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

How Do Tarot Readings Work?

Tarot readings can be exciting, insightful, instructive and even fun. But one thing they can also often be is confusing. This is often down to a misunderstanding over how the cards work and what they can offer you. I would like to give you some tips on the process that goes into your tarot readings, how the cards are working for you and what you should expect.

1) Tarot readings are not necessarily the same as psychic readings. Many readers will of course have psychic abilities and will use these to get further information for you. But the cards themselves will not provide specifics and details of your situation. Check this out with your reader before you get started.

2) It is essential that your tarot reader be open and ready to channel energies - this much I’m sure is obvious! But it is also important that you are too. If you are feeling distracted or tired then it may not be the right time for a tarot reading and it would be better to reschedule if possible. This is because you could unknowingly be blocking the flow of the reading and will therefore not be getting the best experience.

3) Tarot readings work best when you do not feed the reader all the details of your circumstances. This is more common than you might think and stems from the fact that the querant can be keen to see a particular outcome in the cards. This is understandable but is not giving the reading the chance it deserves. So try to keep specifics to yourself until such a time as it not effecting the reading.

4) This may seem like a contradiction of the above point, but bear with me! It is also common for those having a reading to not let on anything personal, keeping all reactions and comments back. This is absolutely fine if this is your wish and it not wrong in any way. I would just like to add though, that you must be prepared to interpret the information that comes from the cards yourself. If the reader is unaware of the area of your life that the energies are coming from, they will not be able to help you make sense of it I’m afraid. So, I repeat, there is nothing wrong in holding back all information, but it does mean that the burden of understanding things falls more on you than it otherwise might.

5) Rather than focusing on the outcome of one particular scenario, use the cards to look at several paths or options that you might have. For example, if you need to make a decision on a job change, ask the cards what will happen if you get a promotion but also alternatively where the opportunities lie if you don’t. The cards will be able to guide you through all of the openings that are possible for you in your life, investigating more than one option.

I hope this has given you food for thought regarding future tarot readings. Feel free to leave me any questions!

Elizabeth x