So you should not get into tarot reading if you are not naturally intuitive?

May 5, 2023

I am a newbie in this area and Tarot cards and Tarot reading intrigues me greatly. I have collected so many decks already. But I don't think I am very intuitive. Some pictures speak to me but some absolutely don't. Like the King card of all the four suits seem no different to me from each other. They seem to me like they have the same expression on their face. And what else am I looking into these cards to see what they are saying? I was looking at doing one of online tarot classes and I read someone commenting that "if your tarot reader tells you that they got into tarot reading after doing one of these classes, then you turn around and run" and that comment kind of have made me thinking whether I am not meant to get into the reading side?

So what do you guys think on this topic?

May 5, 2023

Yeah, I’ve had that problem. I generally read the guidebooks and find some deck/book combinations make sense to me while others don’t, but trying to understand the whole system has never really clicked. You might find some Oracle decks more appealing than Tarot but the ones that first started working well for me were fact cards of the Solar System and Elements because I already had an interest in and knowledge of scientific topics so they sparked far more ideas than mythology and religion.

May 5, 2023

There are all sorts of different things you can look at - which way each King is facing in terms of the other cards, just for one thing. What's in the background. Where are their arms, hands. Who has a crown and who has a hat. Which decks are you mostly using ? I go entirely by the pictures as a rule. There's always sometfhing.

2 hours ago, Tarotcrazy said:

I am a newbie in this area and Tarot cards and Tarot reading intrigues me greatly. I have collected so many decks already. But I don't think I am very intuitive. Some pictures speak to me but some absolutely don't. Like the King card of all the four suits seem no different to me from each other. They seem to me like they have the same expression on their face. And what else am I looking into these cards to see what they are saying?

How they fit with the cards above and below them, and to the right and left of them. What position you have give to that card. You will probably see one of those kings differently if it's in the advice position than if it's in the obstacle position, for instance.

I have to say - if you are still working with the Good Tarot - it isn't the easiest.... Probably because it has an Agenda !

2 hours ago, Tarotcrazy said:

I was looking at doing one of online tarot classes and I read someone commenting that "if your tarot reader tells you that they got into tarot reading after doing one of these classes, then you turn around and run" and that comment kind of have made me thinking whether I am not meant to get into the reading side?

So what do you guys think on this topic?

I think who ever said that is being very simplistic, and I wouldn't believe a word of it. Some excellent readers here started out with those classes; some valued them, others wish they hadn't tried it.

May 5, 2023

There are different methods of reading, some people have a really intuitive style, others have a let's say "more reference" style, which has books and learning meanings. Probably most people use both and slightly more than one or the other. The real secret of learning is to find the method that works for you! Some people do not get intuitive messages from the art but learn keywords of meanings for each card and then just put it all together in a reading.

I should also say that you can change! I was very reference meaning until I got a lot more experience. Now I am mostly intuitive but sometimes I get don't get much from the card or situation and so I fall back on reference meanings.

I think everyone can read tarot, you just have to find the method that works for you! I can't say about tarot classes but I posted before that there are so many free online courses, like working through learntarot or a good tarot book. You can always post queries or ask for help here.

May 5, 2023

I just bought a new deck—The Everyday Enchantment Tarot, by Poppy Palin—that I'm quite enjoying using, after modifying it to remove most of the border (the cards are very large.) I like the deck a lot because it brings the Rider-Waite-Smith imagery up to date, and gives you a picture of what people are likely to be doing, under the influence of each card. This is a British-oriented deck, but I'm sure all or most of the pictures should make sense, no matter where you are from.

This is particularly helpful when it comes to court cards! Instead of somebody sitting on a throne staring off into space, this deck shows a particular activity that each court card person is likely to be engaged in. It makes it VERY easy to read intuitively. I apologise for the size of these images, but I do want you to be able to see the pictures clearly.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Chariot

May 5, 2023

For myself, the tarot is a stepping stone, a key to intuition.

