Eventually, Dolores Nabors<\/a> came to Denton CUUPS. Dolores was a skilled and experienced reader and she offered to teach a class on Tarot. I jumped at the chance to learn from an in-person teacher, and at the end of the class I felt confident in reading for myself and for others.<\/p>\n And then I set the cards down for six months and promptly forgot everything I learned.<\/p>\n Fortunately, Dolores taught her class again a year or so later. I took it again, and this time it stuck. In the 16 years since I\u2019ve always been able to get an answer from the cards when I need it.<\/p>\n Earlier this year I taught an 11-week class on Tarot For Divination<\/a> (it\u2019s still available on demand<\/a> if you\u2019d like to take it). I was already a good reader or I wouldn\u2019t have tried to teach others how to read. But the work I did preparing for the class took my reading to a new level. As with any skill, the more you practice the better you get.<\/p>\n I see too many people who do what I did after I took Dolores\u2019 Tarot class for the first time. They set their cards down because they have no pressing need \u2013 I mean, it\u2019s not like we don\u2019t have enough to do just trying to live in these \u201cinteresting times.\u201d And then when something critical comes up \u2013 for themselves or for someone who knows and trusts them \u2013 they can\u2019t get the answer they need. Or they get an answer, but they\u2019re not confident in it.<\/p>\n The good news is that there\u2019s something we can do about that. We can spend a few minutes each week sharpening our Tarot skills.<\/p>\n A couple years ago we had a debate on whether Tarot should be read<\/a> intuitively or using the \u201cstandard\u201d meanings of the cards. That quickly devolved into \u201cyou\u2019re just making it all up!\u201d vs. \u201cyou\u2019re creating Tarot dogma!\u201d There is value in both approaches, but I believe the best approach is to learn the standard meanings \u2013 I prefer to call them consensus meanings \u2013 first. Once you know them well, then you can start to let your intuition run free.<\/p>\n Knowing the consensus meanings will give you the confidence you need to relax, and will also serve as guardrails to keep your intuition from running into imagination and \u201cmaking it all up.\u201d<\/p>\n So spend some time every week studying the consensus meanings.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve got a good book (not the little white book that comes with many decks), use it. If you don\u2019t have a book you like, find a good website. I don\u2019t have one I can personally recommend, but a quick look at the top results from a Google search says they\u2019re at least not wrong.<\/p>\n Whatever your resource, pick a card, go over the standard meaning, and commit it to memory. Periodically test yourself by using your Tarot cards as flash cards.<\/p>\n Just make sure the book or website you\u2019re using matches your deck. The consensus meanings of the Waite-Smith deck aren\u2019t the same as the Tarot de Marseille, and they\u2019re very different from the Sola Busca Tarot. Don\u2019t try to force Waite-Smith meanings onto cards that don\u2019t resemble Pamela Colman Smith\u2019s artwork.<\/p>\n If a picture says 1000 words, how can we be satisfied with 100 words in a card description, or with a half dozen \u201ckeywords\u201d? Most Tarot cards contain a treasure trove of imagery. Our challenge as readers is to figure out which images are relevant to the question we\u2019re trying to answer.<\/p>\n So pick a card \u2013 at random, in order, or just what you want to focus on today \u2013 and look at it. No, I mean look<\/em> at it. See everything that\u2019s there. Who is on the card? What is on the card? Look at the ground, the sky, the water. Look at the colors. Look at every detail you can find.<\/p>\n Which details are important? That\u2019s not relevant in this exercise. In a given reading, any feature can be critically important, or it can be completely unimportant. Which is which depends on the context of the question and the other cards in the reading.<\/p>\n For this exercise, what\u2019s important is that you learn to notice everything in the painting. You can\u2019t interpret what you don\u2019t notice.<\/p>\n As you study a card, make a list of all the feature you see. When you come back to that card in the future, make another list. Then compare your lists and see what you noticed in one but not the other. The goal isn\u2019t to memorize everything that\u2019s on the card. The goal is to learn to see everything that\u2019s on a card when you pull it in a reading.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not a fan of \u201cgeneral\u201d readings. Divination works best when you have a clear and concise question. Learning to ask good questions \u2013 and learning how to guide your clients in refining their questions \u2013 is half the battle in getting good answers.<\/p>\n But our lives are busy enough and complicated enough that coming up with one question every few days isn\u2019t very difficult.<\/p>\n Yes\/no questions can be answered with a one-card draw. Most simple questions can be answered with three cards, or with five at most. Save the Celtic Cross<\/a> and other large spreads for deeper questions and situations.<\/p>\n Take good notes! Write down your question, the cards you drew, and how you interpreted them. Then come back at the appropriate time and see how you did. What did you get right? What did you get wrong? What did you miss? Learn from your successes and learn from your failures.<\/p>\n Some people say \u201cI can\u2019t read for myself.\u201d While that\u2019s good self-awareness, it\u2019s only valid when it comes to big, deep questions. You should be able to answer questions like \u201cwill I get a check in the mail today?\u201d or \u201cwill it rain tomorrow?\u201d for yourself as well as you can for someone else. If you can\u2019t do even that, you have some work to do on separating your desires from your observations. With practice, though, almost everyone can divine simple questions for themselves.<\/p>\n The key is practice.<\/p>\n People have been reading Tarot cards for 500 years. They\u2019ve come up with a wide variety of decks and ways to read their decks. They have different theories as to how Tarot works. My way works for me and it will work for anyone who practices it diligently, but it\u2019s not the only way.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s helpful to have only one \u201cvoice\u201d in your head when you\u2019re beginning. Stick to one deck, one teacher, one book. But after you\u2019ve been reading for a while, start explore some of the diversity of thought and practice in the Tarot world.<\/p>\n When you do, you\u2019ll find people who read for divination and others who read for self-development. Some work from an esoteric Christian worldview (as depicted in much of the imagery of the Waite-Smith deck), some from a modern Pagan worldview, and some from a strictly psychological worldview. Within these worldviews there are multiple approaches and interpretations.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve found most serious works on Tarot to be beneficial. Even if I rejected 90% of what they had to say (because it wasn\u2019t relevant to me, not because it was objectively wrong) that other 10% was enough to make the book worth reading.<\/p>\n As with anything else, there\u2019s a lot of Tarot garbage floating around the internet \u2013 and around the book stores. Read with discernment.<\/p>\n My favorite book for beginners is Learning the Tarot<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by Joan Bunning. My favorite book for intermediate practitioners is Read Like the Devil<\/a><\/em> by Camelia Elias.<\/p>\n I pray four times a day, every day. Prayer is one of my core practices \u2013 it\u2019s part of who and what I am.<\/p>\n![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2023\/11\/Sharpening-Your-Tarot-Skills-01-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Study the consensus meanings<\/h2>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2023\/11\/Sharpening-Your-Tarot-Skills-02-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Study the cards \u2013 what do you see?<\/h2>\n
Do practice readings<\/h2>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2023\/11\/Sharpening-Your-Tarot-Skills-03-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Read books on Tarot<\/h2>\n
These are core practices you never outgrow<\/h2>\n