For those who have been reading awhile, what do you wish you would have known when you started your journey?

[GreatDane]

I did look at multiple resources re reading, many meanings of each card, but then before I got really into reading, I first journaled with each card.  Would look at it and see what meaning resonated.  That worked for me.  And as I went into Tarot as my own personal journey, not to become a reader of Tarot for others, I did what worked for me.

 

WHAT didn't work for me and what I wish I figured out, was that just because you find a deck attractive, doesn't make it a "reader" for you.  I have passed along a lot of decks, because once I got them (oh pretty!), I realized they just weren't readers for me.  I was picking out decks like artwork, not because of how they resonated with me.  

 

And it's easy, when one starts to want more decks.  But I'm not a collector, just a reader, but I wasn't sure in the beginning what would be readers for me.  Now it's much easier to pass on decks.  I have moved along FAR more decks than are in my current Tarot collection.  And I know this is about Tarot, but same goes for Lenormand for me too.

 

SO THAT is something I guess I had to go through to find out, but looking back, could have saved a lot of money  🙂

 

WHAT is something you wished you would have known starting out.

[FindYourSovereignty]

Similar to you, I wish I had been aware of the difference between reading a deck and collecting decks. I feel like there was a period of time that took me away from connecting with a deck, which is very valuable, IMO, because I kept buying them, looking for just the ‘right’ one. At least that is what I told myself, when in reality, I was simply avoiding the study or time connecting and bonding with a deck. It all turned out just fine, but, oh my, the money and time spent was truly extreme along with the number of decks I moved along, and still need to. It is, tbh, embarrassing and humbling. To support this, I wish I knew that tarotube is not an indication of what it really looks like to read tarot: you don’t need to have new decks coming in each week, you don’t have to have a tarot channel to be a legitimate reader, you aren’t necessarily reading for the collective, you don’t have to know astrology, etc.

 

From a learning to read perspective, I wish I had started right away talking out loud about what I was seeing happening in the image. Like not just thinking about it in my head, but hearing my voice saying what I was thinking. Using the cards for personal reflection and healing, the focus was on journaling and it was easy to never have to speak about it. Now I encourage everyone to use their voice.

 

 

 

[Nemia]

I wish had known about the connection between intuition and experience. I felt so un-intuitive, so clumsy at first, and it took me a while to understand that like with everything else, doing something in a flowing, intuitive way can mean that it's the outcome of experience. So even if you feel tarot is not for you because you don't have natural intuition, remember that by continuing to work with the tarot, the cards WILL begin to speak to you. Maybe it's only a matter of self-confidence, I don't know, for me it probably was. Maybe I had to coax out the intuition that was always there? Anyway, don't be discouraged. 

 

And about the difference between deck collecting just for study and enjoyment, and learning which decks read well - I knew that in theory 🙂 but now I really KNOW it. It turns out that even decks that I thought of as not-so-good readers deserve another change. Somewhere on the way, we outgrow some decks and grow into others. 

 

Another thing I wish I had known from the start: not every reading is the same. Most readings are performed by drawing cards/a card. However, I had powerful readings by going through my deck and picking the card I needed without thinking about the traditional meaning, just reacting to the artwork. Then, I could work with this card and find out why it spoke to me. This is especially good for self-exploration readings. 

 

And Mary Greer's permutation technique has also been a way of getting more depth into my readings. By moving the cards from one position to the next, you discover new aspects of the message. No card is there by mistake, and they interact with each other, and throw light on each other. 

 

Another thing: instead of searching books and the internet for the right spread, learn to make your own. A tailor-made spread can give precise answers. 

 

I'm a visual person, and noticing HOW I put the cards in a reading influences the way I read them. If you have three cards, it makes a huge difference whether you put them in a line, a triangle, or the shape of stairs. The difference in meaning is much clearer if you lay out a definite picture or map. You decide beforehand, and once you're finished with that way of laying out the cards, permutate and move them around. 

 

For me, "clarification cards" don't clarify. I prefer to milk a smaller number of cards by changing the layout and positions, instead of pulling more and more cards. It may be different for you. 

 

Last but not least: there is no tarot police. Make up your own rules. 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Nemia

[Misterei]

2 hours ago, GreatDane said:

... just because you find a deck attractive, doesn't make it a "reader" for you.  I have passed along a lot of decks, because once I got them (oh pretty!), I realized they just weren't readers for me ... I'm not a collector, just a reader, but I wasn't sure in the beginning what would be readers for me.

I am a collector ... but yeah. At a certain point it became all about the dopamine rush of having money to buy decks after being so broke for so long.

I had to learn to discern if a deck would hit for me, or if I genuinely needed it for my historical research and teaching.