I too have lots of decks.. I got a box full of decks I can read with, and a cooler full of decks I can't read with.

So it's just like anything. One will not enjoy the same movie or like it.

And the tarot could serve to be a movie to the soul hehe.

There are 2 tarot court cards out there if you want to specialize.

The witches tarot by cannon Reed has the same figure just in differnt colour and in snow, grass if memory serves.

You can try the qabbalah approach, the astrological approach.

Maybe an numerology approach

By custom pages are 11, knights are 12, queens are 13, and kings are 14..

At least to me!

And I'm still exploring possibilities as I think of it

Let it grow over time. It will come

May 6, 2023

Intuition is like a muscle. Exercise it ... and it will get stronger. Tarot is an excellent way to exercise the intuition but there are many other ways, too.

I'm old skool. I suggest to start with a RWS or Marseille deck and a reputable book to learn Tarot basics ... you can always branch out from there. I find Tarot mixes intellect with intuition which is what I love about it.

May 14, 2023

It is possible to study the meanings and read according to them. A meditation, prayer, or just deep breathing before the reading can help develop your intuition.

May 27, 2023

When I read Tarot, I concentrate on the meanings of the cards that I see in the spread.

I use my intuition, but not too much. I even give some options about the meaning of the card.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Kuunalle

May 27, 2023

An important part of intuition is experience. The more you read the cards, the more clearly they speak to you. It's like in your profession - if you have done something hundreds of times, you really feel intuitively whether it went well this time or not. Tarot cards are tools, and the better they work in your hands, the more you can rely on your intuition.

May 28, 2023

For me, memorizing stuff about the cards was just a foundation. Learning the basics, like what the suits represent, what archetypes the Majors represent, etc. was only the beginning. Then learning how to put the messages into words was a process I had to learn. The brain functions differently on its two sides. At first, I knew what the cards were saying, but found that actually forming that into spoken words was difficult or impossible. I had to learn how to let my right brain, which deals in images and not hard facts, communicate with my left brain which is more factual and logical. Then I had to learn to relax and listen to my psy-sense (I made that word up). Instead of thinking about it and trying to remember things by rote that I'd memorized and reciting those things (this card means this and that card means that) which will actually cause a tension that will block the message, I had to learn to listen to that "little voice" in my head that carries the real message. I also had to learn how the card combinations spoke and once all that learning had happened, it finally became natural to me.

Everyone is intuitive. In fact, I believe everyone is "psychic" to use that old word, but society has made it a bad word or a scary concept so it's not popular. It's also abused. People mistakenly also believe a psychic can know everything and have all the answers. That's not how the Universe works. It's far more complicated and profound than that and it's something nobody totally grasps. Like the word "occult" which has come to be a negative buzz word that society connects with deep, dark, evil things, the term "psychic" is too often associated with woo-woo, fictional stuff. In actuality, the word "occult" just means things that aren't commonly known. Mystery things. Nothing evil about that, necessarily. It's just something society doesn't know or understand.

10 hours ago, Nemia said:

An important part of intuition is experience. The more you read the cards, the more clearly they speak to you. It's like in your profession - if you have done something hundreds of times, you really feel intuitively whether it went well this time or not. Tarot cards are tools, and the better they work in your hands, the more you can rely on your intuition.

Well said, Nemia. I think you've said it well. 🙂

May 28, 2023

I would definitely start with RW. I am old-school, and obviously biased because I work with it, but I think this deck is the most descriptive in terms of pictures. I really wouldn't jump from one deck to another, I think this is super confusing for a beginner. However, with time, I would add other decks (if you are into that), and this way layer up more knowledge that is attached to pictures with other decks. But at the beginning I would stick to one deck, that's for sure. I have this book Tarot (from Taschen) and the book is basically representing different decks, some of the pictures are beautiful, I already spent hours just looking at them, but to be honest if I had learned from some of the decks presented there, I wouldn't get really far... So, to start with, be careful which deck you choose.

