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Getting Started with Tarot: A Beginner’s Guide

You can spend a lifetime learning to read Tarot and still find more to discover. To begin, though, you only need a few simple ground rules.

1. Choose Your Deck

There are dozens of Tarot decks with different designs, and artists create new ones every year. But more choice isn’t always a good thing. When you’re just starting out, it can distract you from learning to read the cards.

The advice for beginners is simple: stick to one classic deck at first. The Rider-Waite deck is the best choice: beautiful, easy to understand, and tried and tested. First published by William Rider & Son in 1909, it was conceived by Arthur Edward Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. Its clear, storylike scenes help you read a spread even without opening a guidebook.

Once you’re comfortable with this versatile deck, you can explore others: the Tarot de Marseille, Manara Tarot, Thoth Tarot, Egyptian and Japanese decks, and many more.

2. Learn to Interpret the Cards

There are three ways to read Tarot: by the book, by intuition, or by combining the two. With the first, you follow the card’s established meaning closely. With the second, you look at the card and read the images that come to mind. The third brings both approaches together.

As a beginner, you’ll find it easiest to start with the meanings in your guidebook. Once you know your deck better and have learned what the cards mean, try reading the pictures intuitively. Intuition works best alongside those established meanings, adding the images that surface from your subconscious.

A card might stir fear, unease, joy, happiness… Bring those feelings into your interpretation, alongside the card’s meaning, and your reading gains depth and detail. This combined approach is the one most professional Tarot readers use.

3. Do Your Own Tarot Reading

First, find a quiet place where nothing will interrupt you or pull your attention away from the reading.

Next, put the question you want to ask into words in your mind. Make it specific: Tarot cards don’t give clear answers to broad or philosophical questions.

Draw a card, study the picture, and listen to your intuition as you interpret what you see. Bright, energetic colors, for example, can suggest leadership and taking action. A dark background, on the other hand, can point to doubt, looking inward, or caution.

Check your guidebook, too. What does it say about the card you’ve drawn? Don’t worry if you can’t quite make sense of the reading at first. Understanding comes with practice. As your knowledge and experience grow, you’ll learn to hear exactly what the cards are telling you, what they’re warning you about, and what advice they have to offer.

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