Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: The Mysteries of Tarot by Kirsten Weiss @SBPM_Museum @GoddessFish

The Mysteries of Tarot

by Kirsten Weiss

GENRE: Contemporary Mystery/Suspense

BLURB:

The Mysteries of Tarot: A Work of the Imagination

How to Read the Cards for Transformation

When Tarot reader Hyperion Night sent his manuscript, The Mysteries of Tarot, to a friend to edit, it was a simple guide to reading Tarot. Hyperion couldn’t anticipate that his editor’s notes would evolve into a murder mystery, or that his friend would go missing. Shockingly, the annotated manuscript eventually made its way back to Hyperion, who forwarded it to the authorities.

Now this astonishing Tarot guide is available as a book. The Tarot guidebook features:

• Tarot basics―How to manage different interpretations of cards in a spread, how to read court cards, and a clear and simple method for dealing with reversals.

• Detailed card breakdowns― Keywords, flash non-fiction narratives, and a deep dive into the symbols of each of the 78 cards of the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana.

• Questions to apply to the cards for transforming your life―Insightful questions for each card to help you dig deeper into your Tarot reading practice.

Bonus feature: the guidebook also includes his editor’s comments on the more esoteric and philosophical interpretations of the Tarot, as well as his notes on the baffling mystery that engulfed him.

Gain deep insight from the cards, transform yourself, and solve The Mysteries of Tarot with this work of experimental fiction that’s part Tarot guidebook, part murder mystery.

Purchase The Mysteries of Tarot on Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo, Apple Books, Author Website

Excerpt:

Ace of Cups

New love. New relationship. Awakening of cosmic consciousness. Channel for spirit. Gratitude.

It’s a little depressing how often I’ve drawn the Ace of Cups. Aces are about beginnings and initiation, and cups about emotions and love. So for me this card has usually indicated a new relationship, though not necessarily a lasting one. Until one day, when the relationship this Tarot card was nudging me toward had zero to do with romance.

I’d been reading Tarot for a couple years by that point. I knew the classic meanings, I could put them together, and I was even starting more intuitive work with clients. I was doing (and still do) my own daily Tarot card reading—just one card. That day, I’d drawn the Ace of Cups. And though I wasn’t expecting a good day, the Ace gave me a lift of hope.

Its meaning unfolded later that day. I was in the hospital visiting my aunt. We’d been taking her there on an almost weekly basis after a cancer diagnosis—I won’t go into the details. But she’d been coming down with one infection after another, with no end in sight.

I was bored, sitting outside the examination room. So although the spring day was drizzly, I wandered to the balcony garden outside. At the moment, the clouds parted, and a sunbeam struck the ocean. The light glimmered, the ocean whitening around it.

And suddenly, I knew. My aunt was going to be okay.

I returned inside. The doctor emerged from the exam room and told us my aunt was in remission.

It was my first knowing. My first true connection. Did I channel? Did I forge some connection with the universal mind?

I’m still baffled. Until that moment, the idea of awakening cosmic consciousness in myself had been entirely theoretical. There are some things you can’t entirely understand until you experience them.

I’m still not sure I do understand. I don’t have these moments of insight on tap. My knowings don’t come on command. But they do still occasionally come.

Aces. Someone once told me that the first card in the suit contains all the energy of that suit. In that moment at the hospital, I felt all the energy of the Cups—intuition, spirit, connection—flowing through me. I was initiated that day by something bigger than myself.

The Symbols

A golden chalice floats above a pool dotted with water lilies, the latter representing eternal life. Five streams (representing the five senses?) overflow from the cup.

The cup is commonly believed to represent the Holy Grail from Arthurian legend. In the story of the knight Parcival, a dove magically empowers the Grail, and in this card, a dove with a communion-type wafer dives toward the cup. The cup also resembles a baptismal font, implying a spiritual initiation.

What Does This Card Mean for You?

How can you be that over-flowing chalice? Because it’s by being loving that we attract love of all kinds to us.

Notes: Ace of Cups

85 Adelaide came to the cottage today with her latest rescue (a Chihuahua). She’d learned about my brother’s threatened conservatorship and wants to help. I’m grateful.

She told me Charles has been trying to get more control of our father’s company for years. I had no idea it mattered to him that much. He’s been the Chief Financial Officer since last spring. I’d assumed he was on track to take the company over, and I would have been happy to let him. I don’t care about managing the money or the company. But I don’t want to be on an allowance at my brother’s mercy either. At least my sister, for all her faults, is on my side.

Interview with Kirsten Weiss

How many books have you written and which is your favorite?

I’ve written over 60 mysteries at this point. And I know this will sound like a cop-out, but my favorite is always the last book I wrote! I learn new things with each book, and I’m growing along with the characters.




If you’re planning a sequel, can you share a tiny bit about your plans for it?

Someone suggested I create a Tarot journal to go along with The Mysteries of Tarot. All I’ve got right now though are vague plans!




Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

I guess both. I tend to write in series, so that’s an obvious connection. And I have done some crossovers, because they’re just fun. But hopefully each will stand on its own as well.




How did you come up with the title for your book?

It’s a Tarot guidebook with a mystery woven through it. So calling it “The Mysteries of Tarot,” seemed like a no brainer (if not particularly clever).




How long did it take you to write this book?

A Tarot deck has 78 cards, which meant 78 chapters, and I wrote one a week, then I wrote the “editor’s” mystery, so this book took a lot longer, timeline-wise, than I usually take. But it was more of art project that I was working on between my other writing, so I was fine with my slow pace.




What does the title mean?

It’s a mystery! It’s a Tarot book!




What did you learn when writing the book?

I learned to use a five-act story structure, which dates back at least to the Roman playright Horace in 19 BC. Tarot has five suits, so using a five-act structure seemed logical, especially since the murder mystery in the footnotes parallels the themes in each card.




What surprised you the most?

I went a lot deeper into the historical symbolical connections between Greek and Roman philosophy and Tarot. The meanings that seem so esoteric to us today were much more grounded and practical to the Renaissance artists creating Tarot decks. And they have a surprising relevance to life today.




Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved?

Kind of accidentally, LOL. In one of my books, I kill off a character in the first chapter. He never appeared before, so I didn’t think anyone would have a stake in his death, but I got some complaints.



What do you do to get inside your character’s heads?

I think about what psychological wound they have and how it might affect their words and actions, as well as what makes them great. What are their strengths? Their weaknesses? And then I give them opportunities to show both.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Kirsten Weiss writes laugh-out-loud, page-turning mysteries, and now a Tarot guidebook that’s a work of experimental fiction. Her heroes and heroines aren’t perfect, but they’re smart, they struggle, and they succeed. Kirsten writes in a house high on a hill in the Colorado woods and occasionally ventures out for wine and chocolate. Or for a visit to the local pie shop.

Kirsten is best known for her Wits’ End, Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and Tea & Tarot cozy mystery books. So if you like funny, action-packed mysteries with complicated heroines, just turn the page…




You can find Kirsten on her Website and on Twitter

 

Giveaway:

$10 Amazon/BN GC 

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