Suggestions Please Tarot Help? Options

So i reacently started reading the tarot i have had the liz dean deck for a few years i mainly meditated on the deck and try to do a reading but never fully tried to understand and learn the cards. But recently i have been really drawn to learning the tarot i have been trying many techniques to learn the cards and spreads and practice with the one card draw each day. And to really try to learn the card and have been journeling every reading question. Also i have been trying to right down interpreation of my reading as well as a few key words of the cards to help remember them and there ideals and meanings. But i feel like i need to do more practice to better learn and understand the cards. I was wondering some of the ways to best get practice? Also which method of your choice is best and also what kind of layout im just starting to use the major arcana cards first so that i may really learn those first and then maybe once i feel comfortable in doing a reading with those move on to the minor arcana and learn them. Could someone list some of your own practices and how you would suggest for me to best begin my journey with the tarot. Again i am really drawn and passionate about learning the tarot any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, grim.
Peace.

I was wondering some of the ways to best get practice? Also which method of your choice is best and also what kind of layout im just starting to use the major arcana cards first so that i may really learn those first and then maybe once i feel comfortable in doing a reading with those move on to the minor arcana and learn them. Could someone list some of your own practices and how you would suggest for me to best begin my journey with the tarot. Again i am really drawn and passionate about learning the tarot any help will be greatly appreciated.

The Tarot are very flexible. You can use any lay out you wish from three card spreads to the Celtic Cross or even some of these rather ridiculous spreads that use all 72 cards. Thing is to know what the cards represent and how they fit together.

Personally, I had a hell of a time memorizing the cards or understanding them (Pictorial Key to the Tarot - by A.E. Waite does not help at all) until I bought a rider-waite deck. Other decks have fanciful or thematic designs that obscure the meaning rather than illuminate them. The rider deck is not perfect but it is the best you can buy. I also had a lot of trouble understanding how the cards fit together. I was using a way to organize called the "fools journey" which was rather popular in the 90s, It orders the cards as a progression though life and was very new age-y. I went though a lot of proposed relationships before I read "The Ancient Tarot and Its Symbolism" by Lemieux. he makes the case that tarot originated from Hebrew religious traditions. He does it quite well and sensibly I might add. In his organization the major arcana are grouped into threes each in a pyramid that corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and therefore fitting - mostly - into kabbalah correspondence. Each pyramids top card is a principle and the bottom cards are male/female aspects of the same. Lemieux also spends a lot of the book talking about the traditional gypsy interpretations and ones gleaned from symbolism of the oldest surviving decks and his arrangement. His system takes a lot of the ambiguity out of the tarot.

To this day my go to resource for Tarot is a site by James Rioux

Aside from good learning tools there is nothing else but practice, and seeing the relationships depicted in the cards as they appear in your life.

This post has been edited by fatherjhon: Jan 27 2012, 01:14 AM

Those are all very good resources for tarot instruction on an academic level, and for half the populace that will be extremely useful. The other have are just going to be experiential learners, and won't be able to make it all fit together without simply practicing.

When I started reading tarot, I did a lot of different things to learn. I read Waite's book, the book that came with my first deck (the Celtic Dragon tarot), read online, etc., all of that for me was useful because I'm an academic learner. However, far and above that was reading every single day. It doesn't even have to be a matter of divination - you can shuffle the cards with the intention to learn more about how to read them, lay them out into a simple spread and just makes notes on the reading. Think of the reading more as telling a story and getting all the elements to fit together. Go through whatever your chosen book is, and look up cards as you need to. This method is fantastic because you will see the same cards pop up in the same and in different positions, there will be cards you won't see for weeks at a time, and then they crop up again, you relearn them as you go. It's a slow and steady way to learn, and it gives you something to think about all day long. I learned with a friend, and we would do a reading in the morning, and then periodically call or text one another and talk about some insight we had into a particular combination of cards. Within a few months of reading every day, preferably early, you will start to get very pertinent messages through the cards without even asking for them, they'll start communicating with you and you'll have connected on a much deeper level than if you had spent that time meticulously memorizing individual cards.

The thing is, learning to be a really excellent reader is only slightly concerned with the individual meanings and associations of the cards. Those are important, but it's a very foundational bare bones skill that actually is less useful on it's own than one might hope. The real intricacy and revelation of the cards as a divinatory practice is in learning to read cards together in groups - to take a series of cards and blend them into an ongoing narrative smoothly.

The celtic cross is a great spread for this, really, because it covers a lot of angles on the narrative, and because with ten cards drawn you'll have the chance to see cards repeatedly. After a few weeks, go through the deck card by card and see just how many your recognize on sight immediately and you'll be surprised how fast you can learn that way. There is no reason to rush the process either; there is no fastest way to learn, there is no right way to learn. But there are deeper ways to learn.

