Book review: Easy Tarot Combinations

By Josephine Ellershaw

Date of Publication: 8^th April 2023 by Llewellyn Publications
U.S RRP $19.99
ISBN-10: 0738772712

Here’s a thing – how many times have you pulled Tarot cards for a reading, looked at them and thought, ‘How peculiar? This combination makes no sense whatsoever.’ And proceeded to fluff around trying to make sense of apparently rogue cards in a spread.

If so, then Josephine Ellershaw’s Easy Tarot Combinations could become your new best friend.

Josephine Ellershaw is a Tarot reader, healer and metaphysical worker with over 50 years’ experience. Noticing ‘odd’ and recurring combinations of cards presenting themselves in her own readings which ‘became fixtures due to their reliability,’ she kept a series of notes about them, and so the concept of Easy Tarot Combinations was born. The premise of the book is not to give the Tarot reader a definitive list of combinations to be learnt by heart – it is to assist with the sometimes confusing task of linking card meanings together to help tell the story with greater flow, and to find a path through those moments where a reading hits a barrier or grinds to a halt because a combination of cards doesn’t seem to be ‘right’. The book’s content relies on the reader having a basic knowledge of each card and the suits – Ellershaw wants everyone to start by ‘speaking the same language’ – and so the book is probably not aimed at the complete Tarot beginner.

Easy Tarot Combinations is conversational in style with a clear, accessible layout. Using the Rider Waite Smith deck, Ellershaw employs simple analogies to explain her points, my favourite being that the Tarot is ‘a set of travelling players, a mobile theatre company…just waiting to be released onto the stage to tell their story.’ I love the idea of having a little theatre company as a life-pathway travelling companion, don’t you? All that intrigue and excitement about the next story they are going to tell!

In the Overview, Ellershaw dives straight in with working examples of illustrated layouts using a three or four card spread. In cutting the preamble of Tarot theory and going straight to the practical element, she immediately catches the reader’s interest and at this point I knew this book was going to be both intriguing and useful. Cross-referencing is encouraged to avoid material being repeated, and actually, I found the cross-referencing element helped me delve into, and engage with, the book better than reading it in the traditional cover-to-cover way. It seemed to add to the element of surprise and almost immediately I started remembering various combinations without having to try learning by rote. It’s a book that encourages dipping in and out to find the information you need quickly.

Parts II and III explore the Minor and Major Arcana combinations, with each card name highlighted in bold print to enable the reader to hone in on a specific combination quickly. The content is organised using key words and phrases to guide the reader, for example – polarity, associations, and flow – with a longer ‘applied meaning’ overview for each card, useful if you do happen to be using this book as a complete Tarot novice. My feeling, though, is that you probably DO need to have the Tarot basics in order to get the most from this guide.

The only (very minor) issue I have with the book is with how Ellershaw uses phrases like ‘negative’ and ‘badly aspected’ to describe some of the cards and combinations. However, it’s a personal thing. We apply our unique skills to reading our cards, which is all part of the beauty of this form of divination. I prefer to use the word ‘cautionary’ when reading cards which could be seen by the querent as less than favourable. However, I understand why she uses these vocabulary choices. I just wouldn’t use them myself.

Over a couple of weeks, then, I set about using the book whenever an ‘odd’ or unexpected combination took me by surprise in a reading. For example, the King of Cups – that kind, laid-back soul who will help anyone and avoid confrontation at all costs – was immediately followed by the Eight of Wands. What?? That energetic, instant action, everything done at high-speed messenger? It was time to pull out the guide. And what do you know? There it was as a combination – telling me that good news was coming in quickly from a kind and gentle-natured man! 

I didn’t need the guide for every reading. After all, this book is designed to help you sort out those problem moments where you hit a wall, or your thoughts fog over and you become stuck. But when I did use it, it was remarkably helpful and, at times, eye popping with its insight. There are lots of useful hints, tips and examples, and the conversational tone made me feel I was chatting with a Tarot friend and we were sharing, ‘Oh yes! That happens to me, too!’ moments. The brief Final Notes section has a Reading Checklist Summary and a reminder that whilst some of the featured combinations might have you scratching your head at how realistic they are when applied to our day-to-day lives, what they do is remind us that life is a surprise, narratives aren’t always straightforward or predictable, it is wise to keep an open mind, and truth is stranger than fiction. And that, after all, is the magic of Tarot!

Overall, then, Josephine Ellershaw has given us a practical and accessible book to add to our Tarot toolkit. Easy Tarot Combinations is an intriguing and helpful read. It’s a book that gives you a new dance to try with your deck. It’s a book that is the right size to pop into your travelling Tarot bag as a handy resource to help you out of those tricky, sticky Tarot reading moments when you find yourself flummoxed by a card combination and need a nudge to get the flow of the reading moving again. And taking a look at Tarot combinations in a fresh way that makes you think, ‘Well, I never saw it like that before,’ has to be a good thing for our constantly developing practices.

Reviewed by: Jaynie