Kings for example, or queens or what/whoever ... First start with elements that suit particular King, relate that king to that. For example, cups King is water and this is all about emotions, family, love, feeling, intuition, emotional awareness, not that much about thinking and mental processes, although he tries to balance that, he leans more to the first; opposed to Swords (air) who is about mental processes, lacking emotion, also reminding me of the Justice in Major Arcana. Oh yes, this is also interesting - connecting a specific court cards to a Major Arcana card and most of all why. A good exercise for remembering Kings meaning would be to connect each King to a person or type of personality. Who reminds you of King of Pentacles? Who you can connect with that? Or only a part of his personality... For me is my father, in addition to that he is born in May (Taurus), so this one was supper obvious to me. The look is the same, dark hair, and I have a picture of him sitting in his chair, like he is sunk in the chair, just like the Pentacles King. He was all about materialism, liked to show off his financial success and was a supper disciplined about how to push further, sometimes even to the degree of brutality. By knowing a person, and attaching a king, queen, knight or page to them, you can also explore the dark sides of the court cards, this is super fun actually. And you will notice that this person also has some traits of another king or queen in them. Usually, we are a mix of court cards with one being probably exposed the most. I strongly support this kind of exercise - attaching a card to either specific people, or their specific personality characteristics, or even specific approaches to life.

And absolutely focus on one deck. I strongly suggest a version of Rider Waite, but that's just my opinion.

And most of all, they say intuition is built on how many times you see, do, repeat something. I don't know about tarot classes and I can't recommend anything. I would say you can do it on your own, you're in a good place and people on this forum have so much to give in terms of their knowledge, there are also so many amazing blogs posts out there, but tarot class is also a great start, maybe classes have a more organized and systematic approach, but of course that is just a beginning - for me a class would be like putting a key into the door and turning it, well the part about opening the door and researching what is behind them comes after the class and this is what happens after the class. It is a process. I hope you're not expecting this to be a quick process 🙂 Be brave, you can do it. Where's will there's a way. And trust me, we all learn, every day, all the time, even the teachers, and for me that is the beauty of Tarot. Lifelong learning.

May 28, 2023

1 hour ago, Grizabella said:

Then learning how to put the messages into words was a process I had to learn. The brain functions differently on its two sides. At first, I knew what the cards were saying, but found that actually forming that into spoken words was difficult or impossible. I had to learn how to let my right brain, which deals in images and not hard facts, communicate with my left brain which is more factual and logical."

yes, this is true. I often found myself having the "aha, of course, what did you expect Tanja" moment when laying down cards, and this is particularly the case when reading for myself or people I know personally - the cards were so obvious, but at the beginning hard to translate to the words. But that's ok, it is a part of a learning process.

May 30, 2023

While having a natural intuitive ability can be helpful in tarot reading, it is not a prerequisite to practice or learn tarot. Tarot reading is a skill that can be developed through study, practice, and a deep understanding of the tarot card meanings and symbolism.

Many successful tarot readers have honed their skills over time, regardless of their initial level of intuition. They have cultivated their understanding of the cards and their ability to interpret them within the context of a reading. Tarot reading involves combining the imagery and symbolism of the cards with one's knowledge, intuition, and the ability to communicate effectively with the querent (the person receiving the reading).

If you have an interest in tarot and would like to pursue it, there are various resources available to help you learn. You can start by studying the meanings of each tarot card, understanding different tarot spreads and their interpretations, and practicing readings for yourself and others. As you gain experience, your intuition may naturally develop and enhance your readings.

It's important to remember that tarot reading is a personal journey, and each reader may have their own unique approach and style. Trusting your intuition and being open to the messages and insights that arise during a reading can greatly enhance your practice.

If you're unsure about your level of intuition or how it may impact your tarot readings, it can be beneficial to start with simple spreads and gradually work your way up as you gain more confidence. Additionally, seeking guidance from experienced tarot readers or joining tarot study groups can provide valuable insights and support in your tarot journey.

