Can you learn Tarot?

[Beanie]

Hi everyone my question is can you learn tarot from sources such as books, internet or even a tarot teacher or is it a gift? Some people are naturally gifted to read the cards but can they be learnt and interpreted if you have a great interest? 

[LogicalHue]

I would say I've never heard of anyone not having needed to learn the tarot. Maybe some people are better at it faster? There is what some people refer to as intuitive reading, which is mainly just going off of the images on the cards - which if someone wanted to just do that, that's possible, and they wouldn't need to learn for that reason. But no one just knows what the cards mean without learning and study and reference material unless they're just going off of the images and how they make them feel and think at the time.

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, Beanie said:

Hi everyone my question is can you learn tarot from sources such as books, internet or even a tarot teacher or is it a gift? Some people are naturally gifted to read the cards but can they be learnt and interpreted if you have a great interest? 

 

Tarot HAS to be learned.
The idea that there's some gift that negates that comes from spammy psychic ads: "INDIGOCHILDE OF THE ANGELS - I HAS A GIFT (ENTER YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER FOR YOUR FREE READING)", etc.

If there's a gift, it IS the great interest.
 

50 minutes ago, LogicalHue said:

I would say I've never heard of anyone not having needed to learn the tarot. Maybe some people are better at it faster? There is what some people refer to as intuitive reading, which is mainly just going off of the images on the cards - which if someone wanted to just do that, that's possible, and they wouldn't need to learn for that reason. But no one just knows what the cards mean without learning and study and reference material unless they're just going off of the images and how they make them feel and think at the time.

 

Going off the images alone is not  good idea. They can be misidentified, the way Angeles Arrien misidentified the pelican in the Thoth and jumped the shark going on about the "swan" and the "ugly duckling". And I really don't see any point in closing oneself off from learning about something that one is interested in.

[AlbaTross]

I'm no expert by any means, but I'm pretty sure like with anything, Tarot is something that has to be learned.  Even pros at something have to put some effort in to get that way.  Sure, some people may be naturals, for whom Tarot really clicks with, and they may not have to work as long or hard as some other people.  But, they still need to put in the time to learn it, just like everyone else.  Sure, Tarot has a spiritual element for a lot of people here, but I've never heard of someone who's so entuned spiritually that there was never any learning process for them.  Maybe I will if I stick around long enough, but katrinka's response casts a lot of doubt on that.  

[Ekati]

Of course it’s about studying and learning.It’s true that some people are more intuitive than others but that does not mean they didn’t learn somehow.it’s like in music (and in many other things)many people ask is music about talent or studying..of course it’s about studying!!!!!

[Beanie]

Thank you everyone for your response much appreciated 

[gregory]

I've been reading for (um wait) 15 years or something. I'm still learning. We ALL are. except the conceited ones - who don't usual;ly come here except to advertise their powers.  

[TheLoracular]

Tarot has to be learned, but it is both art and science.   There are hundreds of ways to learn it and dozens of things you can do with it after you learn.  Fortune-Telling is just one of those things, but people who want to make money as a professional divinatory reader for clients have a steep learning curve in more than just divination.  Its not easy work and frauds create skeptics. 

[Seren]

12 hours ago, Beanie said:

Hi everyone my question is can you learn tarot from sources such as books, internet or even a tarot teacher or is it a gift? Some people are naturally gifted to read the cards but can they be learnt and interpreted if you have a great interest? 

As a newbie, I hope my response isn't too controversial (!) but in the course of the project I am working on I went to a LOT of tarot readers by way of research.  They mainly fell into two categories:

 

1. The ones who had clearly studied the cards, got to know them inside out, whether that be via books, internet, practise, tuition or a combination of several things. They have treated the Tarot like the immense subject it is - something that needs to be learned, studied, worked at, on a par with many 'academic' subjects (not the best analogy perhaps but hopefully you know where I am coming from). You don't get to be a great historian, or biologist, or geologist without putting in the work, and it's the same with Tarot.  

 

2. The 'make it up as they go along' merchants as I call them.  The ones who claim to have psychic or intuitive powers or some other unseen 'gift'. Who only need to glance at a card to go off on a diatribe of cold-reading nonsense that has absolutely nothing to do with the card in question.  This group clearly have made no effort to understand or learn anything about Tarot and are using the cards as nothing more than props. 

