I thought it will be nice to write up a few tips and tricks I have learned over the years for anyone that is learning Tarot reading.
1. Find your Way
When you first start doing Tarot readings you are not sure how to shuffle, set the cards, if you should let someone else touch the cards, how to take the energy from the person and channel it, ect. There has to be one way of doing it right?!
Wrong. There is no one way in reading Tarot. Find the most comfortable way that you want to do your readings. You can find your way by seeing how others do their readings and change it up a bit or just do what you feel is right.
I do my readings by shuffling my deck (without bending the cards) or sometimes I spread the cards out on the floor/table and mix them up. Than I hand them to the person I am reading so they can shuffle while thinking of their issue/question (without bending the cards). They hand me the deck in one way, not sideways. *If the person is asking for a relationship spread I ask the name of the other person.*
I have seen someone do a reading by shuffling his cards and than take a necklace and hold it above the cards. This, of course, I highly disliked because I did not understood how he was using my energy or any part of me. But if you want to do something like that then go right ahead.
2. Make sure to shuffle it (you/the person being read to)
I didn't learn or making sure the deck was shuffled until later on. But I have noticed a greater chance of a read being a failure or wrong when the deck was shuffled poorly. So make sure that you shuffle it until you feel it is ready and make sure, if you do let the other person touch your cards, to make them shuffle until they are ready (Once in a while I have to encourage them to shuffle).
3. Try to use only one deck.
For just starting out, you only need one deck to be honest. By having only one deck you only have one set of cards to learn from and how to read them correctly. Remember, there are different types of decks (pictures, only have one Arcana, Switched Major Arcana places, a new type of tarot deck, ect.). Later on if you choice to do so you can pick up another deck. Some people found out that one set of cards is good for a certain question like love questions and another set is great at doing general questions. In my case I have not seen this because my deck seems to work well with all types of questions.
Thanks for the post :) good information. I just started using a Tarot deck again. I was using runes for the longest time they came so natural I guess with my germanic blood line,but I found the perfect deck for me the Thoth deck has been on point everytime. I use it often for divination before casting spells
We all must remember that there are different ways to do things in Tarot. So even if one reader does one thing doesn't mean you should do it too. Do what you feel is right, not what everyone else is doing.
Another tip (I know it has been awhile) make sure the other person has a question. I have done readings with someone that just wants a random reading and it almost always ends up as a fail. The reason is because there are three key information that you need to have when doing a reading.
The card.
The spread.
The question.
With those set information out in front of you, you can get a more correct reading. With one of them missing it lowers your chances greatly. So without a question you are just reading the spread and the card but nothing to link it to the person you are reading to.
It is also the same when you remove the spread from your reading. You may have the question and the card, but without the meaning of the spot or what the card is limited to you are just giving random information until you hit the right target.
So always try to do a reading with a question and try to give the question meaning. This means that the question cannot be "What will the weather be tomorrow" or something that they care little about. Remember, when doing tarot you always want to improve your chances in success.
p.s. If someone just wants a reading to see if tarot cards work, than ask them a question they want an answer.
The other tip is the types of readings you might give. There are two readings that you need to know; Cold Readings and Hot Readings. Cold readings is when you are giving a reading to someone you have yet to meet or know much about their history or who they are. Hot readings are your friends, family, or people you are near and overhear.
The thing about cold readings is that they are harder than hot readings. When giving the reading you cannot pinpoint what the card is talking about with the person. All you can do is tell them what you believe the card is aiming at and ask them questions about the subject. Of course some people do not like to tell them anything about themselves to you or they will think you are a fake (even if you are not). Asking questions will improve your view of the spread and will give a better reading to the person.
Hot readings are recommended for beginners. Why? Well for two reasons, first is because having an easy reading to a friend or family gives them experience. This allows them to get the feel and learn how to read the cards better. The other reason is to make them feel better about themselves and see them improve. If you are trying to learn a new skill, you want to see you getting better. If you are seeing you're going nowhere or worse than you will give up. Hot readings is, again, giving a reading to someone you know well. This way you will have four information sets than just three (personal history of the person).
The rest you need to do with hot readings is put the information together. Cold readings you just need to give them a sum of the story the cards are telling you.
One last thing about reading someone, each reading isn't what most people think. The readings, in my eyes, are there to help the person find the answer, not give the answer. This is the same reason why tarot cannot really tell the future (because the future is not set in stone). Giving the reading just lets the person view their issue, how they feel and others feel, and bounce ideas of how to solve it. Now this might be a let down on most people that are new to this. Tarot isn't much of mystic power (remember that there is still energy flowing through the cards, you, and the person you are reading. I am not saying there is nothing magickal about it.) it is how you use the cards and the information you have. So you can say you can train in energy with the cards and train on building and using information.
