Learning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way

1|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

Learning Tarot The Incredibly Easy Way -Through Journaling! Your tarot journal holds a lot of valuable information ….. If you’re serious about tarot and tarot readings, then one of the most important things you can do is keep a tarot journal. Don’t worry if you’re not someone who loves to write – keeping this kind of journal is more of a journey. You’ll find many articles giving you advice on what sort of journal you should keep, what you should write in it and how often …. but it all boils down to how YOU want to journal. It’s a very personal thing and there’s no right or wrong way to go about things. Here, I’ve just jotted down some ideas which I use myself and which you might find useful. Feel free to use or discard them as you see fit: 1. Keep a tarot journal with one page dedicated to each card 2. Write down all the meanings which you connect for each card 3. Choose one meaning, one key word or a phrase for each card 4. Read this meaning many times so it becomes ingrained in your subconscious 5. Make up a cheat sheet and do practice readings 6. Feel free to change the meaning of any card 7. Make sure you let your subconscious know about these changes! Your journal is unique to you – what you put in it is down to you. You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you wish. You may want to add images or drawings; I do that with my own journals as you can see from the photo. I like to put images of the actual cards to reinforce their meanings.

Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

2|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

It’s useful to date your entries, even if you’re only adding a new keyword or phrase. Being able to look back over the years at your entries is fascinating and gives you a deeper insight into the depth of tarot and your readings. Keep your journal away from prying eyes if you don’t like the idea of anyone reading your inner thoughts. Privacy means you can open up in what you write, without worrying about what others may think. Having a unique tarot journal is one of the special joys of working with tarot.

Pick a Card Journaling Exercises For a more transforming exercise with a card, you can “enter into” the card and just observe and interact with it. You can record your own voice and walk yourself through it as a guided meditation or if you prefer, just get yourself in a relaxed state and let it unfold without any promptings. Either way will bring lots of messages from the cards just for you. You decide what works best. Start by studying the card. Notice as many details as you can. The colors, symbols, the background details. Look at the expressions on the faces. Once you have done this, close your eyes and picture the card in your mind with as much detail as you can remember. Now look at the card and see what you left out of the picture. Do this a few times until you feel you see the card in as much detail as possible.

Tell me More About Tarot Cards! Tarot cards are a basically a deck of 78 cards which have pictures on them. These pictures are full of symbolism, meanings and are rife with insights into the human story. A study of the cards will often reveal a lot of hidden depths and knowledge which goes a long way in understanding oneself and providing guidance and help to other people. While it is not easy to learn how to read Tarot cards, it is not an impossible or a difficult process either. All you need is an open mind and a lot of imagination. People often say that you need to be psychic in order to do a Tarot card reading. I say, that we all possess this inherent capability within us - it is just that we have not exercised our ‘psychic muscle’ as such. Tarot cards can help us exercise these ‘psychic muscles’ and help us ‘kick start’ our Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