Good luck with Tarot, I have been reading for nearly half my life at this point and I still learn new nuances during readings, and when I go back a couple of times a year just to go over the cards again. I don't think you ever stop learning more about them, the system is so brilliantly involved and intricate that it really has no end of depth.

peace

Thank you fatherjohn for your response. I have been studying up alot in the past day and actually found a guy who is a qualified tarot teacher to walk me through some practices that really helped i also read the fools journey on a website i got lucky and was really helpful. I have been selecting a everymorning and seeing how the card is in my day and trying to look at the cards and really try to understand how that card makes me feel. I feel like i have been making alot of sucess in the past two days. But im definatly still learning. But enjoying practicing and learning. I think you ight like this website as well fatherjohn i found it to be rather helpful in understanding the meanings of some i had questions on.
Website

Thank you vagrant for the response. I havebeen doing alot of online readng and courses online offered for free also i have been pracicing different readings. I also keep a tarot journel and wright down everything about a reading meanings and i will just look at the cards try to interpret them and there meanings. While i put together a story for the reading I occasionally have to look back at the book but i feel like i am learning the major arcana card meanings farely well but definatly still looking into the descriptions. As well as Lookingup many different ways the cards fit together. I try to meditate and feel my energy flowing into the cards so that they are more connected with me when i do a reading.I am practicing more like your method at the moment and seems to be offering great results.

Vagrant, you are ever so tactful. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) I sometimes forget there are other ways to approach a topic. Thank you for reminding me.


grim, it is good you found a teacher. Teachers can help a lot when you find the learning curve and provide a sounding board for ideas. Particularly the ones that arise in connection to each "card's feeling". Some of the cards might have only nuances between them, which can get hard to sort out without direct experience. A teacher who has done this a while can point out the differences in emotion between say the Six of Swords and Five of Pentacles.

I had a tarot card "App" for my phone awhile back. While I don't think it is useful for actual readings, you can easily look up a standardized meaning behind certain cards. This might help you as it is more easily searchable than a book. Just a thought. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

one thing ive noticed, that so far all my practicing friends agree with me on, is that when you read a spread for someone else you are also reading for yourself. I think it is best to take the bull by the horns and practice with some friends or family or any willing guinea pig to get the feel for it. I truly believe that only part of it is memorization because inevitably, as you continue to get better and more experience, a recognizable pattern will emerge. You will notice that when you pull a certain card in tandem with another, despite what a book might contend, it means 'x'. This type of interpretation only comes from practice. Its not perfect, and there will always be layers...but the more you cross examine and play with them the better you will become.

I am learning the Tarot and would like to share what works for me. I did start with a scholarly approach, but as with everyone else, a good amount of practice was required to begin feeling real progress made.

When studying a card or trying to understand the connections between them, I compare the information found in the Rider-Waite deck (reference), the Thoth deck (my favorite and what I read with), the booklets that came with each deck, Crowley's Liber Thoth, and an old occult encyclopedia with hundred-year-old information.

I also use those same booklets and books to look at meanings and relationships between the elemental, planetary and zodiacal associations of the cards, which are well noted in the Thoth deck. When I started this process I did not even have most of the symbols memorized. Now I have acquired various mnemonics, as well as suffered through rote learning - copying tables down into my own notes.

And when learning by doing, I have found that a three card layout is exceptionally good for me. Three cards is enough to provide a large amount of information, but not so much that it is overwhelming. I started with a few traditional larger layouts and quickly lost the plot. Stepping back to three cards made things very clear and easy for me in comparison.

I think that trying to memorize is a mistake itself. I never tried to learn meanings. I thought "no way, I can't learn it". I just let it be. There's another way to be good in divination. Of course, you should learn basics of symbolism, like elements, colors etc. Tree of Life may help you with this. But it's not necessary. Just have elements in your head, so you won't read pentacles as water.

Well, I don't know how do the pictures on your cards look like. Check it and look for other decks. Maybe the pictures just don't fit you. At first then, you should eventually change deck. It's really important 'cause the way I'm introducing you to is based on them. IMO Rider Waite-Smith deck is the best for the beginning. Illustrations there are simple and meaning is obvious just by looking on them. For example, take 5 swords.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/Swords05.jpg
Now look on the picture and tell me:
- what can you see on the picture?
- are there any characters?
- how do they look like?
- what are they doing?
- where are their eyes directed?
- what you can see on the background?

You probably noticed, that most of these questions are based on nonverbal speech (body language). Usually women are better in sensing this. If you got problem with this, I recommend a book of Allan and Barbara Pease - "Body Language". It should be easy to find an e-book. Actually, I think that every Magus should know basics of nonverbal speech. It's very useful in constructing own rites. After all this reading you should be able to read every card.

