Tarot Card Reading for Beginners

What are tarot cards? Tarot is a pack of 78 cards. Tarot cards have four suits corresponding to the suits of conventional playing cards. Like conventional playing cards, each suit has cards ace to ten and four face cards for a total of 14 cards. These suit cards are called the 'minor arcana'. Unlike conventional playing cards, tarot cards have an additional 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. These cards are called the 'major arcana'.

Tarot reading is an ancient tool of divination--an attempt to foretell the future or uncover hidden knowledge about life.

In a tarot reading, one person (a 'seeker') seeks answers to personal questions from another person (a 'reader') who answers the questions by interpreting tarot cards selected for this purpose. Of course, one of the most rewarding ways to use tarot is to do readings for yourself, in which case you are both the 'seeker' and the 'reader'!

Here are 4 simple steps to do a tarot reading for yourself:

1. Think of a question you'd like to ask the tarot cards. Decide on a tarot spread to use for your reading.

A tarot spread is a pattern you will lay your cards into. Tarot spreads vary in their shapes and the number of cards they use. Each position in the spread represents a special meaning. For instance, an easy spread to start with is a '3 Card Spread'. This consists of three cards laid out next to one another. The first card represents the 'Past', the middle card the 'Present' and the last card, the 'Future'.

2. Ask a question of the cards. Try to really concentrate on the question and the situation surrounding the question.
3. Shuffle your tarot cards until your intuition tells you to stop. Cut the deck. You can then 'fan' the cards out (face down), or combine the cards again and prepare to deal from the top.
4. Choose one card for each position in the spread you have chosen. You can either choose each card from the fanned cards, or deal cards one at a time from the top of the shuffled deck.
5. Consider the special meaning of each card and its position in the spread. This is how you 'interpret' the tarot cards to get the answer to your question. For a great guide to understanding the meaning of cards and their positions, use EyeTarot.com's 'Recording a Reading' tool!

For instance, in the 3 Card Spread, the card in the 'Past' position would represent an event, or influence that happened in the past or is becoming less important in your life. The card in the 'Present' position would represent something about the current situation, and the card in the 'Future' position would speak to something that may occur in the future or something you need to consider in the future.

Combined, the tarot cards in the spread can assist you in thinking more clearly about your question or situation.

No one is sure how tarot cards work-- but they do! Some people may think of the tarot cards in a mystical way-- a tool to receiving divine knowledge. Others may view the cards as more of a psychological tool for meditating on the beliefs/hopes/fears of their unconscious.

However you view the tarot cards, they are a fun and powerful tool to gain insight into your life.

Happy reading!