The Fools Journey through Sunydale is an excellent way to combine the work of the tarot with a modern media source that many are familiar with. When the series Buffy The Vampire Slayer became popular there was a surge in young teens and adults that were interested in the Tarot and in witchcraft because of that series. This book is a way to combine the interests of the two groups in a way that shows the real true supernatural and occult symbols in the series and gets the message of the cards across.
As some one who started to read tarot cards and explore the occult at the same time this series was popular the use of the characters and the storyline to explain the symbols on the cards and the meaning of the cards is fantastic. It shows how in day to day life and how in that fantastic world of darkness how the cards can be seen. This book bridges the gap between the occult fiction in Buffy and the reality in this world showing.
Each chapter in the book focuses on one of the major arcana cards in the typical tarot deck. The chapter begins with a description of the traditional Raider-Waite card followed by an understanding of the symbolism in the card and the cards meanings both upright and reversed in a reading. The next section of the chapter examines the few ways the card has been manifested in the show. The last section of each chapter focuses on a character from the series that the author believes manifests all aspects of that particular card the best.
The author does not limit the understanding of the cards in the Buffy Universe and the content in understanding the meanings of the cards t just the Buffy the Vampire series. The author does include in several different occasions descriptions of actions and situations from the spin off series Angel, which provided just as much information for the cards as Buffy herself did. The focus of the book though is on the Buffy the Vampire series cannon with the references in Angel being there to highlight the points seen in Buffy.
After reading through this book with a tarot deck, a reader can have a deeper understanding of the message of the cards in their deck. When you look at the episodes mentioned and the charterers with the traditional meanings of the cards its easy to see where the authors choices come from.
The references to a modern pop culture force make the meanings of the cards accessible and easier to understand to a new generation. This generation was raised with the occult in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Angel, and the tail end of the Sabrina the Teenage witch series. By relating the cards to those characters and situations, the people who grew up watching those series can relate to the cards through relating to characters they enjoyed growing up.
