Untold Tarot: The Lost Art of Reading Ancient Tarots

Truly, this is a gem ! Caitlin Matthews is a true OG in the world of Tarotmancy. The technique for Tableau readings are very well explained and stunningly accurate. Beware, this is not a book for TdM beginners, one can start with Vincent Pitisci's books and then advance to Caitlin Matthews. Her techniques for decoding a combination of Suits, Pips and readings with Court cards are by far THE BEST techniques that I have ever come across !! Ancient Decks & Caitlin Matthews' teachings have taken my tarot readings to a whole new level. Eternally grateful for this book 🙏🏻

In recent years, interest in reading tarot using such decks as the Tarot de Marseille has been steadily growing. For anyone wishing to explore this way of reading, where spot cards lack the sort of illustrations one finds in the Waite-Smith deck, this book is a timely godsend. It is well-researched and beautifully illustrated with cards from a dozen or so continental tarots. Caitlín Matthews explains each trump individually from the divinatory angle, and ably demonstrates how predictive meanings are arrived at for spot cards bearing little in the way of ornamentation beyond the requisite number of suit signs – three goblets on the 3 of Cups, seven swords on the 7 of Swords, and so forth.I was introduced to tarot reading in the ’50s, before the ascendancy of the Waite-Smith deck, and much presented here is familiar to me. Many of these methods were in use back then. Even the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in the late Victorian era, took the direction in which the card representing the inquirer faced as the direction in which the cards were to be read. Techniques such as these have largely fallen into disuse and I applaud their being brought back to tarot readers’ attention.A breadth of methodologies is laid out for the reader to try out. The author suggests working with them all and retaining those one clicks with. I, certainly, found some more suited to my temperament and approach to readings than others. No matter, for the author supplies a wealth of approaches.The techniques are well explained and nicely illustrated using spreads from Caitlín Matthews’ personal casebook. For anybody drawn to traditional reading methods prior to the publication of the Waite-Smith deck, ‘Untold Tarot’ will be an invaluable addition to their bookshelf.

I was not familiar with Caitlin Matthews before reading this book. When I read it I noticed immediately that she is an adept scholar. Now that I know a bit more about her it is quite obvious why (she is a very prolific author!).The book is marketed to be practical and user-friendly. I wouldn't quite say this is the case. Some choices of phrasing things are a little too academic for the lay reader, or at least moreso than I would expect with such a colloquial synopsis. For example, when Matthews suggests that the cards should be thought of with modular arithmetic, she uses a very long phrase and some rather unobvious imagery to get the point across. It would have been much more clear to speak about how we calculate time using a 12 hour clock. What is the time 15 hours from now? Just calculate 3 hours from now. Why? In this case, because 15 - 12 = 3. What about 36 hours from now? Just check your clock. Why? 36 divides evenly among 12. This is modular arithmetic and it is easy to understand because it is a practical example instead of using words like "antecedent" and some other big word which I don't recall and had to look up (and I use a vocabulary builder!) which literally means NEXT TO!So aside from not knowing which audience she was writing for or whatever that issue actually was, the book is very interesting for a lay person who wants to know some introductory scholarly information.Would I take it as a manual for tarot reading? Partially yes but only to use as inspiration or to add a few techniques to my utility belt (not that any of them are actually unobvious when considering how to read tableaus or lines). Matthews, despite her aptitude for writing, needs to be read carefully because she still makes some "silly" mistakes (which I would not expect for someone of her reputation as I would hope that she be more "vigilant") here and there.Aside from missing things due to not taking enough care, she also omits information through the extreme narrowness of her focus. This is understandable from a scholarly perspective however if we are going to write a manual on fortune-telling we must include all instructions or else we risk leading people astray. So either write a proper instruction booklet or avoid the topic, or add caveats. Matthews tried to chase two rabbits here (by writing as a scholar and a practical tarot teacher) and caught neither as far as saw it.Finally, on the issue of fortune-telling, this subject is especially tricky. So not only should a manual be written on it exclusively; it is not necessarily a worthwhile endeavour. Just because we can sometimes predict the future does not mean that we ought to. Nor does predicting the future always work out as it would first appear.

This book is a must have for anybody, who wants to read the Tarot de Marseille deck. Caitlin Matthews does an excellent job interpreting the pip cards. She approaches them from a numerological and suit interpretation style rather than an open reading style. That may sound rather mechanical, but not until you see the debt and range each suit can mean, masterly put in tables by Caitlin. The complicated court cards are also addressed with similar cut through analysis. This book is densely written, so you may need to read it twice to get the full scope of the information within it. I would definitely recommend this book for anybody, who is serious about TdMs, regardless of the reading style you may have. If 78 degrees of wisdom and Holistic Tarot are the bibles of the Rider Waite deck, this book is one of the bibles for the TdM deck.

The book is beautifully laid out and good quality, although there are a few mistakes such as the misspelling of Pamela Colman Smiths name and several cards miss named such as Temperance on page 37 which is actually Strength.The author helps the cartomancer loosen the grip of the accrued 'meanings' of the cards and encourages the reader to actually look at what is presented on each card similar to the master tarot reader Enrique Enriquez, to consider sight lines, direction etc. and each cards relation to others it is with in the spread, how it speaks and relates to its fellow cards, not to dispense with the given meanings but to consider them in the round.After all tarot is a visual system otherwise we may just as well have words like 'The Magician' written on a blank card!

I have just finished reading the "Untold Tarot". This book is excellent, well written, with a great research material.I am now a huge fan of Caitlin Matthews. I am very happy that I own this particular book.This is the right time for me to apply some of the "untold" tarot ways of reading. In one word, I love it.This book is a must-have for every serious tarot reader.