Of course you have to keep practicing. I recommend to keep foretelling friends, family or even some random people. It may not look so, but it is very easy to memorize meanings this way. After few months of practice you'll surely know all cards. It works because when you use cards to foretelling, the emotions usually activate and then the picture that you're looking on is saving in you memory. Emotions always make thoughts stronger, and pictures are usually easier to remember than words. As I said, you don't need to remember meanings. You need to remember pictures, so you can in any moment bring it to "mind screen" and read meanings then.

In later learning you should read 2 books: DuQuette's "Thoth Tarot" and Cicero's "Golden Dawn Magical Tarot". But as I said before, it's not necessary to be good foreteller.

Hope it helped.

I'm a lifelong tarot reader as I have a family history with it.
Tarot is what got me started on all esoteric knowledge.

Decks:
1. Pick a Rider-Waite style deck and stick with it. It is much easier to learn tarot if you use traditional card design and don't keep switching decks. You can collect decks for their artistic quality but pick a deck to read with and stick with it.
2. Make sure your deck has full pictures for the minor arcana. They will still show the pips, like on regular playing cards, but the art between the pips matters. A cup overflowing into another cup is very different from a cup overflowing onto the ground or into an ocean. A sword pointing to the sky is very different from a sword pointing to another sword.
3. The Universal Waite deck is a good example, but not the only one.

Books:
4. You need one book with long detailed explanations of the cards in paragraph form. This book should specifically use pictures of a Rider-Waite style deck. This book is for when you are studying a card in detail or for when you are reading for knowledge and immersion. Do not use this book when doing readings because its too much information to use on the fly when you are working with a spread.
5. You need one book or simple list of the meanings of the cards. You use this as a reference when doing readings. When reading you want to focus on the cards, and so you don't want to get bogged down in the paragraphs of descriptions contained in the longer book. This one is just a list of meanings with no detailed explanations.

Spreads:
6. Pick a standard one and stick with it. It is much easier to learn tarot if you don't keep switching spreads. You can play with other spreads to see how they differ but pick one spread to rely on and stick with it.
7. Eventually you will use different spreads for different purposes but for now just pick one and stick with it.
8. The Celtic Cross is a good example of an all-around spread that is good for beginners.

Daily Routine:
9. Do one serious reading per day. Use your regular deck with your regular spread and your simple list of meanings. Really look at the cards. Compare them to each other. Look for how it fits into its position in the spread. Try to see how the card shows its meaning. The pictures are not random or simply traditional. The pictures have specific clues to the meaning of the card that are put there on purpose.
10. Do one serious analysis of a card per day. Use your big book and the card to really get into a deep analysis of the card and its symbols. Don't go in order. Pick the card at random.

Taking Notes and Memorizing (This is where I differ from traditional methods):
11. Don't take notes on your readings. It is cumbersome. It is a chore. It has limited analytic value. It is what will cause you to stop doing your daily readings. It's just busy work and will make the whole experience a pain in the rear.
12. Don't bother trying to memorize anything. Your time is better spent looking at the card and finding the symbols that reveal the meaning. As an example, a sword tip pointing to another sword tip probably means some kind of conflict. A bunch of cups overflowing into an ocean probably means some kind of plenty or abundance.

Lastly, just keep doing it. At some point it just starts to click and feel natural. At some point it is the same old cards that you have shuffled a million times, that feel comfortable in your hand, that have pictures that you have handled and studied a million times. You notice that your particular six of pentacles card has a color that is uneven or your strength card has a nick in one corner. The cards become like a book you have read a hundred times, and the reading just becomes a random page in the book that you are opening up to.

For most people in the western world, they could crack open any christian bible, any translation, any page. They might not know the page word for word but it would not take them long to recognize the story. That's because they have seen/read/heard these stories told a million times in a million different ways.

The tarot is no different. You just have to keep it simple and keep doing it and it will become second nature.

(As an aside, I started reading as a pre-teen and I am a guy so, of course, I blundered into the Thoth deck as my first tarot deck. This is a terrible decision as a deck to learn with for a whole bunch of reasons, but its been my deck for thirty years and so I just read better with it then with my Universal Waite. Similarly, I blundered into a fifteen card spread that I picked up in a book called The Qabalistic Tarot by Wang. it is a fantastic spread and I like it for beginner and advanced alike. Don't get caught up in the book though. Its an advanced read for combining tarot and kaballah)

My opinions on learning tarot are strong because I see so much rampant over-complication presented in books and by fortune-tellers.
I do sincerely believe that anyone can read tarot, and that it is actually really simple. It just seems daunting and intimidating and complicated because of the way it is usually presented.

Hope this helps a bit.

Bramwell