3|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

intuitive processes. In my experience, spending time doing Tarot card readings can actually help us get in touch with our inner psychic abilities and these Tarot readings will enhance the process of communication with the unconscious within us. Let us look at a simple and easy way to learn how to read Tarot cards. The first step is to get a good Tarot card deck. The deck must have images or pictures that you can relate to. Most shops would have an opened deck which you can go through. Take your time going through the pictures on all the cards. Do they feel familiar? Do you feel as if you instinctively understand what is happening in these pictures? Nowadays, a variety of decks are available in the market. Search over the Internet. You have decks based on so many themes – Egyptian mythology, Greek mythology, Pagan lore, Animal themed decks, Decks based on Modern themes – the variety is endless. What is your favorite imaginary realm? Do you like Egyptian myths? Do you like futuristic imagery? There are decks which will be just right for what you want. Go for that. A deck which will speak to you will often be something you will find easy to understand. The next step is to invest in a good book. Ideally, most decks come with a detailed book, or a Little White Book (affectionately called the LWB by the Tarot community). But it pays to have another book. Often enough the LWB may not contain enough insight or information. So one should have a book that contains the information you are looking for. Look at the various sections in the book you want to buy. Does the book talk about the mythological aspects of the cards? Does the book talk about archetypes? Does the book give detailed explanations of the cards’ symbolism? While searching on the Internet, look at the opinions of people about that book. Did they find it useful? Invest in a book that can be a good guide for you to turn to when you are stuck for interpretations. The third step is to invest in a Tarot Journal. Most Tarot lovers will tell you to buy a two ring binder and many loose leaf sheets (they can be ruled, plain or both). This is a very good method of keeping a record of your work. Journals can be used to record individual card meanings and interpretations, and even a Tarot card reading you did for yourself or for someone else – this record helps you understand your interpretation of each card in a reading. As you progress with your study of Tarot, you can go back and refer to your notes and interpretations. This way, you can gain insight into your intuitive process, and make changes or gain deeper understanding where needed. Now, we finally get down to it. Here is where you sit down with your materials and start the learning process. Before you begin, make a commitment to yourself that you will complete this task at hand. Find a quiet time and space where you are not likely to be disturbed. A couple of hours or so, for a few days, is great. Now, take each card in your hand and look at the pictures. Do they say something to you? For example, when you see the images, do you feel as if ‘this is happening’ or ‘that Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

4|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

is being done’? Make a note of it in your journal. Then read about the card in the book that came along with the deck. Do you agree with the interpretations? Do you feel that some are relevant while some are not? Do these interpretations match what you felt before? Make a note of the interpretations that vibe with you in your journal. Now take the other book that you bought. Read about the card in that book. Does it help you understand what the interpretation is all about? Does the picture in the card make sense to you? Make a note of your insights in your journal. Repeat this process with all the cards. Once you have done this process, go over your interpretations in your journal to refresh them in your mind. Now we come to the part where you actually do a Tarot card reading. You can do this Tarot reading either for yourself or for a friend. Generally, at the back of the book (both the LWB and the other book you bought) there would be a sample spread or two (sometimes even more) with a couple of sample readings as well. Go through it and understand the spread and the reading process. Then follow the process given in the book to actually do a Tarot reading. In your journal, make a note of the cards you pulled and in what positions they appeared in your spread. Write down the interpretations that came to you when you looked at the cards. This time, do not look into your journals or books for the meanings. This time you would be, literally, ‘flying solo’. After the reading is over, you can go through your notes and the books. Do your interpretations match the meanings that you got? Do you have another insight or meaning to add to the ones you got from the books? Go ahead and add the interpretation into your journal. Make sure that you date the reading and mention the subject or question you asked at the top of the page where you noted down your interpretations. This way you can go back to the reading and your interpretations after a couple of months and see if you were right or where you did not see something. Here is a simple exercise for keeping up with your study of Tarot. Every morning, draw either 1 or 3 cards for the day. Note them down in your journal along with their interpretations. Check back the next day if you were going in the right direction. Often you may also find that your interpretations may actually come true within a week or a month, or even in the next couple of days! This exercise will thus help you hone your skills every single day. Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

5|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

Learning how to read Tarot cards requires a certain amount of dedication and commitment. But if done properly, this connection with the cards can help you come closer to your inner self and remain guided by the Universe forever. By Madhavi Ghare

Pick A Card Journaling Exercises Another simple and easy way to get a lot of insight into a card is to write down a description of it. Just describe what you see in the card. I find that practicing this helps me when I am doing readings and drawing a blank. If you are doing a reading and nothing is coming to you, try just describing the card. This always leads me into a dialog that ends up being very helpful to the person receiving the reading.

