AliceF Posted September 15, 2021 Posted September 15, 2021 Hello! I’m just starting to learn the meanings of the cards. I’ve looked at 3 online sources & 1 book. The book has almost opposite meanings than the online sources. I’m really not sure where I should learn from. Any pointers?? Any would be greatly appreciated!!!
DanielJUK Posted September 15, 2021 Posted September 15, 2021 Welcome to the forum @AliceF 🙂 you might want to start a thread in the introduction section to introduce yourself Just to let you know I've moved your thread over to the general tarot discussion area and out of the technical support section which for help with the forum. It will fit in better here. Also I have edited the subject of the thread to reflect what you are asking about and you will get more responses on the subject.
DanielJUK Posted September 15, 2021 Posted September 15, 2021 To discuss the different meaning sources, they are just different opinions from authors and different readers. So remember they are just different opinions. As you get better at tarot you might agree with some of them and you might disagree with others. So it's about using them to form your own views of the cards. There are different methods of learning tarot but I liked to write down ideas I read and liked about the cards. I also used the different meanings to form keyword ideas about the cards. So you need to use them to form your view of the cards. I have changed some of views of cards with time. Also if you want to read intuitvely, look at the picture of the card. Do you get anything from it? can you see a story or anything like that? There are many methods of learning but sources of meanings are just different views. With time you will make up your own opinions 🙂
katrinka Posted September 15, 2021 Posted September 15, 2021 19 minutes ago, AliceF said: Hello! I’m just starting to learn the meanings of the cards. I’ve looked at 3 online sources & 1 book. The book has almost opposite meanings than the online sources. I’m really not sure where I should learn from. Any pointers?? Any would be greatly appreciated!!! I don't know what deck you're using, but the odds favor it being RWS based, In that case, it's vital to be familiar with the source material: https://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm Waite can be vague in spots, so you'll want to flesh your meanings out with this. It's a Thoth site, but both are Golden Dawn type decks. This is a wonderful old site with clear, simple explanations: https://www.corax.com/tarot/cards/index.html Stay away from sites with lots of purple (with the exception of AT), pretty rocks, certifications, new age stuff and attempts to get your email (so they can spam you.) Those are junk. Sometimes opposite meanings can mean that one or both of your sources are no good. Other times, they are different ways of unpacking the same card essence to fit different contexts. Once you've learned the core meanings, you'll be able to tell the difference.
gregory Posted September 15, 2021 Posted September 15, 2021 One good set of meanings on line is this one. https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/ Until you feel less confused though - find a source that resonates with you and stick to that till you feel more comfortable. Also make notes about what you see yourself - you will find you see things others don't, as time goes on. (And highlight katrinka's post as the links are invisible - at least to me - without that !)
euripides Posted September 15, 2021 Posted September 15, 2021 37 minutes ago, gregory said: https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/ Until you feel less confused though - find a source that resonates with you and stick to that till you feel more comfortable. Also make notes about what you see yourself - you will find you see things others don't, as time goes on. ^ what they said. It may depend on the deck you're using, too. A lot of decks have themes that diverge a great deal from the standard RWS meanings, so you'll find they won't seem to fit. Start a journal, and make some notes about the meanings. Which connect best with the card you're looking at? What do you feel and observe about that card and the question you're asking? This is my advice with learning almost anything. Find a single reputable source/resource that you can get along with (one that makes sense to you and is well written) and stick with that until you're feeling really comfortable with it. That can then be your central point of reference. Later you'll find that you can extend and vary meanings and work with themes without it being a problem.
