To those who think the practice of reading tarot is an occult art reserved for spook sessions, let’s get this out of the way: It isn’t. Like therapy, meditation, and advice from friends, tarot is meant to be used for one thing and one thing only: connecting more deeply with yourself.
“Tarot is not fortune-telling, it’s coaching,” explains Lori Dyan, an Ontario-based tarot expert and the author of the tarot guidebook Big Deck Energy. “Tarot cards are a tool for personal discovery and self-care. They highlight where you’ve been, validate where you’re at in the moment, and hint at what’s possible. It’s a glimpse into the energetic landscape that supports you in making the best decisions for yourself moving forward. Tarot provides an opportunity to have a conversation with your soul; like a trusted counselor that reflects you back to yourself. Tarot doesn’t do prophecies—it offers agency.”
In uncertain times, gaining a stronger sense of personal agency is especially appealing—and healthy. It’s no wonder, then, that interest in tarot—along with astrology, numerology, and other self-discovery practices—has grown significantly over the last several years. One need only to scroll social media briefly to experience the surge of divinatory and personal growth content in peak-effect.
Still, trying to enter into this vast world—of which there are centuries of literature—and learning how to read tarot cards on your own, can feel daunting. “There are a lot of ‘rules’ about tarot, which I think have been used in the past to keep people away as a way to protect the art form,” explains Rachel Howe, a Brooklyn-based artist, Reiki healer, and tarot reader. “I don’t think that’s as necessary now; I think anyone can read tarot.”
To that end, both Howe and Dyan have plenty of tips for those who want to learn how to read tarot cards themselves. Just keep Dyan’s most important advice in mind: “Your best resource for learning tarot is your intuition.” As Howe puts it: “Tarot is a tool—the real healing work is going to be done by the person.”
What are tarot cards?
Tarot cards are a set of 78 illustrated cards that are divided into two main groups: the Major Arcana (22 cards) and the Minor Arcana (56 cards), which are divided into four suits, similar to a regular deck of playing cards. Each of the 78 cards has its own meaning and fits into the larger story of the deck. (More on that below.)
There’s a lot of lore around the tarot. Some link it to ancient Egypt, Kabbalah, and other ancient wisdom traditions. However, the earliest known decks actually date back to a 15th-century card game known as tarocchi or carte da trionfi (cards of triumph), and its mystical associations did not emerge until the 18th- and 19th-centuries. “It wasn’t until color printing presses became widely used that the phenomenon we now know as tarot spread throughout Europe and gained popularity with occultists in France as well as Jungian psychoanalysts, Romani fortune tellers, and Freemasons,” Pamela Love writes in the guidebook for her recently-released deck, The Infinite Door.
Find your deck
While there are hundreds of gorgeous tarot decks to choose from—including Kim Kran’s now-iconic Wild Unknown and Matt Hughes’ shiny Ethereal Visions—most veteran tarot readers recommend starting out with the classic Rider-Waite deck because its imagery is so descriptive. Once you learn the Rider-Waite deck, you can easily understand the card imagery on almost every other deck.
And yes, it is totally fine to purchase your own tarot deck: “I’ve heard people say you’re not supposed to buy your own deck; you’re supposed to have someone gift it to you,” Howe says. “But what if no one buys you a deck? Then you never get to learn how to read. My feeling is, I bought my deck and I can read!”
Get to know the tarot cards and their meanings
After you’ve procured your deck, the next thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the 78 cards. As mentioned, the cards are divided into two groups: The 22 cards of the Major Arcana, which represent archetypal themes, and the 56 cards of the Minor Arcana, which represent everyday experiences. For those wondering, “arcana” comes from the Latin word for mysteries or secrets.
You can think of the 22 cards of the Major Arcana as the “big” lessons. It is told through a single narrative arc that mirrors psychological or spiritual development, starting with naiveté (The Fool, card 0) and moving through various phases, challenges, and awakenings to finally arrive at wholeness (The World, card 21). For this reason, the Major Arcana is often called the Fool’s Journey and is meant to represent the archetypal journey through life we all must take. “The Major Arcana tells the story of our collective and personal evolution,” explains Dyan.
