimming them.Overall, I look forward to her next book and will continue to reference this book (and her other one) in the future.

Compassionate, complete, targeted guidance for readings. Melissa is a phenomenal writer and her intelligence and acuity shines through.She provides card layout and questions to put forward for readings. It’s a book I will use again and again, and will happily gift to others.

Thank you to Net Galley and Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I'd read the previous title by Melissa and I loved it so much that I purchased the paper copy as well. I refer to it often, and it was such a great find for me. This title was no exception. She writes in such a relatable, approachable manner you feel like you are talking directly with her. I really love Melisssa Cynova and I think you will as well.

Das ist schon das zweite Buch, von der Autorin, das ich gekauft habe. Sehr empfehlenswert für Tarotleute, sowohl Anfänger als auch Fortgeschrittene 👌

Cerco di spiegarmi meglio: l’autrice scrive che questo è un libro di auto-aiuto New Age e che dovrebbe aiutare a spingere il pulsante di reset della propria vita quando questa va a rotoli.Ha cercato di mantenere semplice la struttura di ciascuna stesa presentata, tutte basate sui simboli alchemici degli Elementi, e tutte con le stesse domande di fondo: “A che cosa posso aggrapparmi?”, “Che cosa mi può spingere ad andare avanti?” e “Che cos’è che m’intralcia?”La struttura è sempre la medesima. E il tutto avrebbe potuto benissimo essere contenuto in un capitolo di un libro sui Tarocchi. Non c’era bisogno di introduzioni prolisse, così come non c’era bisogno di esempi prolissi (di esempi sì, ma che fossero prolissi no, e per di più con parti di testo “copiate e incollate” dall’appendice, già di suo poco chiara), così come non c’era bisogno dei fin troppo lunghi racconti personali.Per questo scrivo che è un libro del quale non c’era bisogno: ciò che ci serviva, al massimo, era _un capitolo condensato_, di certo non un intero libro che, alla lunga, risulta pure ripetitivo. A suo favore, però, ha lo stile fluido e frizzante della Cynova, che scorre che è un piacere.

From the start I found the author's sense of humour rather off-putting and I couldn't relate to the overall tone. Then I found her explanations lacked clarity or were missing something -- perhaps a sharper focus? I didn't quite understand what the sample readings were actually trying to say and didn't think they were clearly illustrating the specific element being addressed. After that, I found myself struggling to get into a lot of the exercises, mainly because by then I was finding I didn't like the somewhat fuzzy approach or, to be honest, the book itself in general. I'm afraid it's going straight back to where it came from.