Tarot cards are a traditional witchy medium for fortune telling and one that will repay years of study. But besides normal Tarot, there is a short version we include in the book that came to us from a venerable old hedge witch in Sussex. She had learned it from her grandmother and, having no successor to pass it onto in the same way, was happy for us to publish it to a wider audience as a parting gift to the world.

Granny Weller of Sussex was a great authority on normal Tarot using the 78-card pack but the method we show is one she used for quick readings. It employs just twenty cards taken from the minor arcana of Tarot, which means that in fact any ordinary pack of playing cards can be used.

In the book we present Theodora's method in full just as it came to us, apart from slight editing to clarify her meaning. Comparing her card interpretations with the usual ones for their Tarot counterparts shows they are basically the same, though with many original flourishes and insights.

Apart from its simplicity, Quick Tarot is a great introduction to the full pack. Using just twenty cards makes it much easier to get a feel for how they work and allows users to familiarize themselves with important cards normally overshadowed by the major trumps of full Tarot.

For Quick Tarot you need just the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten from each suit of a normal pack of cards.

The illustration above shows the reverse aspect of the Ace of Spades. Right way up, the card stands for abundance, success and the coming to fruition of your plans. A reversed card predicts the exact opposite and can be a bit alarming when it presents itself as a picture of what is going to happen to you next. But you have to remember that as with the turning seasons, sometimes things have to end for there to be a new beginning. Collapse, death and decay are followed by regeneration, growth, fruition and harvest. Spring follows winter, autumn follows harvest, rebirth is only possible after some kind of death.