As someone who has tried to read Tarot, but who failed due to an inability to remember all of the cards' meanings, I was skeptical about whether or not this book could help me much. To my delight, I found that I was mistaken. Boyer's work provides a method that is easy and user-driven, and shows a number of interesting readings that I found useful in understanding the method.
I'm looking forward to being able to use her method to help me become better acquainted with the Tarot! ( )

One of my good friends from college told me once about his great, get-rich-quick scheme. It went as such: (1) Write a self-help book, e.g. "Better Living Through the Power of Positive Thinking." (2) Capture the religious crowd by recasting the book, e.g. "Better Living Through the Power of Prayer." (3) Capture the new age crowd by, once again, recasting the book, e.g. "Better Living Through the Power of the Moon."

I'll be the first to admit: I must have missed the point of Boyer's BIT method. From my understanding, it was effectively, using the Tarot as a visual aid when recollecting special memories (or fictions, or world events), and gaining new insight into them through the magic(k) of the Tarot. The book is meant to be useful by someone who has never before picked up a Tarot deck. Taking this into consideration, I don't see the point of using a Tarot, when just about any other collection of physical objects with any sense of meaning could be used, ranging from a deck of playing cards, a chess set, a list of movies or songs, or even characters from a television show or movie.

It's effectively using a metaphor to better understand an event, and you don't need a Tarot deck to do that. Heck, you don't even need any physical props if you have a good enough imagination.

I mentioned my friend from college because I was reminded of this when reading the book. You could have used Jungian archetypes instead of the Tarot, if targeting this book towards the psychology crowd, or you could have used Bible characters when targeting the religious. Heck, you could have even gone the "pop culture philosophy" route and made them characters from Harry Potter. Yeah, I really missed the point on this one, though I did give it a chance. About the only thing I really thought was interesting were the pictures of Tarot cards in the back.

You can claim that I'm not open-minded, and you may be right. I don't open my mind up to just any philosophy, just like I don't open up my computer to just any web page or application. Some programs will slow your computer down, while others will damage the core software running your computer. So, with my brain, just like with my computer, I am careful about what I blindly click on and follow through. In fact, I never do that. So, yeah, call me closed-minded if you like, but don't complain to me about what I charge for fixing your computer when it starts to get bogged down with needless fluff and bloatware. ( )

When it comes to tarot books they are often largely the same. If you are looking for a serious study, card by card , meaning by meaning.. You are better off looking elsewhere.

What tarot does do, is work best the more you interact with it. There are many ways to do this, tell a story, meditate etc etc etc. What this book brings is a fresh way to interact with your tarot.

Some say there are two types of tarot users, those that use their innate spiritual awareness, and those that also talk to the cards. By talking to the cards the cards will talk back. Simply reading cards is a very good way to interact with your deck. The BIT (Back in time) method adds a way to choose past moments, snapshots of our lives; or as the author uses imagery or "memories" from TV, film and anything in life.

In the end this book teaches a valuable lesson, to truly get in touch with the tarot we need to do more than simply learn meanings, perform readings and "play" with them. The BIT method will not be for everyone. I think the book was far too long for example. But I can see that this is a valuable way to learn the cards intuitively, so that they work their way into your psyche. To truly know the tarot, this is something that must be done, and utilizing as many ways as you can, will help.

As this is essentially a book about a "new" way to interact with tarot, the ideas would work with anyone, with any level of experience. Although I can see that this would be especially great for someone who has never used tarot at all. ( )

I suspect that the Back in Time Method is not that new. Probably most students of the Tarot, when they're in their first burst of enthusiasm, find themselves thinking things like, "Wow, she is just like the Queen of Cups!" or "I came out of that meeting feeling like the Nine of Wands." What Boyer has done is organize these sorts of random thoughts and give them a name. Her book is also a concrete reminder that advanced students and Tarot professionals can get just as much out of this approach as newbies. Boyer has gotten many of the big names in the Tarot world to contribute memories and anecdotes that they've analyzed through the BIT Method, so you get to see several different takes on the same card (and in one case, several takes on the same memory: three different writers did BIT snapshots for 9/11). There are also examples of using the BIT Method to look at literature, movies, and people currently in the news. After each snapshot, Boyer asks questions designed to encourage the reader to try a BIT snapshot of their own. The book is indexed--very helpful in this case, since the reader might want to compare what different writers had to say about the Seven of Pentacles or the Ace of Swords. Boyer does not include reversals, but it wouldn't be hard for the reader to do so if they wished. ( )