Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6579 in Software
• Brand: TOPICS Entertainment
• Model: VN-1
• Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows 95
• Format: CD-ROM

Amazon.com Product Description
Tarot Scholar Christine Payne-Towler's metaphysical readings combine an encyclopedic knowledge of tarot with an enlightened viewpoint. The software contains 16 essays, representing the latest in tarot research and the history of the cards. Authentic card shuffling captures the exact mathematics of shuffling and cutting, while providing animated feedback. It can fan the cards for you to pick from, or you can use a physical deck if you prefer manual shuffling. Either way, Tarot Magic helps you interpret the way the cars land. Whether you use it to receive helpful insights and relieve stress around decisions, problems, relationships, money, career, and health--or as an encyclopedia of esoteric tarot history and wisdom--Tarot Magic provides the resources.

Customer Reviews

New age Tarot reading!
I bought this CD through an ad and was pleasantly surprised. I especially liked the option to choose from various decks and spreads. I've been reading cards for about 7 years but my mother has been reading them for ages and she admitted they were very accurate.

What I liked:

* Variety of spread and cards

* Assistance with wording the queries

* Visual display of cards and meanings

* Scroll down ability within the cards meanings

* How many times the cards have been shuffled (or the age of the deck which is important to tarot readers)

* Completion Indicator of shuffled cards.. ie, 78%, 98%, 100%

What I didn't like:

* Saving the files into a word document to send to friends who requested readings via e-mail. Not only do you have to save it to a Word Document (or similiar) but the pictures of the cards were not downloadable, unless you used another program type. ie; .jpg, .bmp, etc. It became too complicated.

* Once the reading was over you had to exit out all the way out to the parchment to change the spread and rewrite the same question.

* Only one option for shuffling the cards may be used at a time. An individual can't shuffle AND cut the deck at the same time. You have to change the option each time. A small detail, but for tarot readers, ensuring the cards have been well shuffled is a must! Without wasting the time it takes to accomplish it.

Other than that.. it was relatively simple to use. I was a bit skeptical in the beginning but it proved to be worth the money! Enjoy!

Part of Ultimate home Horoscope and Tarot program
I purchased this program as part of a set of other divining programs called "Ultimate home horoscope and tarot". However, this program is the standout of the bunch.

MANY OPTIONS
Not only do you get to pick from 10 decks of cards which cards you will for each reading, but there are multiple types of readings you can do.
The ten decks are:
Gran Tarot Esoterico
Marseille
Grand Eteillia
Ibis Tarot
Medieval Scapini
Oswald Wirth
Rider Waite
Stairs of Gold
Tarot of the Stars

...I was disappointed that the Morgan Greer tarot was not available however, I find the Marseille deck an acceptable substitute

The eleven spreads are:
Advice Spread
Celtic Cross
Days of the Week
Horoscope Spread
Life Cycle
Relationship Spread
Right Livelyhood
Self Knowledge
Stair of David
Timeline
Tree of Life

VERY MUCH INFORMATION IN THIS PROGRAM
With each of these decks and spreads are explanations of their history and significance to the reader.
Also within the library are the following text subjects, available in Acrobat Reader format, meaning readable outside this program and printable:
Minor Arcana
Major Arcana
Suit of Wands
Suit of Coins
Suit of Swords
Suit of Cups
Esoteric Tarot
Esoteric Origins of Tarot
Kaballah
An Approach to Tarot History
The confluence of the 3 great systems
The Continental Tarots
The Gnostic Tarot
The Spanish School
The English School
Essay on the Major Arcana
Essay on the Minor Arcana

VERY PERTINENT INFORMATION PROVIDED FIRST:
The feature I liked the most during a reading was the specifity of the information provided. Instead of given overall meaning for the card, you were given, the meaning relative to its position in the spread, the general meaning and the explanation of the position of the card.

CAN SAVE AS WELL AS PRINT READINGS
I like the fact that you can save the programs and it does this automatically by date. Also when it prints out it gives you a very attractive printout instead of a bare bones looking printout.

MUCH USER CONTROL
The user of this program, controls 100% what is done from the shuffling and riffling, cutting and moving, to the special effects associated with the sounds and information provided.
I personally don't like sound with my program and this was an easy thing to switch off.

ONLY COMPLAINTS:
Though you can Alt-tab to run when other programs are on, you lose the bottom bar to easily switch from one to the other.
Also I wish you could add other decks. These are very minor problems.

SUMMARY:
If you are a beginner in Tarot as I am, this is a cool program. It runs well (I have a 733 Pentium with 512MB Ram however) and it is an interesting program to run. I have gotten hours of enjoyment from this. However, buying it within the other program was more economical.

Disapointed
I guess you get what you pay for but I was very disappointed with Tarot Magic.
First was the packaging, there is no manual, only a PDF file so I had to print that out. OK, if you have a printer, bad if you get the software Friday night and have to wait until Monday to use the printer at work, or go down to the Printers and pay more money to have one made for you. Having to flip back and forth between screens to figure out what should be a simple program is both time consuming and aggravating.

There is a wealth of information in other essays on the cards and Tarot in general but again all in PDF files. This info is probably the same information as in the numerous other books on Tarot I already have, but if you are very new to Tarot then it will be a great place to start reading.
Next is the graphics, very "cheesy" as my 14 YO daughter called it. Part of this "comic book" look (my comment) is the tiresome navigation. I did find the pull downs and that helped but would have liked a more professional look as apposed to a kid's game feel. Also, I cannot see the cards very well in a spread because they are so small, there is no option to enlarge the screen or make the cards bigger.
Finally, the primary reason I bought Tarot Magic was it is touted as a resource for reading a specific card on a specific position in a given spread. Well that would be all fine and dandy if I were able to use a menu to do this. But Tarot Magic required me to go to the card table, fan the deck, find the card and place it in a position. OK, again, I was looking for a resource, not a game. Reversals are a real problem in this mode too. The manual claims that when you pick a card for a position you simply select "reverse card" in the deal menu. It doesn't tell you that to do this you have to have the card placed in a spread, then select it to read, then select it to be reversed, then you can read the reversed meaning. Again, having a menu to do a lot of this would add a more professional look and speed the process up a whole bunch.
I do need to say something positive about Tarot Magic. If you are very new to Tarot reading or just want to have the program to have it so you can "Impress your friends with "expert" Tarot readings" (direct quote from owner's manual) at your next slumber party then this is a nice economical program that you should get.
If you are have any experience in reading Tarot and are looking for support software then pass this one up.