I can tell from the introduction that this was always intended as a book that Pollack and Fiebig wrote together. But in reading it, it feels as though they wrote their sections separately and the publisher simply bound them together.

The book is about reading tarot during times when society is in upheaval: potentially "magical times," yes, but not the magic of sparkly wands and shimmering stars. Pollack and Fiebig each wrote an introductory essay, and there's a third one from Ott, an astrologer. Then Pollack and Fiebig separately worked their way through the cards, discussing them in the context of the "magical times." I'd give Pollack's writing 4 stars if it were the entirety of the book. I thought her contributions were clear and easy to understand. She wrote about each card both at a personal level, as we're used to seeing them in readings, and as indicators of how a community reacts to major change. Fiebig organized the cards by the signs of the zodiac and the decans they coordinate with. I found this part much harder to understand, though. I suspect that part of it is that Fiebig sees the cards in a different way than I do. But a lot of my difficulty with his sections were due to language and editing problems. I'm not sure whether his writing was poorly translated or poorly edited, but there were sentences that simply did not work and I was left wondering what he'd really meant. Anyway, I'd give this part 2 stars, and that's how the book averages out to 3 stars for me. ( )