The Complete Tarot Reader: Everything You Need to Know from Start to Finish

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Intuitive Tarot Reading
Study Goals
1. Become familiar with the appearance of each card in the deck.
2. Identify important symbols on the cards that contribute to their meanings.
3. Develop concepts and keywords for each card using your intuition.

Once you have become acquainted with the basic meanings for the tarot cards, it is helpful to go deeper into the cards and peryour understanding of them according to your own intuition and life experiences. It is one thing to read and mema list of keywords, and another to firmly root these ideas into your subconscious so that you don't have to struggle to rethem during a reading. Also, some of the meanings you find in books may not work for you, and you will want to add ideas of your own. Each person is unique, and in a sense, our minds act like translators. Information is being conveyed through the tarot reading, using the tools, or the cards, that we have available. Because this information is presented to us in the form of symbols, both our conscious and subconscious minds are involved in interpreting the information. Therefore, our own personal associations are important in how we read our cards.

Every tarot reader does not need to learn the same card meanings or use the same decks or spreads. Three tarot readers could ask the same question, and might choose difspreads and receive different cards in the reading, and still get the same answer. The cards that each reader receives will be appropriate for his or her own personal assoand, with experience and practice, will lead to the right answer. The tarot itself will also teach you over time what its symbolsrepresent-you will notice that certain cards appear in certain circumstances, and your list of associations and meanings will expand as you begin to see these patterns.

One of the most basic rules in tarot reading is to have confidence in your own assowith the cards. Do not let anyone else tell you that you have to interpret a card a certain way. Use your own ideas, along with everything else you learn from others, and you can feel certain that you will receive the right cards for your own mind to draw the appropriate interpretations. In working through the exercises in this chapter, try not to be concerned about whether your thoughts are wrong or right. There is no "wrong." Even if you later decide to use a different set of meanings for a card, it is important to know what your subconscious mind spontaneously associates with the images you see on the cards, to know what "filters" you may be applying to your interpretations. One of the reasons this chapter comes before the other chapters that provide more systematic information, is that intuitive associations come from the subconscious and are easily overridden by conscious learning. In order to hear your inner voice more clearly, it is better to try this while you are still relatively free of what you think the cards "should" mean.

Also, it's a good idea to remain flexible as you learn more and more. It is okay to leave behind previous ideas if you decide they no longer fit your understanding of the cards. You will also encounter new ideas from time to time that you will want to incorinto your interpretation. As you continue exploring the tarot, you will discover many interesting related areas, like astrology, numerology, psychology, alchemy, mythol. . . there is a never-ending realm of ideas to encounter and new things to add to your understanding. Keep things simple as you get started, but never limit yourself to just a few keywords for each card, or you will be missing out on much that the tarot has to offer. You may also find that your ideas and keywords for each card vary from deck to deck.

This chapter provides some ideas on how to develop intuitive card meanings. The rest of this book will give you a great deal of information on the underlying structure of the cards, such as the meanings of the numbers, suits, cycles represented by the suits and trumps, symbols you may see in the cards, astrological and elemental associations, and other things that provide you with a deeper understanding of the cards and the relabetween them. However, most experienced tarot readers agree that the first step in learning a new deck is to put away your books and look closely at the images-so we'll start there.  

Free Association
For the exercises that follow, clear your mind of whatever you have already learned and set aside your books and notes. There are no right answers, and you will have plenty of time later to study what others have to say about the cards. Use the cards only in their upright positions. Since the reversed meanings of the cards generally follow from their upright positions, we will discuss those once the upright positions have been mastered. Use your tarot journal to record your observations.

exercise 1: getting to know the cards
Shuffle your deck thoroughly, and then take the cards out and look at them one by one, always in an upright position. Without thinking too much about it, write down your first impressions of each card. What thoughts or emotions does the card immediately evoke?
Next, look closely at each card. Notice all the details in the card-the background, any people in the card, or any animals, plants, buildings, symbols, colors, and expresHow do you think they relate to the meaning of the card? Do they support or change your first impressions? You may want to take note of any unfamiliar symbols, or anything in the card whose meaning is unclear, so you can look them up later (see apE for some ideas).

Imagine that you have stepped into the card. Look around you. What do you see, feel, smell, and hear? If there is a person in the card, imagine that you have become that person. What are you doing and why? If the person in the card could speak to you, what do you think he or she would say?

Try to associate this card with some event or period in your own life, and write it down. If the card doesn't seem to fit your own life, does it remind you of anyone you know? How about a scene in a book or movie? Whatever it most reminds you of, write that down. If you can think of this event or person every time you look at this card, it will be much easier to remember what it means.
Now add to your journal any words or ideas that you associate with these experiContinue writing things down until you can't think of any more. It is fine if you use some of the same words for more than one card. For now, don't worry about which keyword or idea is most important or most represents the card.  

