Learn to Read Tarot in Five Steps

One word a day

Goal: getting to know the cards.

Draw a card every morning – the daily card. Take a calm look at it: What do you see, which colors, which mood? In the evening, ask yourself where its theme showed up for you.

Tip: Write down three words for each card. After a few weeks, you’ll have your own card book.

Short sentences

Goal: reading cards together.

With three cards you tell a short story: where you stand, what is challenging you right now, where things can go. Don’t read the cards one by one, but as a sentence – what connects them?

Tip: Notice which suit or which figure appears more than once. Repetitions are a hint.

Working with positions

Goal: understanding that the position asks the card its question.

Now each card gets a fixed position with a meaning of its own. Good first spreads are the Cross, the Next Step and Pros and Cons.

Tip: First read what the position asks – and then what the card answers.

Seeing the whole arc

Goal: reading larger spreads as a whole.

With the Celtic Cross or the Fool’s Journey you read a longer development. Begin with the heart of the spread and then let the other cards speak around it.

Tip: Tell yourself the spread out loud as a story. Wherever you falter while speaking deserves a second look.

Going deeper

Goal: recognizing yourself in the mirror of the cards.

Spreads like the Blind Spot, the Seven Deadly Sins or Inanna’s Descent lead inward. They take time – leave the cards out for a few days and look at them again and again.