Marina Posted September 15, 2021 Posted September 15, 2021 1 hour ago, gregory said: One good set of meanings on line is this one. https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/ Until you feel less confused though - find a source that resonates with you and stick to that till you feel more comfortable. Also make notes about what you see yourself - you will find you see things others don't, as time goes on. (And highlight katrinka's post as the links are invisible - at least to me - without that !) THAT! 👆 Stick to one single source until you have mastered it meanings for the cards. Only then, when you feel more confident about your studies and practice, look for new sources in order to expand your ideas on each card, IF you feel the need to. Otherwise, you'll just be confunde. I recommend the Aeclectic tarot meanings @gregory suggested above, I used them when I started learning Tarot more seriously and they have helped me immensely!
Rodney Posted September 19, 2021 Posted September 19, 2021 On 9/15/2021 at 12:50 PM, AliceF said: Hello! I’m just starting to learn the meanings of the cards. I’ve looked at 3 online sources & 1 book. The book has almost opposite meanings than the online sources. I’m really not sure where I should learn from. Any pointers?? Any would be greatly appreciated!!! Been there, done that. I'm into the 31st year of my tarot journey, so I started out back in the dark ages before the internet was "a thing." And being then where you are now, I actually attempted to collate a notebook that contained interpretations from various books I was referring to. 156 loose-leaf pages with handwritten interpretation and source. I maybe got through 5 books before I abandoned that effort! One thing I have said for more than a decade now is that just because something is written (book or website) or said about tarot does NOT make it gospel. You should keep what resonates and discard what doesn't. The great thing about tarot is that it can speak to different readers differently. Over and above the different "systems" for interpreting cards, even two people who are using the same system can see the same card completely differently. And neither reader would be "wrong" because they are getting the cards they need to see to reach a particular interpretation. So my suggestion to you would be to test drive every interpretation you come across. Look at the interpretation, then take a good look at the imagery in the deck you're using. Can you see that interpretation applying to your deck (even if it doesn't apply to a specific reading)? If not, move onto the next interpretation. And just because an interpretation doesn't make sense to you now doesn't mean that it won't make sense at some future point in your tarot journey. Think about learning tarot as being similar to learning a foreign language. When you first start out, you have a limited vocabulary available to you. As you get more proficient at the limited vocabulary, you start to add more terms to it. And over time you become more and more proficient at the foreign language. Something a lot of people don't like to hear but is quite true is that more often than people would like, what a card meant in a particular reading won't be clear until after the fact. Have you heard the old expression "Hindsight is always 20/20."? It's for that reason, especially when you're first learning tarot, that you should log all of your readings. Then you can go back in retrospect and associate what happened to particular cards from the reading. In that way you develop your own interpretations for the cards. Every source you're referring to is most likely sharing their own interpretations for the cards, interpretations that resonate with them. But those interpretations don't have to resonate with you.
Jewel Posted October 1, 2021 Posted October 1, 2021 I agree with what has been said, and would like to add something based on my experience. Like Rodney I have been using and reading tarot for close to 30 years now (hard to believe), and am still learning. One of books I wish had been available to me when I first started is 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card by Mary Greer. It is a workbook and you do not need to know anything about tarot when you pick it up. All you need is a deck, a journal, and commitment to completing the work. Through your work with the book you will unlock what the cards mean to you, learn to use your intuition, then combine it with what you learn from other sources. I recommend doing the 21 Apprentice level exercises, then I went back and did the Adept level exercises. It took me a little over a year, but was the experience that built a lot of confidence in my, helped me identify the type of reader I am, and my strengths. It is a lot of work, but it was invaluable to me.
mooshedpotatoes Posted February 2, 2022 Posted February 2, 2022 I feel that Labyrinthos has a really good baseline system for learning cards and their meanings. Have you tried checking them out? They have an app!
khatsar Posted February 7, 2022 Posted February 7, 2022 Truly Teach Me Tarot was a site I used a lot early on, and still do. I value it mostly due to the storytelling element, and the way that it describes each suit, and the Major Arcana, as steps on a journey. That said, the best thing for me was to draw one card each morning, and meditate on it at the end of the day. Focusing on one card at a time and looking for its themes in my own life was so much more helpful to my own reading journey than books.
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