Interpreting Tarot Cards

Interpreting tarot cards can be very difficult for the beginner. The artwork on the cards looks almost designed to confuse you! It also doesn’t help that most experienced readers will tell you that personal meaning is as important as the standard meanings. But interpreting tarot cards is an art and not something you should hope to master in one day. It takes time and it takes dedication and it takes faith. However, in order to try to make it easier for you if you are just starting out, here are some suggestions:

1) The obvious one first. Start with a good book and do readings for yourself or close friends and family with the book to hand. You may not be able to go as quickly as you think you should and it will also hinder your ability to see how the cards fit together but on the plus side, it will get you familiarised with the cards.

2) Do some readings for yourself and keep notes of what comes up. This way you’ll be able to see how accurate you are becoming at interpreting the tarot cards and also you may pick up on some common associations. This will mean you are forming a personal attachment to the tarot and developing special signs that will mean certain events or happenings to you. For example, certain cards may often represent someone older.

3) It is important however that you do learn to piece together readings and look at how the cards are relating to one another. Otherwise it will simply be a lot of random and disparate events! And this doesn’t reflect life, ergo it isn’t the best way to go about interpreting tarot cards which after all, all about life! This is quite a complex area and I will cover this in more depth another time. But look for a lot of major arcana cards to signify significant events coming up, or a high number of a particular suit. A high number of cups will mean emotional matters are central.

4) Learn to trust the psychic ’voice’ that you will be channelling. This is something deep inside you, a facet of you that you may not have encountered before. At first you will not know what to do with the sudden rush of thoughts or images coming to you but this will become familiar and more manageable.

5) Interpreting tarot cards is a craft and so this is something you will always be working on. I still like to read about the experiences of others and to continue to broaden my knowledge. So don’t feel that you need to get to a certain level of expertise. Tarot reading is a life time practise.

Best of luck!

Elizabeth xx