How do you start reading Tarot? This is a question sent to me by three different people this week, so it must be at the top of people’s minds.
Start Reading Tarot By Choosing a Deck
First off you are going to need a Tarot deck if you want to start reading Tarot. Seems simple enough, but there are hundreds of decks out there. Which should you choose?
I highly recommend a Waite-Rider-Smith deck, also referred to as Waite-Rider, as your first deck. These are the “classic” tarot decks with standardized symbols and most books use these decks when talking about card meanings. This isn’t the prettiest deck, but once you’ve learned the card meanings you can move on to other decks.
Books to Help You Start Reading Tarot
All decks come with a booklet of meanings for the cards. This booklet is tiny and covers only a fraction of the meanings and, while not altogether worthless, is not a great way to learn the cards. That said, when I started reading Tarot that was all I had!
I suggest Brigit Esselmont’s The Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings. This also includes a guide to numerology in the Tarot and handy cheat sheets with keywords for each card. Another great book is Around the Tarot in 78 Days by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin. I base my own basic study class on this book. It has some digressions into other systems such as the Kabbalah, but you can ignore those quite easily. The best thing about this book is the structure of learning a card a day.
Another great book is Rachel Pollack’s The New Tarot Handbook. Her book is a handy guide to have around for any reader.
Classes to Help You Start Reading Tarot
You absolutely do not have to take a class to start reading Tarot but for some people, the cost forces a commitment to learning. Although I’ve read Tarot personally since I was 16, I decided to deepen my knowledge when the COVID lockdowns happened by taking a series of courses by Brigit Esselmont. Her courses aren’t for everyone, they are pricey, but also include a member’s group with an active forum, extra instruction, and an interface where you can read for real people for free in a safe, anonymous setting.
Tarot of the Divine
Start Reading Tarot Solo
To start reading Tarot solo I suggest using your deck, its booklet, a good book, Google, and a notebook. My suggestion is to first:
- Learn the difference between Major and Minor Arcanas
- The meanings of the four suits: Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles
- The meanings of the numbers 1-10 as used in Tarot
With the suit meaning and the number keywords, you can start putting together mini-readings. For example, Cups are about emotion and intuition. The number 2 is about partnership, balance, and duality. With just this little bit you can look at the Two of Cups and see that it refers to an emotional partnership or balance.
The Light Seer’s Tarot
Using a notebook with at least 140 pages, take a page to write down what each number means. Feel free to use your own words. Do the same with each suit.
Start Reading Tarot Cards
Next, draw a card each day. It might be easier to start with the suit cards and go by number. So you’ll look at all of the aces over four days, then all of the twos over the next four days. This can be helpful because the numbers give the cards a connection and it will reinforce the suit meanings as well. Read you book(s), google the card, and write down the meanings in your book. Use your own words!
I suggest starting with the Minor Arcana just because they are a little easier to get. But you can also do the Major Arcana. When learning the Major Arcana, do go in order. You’ll start to see the pattern of the Major Arcana as you move through each card.
Additional Tricks
Uncommon Tarot
Conclusion
It is perfectly OK to refer to your books or the internet when you get stuck! Some people never move past needing to look up meanings and that is OK as well. If you are motivated to learn the card meanings remember to not be dogmatic about the book meanings. What is important are your own feelings when you see the card. You’ll find that if you are diligent, your own feelings or intuition will take over and you’ll find yourself not needing the books anymore.
What Clients are Saying about Sophrosyne Tarot
I was advised to ask open-ended questions instead of predictive questions which I thought was helpful because I never would have known if it weren’t for the reader. The reader provided the reading along with some advice too so the entire reading was very thorough and explained in an understandable manner.
Everything said was accurate and helpful for me to identify my flaws in order to grow as a person. I have learned a lot about tarot and what it does to help me.
Thank you for sharing how to start tarot. I am not quite ready to learn to do it myself, but I will bookmark this post for when that time comes. I have a friend who shares daily and one who I see for my monthly/yearly reading. I really do appreciate others when they share their gifts of healing and light work. Sending lots of love. Jaime
Just the post I need ! I found the book the Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot in our library and I’ll see if I can find a deck on Amazon. It’ll be a start.
Definitely! Work with one card at a time whether each day or each week! Slow and steady is the best way!
This is the best advice I’ve seen to get started with Tarot! I have a Rider-Waite deck that sits in the pouch untouched while I pull daily cards for myself from my various Oracle decks. I’ve always felt overwhelmed by Tarot but this approach makes it much less overwhelming. Thank you, thank you!!
I am glad you are finding so many people interested in what you are teaching.
Hasn’t it been said that to truly understand something you have to teach it.
Blog on!