I had to learn authentic desires vs. consumerism. My collection is about 70 decks and feels complete. I've not bought a new one for about a year.

 

50 minutes ago, Nemia said:

Another thing: instead of searching books and the internet for the right spread, learn to make your own.

LOL I started at age 15. I had one book: Eden Gray's Tarot Revealed which taught the CC. I did NOTHING but CC for the first 15 years of my tarot life. Then I bought another book and learned a second spread. 🤭

I started making my own spreads 30 years into my tarot practice. I don't know if I regret this, tho.

I STILL do CC much of the time. It hits for me. But I also enjoy the freedom of options.

50 minutes ago, Nemia said:

For me, "clarification cards" don't clarify ...

This leads to something really deep that I WISH I had understood. B/c I started reading at age 15 ... there were a whole lotta years of using Tarot to obsess over boys. I made all the mistakes: 5 readings a day asking about one guy. 20 clarifiers on a 10-card spread. 🤣 I did this for YEARS.

Sun, Mercury, and Ketu in H7 ... there was no way I wasn't going to be obsessed with relationships. I still am ... just in a more mature way haha.

As I got into 30s ... it shifted a bit more toward money and career.

I now love that my approach feels very pure, spiritual, emotional, but practical when I need to be. I seldom to never feel tempted to use Tarot as an indulgence of obsession.

But this solidified in my 40s and 50s ... maturing as a human being and as a reader.

Edited September 25, 2023 by Misterei

[DanielJUK]

In the first years of learning the tarot, I was obsessed with learning meanings from books off by heart. I would study all these books and try to learn all the different meanings. I was anxious about not being able to handle a combination of cards that came up. This was the wrong approach, it is better to explore the cards yourself and to read combinations in a more intuitive flowing way. Whilst learning it all gave a good foundation, in practical usage it's just reciting author's meanings. I should have found my own way and ideas sooner.

[DanielJUK]

I've moved this thread to the general discussion area as it doesn't fit in with the business of tarot section, for professional discussions 🙂

[GreatDane]

I so agree, Dan!  I found one book I liked after checking out several.  But for it was journaling, after getting some basic common meanings to start, I would take a deck, look  at a card for less than a minute and write my thoughts.  Usually just a handful of words and/or a sentence or two.  THAT was what helped me the most.  To bond with my decks.  May readings flow easier.

[Chariot]

Gosh.  When I started back in the late 1970s, in a midwestern state, in a relatively small town, deck collecting mania didn't exist in my circle of friends!  I mean, there was the RWS Deck available to me.  Period.  AND I had to make a trip to 'the city' to get it, after being introduced to tarot by a friend.  The only book available to me was the little white book that came with the deck!  So I had to wing it a bit—which I did.  So wonderful that there are now so many great tarot instructional books out there, as well as high-quality online content.  These gave me a massive boost in learning about the tarot.

The only other deck I bought early on (the 80s, if memory serves me right) was the Hanson-Roberts deck, mostly because I wanted a non-scary deck to use to read for people who were not totally comfortable with tarot.  (I still use both of my original decks, by the way—they're now over or around 40 years old! I will never willingly part with them.)

I also tried the Motherpeace Tarot in the mid 80s, but soon gave it away.  Just too muddled for me to engage with, and the roundness, rather than being an asset, became an obstacle for me.  Motherpeace never made it to Scotland when I did.

I've acquired more decks since moving to Scotland in 1986 and having big city bookstores on my doorstep—but I'm not a collector, as such. YouTube unboxing/flip through videos are a godsend for saving me money!  The 80s and 90s decks that I bought in bookstores and through Amazon I had to take on faith, because I couldn't see all the cards before opening the package. There were a few disappointments (like plain pip cards with no RWS-style images on them) which have since 'left' my collection.  Of course like most tarot people, I'm always on the lookout for 'the perfect deck.'  I've come to the conclusion, however, that none are perfect—but many of them work. And I like the notion that my mood dictates which deck I read with on a given day.   I do have a small collection of around 30 decks.  They all get used.

Keeping a journal is something I only did intermittently at the start ...but now do constantly.   And as I learned to read the cards, I wrote up my own 'wee book' as my reference for card meanings and other insights.  I've re-done that several times as I learn more about the cards.

When I started out, the ONLY spread I knew was the Celtic Cross!  It never entered my head to try any other spread.  I thought it was a given ...you play Chess on a Chessboard; you read Tarot using the Celtic Cross.  So while the CC is an excellent spread that I still use a lot, I do wish I'd known that it was not only possible, but perfectly okay to use and/or devise other, simpler spreads.  That's been a big breakthrough for me.