 

Sadly (in my experience) there were many more of the latter, than the former. 

 

I've been 'studying' the Tarot for the best part of 30 years and there is still so much I don't know.  I am not blessed with any 'gifts'.  I just work hard at it, as you can, and indeed anyone can who has a mind to put in the work. 

 

 

[Arcadia]

I only got into Tarot by having my cards read by a Tarot reader who told me i would be doing card readings myself,  It was mainly the card symbolism that interested me at first seeing the Lonely Hermit with a lantern, the burning Tower and of course the Death card that came out in my reading,  It really fascinated me how the reader could know such personal things about me which got me hooked on learning the cards. So i think many who take the time to study the symbolism and meanings will have a good understanding about how the cards connect with each other. 

Edited January 6, 2021 by Arcadia

[Mi-Shell]

I grew up with Tarot and learned SOME reading techniques from my maternal aunt.

From my paternal aunties I learned shamanic chants and divining with sheep knuckle bones, tree roots and entrails... yuck.....

As a 20-something, Tarot was something that I LEARNED about, history, Western culture and religion, moral values, archetypes......

Tarot learning taught me about Western thinking, which is quite different to my general upbringing.

I struggled with "just reading images", because, in the 70ties and 80ties there were only VERY few  different Tarot decks around and NONE reflected my culture and how I felt.

Without LEARNING  the Tarot, I could not have read and made money sitting there, with my Marseille deck.  

Intuition and "sensing the sitter" and his/ her hidden issues alone would not have been enough - and more importantly - it would have made me feel insecure and THAT a sitter can and will pick up on.   

As more decks came on the market I eventually found the ones that are the best fit for me- as public reading decks. 

But to hone my skills, to keep on learning, also to expose to myself my own shortcomings, blind spots and baggage, I always have a "new to me" deck, that I am working with. I ALWAYS  learn something new, a new nuance, a new outlook and here, participating on the forum I keep on learning and members here help me do that. ( ♥ Thanks, guys!)

[AlbaTross]

10 hours ago, TheLoracular said:

Tarot has to be learned, but it is both art and science.   There are hundreds of ways to learn it and dozens of things you can do with it after you learn. 

This is actually what has drawn me into Tarot.  I can learn any number of things if I put in the time to do so, but there's more to Tarot than simply knowing stuff.  Of course, that's true of a lot of skills that have a practical element, but Tarot is definitely an art, through and through.  I like the subjective side of Tarot too, as various aspects from what decks to use to the plethora of techniques to apply to readings can and should resonate with the reader, who in turn is tasked with getting all of the above to resonate with the person receiving the reading too, when reading for someone else.  In any case, I've never gotten the sense that it's common practice for an expert to say "no, that's wrong" when someone does things a little differently from the norm.  

 

All that said, yes there's a learning element.  It's just a little different than acquiring academic knowledge and leaving it at that.  

[gregory]

Someone here has this for a sig:

 

 

I think tarot is like that. I am a music graduate, have studied in sometimes tedious detail for years, and I know LOADS  of facts and stuff that people here won't know anything about - the alleluia tropes of the nun Kezia (you know what - you can't even find that on google !!!)  I can decode 14th century musical notation (well, I think I still can....) I can write a fugue. But when I listen to music - there is ALWAYS something there I don't know. Always something new to learn.

[joy]

5 hours ago, gregory said:

Someone here has this for a sig:

 

 

I think tarot is like that. I am a music graduate, have studied in sometimes tedious detail for years, and I know LOADS  of facts and stuff that people here won't know anything about - the alleluia tropes of the nun Kezia (you know what - you can't even find that on google !!!)  I can decode 14th century musical notation (well, I think I still can....) I can write a fugue. But when I listen to music - there is ALWAYS something there I don't know. Always something new to learn.

Wow just learned something new about @gregory! Now I am interested to know more about the alluluia tropes of the nun Kezia. Sorry totally

[gregory]

I'll dig out my books and get back to you ! (ETA I'll go put it in the giveaway thread as it is SO far off topic here !)

Edited January 7, 2021 by gregory

[Millie]

I learned a long time ago but regrettably stopped and didn't practice half enough.  The result now is that I may as well start again.  Well, perhaps not quite from scratch but I'm really out of practice.  Like anything else, you have to keep up the learning and working or it goes rusty.