Tarot Readings 101: Tarot Cards for Beginners

Maybe it’s the uncertain times we live in, but seem to be in the middle of a tarot revival. The popularity of tarot cards has surged over the past decade or so, with many turning or returning to the long-held practice.

You may be intrigued by the concept of tarot cards but now know much about them. Maybe you saw them in a movie or television show, but are unsure of the realities. Maybe you’ve even had your cards read before, but are curious about how the reader drew their conclusions.

No matter what your background, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ll walk you through our tarot cards for beginners’ overview, making sure you have all the knowledge you need to understand what the cards may have to say to you.

History Of The Tarot Card

Tarot cards date back to the mid-1400s, but they’ve only been used as a device for prediction in the more modern era. The practice of tarot reading as we know it today dates back to the late 1700s.

The series of comprehensive links and meanings between cards was created and popularized by French philosophizer Jean-Baptiste Alliette and then quickly grew in popularity across Europe.

The Rider-Waite deck is the set of tarot cards used widely today and dates back as recently as 1909. These cards were based on the teachings of the Hermetic Order, a group of occultists from 1800s London.

Choosing A Deck

While the Rider-Waite deck is the most wildly used deck in the modern age, there are a number of decks available to wannabe tarot card readers. For example, Aleister Crowley created a rival deck with new symbols and meanings after establishing himself as the enemy of Arthur Edward Waite. The Crowley deck is also quite popular.

When selecting a deck, most practiced readers emphasize emotionally. You should feel a strong emotional connection to your first deck. Whether you’re shopping in person or on the web, you should feel some sort of attraction or tie to the deck you intend to purchase.

Decks vary in many ways. Even with the same types of cards, style may veer between contemporary and medieval, different symbols may be used to express the same thing. There is no one proper deck, and an amateur reader would do best to choose the deck that speaks the most to their soul.

Do Tarots Tell The Future?

Many people are uncertain just how much tarot cards can tell them of the future. Cards cannot provide definitive answers, but they can illuminate trends. The cards can help show what will happen if you continue on a certain path or can help determine where feelings and disturbances are coming from.

Some tarot readers claim to receive clairvoyant images from reading cards. They offer more specific future-telling abilities. But this is not a standard for all card readers.

Reading Tarot Cards

The pictorial symbols spread out across tarot card decks represent people, circumstances, feelings, and outcomes. The ability to discern meaning in these cards and their combinations is one of interpretation.

At the beginning of any reading, the deck of tarot cards should be shuffled. This act should be deliberate and peaceful and invites a kind of clearing of the mind before beginning.

Before beginning to read the cards, focus in on what you want to figure out via your reading. You might be reading for yourself or for another person. Get to the root of what you want to explore, whether it be questions or specific conflicts currently occurring.

After this time to think and shuffle, split the deck into three. Most tarot readers do a three-card split, which is simple and effective. It’s easy to adjust these to accommodate many situations.

It could be past, present, and future. It could be mind, body, and spirit. It could be any variety of things, depending on what you want to explore via the cards.

Interpreting The Cards

Almost naturally, the combination of cards should begin to reveal things to you. Look on each card and consider how they make you feel. Observe details: are the cards somewhat in sync with one another or disjointed? Do faces look towards or away from one another?

Most tarot cards have classic associations that you can look up, but most readers will tell you that your intuition will provide you with much more clarity. Your immediate emotional reaction is likely to tell you more than any classical explanation.

Are Tarot Cards Safe?

Some people have a worry that tarot cards have a connection with evil, or may be satanic in some way. This is simply not true.

Tarot cards are a tool. And like any tool, they can be used for good as well as evil. If you are allowing another reader to read your cards, recognize the vulnerability required for such a thing. You must trust another reader to look at your cards with an open heart and open mind.

Remember that no reader, including yourself, can truly prove the future using tarot cards. Cards are an interpretive tool that allows us to access truths within ourselves. As such, not only are they not evil, but they can provide a great good that can be incredibly helpful in trying times.

Tarot Cards For Beginners

The above overview of tarot cards for beginners should give any aspiring reader the knowledge they need to get started. There are very few hard and fast rules when it comes to tarot reading. But it’s important to understand the interpretive approach tarot card reading requires if one hopes to do it properly.

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