Learning how to construct a meaningful question is something I wish I'd developed earlier as well.  Makes such a difference!  I spent many years getting answers to questions I hadn't actually asked—which was disconcerting and undermined my confidence in doing accurate readings.  I've learned that if you ask a focused question and use a focused spread to answer it, you'll get a useful result.

I have always used reversals, but have hugely expanded my understanding of them over the years.  Ditto learning more about elemental dignities and the significance of certain numbers in the tarot journey.

My biggest breakthrough in recent times (actually only a couple of years ago) was learning about clarifying cards, and how to use them to pinpoint card meanings.  (And of course, how NOT to use them ...they can be badly misused or over-used.)  But the occasional clarifier has given my accuracy a huge boost, and saves me having to guess at what's being said.

I wish I had known when I started that the cards don't lie—if you are focused when reading—but not everything the tarot tells you is a BIG DEAL.  The cards, especially the Major Arcana cards, can present everything as life-or-death issues—and they're usually not.  How many times have I drawn the Death card, the Tower card, The Devil, the 10 of Swords, the 3 of Swords, etc ...and lived to tell the tale?  Sometimes Death simply means I finally cleared out my junk drawer!   Calmness and a sense of perspective is what I struggled to hang on to, when I first started reading.  Instead, I lived in constant dread of certain cards.  Eeeee. Heaven knows why I had the guts to carry on at all! 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Chariot

[Chariot]

On 9/25/2023 at 9:01 PM, Misterei said:

... there were a whole lotta years of using Tarot to obsess over boys. I made all the mistakes: 5 readings a day asking about one guy. 20 clarifiers on a 10-card spread. 🤣 I did this for YEARS.

Sun, Mercury, and Ketu in H7 ... there was no way I wasn't going to be obsessed with relationships. I still am ... just in a more mature way haha.

As I got into 30s ... it shifted a bit more toward money and career.

I now love that my approach feels very pure, spiritual, emotional, but practical when I need to be. I seldom to never feel tempted to use Tarot as an indulgence of obsession.

But this solidified in my 40s and 50s ... maturing as a human being and as a reader.

Oh yes.  Been there, done that, bought the T shirt....  Ha ha!   Age does have its perks, doesn't it?

[Misterei]

3 hours ago, Chariot said:

...When I started back in the late 1970s, in a midwestern state, in a relatively small town, deck collecting mania didn't exist ... there was the RWS Deck available to me.  Period.  AND I had to make a trip to 'the city' to get it... The only book available to me was the little white book that came with the deck!  

OMG! TOTALLY THIS. Although I was lucky b/c I had Eden Gray's Tarot Revealed book.

 

@Chariot said
<<When I started out, the ONLY spread I knew was the Celtic Cross!  It never entered my head to try any other spread.  I thought it was a given ...you play Chess on a Chessboard; you read Tarot using the Celtic Cross.>>

 

I know, right? Me too! It was the ONE spread in my ONE book 😇

 

@Chariot said
<<Learning how to construct a meaningful question is something I wish I'd developed earlier as well.>>

 

LOL I didn't really need this skill for the first 15 years of "Will X and I be together? Will we break up? Will we get back together? Will X break up with Y and come back to me? Does Z like me? Is Z still hung-up on Q?

Now that I read for clients, correctly framing the Question is in the Top Three Skills I Use.

 

@Chariot said

 

<<I wish I had known when I started that the cards don't lie—if you are focused when reading—but not everything the tarot tells you is a BIG DEAL.  The cards, especially the Major Arcana cards, can present everything as life-or-death issues—and they're usually not.  How many times have I drawn the Death card, the Tower card, The Devil, the 10 of Swords, the 3 of Swords, etc ...and lived to tell the tale?  Sometimes Death simply means I finally cleared out my junk drawer! >>

 

What a lovely way to put it. LOL and yes ... I've been getting Death card with respect to my Swedish Death Cleaning project };>

Edited September 29, 2023 by Misterei

[Raggydoll]

When I first stated out, I would have really like to know that there was such a thing as ‘majors only’ decks. Had I know this, I would have been way more specific when I asked for a tarot deck for Christmas. My grandmother had to ask my uncle to get it because he lived in Stockholm and that’s where these type of odd things were mainly sold. I wish I had been gifted the RWS but he didn’t know anything about tarot so he bought an odd majors only deck instead. It made learning very difficult. I supplemented with regular playing cards but had no good books to use, so it was very experimental 😆 But even if Eden grays book had been available, I wouldn’t have been able to read it. My English wasn’t that developed when I started with tarot.
 

