Getting Started
A Tarot reader needs both knowledge and intuition. First, you must know
the possible meanings of cards and the possible meanings of spread
positions. Then, your intuition tells you which of many possible
readings is relevant to the current situation.
Lots of great Tarot sources give you the meanings of the cards.
Lots of great sources give you possible spreads to use, explaining the meanings of the positions in each spread.
But in addition, when you actually read cards, you need practice interpreting the possible meanings of a card in the position in the spread in which it has come up.
These are the skills that we will practice in this blog. The intuitive part is up to you! However, you will probably find that your intuition is not really activated until you know the meanings of cards and spreads well enough to read without referring to a book or notes.
Here is a link to an excellent free online course for beginning Tarot readers, Joan Bunning's Learn Tarot.
We will start by working through this course, sharing and discussing our responses to the lessons on this blog.
To participate in this blog, you will need a Tarot deck to work with. Read Bunning's "Choosing a First Tarot Deck."
For my fellow auditory learners, I will make sound files of the reading material. The sound files are stored on GoogleDox. You will need to take a few moments to download the sound files to your own computer.
Take time to look at different decks in Bunning's Deck Descriptions.
Post Comments below to share your experiences with choosing a Tarot deck.
If you have experience reading Tarot, what deck(s) do you use, and why?
If you are just starting, what deck(s) look interesting to you, and why?
For the purposes of learning Tarot for the first time and participating in this blog, you should choose a deck that is based on the Rider/Waite model with which to follow the course.
If you are strongly drawn to another kind of deck, you may want to explore that later.
I use the Rider/Waite because when I first started working with the Tarot in the 1960's, that was the only deck that was easily available. Even then, I had to drive an hour to a gift shop in another town where I had heard they were sold!
ReplyDeleteI prefer the Albano Waite because I find that the more vivid colors stir my intuitions better.
I sometimes read with other decks that are patterned after the Rider/Waite. Being Wiccan, I'm drawn to decks that replace the Christian symbolism of the Rider/Waite with Pagan alternatives--decks like the Robin Wood Tarot, the Tarot of the Old Path, and the Witches' Tarot.
However, the Rider Waite is hard/wired in me--it was the only deck I had for about twenty years. So when I use a different deck I often get "stumped" and have to pull out the equivalent card in my Rider/Waite to remind myself of all its possible associations.
Greetings, Thank You Annie for including me in this online learning experience. A small bit about me, I purchased my first Tarot deck in 1973, played with it off and on for a few years, acquired a couple more decks, same thing. Approzimately in 1979 I was in East West Bookstore in Menlo Park, CA and I stumbled onto the Aquarian Tarot, I had found my deck! In my opinion it is an Art Deco type artwork deck, it is ways off the standard Rider Waite, not too bad, but it called me. It is my main deck, I have at least eleven copies of it, and the original deck has been retired to a place of honour having grown greatly faded from the many years of usage.
ReplyDeleteAnnie has an excellent point in learning the Rider Waite deck is the best, the vast majority of decks out there are some variant of the Rider Waite, the further the variance from that standard the more difficult to read another deck. Also will add, checking out the other decks gives one an opportunity to see other artists interpretation of the Rider Waite imagery and meaning of the cards.
The Link below has The Major Arcana of several decks pictured including the Rider Waite and Aquarian decks.
Alex