Guest Author - June Kaminski



The Tarot Book Club Selection for February 2009 will be the intriguing book, Back in Time Tarot by Janet Boyer. Join Us!

February is upon us, bringing Valentine's Days and dreams of spring coming - the perfect time to continue our book club selections. This month we have a fantastic and intriguing new book that will help you learn to work with your tarot deck in a very unique way. Janet has devised a really ingenious way to look at the tarot, and we invite you to join us as we read the book and apply its principles.

Each month, a new book will be featured, augmented with a forum discussion where you can share your questions, opinions, and insights about the Month's Selection. If you wish to participate in the discussion, click on one of the links below to order a copy of the book online, from either the Publisher or through Amazon.com.

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February 2009 Book Club Selection

The Back in Time Tarot Book

Our book selection for the month of February 2009 is Back in Time Tarot,an intriguing book written by author Janet Boyer.

This book offers a very interesting perspective on the use of the Tarot to connect with the past to take control of the present and prepare for the future. If you wish to join in the discussion, you can buy the book online from Amazon or directly from the Publisher, Hampton Road.

by: Janet Boyer
ISBN: 1571745874 (10); 978-1571745873 (13)
8.8 x 7 x 1 inches, 272 pages, soft cover
Release Date:October 2008
Publisher: Hampton Road
Price: under $12

My Review of Our Selection

Back in Time Tarot is an intriguing book, penned by Janet Boyer, a serious Tarot expert, reviewer, writer, and practitioner. Janet brings a wealth of experience to the Tarot author circle, including serving as a reviews editor and columnist for Tarot World Magazine and an Amazon Top 100 Reviewer. What impressed me the most about this book, is the innovative Back in Time (BIT) method that serves as the backbone of the book. In order to engage in this method, the reader needs three things:

• The BIT book, of course


• Your favorite Tarot deck


• A mental "snapshot" of a past personal memory or experience from pop culture

Right from the beginning, Janet emphasizes that this method is a recipe for experience, rather than education. She does provide a basic overview of the Tarot, but urges the reader to approach the Tarot medium as a vehicle for personal exploration. In her own words, "I make the distinction, because, unlike some Tarot books, this one doesn't require you to memorize hundreds of complicated esoteric card meanings. Instead, it shows you how to connect with the cards on your own terms, in a way that makes your favorite Tarot deck (or decks) truly your own." (2008, p. xxvi).

Engaging in the BIT Method

Janet leads you through the process of selecting appropriate Tarot cards to represent the various aspects of your mental "Snapshot" memory, providing helpful hints on the selection process and helping you to deconstruct the key aspects of the memory. Although at first, the process might seem somewhat challenging, Janet guides the reader to learn the method by providing several detailed examples from her own life, as well as several from well known Tarot authors and designers, including Mark McElroy, Mary K. Greer, Lisa Hunt, Nina Lee Braden and others.

A wonderful recap to each of the personal Snapshot examples is provided, using an "It's Your Turn" exercise that prompts the reader to explore their own memories of the key concepts associated with each expert's shared story. This approach provides a lot of room for practice in selecting the cards, analyzing the snapshot components, and finding personal meanings in the whole exercise. Janet also encourages the reader to purchase a blank journal to use specifically for the BIT Method work, so that you have a running record of your sessions.

An entire chapter is devoted to experts sharing their approach to deconstructing literature, TV and Movie stories and characters, which reveals deep awareness of our relationships to pop culture icons such as Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Charlie Brown of Peanuts, the Grinch, and others. Yet another chapter, applies the same process to analyzing milestone headlines of the past such as 9 - 11, and the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell.

This book is bound to become a classic, since it provides an ingenious approach to working with the Tarot, and processing the hidden associations that we harbour in our memories and psyche related to memories and the effect of our external world and societal history. I highly recommend that our BellaOnline readers take advantage of the wisdom of this book, and join in our discussion as we explore its' teachings.

Join the Book Club Discussion!

This book offers more than mere tarot interpretations - it presents a wonderful rich view of the Tarot - one that you can learn to use in your personal mystic practice. If you wish to join in the discussion, you can buy the book online from Hampton Road or Amazon - click on the Forum image near the top of this feature, to join the actual discussion.


Buy Back in Time Tarot directly from Hampton Road Publishing!