10 Tips on How to Learn Tarot by Alec Satin

If you’re interested in learning tarot, congratulations! The world of tarot is broad enough to keep you interested for decades, yet easy enough to allow you to gain a working understanding of the cards in a relatively short period of time. While there are many ways to learn tarot, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and struggle if you follow the following suggestions. 10. Don’t fixate on Doing it right As you get to know different tarot readers, you’ll discover that there are many effective ways to read the cards. Some readers are intuitive, which means that they tend to use the card images to stimulate their imagination in a reading. Others do cold readings using fixed, memorized meanings for each card. Both methods can work extremely well. If you decide to stick with tarot, in time you’ll soon discover your own style. Give yourself permission to learn, grow, experiment and try different methods. Be easy on yourself. Before you know it, your confidence in your own personal technique will grow. 9. Throw away the Little White Book Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

6|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

The Little White Book (LWB) is the small pamphlet that comes with most tarot decks. Some provide interesting background information. For learning tarot they are worse than useless. Ignore the little white book completely if you want to learn to read the cards. 8. Choose one good tarot book While many tarot books are not that good, and some are next to worthless, there are others that are pure gold. Here are some suggestions:

21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card by Mary K. Greer Learning the Tarot by Joan Bunning 7. Don’t read a lot of different books (at first) If you look online or at the bookstore, you’ll find a jubilee of tarot books. Not only don’t you need these books, but purchasing them is a big mistake as you try to make sense of tarot. Don’t give in to the temptation to buy a lot of books. You’ll tend to get distracted, which will slow down your progress in learning the cards. The seeming differences between authors may damage your trust in your own abilities. Finally, too many of these books are marginal at best. Reading a lot of books will waste your time. See the next item. 6. Learn a keyword or key phrase for all 78 cards As legendary tarot guru Le Fanu has said, memorization has fallen far out of favor. While this may be true for others, you can choose to go against fashion. Following this one tip will jump-start your ability to read effectively with the cards. Keywords in and of themselves are only a small portion of the meaning of any particular card. When chosen well they act as seeds growing inside you. Each one will become a tree of knowledge and associations linked with its particular card. Keywords serve the same function as training wheels in learning to ride a bike. When you learn to ride, the training wheels go away. Same with the keywords. Remember always that tarot is alive. The meanings for cards change, develop and grow. 5. Keep a tarot journal

Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

7|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

Start a journal used only for your tarot learning. Some people use a 3-ring notebook with pages for each card. Others use a simple spiral. Whatever is easiest and works best for you will be just fine. Include realizations, dreams related to the cards, quotations from your one tarot book, sketches and anything else that strikes your fancy. 4. Do a daily draw More days than not you should pull a card out of your deck. If you miss a day, let it go and start again when you remember. Think about the card during the day. Keep the card with you if possible. Meditate on the image. Write about it in your journal. 3. Engage the spirit of tarot Whatever you may believe about how it works, there is an order and intelligence behind tarot. While the cards themselves are paper, the life behind them is something more. Befriend the tarot. Treat tarot with respect, and it will treat you with respect. 2. Carry your deck with you Get used to glancing through your deck in spare moments. Put them on the table next to you when your working at the computer. Keep them in your bag. Put them under your pillow when you sleep, or on the table next to your bed. The time you leave your cards behind will be the time you regret not having them. 1. Learn from those who know Aeclectic Tarot Forum is a friendly community of tarot people. The Using Tarot Cards area can be a source of wonderful information for you as a new tarot reader. Wishing you great happiness, adventure and success on your tarot journey.

Pick A Card Journaling Exercises This will help you understand a card and how it relates to its symbols and to other cards. Do this for as many of the symbols as you like. List some of the most obvious symbols in the card. You can include Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

8|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

predominant colors as symbols. Now go through the deck and put aside cards that use the same symbol. How are the symbols used in the different cards? Do the cards have similar meanings or are they different? How is the symbol portrayed in the various cards?

