Tarot Talk & Technique

This topic emerged from a recent reading in DotW. In my observation ... the cards are usually right ... but we readers can get it wrong due to 3 "occupational hazards" which I call: Bleedthrough Different / wrong Question Irrelevant Question **Edit added in March 2026** Wrong spread or wrong deck [commentary in my journal] I'll share my thoughts how I deal [or fail] with these. Curious to hear YOUR experiences and tips how you deal with it. Bleedthrough: I was just about to lay cards when my partner started talking to me. It interrupted my flow. I spoke with him awhile .... and then got back to it [so I thought]. Yet…

I used to use a fancy cloth that I got from eBay to do my readings on. But my primary way of mixing the cards is riffle shuffling the cards, however I noticed that the cloth would move around on the tabletop when I did that. So, I switched to a jewelers' display pad, but I found the pad wasn't thick enough or big enough to do the layout on. Then I found the perfect solution - The Magicians close-up pad. It makes riffle shuffling easier and they come in different sizes. I have two of them, a red one 11 X 16 which is perfect for my monthly coffee shop gig in which I do three card spreads. And my big pad which I do my regular layout of the…

So I asked how my boyfriend felt about me and I kept getting the Page of Cups reversed. I read somewhere that this might mean that I need to let go of the honeymoon phase and allow the relationship to move to the next level. I LOVED the honeymoon phases, we have been together ten months and although the sizzle is still there it's not as exciting. But the deep love and the security of that lasting love are formidable and present. I'm also having trouble with down time in the relationship, like we have been so close we've talked about so much, sometimes we have nothing to say. Any other ideas?

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas as to where I could buy my first deck of tarot cards. I live in the UK (in Kent, England, specifically) and am unable to buy them online for complicated reasons I don't want to bore people with, so I can only visit physical stores... :'( Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thank you! :) <3

Hello everyone I've been wondering; do you need to study all of the "Big Three" decks - the RWS, the Thoth, and the TdM - in order to learn all there is to know about Tarot? I have the RWS, but to be honest, I've never really been attracted to the Thoth or the TdM. Lately though, I've been thinking that I should have them, just because they've been so prominent and influential in the history and development of Tarot. What do you think - is it enough to just study and work with decks you like and connect with, or is it essential to study the historical decks as well?

I was just wondering how common it is for people to use tarot as an entirely secular practice for the purposes of mindfulness exercises, meditation, self therapy, mental health, shadow work, creative inspiration, etc, with no relation to spirituality at all. I'm agnostic myself and I of course respect all beliefs, and I even completely understand and can teach how to use tarot in a spiritual context. However I feel like there is a TON of untapped potential in tarot for all kinds of uses such as psychology and therapy. For instance the Root Lock Radio podcast has a GREAT learning series of episodes and he is a practicing psychotherapist who uses tarot with his clients. Ano…

I find myself pondering whether the vision of the artist in different packs of cards based on RW actually changes the inherent meaning of the archetype, for example Knights are cards of action and movement, does the fact one person chooses to exhibit them as stationary mean they are actually stationary? it's a definite no in my book hence I consider studying imagery on different packs of cards to be a complete waste of time and really only relevant to the artist. Seems to me it's what we pin on the card imagery that's important and the picture itself is simply meant to jolt the memory of all the associations we have pinned on it over the years from different resources. …

I'm a Holistic reader who uses a combination of different types of practices in each of my readings such as: Oracle cards, Numerology, Astrology, Crystals, Esoteric knowledge, etc.

Is it still an active association? Is it total rubbish? I glanced at their Free Readings Network and Free Tarot Network,, and the pages look like web pages I made back in the early 90s. Is anyone a member here?

Hey, im wondering what would be the best partner for the knight of swords? If you think about the knights, they move a lot, from here there and everywhere. I cant imagine many women being able to have a relationship with him. So im thinking someone free, perhaps the star or 8 of wands? In fact im curious what kind of woman all knights would go for simply because they are never settled. They are always going somewhere serving some kind of battle and may die the very next day.