The Minor Arcana reflect the “smaller” influences: emotions, thoughts, action, and materials. Thus, the 56 cards in the Minor Arcana are divided into four suits, each of which represents a different facet or realm.
- Cups – The emotional: intuition, relationships, creativity
- Swords – The mind: communication, conflict, intellect
- Wands – The energetic: inspiration, action, passion
- Pentacles – The physical: money, body, home
The numbered cards in each suit (ace through 10) show the progression of each theme from beginning to growth to challenge to culmination; sort of like a microcosm of the Major Arcana. The court cards within each suit reflect stages of mastery within each realm, from curiosity (Page) to exploration (Knight) to maturity (Queen) to integration (King). The court cards can also sometimes represent a person in your life, yourself, or a facet of your personality.
.jpg)
How to read tarot cards
In a tarot reading, the mix of cards helps distinguish big-picture patterns from immediate circumstances. It’s all about interpreting each card’s singular meaning and putting them together to create a larger message. “Each of the 78 cards has a unique image with a specific message, and together they tell the story of you,” Dyan says. “Don’t worry about memorizing each card; focus on learning the story it’s telling you.”
With that in mind, it is best to start small: Pull just one card each day and focus on the imagery represented, using a guidebook or online source like Biddy Tarot to help interpret its meaning. “Think about the meaning of the card. If you do it in the morning, you can keep it in mind as you go through your day," Howe recommends. “That’s a nice way to get to know the cards on a deeper level. I think establishing a relationship with the cards is important. It can be so intimidating because it’s a deck of 78 cards and they’re all different.”
Dyan agrees. She pulls a “card of the day” on Instagram every weekday morning and encourages others to do the same. “It allows you to learn the story of the card while also receiving the guidance of the message in that moment,” she says. “A full one-hour reading with me can contain over 50 cards, but a single card can also give you incredible insight.”
Find a space with good vibes to conduct your readings
As with all experiences, set and setting—that is, your mood and your surroundings—are also key when it comes to initiating an insightful tarot reading. While traditional tarot books or old school readers might recommend using a lengthy ritual to start a reading, it’s best to do what feels right for you. “I think it’s important to think about the energy of the space because you’re opening up,” Howe says. “Burning sage, burning palo santo, lighting candles, and having an intention helps.”
But it’s not just the physical space that needs to be balanced before a reading. “Even your headspace matters,” Howe says. “I like to meditate before I give a reading so that I’m not preoccupied, but you should do whatever ritual makes the most sense for you.”
How to cleanse tarot cards
Similarly, you can also “cleanse” the energy of the cards before each reading or after an especially emotional reading by passing the cards through the smoke of a smudge stick, placing them in a vibrating singing bowl, or setting them alongside your favorite crystals. You can also “bathe” them in the light of a full moon or let them sit briefly in sunlight. Another easy cleansing ritual is to simply knock three times with your knuckles on top of the deck before shuffling.
However, Dyan says that none of this is absolutely necessary. “Reading tarot isn’t dependent on when you last smudged your cards, but if you feel better performing a ritual or two with your deck, then do you… the right ritual can help clear the path of your intuition so you can connect with your cards.”
How to shuffle tarot cards
Shuffling is another area in which tarot can get infused with a lot of rules. You may have heard, for example, that you should hold the deck in your non-dominant hand or cut the cards in a certain way. While you can certainly do those things, most experts agree that it’s truly more about the intention and energy you bring to the shuffle than about performing any specific shuffling technique.
Think of shuffling as a way to connect with the cards and to set your intentions. As you shuffle, focus on your breath. Feel your heartbeat. Hold your questions in your mind. Open yourself to receive.
