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 Suggestions Please Tarot Help?
grim789
post Jan 26 2012, 08:47 PM
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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.


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Bramwell
post Feb 17 2013, 04:41 AM
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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

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