How to Read Tarot Cards: Tarot 101

If you’re curious about the tarot, and want to start reading the cards for yourself, you probably have quite a few questions popping into your head. That’s normal — most people have more questions about how to use tarot cards than answers or understanding about how it works.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through the steps you need to take to get started with the tarot cards. Know that if you only want to pull the cards out once a year, you probably don’t need to follow all these steps — you could just use the booklet that comes with your deck to guide you.

But if you have plans to read for yourself or others on a regular basis, you’ll want to spend some time going through these steps and teaching yourself how to read the cards in a beautiful way that makes you and the people you read for feel safe and comfortable.

Step 1: Understand How To Use Tarot Cards

There are a few things you need to get straight about using tarot cards in order to do readings that give you true insight into life. Do you pull one card, or use a spread? Are you looking for personal development and understanding, or a glimpse into the future?

Every tarot reader is a little bit different, and will read the cards in a different way, so it’s helpful for you to understand how you expect the cards to work for you.

The Mechanics of Tarot Readings

A typical card reading involves asking a question, picking a card from the deck or laying out a spread, then interpreting the meanings of the cards based on the questions asked. There isn’t a right or wrong answer to how you do this — it’s all based on your personal preferences and what feels right.

Just know that it all starts with a question and desire to get answers. After that, you can trust your intuition or choose a pre-made spread to help you find the answers you seek.

Your Beliefs and Methods of Reading the Cards

There’s a lot of myth and misunderstanding around the tarot cards — caused by so many different things, it’s hard to go into it all here — but it’s up to you to decide how tarot works for you, based on your personal gifts and beliefs. I’m very transparent about how I believe the tarot works and how I use it, but your methods and uses might be different from mine.

Before you dive into pulling cards, you’ll want to spend some time considering how you believe the tarot works, and how that influences your tarot card reading.

Step 2: Learn the Different Card Types and How They Relate to Each Other

The tarot cards are broken into three major types of cards, and each card type has a slightly different role. You need to have a basic understanding of what each card represents (beyond just the keywords) if you want to achieve truly insightful readings.

The Major Arcana Cards

The Major Arcana cards represent twenty-two lessons we all experience at some point in our lives. They also symbolize the journey a person takes from birth, through childhood, adulthood, and beyond, referred to as the Fool’s Journey.

These cards are often viewed as most important, as they indicate you’re in the midst of learning an important life lesson, and they can give insight into how our past influences our present and how we’ll play out our future.

The Court Cards

The court cards — also known as royal cards — depict royalty such as kings, queens, knights, and pages. These court cards often represent people in your life (or potential people) who can have a big impact on how you move through the world.

They are also said to represent different aspects of yourself — how you look at certain situations, how you make decisions, how you interact with others, and so forth.

The Minor Arcana Cards

The opposite of the Major Arcana cards, the Minor Arcana cards represent smaller moments in life that may not have major impacts on the overall course of your journey. These cards might represent things like relationships, emotions, or decisions you have to make. They’re more concrete than the Major Arcana and can be used to provide advice or guidance on how to deal with certain situations.

The minor arcana cards are divided into four suits: cups, wands, swords, and pentacles. Each represents a different aspect of everyday life, and can help you pinpoint what your tarot reading is referring to.

The cups are related to your emotions, feelings, creativity, intuition, and relationships.

The wands are related to your energy, enthusiasm, passion, inspiration, beliefs, opinions, and spirituality.

The swords are related to your thoughts, intellect, rational mind, truth, facts, power, and authority.

The pentacles are related to your finances, material wealth, the tangible realm, manifestation, career, and work.

Altogether, the minor arcana cards cover just about every situation you might encounter in life.

Step 3: Familiarize Yourself With the Meanings of Each Individual Card

Once you understand the roles each card type plays in readings, it’s time to get familiar with the individual cards themselves. This is important because understanding the symbolism of each card will help you interpret them more accurately when reading for yourself or someone else.

Take some time to go through your deck and write down notes about what each card means to you. If there’s something that stands out from the card — like a certain symbol or color — take that into consideration as well.

