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: You’re wrong. 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, a Toronto-based tarot reader and author of the book Burn Your Sh*t, The Life Changing Magic of Rituals. “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 be 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.”
How to Read Tarot Cards
First things first: you must procure a deck. While there are hundreds of gorgeous options to choose from—from Kim Kran’s now-iconic Wild Unknown to Matt Hughes’ shiny Ethereal Visions—most veteran tarot readers recommend starting with the classic Rider-Waite deck simply because the imagery is so descriptive.
“Each of the 78 cards has a unique image with a specific message, and together they tell the story of you,” Dyan says. “If you asked me what the Six of Wands looks like, I couldn’t tell you—and I’ve done tens of thousands of readings over the past three decades—but, if you show me that card, I’ll talk about it for hours. Don’t worry about memorizing each card; focus on learning the story it’s telling you.”
And, don’t worry about another oft-cited tarot rule either: “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!”
After you’ve purchased your deck, the next thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the cards. “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,” Howe says. Her tip? “If you are starting out, just working by yourself, do a daily card pull where you pull one card from the deck and just 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. That’s a nice way to get to know the cards on a deeper level.”
Dyan agrees. She pulls a “card of the day” on Instagram every weekday morning and encourages others to do the same; she says it’s fine to use a guide book or online source (like Biddy Tarot) to help interpret the meanings. “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.”
To work most effectively with the cards, Dyan says 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 says.
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. To that end, Howe says it’s important to relax and trust your own wisdom: “Intuiting is definitely a big part of a tarot reading; that’s what makes it so special. 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 is helpful because most of us already have some ideas about those meanings that we can 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.”
As with all experiences, set and setting—that is, your mood and your surroundings—are also key components 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.”
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.”
Remember, tarot is not predictive; it won’t foretell misfortune. “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.”