I have been getting messages on this site about love readings. The recent one was seeing how they would break up, so I believe this is the correct time to give you a lesson on love readings.
In a face to face reading, a love reading is a 50/50 chance of being helpful. When I was on my trip to the city I gave someone a reading on his relationship. It turned out to be a very helpful reading and gave him greater hope on his and her love for each other. That is the good thing about doing a reading on love. The sad part is is that when the reading isn't helpful it will cause equal harm. The harm may cause them to break up with their counterpart or even cheat on them. This is why you should only do love readings to those that want to know the good aspects of their relationship. Questions that you feel will lead to a bad reading you should avoid. If you do not know when or not to do readings on love, than don't do them all together.
Doing a love reading online, like with this site, should be avoided no matter what. The reason for this is due to the lack of understanding you and the person being read to. You might be trying to tell them that they have to wait before moving on with the relationship and they might take it as move on with someone else. Also a lot of people do not understand how a reading works and without seeing you laying the cards out they may become confused on your reading. There is just so many factors working against you on reading online, but I am not saying it is impossible. It is just working with a love reading, there is a greater chance on causing more harm in the relationship than helping.
Love readings can be a beautiful thing, but it can be a very ugly thing too. So pick wisely on doing one or not.
Here is some more tips of you Tarot readers, also if you have any questions you may post them here and I'll try to answer them.
Today's first tip is whether you should go with your gut feeling or what the card means by the little white book. The cards are just a focus point for you. This means that the cards holds down the energy and facts so you don't get lost or get confused. If you look at the first card of the spread (any spread) that you are doing and get no gut feeling of what it means, than go by what the book tells you. If you do have a strong feeling of what the card means but has nothing to do with the book you have, than go for it. Your feelings is your connection with the cards and the person, which is a lot stronger than the book itself. This, however, does not mean you should throw away the little white book and go with your feelings. When I have a gut feeling, I always look at the book to see if my gut feeling is going anywhere or where to lead my gut feeling.
Tarot and spells? There are some ways to do spells with tarot cards and I personally don't really use those spells, but they might come in handle for you. The simple way of using the cards in a spell, that I know of at the moment, is when you are drawing the circle. Remember that the circle can be anything you feel will keep you safe (sticks, drawing a circle in sand, salt, energy, ect.). In this case it is with tarot cards. You can do this in three different ways, you can set up your deck and keep on drawing and setting them down until you make a circle around you (they don't have to touch each other and can be around 4 inches apart). The other is by picking each card you favorite and feel will protect you. And lastly using just the Major Arcana.
If you really want to look deeply into Tarot spells you can look online or better yet in a book store. Unlike most books in the store, Tarot spells isn't normally what comes to mind in making money so the chances of the book being real is greater than others.
Another short tip on giving readings. If someone is asking you to use the cards to see who or what is doing whatever they want to know, it is best to let the person know the cards cannot give out names of who does what.
The reason for this is because the best the cards can give is what they do or a description of the person. Sadly this does not include saying the person is your mother, friend, or someone you have yet to meet. So unless the person has asked about that person or knows them so well doing a reading like that will be useless.
If you just gave same one or yourself a reading and didn't like it or want to learn more about it then you might have thought about giving yourself another reading with the same question. In certain issues this is all right to do, but with some other issues it isn't. If you want to learn more by doing the question with another spread, then that is okay. But trying to do it over and over with the same spread is just a waste of time and a bad idea. Because you want to learn more about yourself you may just get the same answer or a more confused reading. The person that is also giving the reading, you or the 2nd party, will get bored fast and not really focus on it. Readings are fun for different reasons, but doing the same spread over and over with the same question within 20 minutes gets boring and dull.
If you are trying to get the correct answer that you want, than you are just in denial. Forcing a happy answer for you is not what the cards are for, they are to clear away the fog and let you see what is going on with your issue. If you are just going to make up lies so you can be happy then you don't need the cards at all, just yourself.
Remember that the cards is just the tool, the focus point, for the reader. So if you make the reader unhappy or bored than you won't have a good reading.
I enjoyed reading this Nash. But I must say i prefer using Oracle decks more than tarot decks. But that may be just me but thank you very much for the lovely information.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to say Tarot is the only path there is. There is palm reading, scrying, tea reading, reading bones, spirit board, and more. It is just I have only focused on one more than the others.