Step 4: Create a Sacred Space for Reading Tarot Cards that is Comfortable and Calming

Reading the tarot is a very personal (and sometimes vulnerable) experience, so it’s important that you — and anyone you’re reading for — feel safe and open to receiving the messages in the cards.

A comfortable physical space, safe emotional space, and open mental space are all important aspects of creating a sacred space where the messages in the cards can be heard and understood. Prepare an area where your readings can always feel good, and spend time clearing your mind and emotions to make yourself open and receptive.

Consider different items you can include in your physical space, like candles, crystals, plants, or something else entirely. Emotions can be calmed through a short meditation. Thoughts can be harnessed with guided visualization. There are a ton of options for how to create a sacred space for yourself and others, so think about what helps you feel relaxed and experiment with different setups.

Step 5: Ask Powerful and Empowering Questions

When you’re ready to start your tarot reading, you’ll want to ask powerful and empowering questions. This helps focus the messages in the cards on how they can help you take action and make decisions that serve your highest good.

Avoid asking yes/no type questions as these don’t usually lead to deeper insights. Instead, focus on how a situation may be impacting you or how certain actions could benefit you. Questions like “What does my inner voice have to say about this?” or “How can I create more balance in my life?” are great for uncovering important information about yourself and your relationships with others.

A great way to determine whether your question is empowering is to ask yourself if the answer is dependent on fate, or on your own power. Questions that assume fate is in charge leave us no room for change or taking action, and are very disempowering. Instead, rephrase your questions to help you take action in your life.

Step 6: Know How To Choose Which Tarot Deck and Spread to Use

Each tarot deck and spread you work with can change the way you interpret the cards, so it’s important to understand how and when you’ll use each. The only way to really master this is through practice, so spend plenty of time with your cards doing readings.

Choosing a Tarot Deck

The choice of which tarot deck you use is a personal one. You want a tarot deck that you feel connected to — one whose symbolism and imagery is easy for you to interpret — and whose readings make sense to you.

There are many different types of tarot decks available, so take your time and find one that speaks to you. Eventually, you might have a full collection of tarot decks to choose from for each reading, so make sure you spend time getting to know your decks and what types of readings they’re most useful for.

Selecting a Tarot Spread to Use

Tarot readings are often done using a spread, which is a pattern of how you lay out the cards. The most popular tarot spreads include the 3-card spread and the 10-card Celtic cross spread. It’s important to understand how different spreads work so that you can choose one that best suits your needs.

When starting out, a three card spread is the easiest to read and determine how one card relates to another. Test out the past present and future spread, the situation action outcome spread, or any of the other basic spreads that you feel drawn to.

You can also create your own tarot spreads — all it takes is a little thought and practice.

Step 7: Develop Your Own Style of Interpreting The Cards’ Messages

The goal of reading tarot is to tap into your intuition and gain insight about how you can use the cards’ messages in your life. It’s important to remember that there are no “right” or “wrong” interpretations — the only interpretation that matters is how it resonates with you.

As you become more familiar with how each card affects a tarot spread, how certain symbols trigger deeper insights, and how different decks evoke different feelings, you will eventually develop your own style of interpreting card meanings.

When reading for yourself or someone else, take note of how you feel when looking at certain cards and how they relate to one another — this helps create an overall picture or message that can guide decisions and actions. You’ll develop a better understanding of how the cards work over time as you gain more experience.

Step 8: Practice Reading Tarot Cards for Yourself and Friends or Family Members Before Going Pro

It’s important to practice reading tarot cards for yourself and those close to you before you offer readings professionally. This helps you gain confidence in how your interpretations are received, how to handle potential situations that might arise during a reading, how to answer questions effectively, and how to connect with clients on an emotional level.

By practicing with friends and family members first, you can build up the experience and skill set needed to eventually become a professional tarot reader.

Final Thoughts — How to Use Tarot Cards

Now that you know how to read tarot cards like a pro, remember that it takes time and dedication to gain mastery over this ancient art form. Spend plenty of time familiarizing yourself with different decks, spreads, and techniques.

Using tarot cards can be an incredibly rewarding experience. With the right knowledge, attitude, and preparation, you can learn how to read tarot cards accurately and use them as a tool for personal growth and development. So get out your deck and get practicing.