Tarot Tips For Beginners
Learning tarot is about more than memorizing the meanings of 78 cards. A good reading also asks you to trust your intuition, pay attention to the story the cards are telling together, and know how to work with the person you're reading without imposing your own assumptions on what comes through.
In this video, I share seven mistakes beginning tarot readers commonly make—and some of the techniques I've learned over more than 30 years of reading cards to help you give clearer, richer, and more useful readings.
7 Tarot Reading Tips for Beginners
00:58 Prepare yourself, your space, and your cardsBefore a reading, clear your energy and your deck, ground yourself, and connect with your Higher Self, Source, and spirit guides.
02:22 Connect with the person you're reading—without absorbing their energyI share a visualization I use to connect during a reading while maintaining an energetic boundary, and why it's important to disconnect again afterward.
03:42 Don't rely only on the guidebookLearn the traditional meanings, but don't stop there. Look at the imagery, notice your first reaction, listen to your intuition, and pay attention to the larger story emerging across the cards.
05:20 Don't read when you're too emotional or depletedFear, desperation, exhaustion, or a strong attachment to a particular answer can interfere with your ability to read clearly.
06:55 Don't tell people what they want to hearCompassion doesn't mean changing the message to make someone happy. Give them the clearest reading you can rather than people-pleasing.
07:37 Don't assume you know what everything meansSomething that means nothing to you may be deeply significant to the person you're reading. Ask questions. A reading can be a collaborative process rather than a performance in which the reader has to know everything.
09:16 Don't leave someone with gloom and doomDifficult cards don't have to mean an inevitable outcome. Clarify what you're seeing, explore what's contributing to it, and ask what could help change the path forward.
Trusting Your Intuition When Reading Tarot
Then I think we need only one short section underneath. The seven tips have already given us plenty of written substance.
Knowing traditional tarot meanings gives you a valuable foundation, but a reading becomes much richer when you learn to combine that knowledge with your own intuition.
Notice what catches your attention in the card. What was your immediate reaction when you turned it over? What story do the cards seem to tell together? Are certain images, ideas, or themes repeating themselves?
And when you're reading for someone else, remember that you don't have to pretend to know everything. Something you see may have a personal meaning for them that you couldn't possibly know. Ask. Listen. Let them be part of the reading.
Most importantly, I don't believe tarot reveals a future that's set in stone. A reading can illuminate the path you're currently on—and sometimes show you what you might change if you would prefer to head somewhere else.
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