The best questions to ask in tarot readings
To work most effectively with the cards, it’s important to ask questions in an open-ended way; you’re not looking for yes or no answers, but rather information to guide you. “Keep it simple and let the cards do their thing by asking something like ‘What do I need to know right now?’ Then, pull a card or two and see what kind of insight they offer,” Dyan advises.
Some other open-ended questions you could try are:
- What patterns no longer serve me?
- What is the best course of action right now?
- What in my life needs attention?
- What qualities should I embrace?
- What does this relationship need to grow or resolve?
How to interpret tarot card readings
Just as you want to keep the questions open-ended, you also want to keep an open mind—remember that the point is to gain a new perspective; to see yourself or a situation more clearly. “Intuiting is definitely a big part of a tarot reading; that’s what makes it so special,” Howe says. “Tarot is really a tool to facilitate talking about things. Use language that you already have, or knowledge that you already have, so you can see it less as ‘This holds all of these secret meanings that I have to do all this work to access,’ and more like ‘I know all the meanings; it’s just a matter of making the connections and being able to articulate them.’”
The four elements—earth, water, fire, and air—and numerology also play a large role in the tarot, which can be helpful to draw on. “If you do that, then it’s more your own perspective and you can be a little freer with your interpretations,” says Howe.
Tarot is an age-old practice for a reason; each card is designed to make sense on an intrinsic level. “The reason a card can relate so specifically to multiple people is because tarot is rooted in archetypes that speak the language of the collective unconscious,” Dyan explains. “Our stories are told through archetypes, like The Fool or The Hermit, and they’re familiar to us because they exist in our energetic blueprint. Keep in mind that your interpretation of the cards is just as, if not more, important than the conventional explanation.”
Get to know some basic tarot spreads
For beginner readers, Howe recommends two basic spreads, a three-card pull and the Celtic Cross. The former is where three cards are drawn from the deck to represent the past, present, and future. Once you get better, you can even up the ante to a six-card pull, with two cards representing each area.
The Celtic Cross, though slightly more complicated, is also a traditional starting point. “The Celtic Cross spread is a classic spread where each card has an assigned position and an assigned meaning for that position. It’s 10 cards, so it’s a lot of information and it’s a very clear spread,” Howe says.
However, keep in mind that there is no one “right” spread—it’s more important to keep the big picture in mind. “It’s really about the connections between the cards,” Howe says. “Depending what cards are around a certain card, it will influence the meaning. They’re all being influenced by each other, sometimes they’re really amplified by each other.” Dyan says that it is best to “focus on the quality of each message instead of the quantity of cards pulled.”
Whatever you do, don’t panic
Remember, tarot is not predictive. “Don’t believe everything you see in the movies about tarot,” says Dyan. “The cards will not predict things that you have no control over; they will not predict death and cause despair—you have free will to create your own path using the guidance provided by the cards.”
But if you do get a seemingly “scary card” like the Death card, don’t panic. “The Death card isn’t about physical death of any kind,” Dyan explains. “It’s about transformational change that is positive and necessary. How you deal with change is what determines if it’s positive or negative for you.”
For this reason, both she and Howe say that the Death card is actually one of their favorite cards in the deck. “I really love the Death card,” Howe says. “It’s more about our fear of death and our fear of change. Change is really positive. Death is just the necessary component to transformation—you can’t become something else without the loss of something.”
When it comes to tarot—and life, for that matter—intention really makes all the difference. “Just like a hammer can be used to hang a beautiful picture or smash a windshield, tarot is a tool that someone chooses to wield in a particular way,” Dyan says. “There are no ‘bad’ cards, only bad tarot card readers. Some cards are definitely more ‘fun’ or ‘sexy’ than others, but even the more challenging cards offer guidance, hope, or the kick we need. Tarot cards can’t hurt you; they inform you.”
Meet the experts:
- Lori Dyan is a tarot expert, bestselling author, and ritual expert based in Ontario, Canada.
- Rachel Howe is an artist, Reiki healer, and tarot reader based in Brooklyn, New York.
