How to read tarot cards?
Did you suddenly come across a pack of Tarot Cards, and felt like you wish you knew how to read Tarot Cards? Or, you landed upon a page where there’s a lot written about this branch of divination, and you wanted to do it? Let us see how you can learn how to read Tarot Cards in a better way.
Sharing some history about the Art of Tarot
To read Tarot Cards for beginners, you must know that the word Tarot is derived from the German Tarock, which comes from the Italian Tarocchi. The development of the word is unclear, but as per the earliest records, Taroch was a word for foolishness in the late 15th to early 16th century. The Tarot cards were nothing but a game of cards that entered the European civilization in the 14th century from ‘Mamluk’ of Egypt. The first tarot packs were found to be used between the years 1440 and 1450 in Milan, Ferrera, Florence, and Bologna of Italy.
To empower yourself, and to know “how to read Tarot Cards for beginners” or to even learn “how to read Tarot Cards for yourself,” you must know that the cards drew the attention of the Gypsies entirely, and they began using it like no other. They were the first to identify that the cards needed cleansing too, a deep cleansing was done by them using various techniques.
So, contrary to the common belief, the Tarot cards became a source of divination not until the early 17th century.
How to read Tarot Cards for beginners
Learning more about the Tarot Deck:
Let us learn more about the use of how to read Tarot Cards for beginners, as beginners, to teach Tarot Card to yourself. In this section, we will learn more about the cards of the Tarot world.
You must know that there are broadly two Arcanas (secrets or mysteries) in Tarot decks. The term ‘Major’ and ‘Minor’ Arcana have been used in occult sciences. The use of the words Major and Minor originate with Jean-Baptiste Pitois using the name of Paul Christian. To learn how to read Tarot cards, you must know them well.
- The Major Arcana or trumps (a pack of 22 cards or 21 cards depending on the deck you are using)
- The Minor Arcana/ suit cards (a pack of 56 suit cards).
The Major Arcana Trump cards can be numbered from 0-21 or 1-22, depending on the deck you are using. To learn how to read Tarot cards, how to read Tarot Cards for beginners you also need to know the Major Arcana or the trump cards explore the significant areas of our life. They are concerned with the cycle of life and death. If you see any changes here, you would know the changes to be significant in your life.
In the 19th century, the Tarot cards came to be known as “Bible of Bibles,” a repository of all essential truths of creation, and it became a trend that began with the noted freemason, Protestant cleric Antoine Court de Gébelin. He was the first to suggest in a long while after the Tarot cards came into existential use as a tool of divination; that these cards had Egyptian origin.
They were considered mystically divine and had kabbalistic significance. The Freemasons gave it the status of divination, the esotericism went hand in hand with these cards as they took shape.
To learn how to read Tarot cards, you can understand that there are separate cards for the Minor Arcana.
The Minor Arcana or Suit Cards
The Minor Arcana or Suit Cards are divided into four segments. They show the typical playing cards structure. The typical Italo-Spanish suits consist of
- The Swords
- The Wands
- The Cups/ chalices
- The Pentacles
There are 56 suit cards, and each suit consists of 14 cards. In the field of divination, esotericism, and the occult, the Minor Arcana represents the typical rigmarole of our lives. You must learn how to read Tarot cards and to be competent enough to read it for a novice, how to read Tarot Cards for novices by knowing well about the cards in this Arcana, as well. The court cards are the friends and strangers we meet in everyday life and living.
Let us begin with
- The Wands/ Clubs– They represent the element of Fire. They represent the artisans, our creativity, and will power.
- The Pentacles/ Diamonds- They represent the element Earth. They represent the Merchants of the world, the business class, our material body, and our possessions.
- The Cups/Chalices/ Hearts- They represent the element Water. They represent the clergymen’s class, the emotional factor, and love.
- The Swords/ Spades- They represent the element Air. They represent the nobility, and the military, reasoning ability/ intellect of human beings.
