The mere mention of the word "tarot" and an image of a fortuneteller spreading her mystic cards comes to mind. Secrets that once seemed available only to a chosen few can often be accessed by others who have the patience to work with the nuance and subtlety of perception.
What are Tarot Cards?
Tarot cards are a deck of 78 cards — usually larger than normal playing cards— that are used to tell fortunes. A popular deck is the Rider-Waite but many other designs are available. Of the tarot deck, 22 are called the Major Arcana. The symbolism on the Major Arcana usually relates to major events or changes. The other 56 cards comprise the Minor Arcana and roughly correlate with the suits of a regular deck of cards. In many cases, the Minor Arcana allows for more detail in readings.
Each card has a picture that represents an emotion, an occurrence, a personality, a season or a mood. When individual circumstances are taken into consideration, the cards depict possible scenarios that have happened, events that could be happening now, or events that may happen in the future. Tarot is not absolute. Tarot readings offer a guideline. Most often what can be learned from tarot is potential and possibility. An honest reader will remind the subject of the reading that free will exists.
Can Anyone Read Tarot Cards?
In theory, anyone can read tarot. In practice, those who read tarot know how to tune in to their inner voice, their intuition. For a beginning reader, the Rider-Waite deck is often a comfortable fit, though there is a wide variety of decks to chose from. The more experienced a reader becomes, the more freedom there will be to be open to individual impressions.
For a new tarot card reader, there are many books that explain the meanings of each card. These are often helpful in order to grasp the general idea. “Going by the book” is not necessary, though, and many people give readings by using a regular deck of playing cards. The fewer distractions by illustrations in a tarot deck, the more opportunity for a reader's own insight and intuition to be used.
How to Begin Reading Tarot
The key to reading tarot cards, palms, tea leaves, or a crystal ball lies in the reader's sensitivity to the subject of the reading. Tarot is a tool that aids in interpreting images and feelings that come to the tarot card reader. Each reader has a method that helps him or her receive messages, feelings, and images.
A reader who wishes to use a standard tarot deck (as opposed to a regular deck of playing cards) might find it interesting to start by examining each card one at a time. As he/she turns each one over and examines the details, the individual may begin to feel a certain way about each card; often, this feeling has no direct association with the illustration. The key to reading tarot open mind and an open heart.
Creating New Tarot Meanings
As an example on creating a new tarot meaning, say a reader turns over the Knight of Swords. Knights generally mean something will be entering or leaving one's life – a job, a person, an attitude, a situation. Swords often mean there are two sides of to a story. The truth may be blunt and hurt but the psychic or person doing the reading will have the information to pass along to the subject.
In order to create new and individual tarot meanings, the reader can look at the specific card first, in this case the Knight of Swords. But instead of interpreting the illustration according to the most common meaning, the intuitive person can pay attention to an image she receives upon first glance at the card. Perhaps she feels a quickening of her heart, a hint of a memory that passes quickly through her mind, an emotion she felt with a particular person in her own life. Based on those sensations, the Knight of Swords takes on a new meaning that the individual can use for future readings.
One common way to create personal tarot meanings is for the reader to make them up as one proceeds through readings. The act of conjuring up an answer actually taps into the reader's intuition. Another practice is reading a card in spite of whether it is flipped over right way up or upside down. Many readers have realized that everyone has positive and negative energy and that it's not necessary to only read the positive when a card is right side up and negative when it's upside down.
A successful tarot card reader continues to practice new methods and finds out what works best for him/her. By talking to other intuitives and comparing notes on ways to help others through reading tarot cards, one will also continue to learn about the self.
Sources: Universal Waite Tarot deck
Practical Intuition by Laura Day
Tarot Made Easy by Nancy Garen
Kate Klein has been reading tarot for more than 10 years.