Once you have done this exercise, go back and read through the book that accompanies your deck, or another resource you have chosen to provide basic meanings for the cards. Compare each page of your journal with the meanings given for the associated card. At first, some of them may not seem to be very much alike. Is there a way you can expand on what is in the book or what you have written to help integrate them? Try putting the two sets of ideas together and see what happens. If it doesn't work out right away, don't worry. It will come with time. Later chapters in this book will help explain some of the tradimeanings for the cards, and you may eventually find some of your initial ideas changing as you read more and work more with the tarot. Just remember that your own impressions are important because they reflect what your mind thinks and feels when it sees those particular images or symbols on the cards. This is the personal, intuitive part of tarot that cannot be found in any book except the journal you create for yourself.

Storytelling
One fun way to get in touch with your intuitive ideas about the cards is to tell stories with them. You could lay them all out in order and make up a story that follows the nucycle (we will do that in later chapters). But for now, a random approach may be better for tapping into your subconscious associations with the cards. If you have children in the house, get them involved in playing this as a game-kids are really good at this (just don't fall into the trap of "correcting" their meanings, because this is meant as an imaginative exercise).

exercise 2: telling a story
Shuffle your deck and choose three cards, or however many you like, and place them on the table. Move them around into any order you want, and then tell a story about the people and actions in the cards as if you were looking at a picture book.  

Aside from getting more familiar with the cards and learning your own associations with them, another good reason for doing this is to practice the storytelling that is an espart of tarot reading. By this I do not mean making up things, but rather weaving the individual cards together into a coherent whole. The cards in a layout interact with one another, but it takes some practice to learn how to take the individual card meanyou know and integrate them into an overall reading. Getting used to working with the cards in groups, as part of an overall situation or story, will help you get comfortable doing this.  

Developing a Range of Meanings
Each card in the tarot deck has many different meanings, depending on the question that is asked, the position of the card in the spread, the cards around it, and any ways of modifying the meanings of the cards, such as reversals or dignities, that the reader is using. At a minimum, all the cards in the deck can be read on at least three levels: spiritual, psychological, and everyday or mundane. In addition, there are times when the cards are more positive and other times when they are more negative, even when read upright. For these reasons, it is a good idea to learn a range of ideas, keywords, and phrases for each card, as there will be many times when any particular keyword you might have learned does not fit the situation.

One of the most important ideas you can learn about tarot is that every card conduality within it, just as we all do. No card is inherently positive or negative-all cards reflect the cycles of life and the activities and lessons we have to learn from life. However, many tarot books (especially the little white books-or LWBs) tend to treat some cards as solely positive and others as very negative. While it is true that some tend more toward the positive or negative, each has ways in which it can be read that are posneutral, or negative, depending on the situation. Learning the inherent qualities of the card, both good and bad, will be very helpful later on when learning about reversals and dignities, and will also help you understand how to read the cards in different posiin a spread.

As an example, let's look at the Eight of Wands. Neutral descriptions of this card might include rapid change, messages coming, or strong energies being released. All these things can be good or bad, depending on the situation and what the client wants or needs. Positive meanings might be good news, a fresh start, spring thaw, or feeling enand revitalized. Negative meanings could include unexpected or unwelcome change, feeling overwhelmed by events, or angry messages (or worse) coming your way.  

exercise 3: looking at the cards in different lights
For this exercise, shuffle your deck once again, and then take out the cards one by one. You may refer to the keywords and phrases you wrote in your journal during the first exercise. Now imagine a three-card spread where the positions are as follows:

Card 1: The situation.
Card 2: Problems or challenges to be overcome; negative influences.
Card 3: Strengths and resources that will help; positive influences.
Now take your card and rotate it through each of these three positions. How does the meaning change? The first position is purely descriptive, and should be relatively neuThe next two positions are designed to look at the card in a more negative and more positive light, respectively. Notice any cards that are particularly hard to fit into the positive or negative positions. Add any new insights that you receive from this exercise to your tarot journal.
 
Evaluating Your Progress
Study Goal 1
Shuffle your deck and turn the cards over one by one, hiding the name or title of the card if possible. Quickly say out loud the name of the card, identifying from its picture. Place any card you have to think about or can't identify into a separate pile from the ones you know well. Now study the ones that were difficult to recognize. Do this exercise until you can quickly identify all your cards.  

Study Goal 2
Shuffle your deck and turn the cards over one by one. For each card, identify at least three visual cues that are important to developing and remembering the meanings you have associated with that card. These may be symbols, colors, expressions, things the people are doing, or just the overall ambience and feel of the card. Consciously explain to yourself or another person what the symbols mean to you (it is also helpful to record them in your journal).

Study Goal 3
Complete the keyword self-test in appendix A. The ultimate goal of this exercise is to have all your cards fall into category A (cards you know well and can use fluently). Rethat it is highly unlikely that you will meet this goal at this point in the book. However, doing this exercise now will give you a good sense of what your strengths and weaknesses are in terms of feeling familiar and comfortable with each card, and will help you focus your energies on the areas that need the most attention. The coming chapters will give you much more information to work with, and by the time you finish this book, you should find that your score has dramatically improved.