- Author: Janis King
- Publisher: Collective Ink Publishing
- Publication Date: November 2025
- RRP: UK £13.79 paperback / £9.49 Kindle, US $19.95 paperback/ $9.99 Kindle
- ISBN: 978-1803417806
- Reviewed by: Beth Rees @neurodivergenttarot on IG
I’ve been a fan of three-time published author, and tarot master, Janis King, for years. She has been a tarot professional for over 20 years, reading for celebrities, politicians and private clients across the world. Janis is also the author of Tarot Mastery – Decoding the Tarot, Perfect Match – The energetic way to your dream relationship, and The Life Code Tarot Deck (for which she won the ‘TABI Members’ Award for Best Deck at the Carta Awards 2024).
I’d been curious about The Life Code Tarot for some time, looking wistfully at it online and pining to myself. Then recently, I read this great review from TABI member Jennifer and decided to invest in it. As I was in the process of trying to work out how to use the deck, I saw that TABI wanted someone to review Janis’s new book Tarot – The Life Code: A Fool, a Magician, and the Secret of Life. The Universe was clearly listening!
The book is 232 pages long (I read it on the Kindle) and takes a closer look at the Life Code system for reading the tarot and how it can be used effectively. It also encourages the reader to be the Magician in their own lives, including the reader as an active participant in the process.
As an intermediate tarot reader, I was hoping this book wasn’t going to be a ‘this is what the cards mean’ type of read. However, the first two lines of the Preface (“This is not a ‘learn to read Tarot’ book. This is a book to help you experience Tarot differently”) reassured me otherwise. Interestingly, it does mirror the system itself, acting as an instruction manual and helping the reader to understand how tarot fits into modern life and the challenges we face.
I really enjoyed the focus that King puts on the Minor Arcana. In many books, articles or courses I’ve done about the tarot, the Major Arcana seem to get more page-space, more focus and more love. The Minors seem to be talked about as just that – minor. However, I was fascinated by how King not only brings more attention to the Minors but how she ultimately brings the entire tarot system back to the 10 of Cups card. From reading this book, it has really changed the way I see this ‘nice’ card. I also enjoyed how she linked the Court Cards to the Minor Arcana – the Pages (Student) linked to Aces, Twos and Threes, the Knights (Action) linked to Fours and Fives, the Queens (Process) linked to Sixes and Sevens, and the Kings (Management) linked to Eights and Nines.
The illustrations in the book really helped me to visualise what King’s system was about and how things linked together. For example, the Matrix that divides the Major Arcana cards into the four Energetic Realms was more understandable as an image. The Life Code Guiding Star that Janis and her son created that inspired the system was also a welcome illustration too.
As an AuDHD person, I found the presentation of the information really helpful too (use of bullet points, short and precise explanations, and clear language). The explanation of the Energetic Realms was a great example of this and helped to develop my understanding even further.
Although I found the book engaging, I would have preferred to read it as a hard copy so I could highlight, make notes and set out the system as I was reading. With a neurodivergent brain, I find this helps so much with understanding new systems or approaches. Also, some of the illustrations were a bit small on the Kindle so definitely recommend getting the book in hard copy.
Tarot – The Life Code: A Fool, a Magician, and the Secret of Life would be great for people who already own and use The Life Code Tarot deck but would also be beneficial for people like me who want to understand the system more deeply to improve their approach to tarot in general.
For more information on the author, please visit https://tarotreadinglondon.com/, where you can also purchase the book and deck
0 Comments