What Kind of Tarot Deck Should I Get? Wouldn't you want to be a good tarot reader? Tarot card reading is one of the most popular kinds of fortune telling. If you are on a lookout for educative methods for understanding the actual fundamentals of tarot reading, then this free online learning test is the best. This easy to learn tarot reading application is really very simple and pretty valuable for amateurs who wish to discover the Rider Waite Deck. Tarot cards have been in use since ancient times and are preferred by psychics as a tool for fortune telling. Professional tarot readers use this form of prediction to do readings for people and also help these people solve their troubles. They also suggest remedies for their several problems. Ride Waite Deck may be the most preferred by people who are interested in learning tarot card reading since it is simple and easy. The actual images are evident and uncomplicated to know. The particular meanings as well as keywords also explain the card very well. Tarot Cards can be divided into 22 cards of the Major Arcana and 56 cards of the Minor Arcana. There are four suits in Minor Arcana known as Swords, Cups, Pentacles and Wands. Every card is related to a few positive and negative keywords with an explanation for the upright along with reversed cards. A Tarot card learning tool is usually utilized to memorize various meanings and key phrases with the distinctive cards at the same time and also test that the user understands the topic. Because newer as well as a lot more advanced decks are usually being developed, it is extremely hard to get a beginner to know the actual fundamentals except if guided by a right course. Only after that can one gain understanding and progress in his or her intuitive skills.

Pick a Card Journaling Exercises Your first impression of the card – how you feel when you see it, which images stand out to you. Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

9|L earning Tarot the Incredibly Easy Way!

A detailed description of the characters, symbols, and landscape. Perhaps there are a number of important aspects of the card that you missed in your first glance. How do these change your view of the card? Specific details of the card such as corresponding astrological sign, Major or Minor Arcana, suit, numerological significance, and related element. A collection of interpretations and keywords from books and websites with tarot card meanings. An experience or a person you know who reminds you of the card you are studying.

Tarot cards are not going to predict the future. They aren't going to give you answers from the cosmos. What tarot cards do is speak to your intuition Many people want to learn more about the tarot and using tarot cards, but finding tarot cards instructions that are geared for beginners can be tricky, especially if you are unsure of what, exactly, tarot cards are for. First here is some basic tarot card information: tarot cards are not going to predict the future. They aren't going to give you answers from the cosmos. What tarot cards do is speak to your intuition. Tarot cards are not going to tell you anything that some part of you doesn't already know. The card can shed insight into a current situation or help you figure out answers to problems yourself. Keep that in mind as you read the following tarot card instructions. 1. Choose your tarot card deck carefully. This is not a normal deck of playing cards or a pack of trading cards that you are picking up. Each tarot card deck has its own energy and it is important to take your time in figuring out which deck you feel the most comfortable with. Look at the illustrations on the cards and pay attention to your senses. You will eventually find a deck that you feel a connection to and that is the deck you should purchase. 2. Even if you haven't started to learn what each of the cards means, take some time to become familiar with each of the cards in your tarot card decks. Really look at the illustrations and start figuring out how each one of the cards fits into the different categories of cards.

Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

10 | L e a r n i n g T a r o t t h e I n c r e d i b l y E a s y W a y !

3. Begin studying what each of the cards means. Putting meaning to each card is easier if you can easily call to mind the card when you are reading about it. Sure it is easy enough to do a tarot card spread and then look up the meaning of each card, but a tarot reading is far more fulfilling if you already know what the cards mean. 4. The easiest tarot card spread is the three card spread. This card spread gives you insight into the past, the present and the future that surround the question you are concentrating on. We`ve already said that tarot cards cannot predict the future, but they can give you some insight into your feelings about the future. Once you`ve mastered the three card reading, you are ready to move on to other card spreads. These are just a few simple tarot cards instructions. Obviously there are more complicated card spreads and there are techniques to learning about the individual cards and what they mean. If you are just starting out, though, hopefully these tarot cards instructions will provide you with enough background information to start you on your journey to being a practiced reader of the tarot cards. Before you know it, you will be advanced enough to do readings for other people.

Pick a Card Journaling Exercises What ‘story’ is being told? What is happening in the card? Is there a person in the card? What does their expression tell you? What direction are they facing? What are they doing? What symbols are used in the card, and what do these symbols mean? What colors are used in the card, and what do these colors signify? What are the astrological associations with the card (if astrology is your area of expertise)?