Ultimately, tarot reading is a combination of knowledge, intuition, and interpretation. With dedication, practice, and an open mind, you can develop your skills and become an effective tarot reader, regardless of your initial level of intuition.

May 30, 2023

@Juperko are your replies to various threads today, your own writing? or are you using an AI site to generate the replies?

May 30, 2023

9 minutes ago, DanielJUK said:

@Juperko are your replies to various threads today, your own writing? or are you using an AI site to generate the replies?

Hi, Today I got free afternoon so I have a time for exploring forum. It is my text. Thanks

June 16, 2023

What worked for me was learning the meanings, using RWS-based decks, then adding to it by picking up visual cues from the cards. It was later that I learned about combining the element/suit meanings with the numerical/court meanings, to add to what I already learned. Eventually your intuition will kick in--if it hasn't already; sometimes something will hit you out of the blue and insist on its importance so Pay Attention! The first time it happened to me I was reading for a young adult and one particular card insisted I tell the person that one thing that came to me, which on the surface only had a slim connection to the card, but it seemed important enough that I insisted on it to the querent several times. If that happens, don't overthink it; run with it. You may be doing somebody a big favor.

July 7, 2023

Personally, I think everyone can read tarot. I think people who are more intuitive can get more detailed readings. Divination using tarot is the only part that I think only intuitive readers are able to do.

July 8, 2023

Kinda agree with the others here. I think that if you practice divination properly, you learn to hone your intuition too as a side effect so it's not absolutely necessary at first.

July 15, 2023

I hadn't really thought about it that way before, but I agree with @TarotSparks regarding starting with only one deck and sticking to it till you are familiar with the meanings and how they work in a reading. Thinking back, that's certainly how I got started.

I had ONLY the RWS deck for several years, starting in 1978, when I first began with the tarot, and became very familiar with it before I ever acquired another deck. The second deck was the RWS-based Hanson-Roberts deck, which I bought in the early 1980s, simply because it was a less scary deck to use in readings for people who tended to be frightened of some of the images in the RWS. Those were literally the only two decks I owned until the early 1990s, when I moved to Scotland and had access to the large bookstores in Glasgow, where they sold tarot decks. Even then, I only bought a couple of new ones that I liked the look of, but tended not to use. It's only fairly recently (the last 10 years) that I've started to acquire more decks, via the internet.

So my 'knowledge' of card meanings were based on my experiences with RWS for 18 years, before I started branching out a bit. While I learned the meanings of the cards from the little white books and discussions with a friend who was also learning, my intuition began to kick in with repetition. When a certain card appeared, for me it ALWAYS meant ...whatever. It wasn't so much me staring at the card and putting myself in the picture, but simply what happened 'last time' that card appeared.

My knowledge of different spreads, how the cards interact in these spreads, time frames, how to employ clarification cards, how to ask more specific questions, and to rate the 'importance' of an issue has certainly grown and changed over the years. I've acquired several really useful books, have done a lot of reading, looking online, and now learning new techniques and outlooks from people on this forum. However, I still find that my intuition kicks in almost immediately when I look at a spread and see what cards are there in what positions. And I still tend to rely on my original view of each card, even if the picture is subtly different from the Pixie-designed RWS. It's simply force of habit with me now—although I am working on loosening up a bit, and adding more nuance to how I interpret the cards.

Would that have happened if I'd had umpteen decks while I was learning? I doubt it, thinking back. I would have been tied to the individual books, I reckon. This might have made me more openminded (or totally confused!) with my interpretations, but so far rigidity has stood me in good stead when it comes to getting accurate readings ...certainly for myself!

Edited July 15, 2023 by Chariot

July 16, 2023

On 5/5/2023 at 11:29 AM, Tarotcrazy said:

I am a newbie in this area and Tarot cards and Tarot reading intrigues me greatly. I have collected so many decks already. But I don't think I am very intuitive. Some pictures speak to me but some absolutely don't. Like the King card of all the four suits seem no different to me from each other. They seem to me like they have the same expression on their face. And what else am I looking into these cards to see what they are saying? I was looking at doing one of online tarot classes and I read someone commenting that "if your tarot reader tells you that they got into tarot reading after doing one of these classes, then you turn around and run" and that comment kind of have made me thinking whether I am not meant to get into the reading side?

