The Triple Goddess Tarot

by Isha Lerner and illustrated by Mara Friedman

a review by John Gilbert

The Triple Goddess Tarot book and deck by Isha Lerner and illustrated by Mara Friedman (ISBN 1-879181-94-0) with a forward by Vicki Noble and an Epilogue by Dr. Tara McKinney is a wonderful textbook about the mythology of the Triple Goddess. It's called mythology but it's really all about spirituality.

The Triple Goddess Tarot Deck is a thirty-three card pack consisting of twenty-six Alchemy Cards and Seven Chakra Cards. The latter represent the seven power points of the body which can also be called the Seven Churches, the seven major ganglia of the nervous system or the Seven Sacraments. The Alchemy Cards consist of the twenty-two Major Arcana and four cards representing potential stages of evolution beyond that depicted by the normal trumps.

Thirty-three is an interesting number. It's a master number of perfection. Christ is said to have been crucified at age thirty-three. There are thirty-three degrees in Scottish Rite Freemasonry and several other Masonic bodies. With the addition of Da-ath to the Tree of Life, it contains thirty-three paths. Thirty-three is also the number of the Divine Trinity in both Eastern and Western religions.

The Triple Goddess Tarot Book presents seven new spreads well worth the price of the boxed set. Three of these are quite remarkable tools for self-improvement and I recommend them to you. They are the Trinity Rainbow Layout using seven cards, the Moon Goddess Layout using three cards, and the Seven Chakra Body Mapping. The Body, Soul and Spirit spread is an eight card version of the often-used Body-Mind-Spirit spread. The Soul Message and Body Message layouts use one card for very powerful insights into ourselves or our clients. The final spread really isn't a tarot spread at all but a combined meditation ritual.

I love the names Isha's assigned to the Alchemy cards. Flying into Spring corresponds to the Fool. The Song of Creation is the Magician in a little different role. T he High Priestess become Sanctuary in the Triple Goddess Tarot. The rest of the cards have similar powerful and yet beautiful names. But it's not the names that impresses me the most. It's the way the author encourages us to use each of the cards to transform ourselves and awaken to the archetype of the cards. My favorite card right now is Alchemy Card 24 - Infinite Potential.

This is not your general run-of-the-mill Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck. T he cards are uniquely different and pleasing to the eye. The traditional Tower card carries the name Kundalini Rising in this deck. That's a different message than a falling tower.

I really like this deck for personal work and spiritually-oriented tarot readings for clients.

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