Okay, now that you've got a tarot deck, how do you get it to answer your questions? This book can help!
Part of Llewellyn's "How To" series, "How to Use Tarot Spreads" features 36 spreads covering everything from Spiritual Aspirations to a Magical Lottery Spread. For beginning readers Abraham includes brief upright and reversed meanings for the cards from her other book, "How To Read the Tarot: The Key Word System". Her system uses keywords for each Major and each suit, and applies the Major keys one through ten to the corresponding minors. The Court cards are presented as personality types, mostly age-related, as applied to each suit.
These spreads range in size from six to fifteen cards, a ten-card layout is pretty typical. The spreads are arranged by category -- romance, home and family, finances, spirituality, etc. Unfortuately, the positioning of the cards often has little relationship to their meanings. They could just as easily be in straight rows, the layout isn't much help in remembering the spreads. The "meaning" for each position is usually phrased as a question, often a yes-or-no.
Most of these spreads include several sample readings, showing how different cards can bring different twists to the same spread. It's not always clear how Abraham derives the sample readings from her own keywords, though, which might be confusing to beginning readers. Each sample reading ends with comments about the "querent" which do help apply the meanings to the individual situations. The examples are intriguing, encouraging the reader to further study.
Part of the book's Introduction, "Preparing A Reading", mentions looking for patterns such as common suits or numbers, but doesn't really address how to interpret these patterns. It also suggests that an abundance of Majors and/or Courts may mean "too many people are involved in the querent's life."
Helpful to both the novice and the experienced reader, "How To Use Tarot Spreads" is ideal for the casual tarotist or the "weekend reader" who just wants to pick up a deck and go. Abraham concludes her Introduction with a note to beginning readers I strongly agree with. "Experience is the best teacher and reading for others hones your talents and enhances your intuition. Trust yourself always."