First Steps with The Tarot

[and_it_spoke]

Every journey starts somewhere, and we did not all wake up one day immersed in these forums. 

 

I am at the beginning of my journey, and my steps have been very basic... a class, a general Tarot book, daily meditation on cards and doing a one card 'day to day' draw for some co-workers. These baby steps are good for now, and I know I'll need - and want! - to take bigger steps as I familiarize myself with tools of Tarot and refine the focus of my energies to best utilize those tools.

 

So what were your first steps? Or were they leaps? Was there any single event that made you think 'Now, I can do this"?

 

 

[Rose Lalonde]

Welcome to the forum. What you call 'baby steps' actually encompasses a lot. Those are all great practices.

One milestone for me was looking at what isn't drawn in a reading. I'd ask a sample question and then go through the deck, making a pile of the cards (or combo of cards) I thought most indicated a certain answer, and a pile I thought would indicate a different answer. I'd look at what suit seemed most relevant to the type of question I was asking. Then shuffling.  If I drew all positive cards for the reading, but none of them were the cards I'd set aside as being indicators of the answer I (or a querent) might've been hoping for, that was a way to see that, although encouraging, the reading wasn't pointing to the resolution I had envisioned. It had something else to say. That helped me with confidence and with clarity about the focus of a reading. 

Edited January 30, 2020 by Rose Lalonde

[jdusk]

Agreed those are some great steps to take!

 

My first steps into tarot were much less organized. I had one deck on a shelf for years before it really clicked with me, every once in a while I'd do a whole spread and run to the booklet to interpret every card. Not ideal - I think that approach was very tiring, and I was a teenager with not the best attention span, so it was very sporadic. I don't even count those years when trying to think how long I've been reading tarot.

 

When it finally did click with me for whatever reason, I really dug in. I read about the fool's journey and marked in my deck's LWB where it seemed to diverge from the traditional RWS meanings (it was the Deviant Moon, which at least mostly followed along). I tried to study the cards visually and search for symbolism, and I'd go through them like flashcards - if I basically understood the meaning of a card, it would go in one pile, and if I didn't it would go in a separate pile, and I'd focus on those "unknown" cards until I felt more familiar with the whole deck. (I still do that when I get new decks that use non-traditional symbolism, or oracles) I definitely read a lot of tips on how to learn and connect to a deck, though at this point I'm very fuzzy on the details.

 

And from there it just kind of exploded into a slight obsession. 😂

[Symph]

I honestly just watched video after video on youtube, I think the channel I watched the most was 

https://www.youtube.com/user/TarotOracle

After I had a handle on that I came straight here and within just a few days I was in the mentorship program.  I devoured a few books, especially the one that came with my second deck the Druidcraft.  I still consider myself at the beginning of my journey though, and I've had a lot of setbacks and dry spells, I'm at a period now where just talking to forum people and being active on this forum is the only "practice" I'm getting though I want to get back to studying and doing readings soon.  I would definitely recommend the books by Rachel Pollack, especially "78 degrees of Wisdom"  I believe is what it's called.  That book has been crucial in giving me a deeper understanding of the fool's journey and the cards themselves.  Benebell Wynn or "Holistic Tarot" on youtube is a great resource as well.  

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxy7GWlYL8RSb2JwJrzh8PA

[Arania]

Yeah same book for me, after buying a mini-RW as a young teenager. That was long before the internet,computers were not even a thing, and there were no other Tarot decks around for me to buy.

 

But I learned with playing cards long before that.

[and_it_spoke]

Good, good stuff here. I apprciate that there are a lot of different approaches. For whatever reason I occasionally get concerned about not following some, to-me-unknown formal path. But I'm glad learning your own way is a very common theme.

 

@jdusk, that sounds liek a really good, boot-camp kind of exercise. I'm going to try that out.

 

@Rose Lalonde, 1) My kids love Homestuck, so seeing your avatar/name makes me smile, and 2) The query method sounds interesting - how did you formulate your question? Did you have a way to verify the result you were hoping for, or was it more of an exercise in changing your perspective based ont he cards drawn?

