Hello Lovely and Beautiful Souls!
This week I started to go back to what started my path with spirituality and what brought me to where I am today. That is Tarot! Tarot came across my path when I was young and when I was given my first deck, I fell in love with them. I started to look up on YouTube how to read them as well as the same goes with that little white booklet that comes with the cards. I would try and learn everything I could about them. For the longest time though I only read the Majors and I didn't read the Minor Arcana. I soon found out that I shouldn't do that and I also discovered that the deck of cards was missing some cards. So I went out and bought my first tarot deck which was the Universal Waite Tarot Cards. At this point in my journey, I also reached out to different YouTubers and authors of Tarot which they then helped me learn on my journey. They even helped me by sending me books and cards that were and still are close to my heart. Because I had these support systems when my family didn't like it, I was able to grow and continue my studies at Tarot. And so with this blog, I thought I would write the things that I wish I knew before starting my path.
Let's start with some of the history and the type of tarot decks that are out there. Tarot was first found sometime in the 12th century and was mostly used as a card game and not as a tool for divination. Then there was a period of a purge of books and cards that the Church had. Because of this, the cards kind of went underground but are still used as playing cards. It wasn't until the 18th century that the cards started to be used as divination tools. After the 18th century, we saw tarot grow. And fast-forwarding to now, tarot is now really in 3 big systems. You have the Rider Waite, Thoth, and Marseille Systems.
- The Rider Waite system is known to show "illustrated" versions of the Minor Arcana and is what most Tarot decks today are based around.
-The Thoth system. Unlike the Rider Waite Tarot, the Thoth Tarot doesn't have other clones to it. The Thoth Tarot focuses on one deck. Though there are other decks out there that are clones it's just a select few. And I like to say that if you like to learn and are an academic, the Thoth tarot is for you.
-The Marseille is a tarot deck that is focused on numerology, the fools journey, and elemental dignities. By using the Marseille you are reading a tarot deck that most would say is very intuition-based, but I find more to be "story" based. What I mean is more about finding the things that connect the cards and reading from there.
Now moving on passed the type of decks out there which one is best for a beginner? That answer is up to you, but I would recommend getting two tarot decks. One is a standard Rider Waite Tarot deck, and the second one speaks to you and can be in any system you want. The reason is that when learning off of the Rider Waite Tarot you are learning the basics of the card meanings from just the pictures. You'll also find most books over Tarot are around the Rider Waite System. So I think the Rider Waite Tarot is a deck you should have as one of the first for learning. The second Tarot though is for your pleasure and love for tarot. We all have that guilty pleasure that we just love. And I think having that deck, in the beginning, will help you down the road when you feel stressed or overwhelmed with learning tarot. When I was learning my tarot deck was the Crystal Visions Tarot deck. This has changed throughout the years but at the time of learning, it was that.
Let's go on to learning the cards now. When I was first starting to learn, I remember seeing people on YouTube reading the cards, and I would wish I could read the cards as they did. So that pushed me to learn more, even though there was a mountain of learning ahead of me. But what I think hurt me was all the different ways I was told how to read Tarot cards. So I broke it down into what I call the three schools of Tarot thought. These schools are Intuitive readings, by the book readings, and lastly eclectic readings. These schools of thought are broken down by how I have seen people read tarot.
- Intuitive Readings are when a practitioner might know the meanings of the cards but focuses on what they intuitively pick up from the cards to form a reading. They are typically less likely to use the meanings of the cards themselves. But this is a great way of reading if you trust your intuition and want to use the cards as a way to focus your intuition on a reading.
- By the Books Readings are when a practitioner will use only the meanings that they have learned to read the cards. Most who read this way are those who focus on studying all parts of the Tarot. They might use their intuition a bit but not enough that it would change the whole meaning of a card.
-Eclectic readings are Practitioners who focus a lot on using both of the first two schools of thought. I think most Tarot readers that read professionally fall under this school of thought. But it's because they use both intuition and the meanings of the cards to give the best readings to others. And because they use everything they learn, they also can give readings that are either purely intuitive or purely by the meanings.
Now I consider myself to be an eclectic reader and I would think most tarot readers are. So when learning I would learn a more eclectic path of reading because then when you forget a card's meaning, having your intuition to help is great. But also when learning the cards, you can mix the systems of tarot decks, much easier than maybe others.
So now that you have the tarot systems and ways of reading Tarot, how do you learn? There is no right way of learning tarot, but I think having a mentor or friend who already knows how to read makes it so much easier. The second would be by journaling. I am horrible at journaling but when I do journal the things I learn just stick. I think journaling the meaning of the cards and your journey with them, will take your learning of the cards from years to months. This also includes journaling the tarot readings you have. If they are for others or yourself it doesn't matter, because this is a journal only for your eyes. So write them down and review them. Don't think of the things you could've said differently, but think of it as, what could I have added to this reading, to make it better. Then lastly have fun! If you are trying to make tarot a profession and are learning because of that, you're going to struggle. But if you are learning of your own free will and are having fun. Tarot will be something that is going to be extremely beneficial to learn for you. This will allow you to create sort of your style of reading the cards and also your connection with them.
With that said I want to leave something behind to help you with learning the cards. So below is a PDF File where I put keywords for the cards. What I recommend is to take each card and then say to it, "you are these keywords..." By doing this, you are training your brain that these keywords are associated with the cards. And from there use these keywords to create the story of the card. I hope this helps you learn the amazing system that is the Tarot.
With Gratitude and Love Thank You for Reading!
Blessed Be- Jacob
Comments