Book Review: The Big Book of Angel Tarot

Big Book of Angel Tarot

Book: “The Big Book of Angel Tarot: The Essential Guide to Symbols, Spreads and Accurate Readings” by Doreen Virtue and Radleigh Valentine

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

This book is compendium of information that goes along with the Angel Tarot Card Deck. The beginning of the book, reviews the history of tarot and how this deck compares to the traditional Rider-Waite deck. These cards are positive in nature while still dealing with events in a person’s life that may be perceived as negative or difficult to deal with. For this reason, the cards do not have a reverse meaning. If the cards are upside down, you simply put them the right direction and read the reading based on what has been written symbolically, according to the picture itself and based on both angel numbers and astrology.

The Major Arcana is now the Dreamer’s Journey. You follow him/her as they progress through life until you reach the World along with Archangel Michael. Each Major Arcana card has an Archangel attached to it which gives you further information as to how the card works in the spread or reading.

The Minor Arcana has pip cards which are the numbered cards and the court cards which include the Page, the Knight, The Queen and the King. The Ace starts off each suit. The suits have been changed to Fire, Water, Air and Earth.

The Fire has dragons and wands in it, Water has cups in it plus merpeople, Air has unicorns in it (swords in previous tarot decks) and Earth has fairies and gold coins in it.

I studied this book by having physically organized my cards according to the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana in the order they are presented in the book. Then it took time, however, I studied the card, then read the reading, reflected on the card some more and paused to think about it all. Then, I proceeded to the next card. In time, the whole deck and book were finished.

My head is now full of imagery, stories and symbolism. It is an appropriate book to have as a reference guide to go along with the Angel Tarot Cards. The little guide book that comes with the deck are good for basic information and then this big book gives you far more detail. This deck obviously took into consideration a lot of factors.

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received the book from Hay House for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

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Chocolate for a Woman’s Spirit

Chocolate for a Woman’s Spirit

Book: “Chocolate for a Woman’s Spirit: 77 Stories of Inspiration to Life Your Heart and Soothe Your Soul” by Kay Allenbaugh

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz (Author of “Northern Lake Adventures: The Encounter”)

This book is very similar to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series. The difference is that the stories are all written by women for women. I am not saying a man could not or would not appreciate the stories, however, they focus around women’s issues.

I find the stories are helpful in that they provide insights into women’s lives. The book carries a wide range of stories, some of them quite heartfelt. Other stories are just average.

I would recommend reading this book if you are looking for some inspiring or uplifting stories. It would be a nice present for a good friend. This book is part of a series of contributed stories and so there other “chocolate” books in the series.

Book Review: The Seat of the Soul

Seat of the Soul

 

 

 

Book: “The Seat of the Soul” by Gary Zukav

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

I read the “Seat of the Soul” many years ago. I remember liking it very much as I remember having a lot of “Ah Ha” moments. I did not have my copy with me so I borrowed somebody else’s copy to read again. This time I found myself less impressed. I am not sure if it is because I have read many books since and I dealing with this subject matter from an entirely different perspective or that the points he makes are not new to me. Nonetheless, I found myself more critical this time.

It did not help that the person who owned this book wrote in the margins comments and added question marks to what they did not know or understand. This made me more critical too. I began to wonder what exactly was Gary Zukav trying to say.

The book covers many great areas such as evolution, karma, reverance, heart and so forth into intuition, light, relationships, souls, power and trust. It is though provoking and I am sure it would make an excellent book or literature circle book. I came to challenge a few concepts. One of the first ones is Gary Zukav’s use of the word “personality” which I personally would change out with the word “ego.” This to me, is a better indication of what he was more likely saying although perhaps this would be too much of a psychological word for him.

The second thing that I take issue with is his assertion that pets and other animals don’t have personal or individual souls. He believes that animals belong to the group soul. So, a cat or dog does not have his own personality or soul. From my observation of our pets, they definitely have their own personality and are able to tell if you are sad. There is cognition on the part of some animals because they do have the ability to understand what is going on. Maybe they do not understand everything but they are certainly capable of more than we give them credit for. I understand that many religions and thought processes would agree with Gary Zukav but I do not.

There are many fine points such as that there are five-sensory people and there are multiple-sensory people. He talks about karma, reincarnation and illusions. He indicates how the law of attraction will bring to you that which you are exhibiting. If you are being negative, negative situations and people will appear in your life. He talks about the only thing that is real is to be loved and loving.

Finally, Zukav makes the point that we are a soul with a body not a body with a soul and that we are struggling to achieve authentic power in our lives. Spiritual psychology will be able to explain psychological problems in terms of a splintered soul and not only from a strictly medical model.