A Simple Way to Memorize Major Arcana, Minor Arcana and Court Card Meanings by Ian Eshey

Learning the meanings of 78 Tarot cards and nuances for each doesn't sound easy or fun. And you get really desperate once you realize that each card can mean many different things depending on the context. But the good thing is that each card isn't an independent entity: Cards follow each other and describe different stages in real life cycles, such as a person maturing, an idea developing, or a project advancing. Add to the Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

11 | L e a r n i n g T a r o t t h e I n c r e d i b l y E a s y W a y !

mix bare basics of symbolism and numerology and this will be your key to learn Tarot in no time! Look at Tarot Cards as Life Progressions Such progressions are easy to tell as a story. To our ancestors, stories were the single main mechanism of passing on information. Our brains are designed to catch a "thread" in a story and automatically attach the details along the way. So go read the existing stories you can find on the internet. Or if you really don't have nothing more pressing to do, just write your own stories. An additional benefit is that you will be able to automatically think of each card as part of "progression" (What happened before? What is yet to come?), which is much more powerful than simply considering the meaning of the card in isolation. When I started, I tried to read spreads by simply reading the "meanings" from a book that came with the deck. You have probably guessed that I was more often than not pretty frustrated with the results. Major Arcana as a Story This one is easy, because it's the most commonly told story across all cultures on earth. You may know of it as "Fool's Jurney" or "Hero's Jurney". Or you may have read the books "Sidharta" or "Alchemist" or... Anyway the point is the same: A person going through life and maturing spiritually and otherwise, through challenges he or she encounters. Minor Arcana and Tarot Numerology What has numerology to do with Tarot? Simply speaking, each suit's cards, from the Ace (which is One) to Ten, represent progression from a new beginning and great potential (Ace) to a conclusion and the base (Ten) for the next cycle for the theme represented by each of the four Tarot suits. Two represents a decision to be made or need for balance, four is stability and five destroys that stability. Read the basic Tarot numerology, it's that simple! Interpret the Court Cards

Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

12 | L e a r n i n g T a r o t t h e I n c r e d i b l y E a s y W a y !

Court cards are especially interesting because each represents both conflict and the synergy of two forces: The card's basic nature (which of the four Tarot suits it belongs to) and traditional responsibilities of its position in the court hierarchy. So for example the King of Cups is someone who is very experienced and directing, and both in control of his emotions and understands emotions of other people. A born diplomat, you could say! Read the Basics of Tarot Symbolism People have always given much thought to the deeper meaning of the things that surround us, and Tarot uses the deep rooted symbolism for such things heavily. Fortunately, much of this we already know because it's part of every culture on Earth. After you have read about most recurring symbols on Tarot cards (like the Sun, the Moon, a star, a path, a bridge etc), you will be able to easily develop further associations yourself; so it's best just to read those instead of trying to "learn" the meanings.

Pick A Card Journaling Exercises Your first impression of the card – how you feel when you see it, which images stand out to you detailed description of the characters, symbols, and landscape. Perhaps there are a number of important. A aspects of the card that you missed in your first glance. How do these change your view of the card? Specific details of the card such as corresponding astrological sign, Major or Minor Arcana, suit, numerological significance, and related element. A collection of interpretations and keywords from books and websites with tarot card meanings. An experience or a person you know who reminds you of the card you are studying

There’s definitely no shortcut to learning how to read tarot cards. However, if you are in tune with your sixth sense and class yourself as intuitive then it needn’t be as daunting a process as you think. The biggest task will be to learn all the different meanings for each tarot card. There are no hard and fast rules to what each card means. The more books you read from different authors, the more you’ll notice the variations in their interpretation. Your relationship with your tarot cards is very personal and it’s what a card means to YOU that is paramount.

Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

13 | L e a r n i n g T a r o t t h e I n c r e d i b l y E a s y W a y !

