AUTHOR’S NOTE: Short of sitting in a classroom with them, I may not be the best person to teach beginners how to read the tarot cards because supervised “learning by doing” is far more effective than anything “canned” in the way of self-study (including YouTube presentations, which I don’t do anyway).
I developed my own style way back in 1972 and don’t remember enough of that work to pass anything on. But I had to refresh my knowledge in 2011 when I returned to professional practice after a long break, and the process wasn’t much different although my scope was narrower. I ditched most of the New-Age-y, Jungian psycho-spiritual stuff from my earlier practice and focused on practical fortune-telling of the action-and-event-oriented type because I firmly believe it’s what most novices seek, if only to figure out what the future holds in a number of broad topic areas such as romance, career, education, finances, health and general self-improvement.
Step 1: Buy a basic Waite-Smith tarot deck from a reliable seller like US Games, LoScarabeo or Llewellyn (beware of crappy knock-offs on Amazon or Etsy). Skip the fancy “clones” with more artsy images for the time being regardless of your preferences. Something recolored like the Albano-Waite is fine as long as the line drawings are standard. Although I’m not a fan of the RWS in my own work, it is the classic deck for popular divination.
Step 2: Buy a beginner’s tarot book. I recommend Tarot Plain and Simple by Anthony Louis since his writing is extremely lucid. But be cautious; there are a great many tomes of indifferent quality out there because the self-publishing boom has made everyone a guru. Anything for beginners by Mary K. Greer can also be trusted. Stay clear of personal systems of interpretation and esoteric methods; at this point simple and straightforward is best. I also don’t recommend A.E. Waite’s seminal Pictorial Key to the Tarot that first introduced the deck due to its Victorian stuffiness; Eden Gray’s more user-friendly rewrite, The Tarot Revealed, is a better option.
Step 3: Go through the deck card-by-card from beginning to end, steadily and patiently, to start familiarizing yourself with the images and to make sure all of the cards are there. You should have 78 split into 22 Major Arcana; 16 “court-cards;” and 40 numbered Minor Arcana.
Step 4: Read the book, with the cards as a companion for the sections on card meanings, referring to them as you go.
Step 5: Read the introductory material again until the history of the cards and their use in divination starts to sink in, or better yet obtain another book specifically on the history and use of the tarot. Don’t become too intimidated by all of the exalted archetypes in the Major Arcana and their psychological import; you won’t be using them for much in practical divination of the routine, day-to-day kind since I’ve found that they seldom operate at that level with any consistency. View them at most as describing environmental backdrops or general themes for the events and circumstances suggested by the other cards. Except in rare instances, you may never need to look at them any other way.
Step 6: Mix up the cards thoroughly by shuffling them. The “casino shuffle” or “wash” is best for this because it stirs the cards around on a table-top, fully randomizing them and introducing upside-down or “reversed” orientation. Although you won’t be applying them right away, you might as well get used to the idea of reversals now. If you start using the deck and receive clumps of cards in numerical series, you didn’t randomize thoroughly enough. Go back and re-do it as many times as necessary.
Step 7: Buy or borrow another tarot book and read it as you start using the cards. (This is a life-long pursuit that you should accept from the start; despite what you hear from self-styled masters and mystical purists, the tarot literature is not your enemy.)
Step 8: Beyond going in order card-by-card, some teachers recommend shuffling the deck and doing random one-card pulls, attempting to come up with a personal interpretation directly from the pictures (known as “free-association”) before turning to the book for guidance. Set each card aside after you’ve studied it and continue until you’ve worked your way through the entire deck. Don’t become anxious about your “intuition” at this point; there will be plenty of time for that, and you may ultimately find that it’s overrated anyway when there is so much established knowledge with which to work.
Step 9: This rote learning is OK as far as it goes, but it becomes very dry very quickly. Since you might as well get accustomed to interpreting card combinations and their interaction as soon as possible, intersperse the single-card routine with basic three-card draws of the past/present/future kind, reading them from left-to-right. Don’t hold your feet to the fire on accuracy, just get used to the flow of energy in the spread. This will also acclimate you to formal “positional” spreads in which each card position carries a specific meaning in the overall narrative, and you might even try your hand at creating your own spreads. The idea of an “outcome” card at the end that provides the answer should come naturally. Read all of the cards as “upright” but start recognizing that reversal can add nuance to their meaning. (I’ve written dozens of essays on the subject that you can explore.)
Step 10: If you think you have the stamina and persistence, get a bound journal and hand-write your impressions of the cards in it as you study them. Personally, I gave up on this after several attempts over the years since I was overly verbose and never went back to look at any of it. But your mileage will certainly vary, so you should at least try. Just mark my words.
Step 11: Read some more tarot books of increasing complexity. Be leery of spending too much time in the online tarot community. Too many bad habits are formed there. I just backed away from it entirely because it delivered too many “empty calories” for the time and effort I put into it. Learn to trust your own instincts and slowly stop leaning on external experts (but keep on reading books and experimenting with what you glean from them, it will keep you on your toes).
Step 12: Practice, practice, practice by reading for yourself. As your skill grows stronger, expand your reach into five-card lines and eventually into the venerable ten-card Celtic Cross spread. (I have extensive guidance on its use elsewhere in this blog.) Don’t worry too much about “emotional bias” poisoning your self-readings. At this point you’re still on training wheels and shouldn’t be taking your efforts too seriously. Try to maintain a disinterested neutrality regarding the answers you receive by just “taking them under advisement.” Eventually you will be able to look right past the self-doubt in an analytical way, as if you’re reading for a stranger.
Step 13: Begin branching out by reading for family and friends. Keep the books handy for reference and let your sitters know you’re still learning when they see you dipping into them. This should happen less-and-less as you gain confidence.
Step 14: Take a deep breath and book your first paid reading. Getting your feet wet at metaphysical fairs or shops is a good way to break in since the readings will be short, the setting will be casual and the expectations won’t be too high. Don’t assume you will make a lot of money at it.
Step 15: Consider whether you want to take on remote readings in online venues. I’m not enamored of them because I think tarot works best in a face-to-face format where the client handles the cards, but I do them from time-to-time. The advantage is that you will have plenty of time to get your readings “just right” without having to think on your feet. But at all costs avoid using tarot apps and computer-generated readings, they will corrupt your morals.
Step 16: Read more books and tackle subjects like reversal and various types of “correspondence” such as numerology and astrology. You won’t be using them in every reading, but it’s good to know they exist. The Anthony Louis book Tarot Beyond the Basics is a valuable resource for this study. Also consider taking on more advanced decks like the Thoth and the Tarot de Marseille, and poke your nose into the Lenormand cards (you won’t regret it).
Last Word: Take a look at my more detailed beginner’s guidance in the following essay. When you think you’re ready, there is also my book Tarot Principles and Practices: A Deep Dive into the Tarot Reader’s Art that includes this essay and many others. (See the “My Publications” sidebar entry.)