Another thing that would have been incredibly helpful is if I had understood the structure of the deck. I don’t remember it being explained anywhere. 

[Chariot]

1 hour ago, Raggydoll said:

When I first stated out, I would have really like to know that there was such a thing as ‘majors only’ decks. Had I know this, I would have been way more specific when I asked for a tarot deck for Christmas. My grandmother had to ask my uncle to get it because he lived in Stockholm and that’s where these type of odd things were mainly sold. I wish I had been gifted the RWS but he didn’t know anything about tarot so he bought an odd majors only deck instead. It made learning very difficult. I supplemented with regular playing cards but had no good books to use, so it was very experimental 😆 But even if Eden grays book had been available, I wouldn’t have been able to read it. My English wasn’t that developed when I started with tarot.
 

Another thing that would have been incredibly helpful is if I had understood the structure of the deck. I don’t remember it being explained anywhere. 

Interesting indeed!  Living as an American, as I was then, I always assumed it was easier to get started with Tarot if you were a European!  I had the notion that Tarot was a European thing, and that the USA was late to the party.  Interesting to learn that wasn't (necessarily) the case ...particularly in Sweden. 🙂

Yeah, us oldsters did have an uphill struggle to obtain our first decks and to learn what the heck they could do.

I had an acquaintance who became a friend—she brought her tarot deck (RWS) over to my house one afternoon, and did a 'reading' for me, for the purpose of introducing me to tarot.  She was just learning tarot herself, so we knocked heads together, playing around with readings and meanings.  She was ahead of me in learning, but not far ahead.  I was incredibly intrigued, but if I hadn't had that friend, I suspect I would never have introduced myself to the tarot.  Friends would come to me for readings once I had my own deck (I never charged them) so I was 'The Tarot Lady.'

For many years after that, once my friend had moved away, I was the only one I knew who did tarot.  It wasn't till I got settled in Scotland, in the 1990's, that tarot really took off for me.  I began to get a few more decks, and books, etc, which is where my real learning began. 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Chariot

[Raggydoll]

6 minutes ago, Chariot said:

Interesting indeed!  Living as an American, as I was then, I always assumed it was easier to get started with Tarot if you were a European!  I had the notion that Tarot was a European thing, and that the USA was late to the party.  Interesting to learn that wasn't (necessarily) the case ...particularly in Sweden. 🙂

Yeah, us oldsters did have an uphill struggle to obtain our first decks and to learn what the heck they could do.

I had an acquaintance who became a friend—she brought her tarot deck (RWS) over to my house one afternoon, and did a 'reading' for me, for the purpose of introducing me to tarot.  She was just learning tarot herself, so we knocked heads together, playing around with readings and meanings.  She was ahead of me in learning, but not far ahead.  I was incredibly intrigued, but if I hadn't had that friend, I suspect I would never have introduced myself to the tarot.  Friends would come to me for readings once I had my own deck (I never charged them) so I was 'The Tarot Lady.'

For many years after that, once my friend had moved away, I was the only one I knew who did tarot.  It wasn't till I got settled in Scotland, in the 1990's, that tarot really took off for me.  I began to get a few more decks, and books, etc, which is where my real learning began. 

Tarot is not an old tradition here. People have used playing cards and lenormand decks and all sorts of other non-card related techniques, but not tarot. That’s a recent thing. 

[Chariot]

8 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

Tarot is not an old tradition here. People have used playing cards and lenormand decks and all sorts of other non-card related techniques, but not tarot. That’s a recent thing. 

Yeah, that's one of the things I learned, once I got access to books, etc.  🙂  Tarot is relatively new, the way we use it now. I had heard of 'fortune telling cards' and that some people could tell 'fortunes' with playing cards, but I never encountered this other than as a myth.  I do remember, as a young person, looking through a deck of playing cards and wondering how that kind of fortune-telling worked.  Those cards didn't say anything to me at all.  Lenormand is something I never even heard of until very recently.

I guess what's NOT new is the desire for divination in some form.  We don't kill animals and examine their entrails these days ...instead we use tarot decks!  But the impulse to know the unknowable is still with us.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Chariot

[Arania]

I wish I had known about the Thoth deck as a teenie, it would have been helpful to learn in alongside the RWS.

[Nemia]

Well, I grew up in Germany, and tarot was something I knew of a long time ago. I had my first reading done when I was a teenager (it took me some years until I dared to start reading for myself), and it was done with a Thoth. Germany has a pretty strong tarot community, and people take it in all kinds of directions. Playing cards (German and French), Lenormand and all kinds of other systems have been popular for generations. There are also popular idioms based on the cards, for example "he looks like Seven of Spades" (Pik Sieben) - he looks out of place or grumpy. 

