1-2-3 Tarot is a daring concept for a Tarot book. In it, the conventions of Tarot divination which are endlessly repeated from one writer to another like some sort of mindless mantra, have been completely thrown out the window. In their place is offered a truly new method of Tarot divination.

I have been a serious student of the Tarot for around three decades. It was the first aspect of Western esotericism that captured my imagination and forced me to think beyond the limits of the conventional materialistic world view that is the prison and ultimately the coffin for so many people. As a consequence I have a great respect and affection for the Tarot. It is a bit surprising that it took me so long to begin writing books dedicated to the Tarot, but everything has its own place and season.

Tarot divination can be intimidating for beginners because there are so many meanings and associations for the cards to memorize, and so many different methods and layouts to learn. I wanted to produce a new method that was so simple, anyone could use it in only a few minutes.

This was accomplished with something I have called the Tarot sentence. It is a divination structure that consists of only three cards arranged in a row that relate to each other somewhat in the way the parts of a simple sentence interrelate. The first card in each Tarot sentence is the thing that acts; the second card is the action it takes or undergoes; the third card is the thing acted upon. In the 1-2-3 Tarot system, each card is given key terms that encapsulate and crystallize its meaning. Which term it receives in a divination depends on which place in its Tarot sentence the card falls.

Sounds complicated but it really isn't - it is just something you've never encountered before, even if you are a skilled Tarot diviner. For example, if the trump the Lovers were to fall upright on the first place in a Tarot sentence during divination, its key term would be "affection" but if it landed in the deal on the middle place in the sentence, its key term would be "unites" - it is an active verb because the second place in the sentence is the active place. The affection of the first place, when made active in the second place, tends to bring about union. If the card fell on the third place in a Tarot sentence, its key term would be "with happiness" because this expresses the consequences of affectionate union. The complete Tarot sentence for this trump, the Lovers, when it is upright, reads: Affection unites with happiness.

This sentence, which is the complete upright sentence of the trump the Lovers, will never actually occur in a divination, because it would require that the Lovers fall on all three places at the same time, which is impossible. However, if you take three different Tarot cards, and deal them onto the three places in a Tarot sentence, you will get a completely unique sentence as a result. Each possible set of three cards will produce a different sentence, because each card has a key term for each of the three places. In this way a cohesive meaning is expressed by the key terms of any three cards laid out in a row.

Someone completely new to the Tarot can shuffle the cards, lay out three in a row, and read their Tarot sentence for its unique meaning, simply by looking up the key term for each card in its proper place in the row. It is not even essential to memorize the key terms.

Simple Tarot sentences do not give a detailed, in-depth divination, of course, but they yield the backbone of a divination that can be expanded on by knowing the broader meanings of each card. These more general meanings are provided in the book, along with the key terms for every card in its three positions in the Tarot sentence pattern, both upright and inverted. At the back of the book the key terms are given as lists of Tarot sentences for the individual cards, so that the beginner will have a direct reference for the key terms.

The result is a completely new method of Tarot divination that is both quick and easy, yet produces surprisingly sophisticated readings. The simplest reading requires only a single sentence row of three cards, but it is possible to combine sentences into layouts with various patterns for more complex readings. The key terms are based on the Golden Dawn interpretations of the cards, so their meanings are in harmony with the Golden Dawn Tarot correspondences, the most widely used Tarot correspondences in the world.

Not only rank beginners, but even experienced Tarot diviners, will find the system of Tarot sentences a refreshing change of pace that offers new insights into the meanings of the Tarot cards.

ISBN:0-7387-0527-6. Price: $9.95 US. Llewellyn, 2004.