AUTHOR’S NOTE: I recently had cause to go back and look at a post from 2018 in which I gave my opinion about what a beginning tarot reader needs to know concerning the art of divination. The second “diviner’s maxim” I presented after mentioning the advice of Socrates to “Know thyself” was “Know thy stuff.”

Although I will attach a link to that post for my more recent followers who may not have drilled down that far into my past work, I want to bring up a couple of specific points from that essay:

“The modern theory that the honest truth of a matter can be found in whatever notion pops up spontaneously at the time by simply looking at the cards won’t get much of a sympathetic hearing from me. At best, I see free-associating from the visual images as secondary to acquiring and applying a solid knowledge base; it may add spice to the narrative but by itself it frequently makes for a rather thin sauce. Intuition is a catch-all word for “inspired guesswork” that doesn’t always bear up under more seasoned scrutiny.”

This is the crux of my argument. The “instant gratification” mindset that is so evident in modern culture has no patience for taking the time to absorb the traditional wisdom. (When I’m feeling especially cynical I wonder whether that demographic can even read anything more challenging than a social-media text.) Absent a foundation in experiential knowledge, intuitive (and particularly psychic) reading at its worst can too easily turn into “fluff” that has no obvious link to the question or topic of interest, so the reader must strive mightily to identify some commonality. I can only imagine the querent sitting there like John Belushi in one of his “samurai” skits, with a quizzical look on his face, going “Huh?”

Quoting further:

“The second tenet of the card-reader’s catechism after “Know thyself” is “Know thy stuff.” You will no doubt realize early in your tarot journey that you have a burning passion for the art of reading and will feel the compulsion to build an accessible stockpile of knowledge to fuel the fire. This was recently presented to me in the form of aphorisms such as “Know your cards,” “Know your spreads,” and “Know your context” (that is, the nature of the inquiry being presented to you). If you have a reasonably robust memory, your most insightful observations will coalesce over time into a nucleus of interconnected wisdom . . . and the mere sight of a given card in the layout for a reading will trigger a set of vivid associations that don’t have to be looked up.”

All of which brings me to the subjects of free-association from the images and freestyle reading in general. For those who don’t like to read tarot books (or, in this age of instantaneous social-media connectivity, books in general) and who feel stifled by formal (and usually “positional”) tarot spreads, it is all too common to just “wing it” on both counts. In the first instance they look at the “canned narrative vignettes” on cards with scenic pictures and gin up some kind of story that may have little to do with the seeker’s actual circumstances, and in the second case they repeatedly pull random cards for a reading until it “just feels right” to stop, and they must then fashion a credible tale from the potentially overwhelming population. (I won’t go into “jumpers” and “clarifiers” here; they’re both covered in the linked essay.)

It’s considered fashionably “intuitive” and “psychic” to do both, but I see the output as both lazy and reckless from a professional standpoint. I serve my predictions with a main course of “functional” and a side dish of “fanciful,” and the à la carte menu abounds in well-seasoned options, so there is no reason to improvise “from scratch” in other than small ways. It’s reasonable to assume that every tarot reading that isn’t entirely mundane includes subliminal content received from the Unseen (by whatever name we choose to call it), and there are indeed competent spiritual diviners who are doing more with the cards than “psychism with props,” but far too many of them are running the equivalent of a “fast-food stand.”

Tarot 101, My Way – Card Reading for Beginners