 

The Internet has brought a lot of ideas, reading styles and approaches from the US, and along with a lot of great things, it has also brought the RWS monoculture of "let your first deck be an RWS". 

 

I encourage beginners to start with a deck that inspires you and speaks to you, and it doesn't have to be a deck from the RWS tradition. 

[chantelalchemy]

On 9/25/2023 at 12:21 PM, Nemia said:

I'm a visual person, and noticing HOW I put the cards in a reading influences the way I read them. If you have three cards, it makes a huge difference whether you put them in a line, a triangle, or the shape of stairs. The difference in meaning is much clearer if you lay out a definite picture or map. You decide beforehand, and once you're finished with that way of laying out the cards, permutate and move them around. 

I’m very curious about this. Do you mean you decide the layout of the cards, and then when you pull them, YOU put them in the order you think they should be? I feel like if I did that I’d be “cheating,” or like… making the outcome or answer something *I* want, instead of what the cards are telling me. Does that make sense?
 

I’m fairly new (3 years), and I still struggle with these types of things. When I read for myself (which is 95% of the time), I don’t even have a layout. It’s like I just pull a couple of cards and try to make sense of them. I’m sure I’m doing it wrong… I need more structure and direction with my readings, I think. Aghhhhhh! I just want to know it all right now! Lol  

[Raggydoll]

15 minutes ago, chantelalchemy said:

I’m very curious about this. Do you mean you decide the layout of the cards, and then when you pull them, YOU put them in the order you think they should be? I feel like if I did that I’d be “cheating,” or like… making the outcome or answer something *I* want, instead of what the cards are telling me. Does that make sense?
 

I’m fairly new (3 years), and I still struggle with these types of things. When I read for myself (which is 95% of the time), I don’t even have a layout. It’s like I just pull a couple of cards and try to make sense of them. I’m sure I’m doing it wrong… I need more structure and direction with my readings, I think. Aghhhhhh! I just want to know it all right now! Lol  

There are techniques where an experienced reader can choose to alter the layout after the interpretation is done, often with the aim to create or facilitate change. I don’t know if that’s what Nemia is talking about, but the method that I’m talking about is typically known as transformative tarot reading. It is not done in order to provide alternative interpretations but to help a person move towards their goals and release blocks (which, for example, could be done by turning reversed cards upright). It can be both a psychological tool and a magical tool.
 

Though since you’re a beginner, I’d stick to the basics. Structured readings with clear spread positions can be very helpful. Just make sure the spread is relevant and that you understand every position. If not, tweak and rephrase as necessary. 

[iris]

I wish I had told my younger self that it's okay to go for the "obvious" meaning of the card & not second-guess myself. Sometimes that's exactly what is happening to my readee & my deck is helping me by reducing guesswork by giving the most obvious card ever!

 

I also wished to say to my (recent) past self that, while the learning, is never ending, I have built sufficient discipline & neutrality that it doesn't matter how many times a week I pulled my card. I can pull a card once in a blue moon but if I still treat it like a crutch, the rarity/frequency makes no difference. It is how I approach & value my reading that should change.

[Laurelverse]

I wish I had known that I would be reading tarot when I was at my most mind-body-spirit healthiest and that whenever I suddenly stopped?  It was usually when I actually needed to be doing readings, journaling, self-help work the most.   If 40-something me could go back and give teenage me with her first Voyager and Motherpeace decks a great big hug and tell her to be brave and something called the Internet was coming and to just keep up the daily reading and writing in journals, I would.  ❤️

 

[Guest]

I wish I were more discerning when buying decks and not treated their acquisition as retail therapy. 

 

I also wish I discovered earlier how a holistic, integrative analysis of the cards I drew can paint a more accurate picture than the mere application of a card's possible meaning/s solely on its spread position. 

[persephonerose]

When I first started I brought so many decks. Now I like to only keep a few that I resonate with.

[harlowsimaginarium]

I wish I’d kept a journal and taken a more holistic approach to leaning tarot rather than a card by card, rote learning approach. I feel like I still struggle with really knowing the cards on a deeper level since I still haven’t really developed a journalling habit. 

[Tanga]

There is nothing I wish I'd known then. My journey is my journey as I see it now.

 

I do wish - that there had been multi-cultural decks at the time, as that was the thing I most struggled with, settling on a deck to use

because the imagery just never quite spoke to me - which interfered with my progress.

[GreatDane]

harlow and Tanga, I see where you're both coming from. I did journal when I first started and that helped immensely.  I DO wish I would have gotten the memo that pretty doesn't mean a reader, but that was something I had to learn for myself.  So many more decks moved along than what I currently have.