Ways to practice Tarot Reading as a beginner
- Selecting a deck
- Have a question/ topic/ focus
- Shuffle & reset your cards
- Try a 3 card tarot spread
- Get a first impression of your reading
- Getting tarot meanings from tarot cards & their positions
- End the reading:
- Practice reading tarot cards
As a beginner, practicing Tarot Cards come from your intuitive understanding. Learn how to read Tarot cards, you can begin by knowing which card type and Tarot Deck you like the most, be selective in your approach. There are several online books on the shelf for you to begin. You can also search the web to find out better possibilities.
1. SELECTING A DECK: Buy a deck and make it your and begin to learn how to read tarot cards. Slowly flip through your pages, flip through the cards to know how to read Tarot cards. Flip through the pages of your book. Learn more about yourself as you proceed slowly.
It is more about knowing your own intuitions and inclinations when you learn how to read tarot cards for beginners or even when you are learning how to read tarot cards for yourself. It is more about knowing your life. Know more about your energies, know about yourself, slowly connect to the cards at deeper and deeper levels to learn the art of reading Tarot cards.
2. HAVE A QUESTION/ TOPIC/ FOCUS: Connect to them through your intellectual understanding, at your emotional level, and at more intimate levels concerning your soul and mind to learn Tarot card reading for yourself. Slowly, the cards will respond to your energy. The best way to learn Tarot cards begins with your experience. Write down any words that come to you when you begin to flip through the cards as a beginner in Tarot card learning.
Next, try to read more about them to read the Tarot cards for beginners, as a beginner, or when learning Tarot card reading for yourself.
3. SHUFFLE & RESET YOUR CARDS: Shuffle your cards every time you sit to choose. Then reset your cards and pull from the draw. As you learn about them, each of the Tarot card should make you feel something, touch them, see them and try to explore the thought process which comes to you with these cards. The Tarot is supposed to explore your inner wisdom and consciousness. It should evoke your inner intuition for carrying out a Tarot card reading for yourself
This can guide you into the stream of consciousness, which flows all around us. Learn slowly, carefully read between the lines when you are learning Tarot card reading for yourself. Make it a practice to pick a set of cards while learning Tarot card reading for yourself.
TRY A 3 CARD TAROT SPREAD: Try picking three cards, to begin with; you can then move on to pick five, then move to higher numbers. In the morning or the evening, learn how to read Tarot cards, or at any suitable time, pick up the cards. Spread them and connect to them. Try to spread them from left to right. Hold yourself there, make sure you can smoothly flow through the cards as you travel through them.
So focus on a topic, question, or anything that comes to you as you begin the process. Try to stick to a 3 Tarot Card spread for sometime to learn Tarot Card for your beginner’s journey.
GET A FIRST IMPRESSION OF YOUR READING: Begin by using them in your own life. Try to assess and verify your thoughts and check the viability of the results in your life. Close your eyes, pray and connect while you learn the Tarot Card as a beginner or while you are practicing for someone or you learn the Tarot Card for yourself. You must try to connect your daily life with the readings you fetch in the morning. That way you can know if you are understanding the concept correctly.
GETTING TAROT MEANINGS FROM TAROT CARDS & THEIR POSITIONS: You must be very observant on what you feel, think, and read about these cards. Try to connect to yourself and practice as much reading as possible to draw the right inferences.
After a point of time, you would see that you are able to go back to a particular image of a card again and again. You would also know what you feel when that image appears in your mind- happy, sad, worried, anxious, or depressed. This way by slowly reading through the cards, you would gain more insight about their position, their importance, and their value.
END THE READING: Then close the reading, come to a point where you can practice it again the next day.
PRACTICE READING TAROT CARDS: Make sure you read the cards each day in a calm, silent place in your house or somewhere you consider sacred. Daily go back to the cards, or at least weekly twice. If you can, keep the timing same, keep the ambience same and refrain from thinking extremes of anything during this process.
The “Bible of the Bible” is a term used by the Freemasons for these cards, and I call them the valuable Onions. You keep peeling it as learn how to read Tarot cards, and you keep knowing more and more.
The peeling of their energies is a way to peel your strengths to touch the deep core of your consciousness. The deep core of each identity that is attached to another on this Earth can be used for better learning on how to read Tarot cards for yourself or to teach Tarot cards to a beginner.