So what do you guys think on this topic?

You've got some great answers here about learning and reading the tarot. Anything I would have said has been said.

You mentioned you have a lot of decks so I might suggest it will be helpful to pick the deck that most resonates with you and learn with that one. I'm very intuitive, but when I started reading tarot I drew a blank! I thought I could not do it! I was trying to learn to read on the Rider Waite Smith deck, but it was not for me. Nothing made any sense and It's still not my fave. It wasn't until I found the DruidCraft deck that anything clicked. I had to learn the structure of Tarot and then the intuition I already have took off from there. As was mentioned before, if something completely crazy pops out while you are reading, just go with it. That's your intution kicking in. The message isn't meant to make sense to us as readers, it's meant to make sense to the sitter (the person you are reading)

I learned through books and all of these wonderful readers here who were on Aeclectic before. Then I took a 6 week intensive course at a local metaphysical shop just to see if I was missing anything. I learned more on AT. So, Get your favorite deck, get a notebook, and get to learning. You are in the best place for it. Even those of us who have been reading for years learn something new all the time. That's what I love about the Tarot. It's a never ending learning process and there are great people here to help you through. All the best

August 10, 2023

Excellent advice all around! Lack of trust in your own abilities is probably one of the greatest hindrances. For the first 10 years I thought I would never get it, never trusted what I saw ... it took finding Aeclectic Tarot to realize I knew way more than I thought I did, and that I should trust my readings. Like others have said, try to stick to one deck for a prolonged period of time until you gain confidence reading. I personally use a blend of intuitive and academic (book learning). I started purely with a purely academic approach but now it leans way more to the intuitive side. It also depends on the deck I am using ... I never connected with the RWS imagery, I get flat readings at best from that deck because the imagery simply does not speak to me, so finding a deck that you personally connect with is important in my personal opinion and today there are a ton of excellent RWS based decks to choose from unlike 30 years ago when I was learning.

If you want to learn tarot, you can do it and honestly being a part of this community will really help you. Join reading circles and interact. It is a safe environment where you can get lots of practice, lots of support, and great advice.

August 11, 2023

@Tarotcrazy Me again. I just thought of something else that I found incredibly helpful ...not only while I was still learning card meanings, but right up to the present day.

Write a book.

I don't mean 'write a book' for others to read. I mean, get yourself a blank notebook that has at least 78 double pages) and assign one double page for each card. Double pages are good if you read reversals (which I do) and probably good even if you don't.

Tab the pages according to Major Arcana, and one tab for each suit, so you can find what you need quickly, while doing a reading.

As you learn what the cards mean to you, write these meanings down on the appropriate pages. This will help to cement the meanings in your own head, which is a learning device. It will also act as a reminder, if you draw a blank during a reading. (You might forget some nuance of the card, and when you read what you wrote, you get a much-needed Eureka! moment.)

What I also found very very helpful, is using this book when doing a reading for somebody else, face-to-face. After they ask the question, I do the spread, and assign a specific topic to each position. Then I tell the person what the position means, ie: 'this is what is past or passing in your life,' and then I read out loud what I've written in my book about that specific card! This way the querent knows I'm not just making things up, AND they usually have a reaction to what the card means. (OMG, that's my brother-in law!) They happily tell me what they think the card means for them, in that position, and we go on from there. This method not only takes a lot of the guesswork out of my reading, but it's amazing how fast the querent cottons on to what's happening and quickly becomes a believer in tarot. I know this is an unorthodox method to use, but I guess I'm pretty much a think-outside-the-box sort of person, so it suits me.

Over the years, I've written 3 of these personal handbooks, as my understanding of the cards deepens, and I add more to each card's meaning as I read books by authors, interact here on the forum, etc. Some meanings seem to rise to the top every time, so it helps me to re-do the book every so often.