 

 

[Rose Lalonde]

4 hours ago, and_it_spoke said:

 

@Rose Lalonde, 1) My kids love Homestuck, so seeing your avatar/name makes me smile, and 2) The query method sounds interesting - how did you formulate your question? Did you have a way to verify the result you were hoping for, or was it more of an exercise in changing your perspective based ont he cards drawn?

Early on, I was reading for myself (mainly the "How can I best..." type of questions), but I was concerned about bias, so I did it to be clear about card specifics and not read what I wanted to see into any card that looked positive or what I feared most into any card that looked negative.  When I started doing reading circles on the (now closed) AT forum, it was a way to feel more confident at first, because people frequently ask things that boil down to, Will I be in a romantic relationship in the near future? It was more obviously predictive than what I'd been reading. In that case, I would go through the deck first to look for cards/card combos that indicated a relationship. Then when I shuffled and drew, if none of those appeared and I got a reading like The Wheel of Fortune ~ 9 of Disks ~ Ace of Wands, I'd feel confident saying, No, I don't see a relationship in the near future; instead I see positive ways you can focus on yourself now that will help to set the stage later, and talk about that.  When the answer isn't what someone is hoping to hear, and the cards look positive, they may question the reading, and I understand why, but all of the 78 cards were available in the deck, and to me it's important that there were cards that could have clearly indicated a relationship, and they didn't appear. 

[DanielJUK]

I've done my first steps twice! 🙂

 

When I was 13, I bought a "fortune telling kit" in a bookshop chain here, it was in the occult book section of this bookshop, eerily in the basement. I actually had to get my parents to buy it because they said you had to be over 16 (the shop chain's policy not law) and my parents were happy to get something I showed interest in. I think I was always interested in occult topics from a really young age and so it called to me. It was a simple kit of different fortune telling items in a box set. The tarot was a small deck which was a Tarot of Marseilles in style (with hindsight it was so not good for beginners with no illustrated minor suit pictures) but the book that was so helpful to me with meanings. My first steps were buying more books and doing readings with it and looking up the meanings in different books. I then bought a RWS deck which was so much easier than the kit deck. I didn't progress much with it in my teens past than looking up the meanings in books, I read for people, my friends, my family and even took my tarot stuff to my Christian High School 🙂but always used the books, I never tried it on my own or just read what I saw, it never occurred to me!  When I was about 20, I put it all away in a drawer, I just felt it was the end of that phase and didn't seem to need it anymore.

 

I rediscovered tarot when I was about 35, I was in a bad depression and I don't really get depressed but I was feeling very pessimistic about everything and could not get out of this funk which lasted really all year. I took my RWS deck and books out of the drawer again and I think read each day if things would get better. I would do more and more self readings and studied it and went further than my teen years had taken me. I used to look up meanings of cards on google, I loved looking up different opinions of the cards online to give me inspiration. Doing that I came across a tarot community, there was no internet when I used tarot last in my life and found a tarot forum before this one. I think the online and community aspect of the first steps the second time was really important, I was isolated with it as a teen, I didn't know any other readers and I only had books. The books of that time (the 80's) were so inflexible in their style (I have reread some of them since and they seem hilarious now), they were very like you read tarot like this and DO NOT stray from my (the book authors) system. Like you must wrap it in a silk cloth for protection and you must read like this exactly. The really nice thing when I came back to it is that you can find your own method, there is a path with it that is different for everyone. I came back to tarot at a really nice time where there was so many resources and a new more progressive and free method to learning. Learning the tarot really helped my depression, I think the readings comforted me but also I was studying and working on something productive. In my first year I could see real measurable progress and that really helped my funk, I had a new interest and hobby and I had got better at it from working at it! I think reviewing my progress after about one year of doing daily cards to really explore the cards was my now I can do this moment!

