Learning to Read the Tarot

It looks so easy when you sit down at the table across from a reader and listen as he or she reads your cards. It seems so simple when the reader is speaking. In truth, learning to read the Tarot is like learning to speak or read a new language. In fact, that’s what it is. Tarot is the language of the cards. From legends of many years we have come to believe that the first Tarot came from the Egyptians. In truth, the word Egyptian was used in a generic manner to designate a tribe of people who continually travel from place to place. Egyptian used to equal Gypsy. The Gypsy is in reality a person of the Romany race. These people have long been supposed to have been born with psychic abilities and card reading is one of the things for which they are famous. For a point of fact, the Tarot was actually invented as a card game and did not become associated with the mystic or the occult until the 18th century. Now it has become an accepted tool to help discern the future.
How do you learn to read the Tarot? If you can learn to be a reader you can read any deck. The people who create the decks spend a lot of time and a great deal of effort to do so. Learning this new “language” is like going on a long journey into the past to get messages from those who have gone before us and can help us on our current path. Once you learn to be a reader and master a particular deck, you can hear the words of your spirit guide as he speaks to you.
There are 78 cards in the Tarot deck. The cards are divided into suits of four: wands, swords, coins and cups; this Minor Arcana accounts for 56 of the cards. The other 22 cards are called the Major Arcana. These cards are used to solve problems, visualization, intention magnetism, meditation and even for self improvement. Most often the Tarot is used as a tool for fortune telling or divining the future. There are a lot of different Tarot card decks. Different artists interpret the cards in different ways until there is a deck for almost any interest. The card interpretation is the same for all decks so if you are having your cards read by a person using the Toth deck your reading would basically be the same as from a person using the Golden Dawn deck. Where the decks differ is in the minute additions of symbols from ancient wisdoms or religions. There are specific decks that pull deeply from ancient Egyptian religions, mystic circles such as The Golden Dawn and ancient civilizations such as the Mayans.
Choose your first deck for its simplicity. I would recommend that you begin with the Toth deck or the Rider-Waite deck. These two decks are the most well known among card readers. Their meanings are straight forward and easy to follow; even including the Major Arcana. Before you begin to use your cards, open them; take them out of the box and shuffle them as many times as “feels” right. Don’t put them back into the box. Instead, wrap the cards in a silk scarf and put them under your pillow for you to sleep on that night. This infuses the cards with your energy which helps when you are reading them.
You can learn to read the cards through instruction by a psychic who is adept at the Tarot. Learning to be a Tarot card reader is like learning a foreign language. The cards truly do have a language of their own. Each one has a meaning and when they are placed in a reading pattern each card relates to another to tell a story. Read the book that comes with your deck carefully and learn the meaning of each of the four suits and of the 14 cards within each suit. Also, learn the meaning of the cards in the Major Arcana. When you put them all together in a reading you will be able to learn things that will help your client. You will have become an Oracle.