Here's an example of the book I'm currently using, although I'm re-doing it again (using wordprocessing) just to catch up with, and refine, my current understanding of the cards. Sooner or later I'll make another handwritten book.

If you choose a notebook with substantially more than the required 78 double pages, you can also include your favourite spreads, overall tips for reading, elemental dignities, reading reversals, etc—all your personal tips you might want to refer to, on occasion. It helps, though, if the book is small enough to carry around. This current book of mine is 7" x 5" x 1.25" ...a good compromise size from tiny pocket book to a full-sized notebook.

And yes, some will be horrified at this approach, I reckon!

I hasten to add that I do most of my readings without consulting my book, and usually get quite a clear picture of the overall situation the minute I turn the cards over and look at them. But that intuitive response is a result of YEARS of experience and practice. It still helps me to have the book to hand, in case I need to remind myself about ALL the different meanings a card can carry. It also gives me a place to add in new insights, as they arise. And... it certainly helps to convince skeptic querents that I'm not just making it up as I go along. It allows THEM to have their own Eureka! moment during the reading, and contribute their insight into what the cards are telling them about their own life.

This personal book method of reading turns reader/querent encounters into an interactive experience, which benefits both! The reader doesn't have to guess at everything, and the querent goes away stunned by the accuracy of the reading, and convinced about the power of the tarot.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Chariot

August 11, 2023

Lots of excellent advice here already!

What is intuition? I agree with Chariot - a big part of intuition is experience. If you are a lot around babies, you know intuitively, i.e. without thinking or analyzing it, whether a baby cries because she's in pain, bored or hungry. You just hear it. A doctor with years of experience will do all kinds of checks etc but their intuition may tell them the diagnosis even before they have the results. The more you know, the faster your reactions will come, and the more secure you will feel.

So trust time, trust your own efforts, and don't forget that mistakes are part of the learning process. Write down your readings, re-read them after a while and learn from the things you didn't see at the time.

Another thing - develop your sense of narratives. A tarot card is like a movie still - ask yourself, what happened before, what happened afterwards, what is possible, what is unlikely in the future? You can take three cards and ask yourself: if these were three movie scenes, what would the movie be about? What happened in the scenes we don't see? Where might it lead?

And this is not even difficult - it's one of the skills we humans have built-in. We develop narratives all the time. It's the only way to make sense of the world: to understand what happens around us, to make sense of our lives. Trust yourself. Think of your own biography - it's a narrative where one point, one event, one decision, leads to the next. Even chaotic times or events kind of make sense once you've reached a point of distance. You know how to do this. You do it all the time.

Don't let your self-evaluation as "not intuitive" discourage you. First of all, you have more intuition than you think. You read faces, you see whether your partner is upset or your colleague is in a bad mood. You connect events into narratives. You react to colours, shapes, sounds and movement. They have meaning for you.

That means you have the basic skills needed to develop into a tarot reader. Tarot is a language. You can learn it. The more you use it, the more fluent you will get. There mere fact that you're interested in tarot means that you can learn it.

There are many reading styles. The impressive psychic reading style is not the only one. Work with what you have. It's what we all do. I've been reading tarot for three decades now and still feel there is soo much to learn from others. And that's what makes tarot so interesting.

August 11, 2023

I just wanted to add one more thing, one of the tools I really found excellent was the book 21 Ways To Read A Tarot Card by Mary Greer. If you really dedicate yourself to completing all 21 steps of this workbook you will walk out the other side with a lot of confidence in your own intuition. If you give this a try, I highly recommend you do the 21 steps as a novice, then once you have completed all of them go back and do the Journeyman exercises. You will blow yourself away! you will literally experience first hand how much you have grown, and you will also walk out with a good idea of what reading style(s) work best for you. Not to mention you will be super comfortable with your deck by the end of it all. I cannot recommend this workbook highly enough.

So you should not get into tarot reading if you are not naturally intuitive?

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