 

So my advice on your first steps is to find your own way that works for you, you might read a book or post online and it doesn't suit your way with tarot but other ways will fit you perfectly! There are many paths on this tarot journey, each reader on this forum has their own method and style! It's also a journey which I think is for life, you don't have to learn everything about it in 12 months! If you stick with it, you will keep learning new things all the time so don't worry if you don't know everything at once, it's small steps, not giant leaps

[Guest]

This is such a lovely thread! When I was 11, I became fascinated with metaphysical things. This was also way back in the "decade that fashion forgot"- the 80's. I saved my pocket money diligently for three months and then purchased my first Tarot deck- which similarly to @DanielJUK, was a TdM. I remember spending hours going through the cards, and laying them out in different formations. The only resources I had were the little white book and the local public library in the country town where I grew up. To put things in perspective and give you an idea of what kind of place it was, in 1989 that library decided to install a statue of a sheepdog "to attract the youth". Sigh. But through spending time with the cards and asking them questions, they began to speak to me. One of the exercises I liked to do was to ask a question of the Tarot and then to have each of the Major Arcana cards answer it in their own voice. That really helped me to understand the perspective of the cards. E.g. "If the Tarot is a path, what kind of path is it for you?" Or, "If the Tarot expresses wisdom, what kind of wisdom do you think it offers?" What does the Fool answer? How about the Magician, The High Priestess and so on. I would write down a response from the perspective of each of the Majors. That simple question and response led me into a very deep personal relationship. Many years later, the Universal Waite deck fell into my lap, and that was my first RWS deck. I fell in love, and I still have that old deck which is about 22 years old now! Honestly, I love all of the amazing decks that are coming out these days, but I always cycle back to my beloved.

From those humble beginnings, and doing readings for myself, I began to learn more about the hidden structures, correspondences, and symbolism in the Tarot. I let things come naturally.

I found creating a Tarot journal invaluable- and even to this day, I go through a card a day, reflecting on it as the day passes and I read the meanings, symbolism in whichever Tarot book I might be reading at the moment until I complete reading that book. Then I start again . There's always more to learn.

I second all of the book recommendations above, (Pollack!!!!) and in addition, I found the following helpful for beginners : Tarot for Yourself: Mary K Greer, 21 Ways to read a Tarot Card by Mary K Greer, Tarot Tips by Ruth and Wald Amberstone, Spiritual Tarot by Echols, Mueller and Thomson. Good luck!!!!

[theholysticvagabond]

Good and cute topic (that allows us to share our little stories with tarot). 💗

 

 

--part 1 😂--

To learn tarot, I started to cut in parts the cards to help me not being overwhelmed.

- I started first with understanding the meaning of the different suits, the elements attached to it, and which social classes it was supposed to represent (back then).

- then I focused on the numerology, and how it connects the tarot cards together and how each suits reacts differently to this evolution of the cycle

- then I dived into the Major Arcana, then the Court Cards, then the rest. And then going back, but learned by suits.

 

One good exercise that helped me connect with the card was to draw my life by using the Major Arcana. You take all the Major and you place them next to each other in order to make a story, but this story is the story of your life. It worked so well for me. I was like "Damn, I can place naturally every card like if the card was made for me".

 

After doing many exercises, like this one or the "one card a day", I started to listen to podcasts. 

Because I was an intern at my work and my missions required few intellectual capacity (I was copying and pasting ALL DAY), I was like "How can I better use my time but in a way my coworker will not notice I'm doing something else?" The answer: headphones and podcasts ! 😎

After I discovered this trick, I literally spent 7 to 8 hours per day LISTENING to tarot podcasts and this for maybe 2 months, and I learned so much. 

Helped me having way more layers in my comprehension of tarot. I understood the history, different type of practices and beliefs, how to launch a tarot business, how to have confidence, how to read for others, which spread to use, astrology, moon cycles and more.

I also listen to many testimonies of tarot readers.

 

--part 2 😂--

After I got all of this knowledges, I wanted to develop more my practice of it. 

I was already doing readings for my close friends but after this, I literally offered reading to ALL people I was meeting (even flings I had 😂🤘). 

Because of this, my friends started to talk about it and then the friends of my friends wanted to try also. That is how I tried to do it with people I knew nothing about.

 

Now I'm at a stage where I try to do distance reading and general readings. It's really challenging. But well, challenge is good.

 

And to conclude, when did I get the "Now I can do this" ? Actually, several times ! Each time I made a step, It gave me the confidence to do more. 

I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes, I go backward. I doubt about my capacities. But there is no secret, the more you spend time learning and especially practicing, the more you'll got the I CAN DO IT. 💫