As a beginner, reading tarot cards can be pretty easy if you know the proper steps to follow. Tarot cards are tools for guidance and divination, a doorway leading to spiritual enlightenment, aiding you to better understand yourself and others. You don’t have to be Merlin or Morgana to utilize these cards to their full potential.
Steps To Reading Tarot Cards
- Get a tarot deck
- Understanding the cards and your intuition
- Types of draws/spreads
1. Get A Tarot Deck
First, you will need to get yourself a deck. There are many Tarot decks, each having its author and illustrator, sometimes the same person. The most common deck is the Rider-Waite deck, published in 1910, and designed by famous artist, Pamela Colman Smith. These cards are known for their basic colors and symbols. Many Tarot readers recommend this deck for starters, as the cards’ meanings are often easy to comprehend — and when they’re not, plenty of explanations exist online. Many decks, including the Waite, come with a manual that defines each card’s most basic interpretations.
What’s important is that you get a deck that picks your interest and resonates with your being.
2. Understanding the Cards and Your Intuition
A Tarot deck consists of 78 cards, separated into two groups: the minor and major arcana. Reading the minor arcana usually references your everyday activities or situations, short-term depictions. Reading the minor arcana usually references your everyday activities or situations, short-term depictions. The major arcana consists of 22 cards numbered from o-21. These trump cards stand out and have a name at the bottom of each card, they are very impactful, and their reading usually reveals major revelations, long-term directions, and guidance in your life. On the other hand, the minor arcana consists of 56 cards separated into four-suit; each suit contains fourteen cards. The four suits represent different aspects of life. Respectively, wands represent passion and creativity, swords depict intelligence, pentacles symbolize money and work, and cups convey emotions. For example, a three-card draw with three cups cards implies an issue with emotions.
Every tarot deck has a manual that vividly explains the intent of the symbolism and colors on each card; combine this with your intuition to help guide your reading and divination.
3. Types of Draws/spreads
The three-card pull and the Celtic cross are the basic spreads we recommend for beginners in tarot card reading. While performing the three-card pull, the reader must draw three cards from the deck. The first card signifies the past, the second the present, and the last the future. Alternatively, it also signifies mind, body, and spirit.
The Celtic cross is a spread that involves ten cards drawn from the deck; in the order in which you draw these cards, this is what they represent:
- Situation
- Challenge
- Basis
- Past
- Present
- Near Future
- Your power
- Effects on others
- Hopes and fears
- The outcome
With the three simple steps outlined in this article, as well as a tarot deck and your intuition, you are now fully equipped with the skill to better understand and guide yourself and others.