The more time you spend establishing your own associations with the cards, the faster you’ll learn. That means practice, practice and practice. Like anything the more you do it the more confident you’ll become. I believe that having that confidence and trust in your own intuition is one of the biggest challenges a beginner will face. If you can achieve that then you’re 90% there. Practice on your friends and get as much feedback as you can. If you had trouble reading a particular card, then following up to see how the story unfolded can help you to better understand what it might have meant. Record your practice readings and listen back to them months later. Sometimes you’ll find that your friend was so focused on one point that they didn’t pay attention to anything they considered to be irrelevant to it. When you listen back it’s often the little, seemingly meaningless things that are said that turn out to be the most poignant. Getting these confirmations and assurances will go a long way towards helping you to achieve that confidence and trust your intuition implicitly. Remember; if it pops into your head then spit it out, even if it makes no sense – you’ll be surprised how relevant it is.

Pick a Card Journaling Exercises These prompts can be done at any time, but are probably best done after you have familiarized yourself with all 78 cards. Shuffle your deck several times and pick a card for each question. The card picked can be either deliberate or random. What is my greatest strength? What is my biggest weakness? What is my current challenge? What will help me? What do I love? What do I fear? What do I need to release?

A simple and effective approach to learn tarot. Learning to read tarot cards does not need to be a difficult process. In fact, it is a quite enjoyable undertaking. The more time you put into understanding the craft of tarot reading, the more you will get out of it.

Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

14 | L e a r n i n g T a r o t t h e I n c r e d i b l y E a s y W a y !

To be a good tarot reader, you must learn how to appropriately interpret the cards. The best tarot readers are those who have learned how to interpret the cards using their own personal associations. This is not the type of information you can get out of a book. Rather, it comes from your own identification to the cards and their imagery. This is not to say that books on the tarot don't have a place in the learning process. They can be a valuable reference guide for whenever you are unsure of something. They are great resources for tarot history, tarot spreads, and for general tarot card meanings. While having a good understanding of this information is certainly important, developing your own personal relationship with the cards is a much more effective and rewarding way to learn tarot than trying to memorize information from a book. To do this you will need to put to familiarize yourself with the cards. I usually recommend taking half an hour each day to spend studying and journaling. It’s important that you do this in a place where you feel relaxed and calm. You will also want to make sure that you won’t be interrupted, so try to avoid any distractions. To begin, you will need your own tarot deck, a notebook and a pen. Choose a place in your home that encourages you to relax. You may want to burn some incense, light some candles, or put some gentle music on. Let go of the day's events. When you feel ready, pick up your tarot deck and start shuffling. Try to set your mind free of any fears or expectations. Close your eyes and relax. Take the time to slow your breathing and sit with your feelings. If anything pops out at you make sure to acknowledge it in your journal. Often, when we fail to acknowledge our feelings or issues, our ability to read the cards becomes skewed. Unprocessed emotions have a tendency to cause us to lose objectivity and neutrality. When you feel at peace, draw a card from anywhere in the deck. Place it down in front of you in an upright position. Take a moment to really examine the card. In your notebook write down the name of the card and answer the following questions when they apply.

Pick a Card Journaling Exercises What story does the image you see tell you? How does this story apply to your own life story? How does it make you feel? Does it make you think of any experiences you have had in the past? Who is the subject or subjects of the card? What might they say to you? What might they say to each other? What other symbolism and imagery appears on the card and what do you think it may represent? What’s the message of the card? Does the card share a life lesson?

Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/

15 | L e a r n i n g T a r o t t h e I n c r e d i b l y E a s y W a y !

If you are uncertain about a card’s meaning, it is ok to check your interpretation by referencing a book. Keep in mind though that there are no set rules and that the objective is to learn tarot by establishing your own personal understanding and connection to the cards. After you have completed this task, you will want to note everything you have learned in your journal. The goal is to journal on each card in the Tarot. When you complete this exercise for all 78 cards of the tarot deck, you will have your very own book of tarot interpretations and meanings. You will be able to use this as a resource in the future. To learn tarot, you simply must be willing to take the time to develop your own relationship to each of the cards. In the end, learning tarot reading is a personal journey. You are always the source of its magic.

Thank you for visiting http://myteacup.com/tarot/