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14 Mar 2025 11:30

Learning the Tarot: Simple Tips for Beginners

Have you just picked up your first tarot deck with no clue how to start learning them? Are you looking at the pictures and trying to deduce something like you’re back in English class, your teacher desperately asking why the curtains in chapter eight are purple? Maybe you’re stuck on one card and it’s trying to tell you something – you can feel it – but nothing comes to mind?

I’m no tarot expert, but I’m also no stranger to a tarot guide book. In fact, I think that a guide and a tarot journal is a key part of your learning journey. I’ve found that although I’m not the best, I remember better when I look up the meanings and jot them down as a memento of my own moments where I’ve needed that little bit of spiritual guidance.

I have a few tarot decks, and I do think that the deck you use is really important. Although most tarot readers are women, the cards always seem designed for larger hands, and so I’ve found a smaller deck that works for me and my tiny little palms. I also mainly use decks that are easily shuffled with designs I’m drawn to – the Pagan Cat tarot mini deck or Ana Juan’s Tarot Cats are firm favourites. I’m more drawn to the silly faces and big, hairy tummies in Juan’s illustration and I find that the expressions are easier for me to read. Many people do start with a simple beginner deck that’s close to the infamous Ryder-Waite, but for some reason I just wasn’t drawn to it. Maybe it’s the eccentricity of these grey and white creatures that feel a little more personal to me, less like I’m actively trying to learn and more like this is something fun and cool that’s more attuned to my personality.

Reading and writing in general is a big part of my life as a literature scholar, but it’s also one of my primary ways of learning. When I first decided to get into the tarot, I bought a little pink hardback book for beginner’s and also found a huge, heavy paperback that I may as well have used as a doorstop. It was a little too much for someone just starting out, and I found the little book so much easier to grasp. My advice on this would be not to overwhelm yourself with information and guides, just find one that works for you – it might even be on Youtube or Tik Tok, maybe it’s a podcast or you’re more like me and prefer a physical book – it’s very easy to get bogged down on how much there actually is to learn.

My little guide to tarot was split into certain chapters of a few pages, each card designated one or two small pages. There’s a little advice section at the front which acts almost like a tarot myth-buster, pushing you into a real view of the practice. After that, it’s split into the major and minor arcana (meaning the suits of aces, cups, pentacles and swords versus the fool’s journey – the moon, the star, the hanged man etc.). There’s then a chapter on certain card spreads and how to do specific readings for things like your career, your love life, and your finances. I found that the easiest way for me to learn was to start with an individual card, and even now I don’t really read any more than three cards at a time (I’m certainly no expert, and don’t think I will be any time soon)!

For every card I drew, my guide told me which arcana it was and what it could mean, as well as giving me key words which helped me learn much faster. I usually go for a past, present and future read of three cards, one for each phase. I don’t actually have a specific tarot journal, so I just used a new notebook and reserved that only for readings. I’d split the page as though it was a tarot journal, writing down my thoughts when reading and then writing the meanings of the cards and what they could say about my past, present and future. My guide has handy little tips like which star signs are aligned to which suits, and how certain suits can have different effects on you or represent people in your life depending on yours or their astrological placements which I found so interesting. It also had a comment inside about reading the communication between the cards, which essentially means looking at which cards face each other, if the people (or in my case, cats) on there might be looking at or away from each other and what this could mean in terms of how my past could influence what I’m going through right now.

There’s a lot about tarot that I don’t know, but it’s a start. I’m learning well with a good, worn in deck and my little guide and notebook. It’s a lot easier when noting things down and getting information from less overwhelming sources. Over time I’ll be able to upgrade my little guide to tarot, but for now, it suits me right down to the ground. Maybe I’ll get the cards out and they’ll tell me my next steps on this journey…

Maggie

Created On 14 Mar 2025 11:30 - >>