What I'd Wish I'd Known About Learning to Read Tarot

Learning to read and use Tarot cards is a journey and along the way there's a lot of lessons to learn and not just about the meanings of the cards...

I’ve been reading Tarot professionally now for about 5-6 years and reading for myself even longer than that. I think this might be the only thing I’ve stuck with for the long haul.

Anyone who knows me will know that I adopted my mother’s obsession with collecting hobbies and when I first started learning to read Tarot, I thought this might be another one for the books.

Thankfully, I was wrong. Tarot has become such a pillar of support and guidance in my life that working with the cards now feels like breathing to me. I can’t imagine it will ever leave me now.

Saying all of that, there is a lot I’ve learned about the world of Tarot and learning to read Tarot cards in particular, that I feel like I need to share. So here we go. Here’s what I wish I’d known about learning Tarot when I first started out…

Figure Out How You Learn Best

Over the years I’ve tried everything to learn how to read the cards, from buying piles and piles of books to just going all in with the help of a deck’s guidebook.

It was only when I decided to buy a beginner Tarot course on Udemy that I realised Tarot wasn’t impossible to learn, it was just that I was trying to learn in the wrong ways.

I am more of a visual learner. I can watch a YouTube tutorial and know exactly what to do by the end of it. But, give me written instructions and it’s like I’m trying to read ancient Greek.

Lesson 1: Find out what kind of learner you are and opt to learn Tarot via your preferred method of learning. Don’t waste your money on buying books if you pick things up easier through videos and visuals. If you’re not sure, I tested out this quiz from Arden University for you and it’s pretty accurate so give it a go.

More from me: If you do learn best from visuals and videos, then my Energetic Tarot Foundational Course could be a good fit for you. You can find out more here if you’re interested.

Practice Makes Perfect… Unfortunately

It’s the one thing we don’t want to hear, especially if you’re a perfectionist like me. But, it really is the case with Tarot reading. You have to practice. you have to push through those frustrating readings where nothing makes sense. You have to push past your ego and aversion to being a vulnerable beginner.

The good news is that tarot is versatile. There are loads of different ways to use the cards, which means you can always find new and interesting ways to practice.

A technique I remember using right at the very beginning - and I mean like right at the beginning, I didn’t even know how to read anything past the majors at that point - was I used fictional characters to practice on.

I would imagine a fictional character in front of me like Jack Sparrow or Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders. I knew who these characters were and I knew their story, so it made it easier to know how the cards reflected their lives and their personalities. I also think this technique made me a better storyteller with the cards because it was so heavily rooted in fictional narratives.

Lesson 2: Play around with different ways of using the cards. Some might be extremely boring to you and others may be a whole lot of fun. Once you’ve found the fun ones, practice doesn’t feel like work, it feels more natural and organic.

More from me: In my weekly newsletters I often talk about my own outlook and experiences with using Tarot and often offer tips on new ways to use them, new spreads to try and more tips and tricks for deepening your knowledge of the cards. You can sign up here if that’s something you’d like in your inbox each week!

It Can Be a Battle Against Pre-Conceived Ideas, Beliefs and Misconceptions

This applies to both practising professionally and just using the cards for personal use. Tarot has a history that spans right back to the 14th Century, so there’s a lot of information about what the cards are and how they are used that is frankly outdated.

Alas, bad media representation means that many people don’t really get it.

I’m lucky really, I’ve only ever had one comment on Instagram that said they were ‘praying for my soul and wishing for me to repent’. Ok, hun. But, I do know of other Tarot practitioners that have to fight against these types of beliefs and ideas much more regularly.

People see the Tarot as a mystical and magical tool that can predict the future. Suspiciously, it’s only ever represented as predicting the bad stuff. Do people not have any good stuff in their future? Really?

What I want to stress is that there are many many different ways to read Tarot. It’s not all psychic readings and predictions. Tarot and Oracle cards are being used more and more within psychological treatments and counselling, to help patients access their subconscious mind more easily.

With many connections between the card meanings and the work of psychologist Carl Jung, in my opinion, Tarot is most useful when being used as a tool for introspection and self-development. This is how I use it. It is what forms the core of how I teach people to read Tarot and the very essence of my Tarot reading services.

Lesson 3: People will always have a negative view of the Tarot cards, but you are not those people and if you want to read for others, they are not your people either. Everyone will have their own opinions of the cards and unfortunately, not all of them will be positive. As a Tarot reader, I feel like a custodian of the legacy of Tarot. As soon as you learn how to read Tarot you become a part of its history, so all we can do is try and educate others on the power and positivity in a gentle and welcoming way.

Tarot is a Tool, Not a Solution

As much as I’d like to sit here and tell you that learning Tarot will solve all your problems and make life super easy, I cannot.

Tarot is a tool, it should be used to find your way to a solution, but not the solution itself. It will never tell you what you should do, it can only suggest pathways that may be open for you to explore.

I think of Tarot more as a roadmap to help us get to where we’re going. It can show us different routes we can take and highlight the obstacles and challenges we may have to face along the way.

Tarot is like holding up a mirror to your soul, to your subconscious and the very essence of who you are. One of the trickiest parts of reading for the self is trying to break through psychological bias and subconscious blocks. That’s where the work really lies, it comes after identifying the blocks and realising that there are things we need to work through.

Lesson 4: Tarot is a tool for dismantling and rebuilding. Its purpose is to help us help ourselves. Even when I read for clients, my role as the Tarot reader is to give my clients the information they need in order to draw their own conclusions. I’m not there to validate their bias’ I’m there to interpret the cards in a way that helps their subconscious breakthrough into their conscious.

More from me: I created a self-led video workshop not long ago that I absolutely love. It’s called Tarot for Reconnection and it puts all of this into practice. It’s beginner friendly but it can help to have a foundational understanding of the traditional meanings of the cards. If you’re interested in learning more about using Tarot as a tool I highly recommend it.

Finally, Tarot is All About Cycles

Something that blew the door wide open for me when learning to read the Tarot cards, was understanding they were all just neverending cycles.

The major arcana is the core theme of life on a loop. You move from The Fool to The World and then go right back to The Fool and do it all again, just in a different font.

The same applies to the minor arcana. Once you reach the ten of a suit, you start a new cycle, it could be the ace of the same suit or you might jump to a new suit’s cycle. But, no matter what you will move through Ace to Ten in some form.

Learning Tarot has - more than anything - made me aware that with every end is a new beginning. Every single time. The cycle may look completely different to the last but it is a cycle nonetheless.

Lesson 5: Tarot shows us how life is a never-ending overlap of cycle after cycle. some cycles can even exist in the same place, taking place at the same time. Some cycles may be long and some may be short, but they are all still a cycle. There’s a comfort to be found in this because once you know this, there will always be hope to be had, even in the darkest periods.

More from me: If you’ve reached the end of this post and you’re like ‘Yes! Tarot sounds amazing how do I start?’ then you can take part in my free 2-part workshop on how to start learning Tarot. It’s prerecorded and self-led, so you can work through it at your own pace, so you’ll be able to get a taste of what learning Tarot is like, before committing to a full course or committing your own time to learning.

I hope all of this was helpful if you’ve been thinking about learning to read Tarot for a while. It really has been something that has completely changed my life.

Don’t forget to subscribe, either for free or as a paid subscriber (paid subs get the added bonus of reading my personal tarot diary entries, it can get intense haha!)

All the best,

Cat x