I came across this beautiful image that, apparently, belongs to a Tarot deck... Would anyone know which Tarot this belongs to, if any? Thank you so much. :D

In the various schools of thought on tarot, one old rule was that tarot cards needed to come to their owner indirectly, as the tarot cards needed to find their own owner. Do you adhere to this rule, and if so how do you come about attaining a new deck? Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

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I keep my tarot decks in a box, and when I take them out I usually get to see the last card at the bottom of the deck. Somehow I always feel that last card always has a message for me. Does anybody have any such experiences?

This may not be the best place for this thread, because really it's about study music, but I am looking for music with "Tarot Feels" lol I'm creating a playlist online for when I do start doing readings on skype or in my home, and also to just put me in a midieval/earthy/magical/whimsical kind of mood. I have been using a lot of oriental traditional folk songs, some hindu religious pieces on sitar, lots of celtic/druid music, and some classical. Do you guys have instrumental/spiritual new agey music you dig? Anything that just helps you to connect to your cosmic self or to the earth or whatever, I already have some good stuff but it's getting kind of samey. Peter Kat…

I would like to see the different types of card combinations that other readers will see during a reading to warn their clients of spellwork that is being used against them. Usually when I see the Moon come out paired with either: the 10 of wands, 10 of swords, 9 of swords, 8 of swords, the five of pentacles, the Devil, or the Magician reversed I'm certain that this is the case.

What kind if algorithm methods do you use?

I asked the cards about my decision to move to another city where my boyfriend lives and the Death card came up. For some context, the only thing that still keeps me in my current city is the friendships, but quit recently I've been hurt and disappointed by a very good friend, so I start focus on my needs more and I want to move. What do you think the Death means?

I read recently that vision is the quickest of our five physical senses, but even so it takes 13 milliseconds (13/1000 of a second) for light hitting our retina to be processed by our occipital lobe. This means that, technically (and I’m being very technical here), we are never experiencing the actual present, only the past, at least 13 ms in the past. I’ve always known the future is unreal, it is only a mental construct, an imaginary concept, an ever-changing unveiling, but it came as a surprise to learn that the present is also not as real as I thought, at least according to that 13 ms difference. Which makes the past, perhaps ironically, the only aspect of time that…

For me, it is when I took a look at the rider waite tarot. That fascinated me and made me became interested in tarot.

Starting over, Now that I am settled, I have begun re-collecting tarot. Years ago I had a extensive tarot collect, due to major life changes I gave it all away except for 5 decks. Some decks I miss and some decks I don't. I am more careful with what decks I want now, picky picky. There will be ones I will replace over time, but there are ones that I can't due to fact they are now OOP, sad. Some days I regret giving my collection of decks away. Have you ever been in a situation due to circumstances or life events that you either gave or sold off your collection of decks, then to find yourself years later re-collecting? How do you feel about starting over, are …

Have you ever dreamed (as in night dreams) about tarot cards? If you see cards in your dream would you try to interpret them as if you were getting that card in a draw? What if the imagery was different somehow.. I dreamed that I asked what my bf (right now on another continent) feels about me and first card was 5 of pentacles from the Connolly deck which features a blindfolded woman by a closed gate and and angel touching her blindfold. But the weird part is that the regular image was on the face up (like usually where the generic image on the back of the cards are), but on the other side a woman sits on a harbor blindfolded with lots of kids around her…

Hope I’ve posted this in the right section. Basically my first tarot deck (Anne Stokes: Legends) has no images on the minor arcana cards. It just has say 5 swords for the Five of Swords. Is it possible to read these? If not could I take the major arcana cards and court cards and use the deck with only them as they have images?

I’ve been laying out my cards and my other stuff (candle, crystals, smudging shell) on the silk scarf I keep my deck wrapped in, but for a variety of reasons this isn’t very practical (the silk is slidery and slickery; I have to assemble/disassemble everything every time). I’ve decided I need to outfit the Cosmic Command Post with an actual reading mat. Ideally I’d like something that has some warmth and a relatively organic feel. Oh, and my desk in the Cosmic Command Post is only 20” deep… it would either need to be something not-that-deep, or something that can drape over the edges. Any recommendations?

Does anyone else remember the first tarot book they ever owned? Mine was "The tarot speaks" by Richard Gardener which I bought as a teenager in the 1970s. I still have a copy (not sure if it's the same one) today. I would add an image of the cover but I am unsure how to.