I want to stretch my muscles!

Om Namah Sivaya!

I've read here and there on the forums that it's not good to do lots of readings a day. But I'm new! Can you advise me on how to work with my cards for long periods each day and it be productive? I know I can study them, symbology, colors, etc., but I want an element of the magic to the learning, too. After all, that's why I bought them! I just don't feel it's conducive to make up questions I don't really care about to see what the cards say, and I don't know if it's possible, but I don't want to abuse the cards! There's got to be a way to have my hands on my cards hours at a time without doing readings. Help!

Ever Hers,
Jagadeesh

Though I'm only new, I've found the tarot games part of the forum is great. Though it's for fun, it's still great practise is learning the qualities of each card. Play a few of the games and make statements answering other peoples questions. It's helped me quite a lot today, and I feel reasonably confident with the cards now.

Hello there,

Many people do a Daily Draw (pick a card each morning to give you a clue or advice about the day ahead) which has the element of "magic" as well as helping you learn all the cards. Don't forget to reflect on it at the end of the day, evaluating what it was referring to or whether you heeded its advice.

There's also exercises you can do with the cards. As Frayling0 said, lots of the games on here are really helpful for beginners to start learning card meanings and combinations. You could start with the one-card games, then when you feel more confident move onto the two-card games so you have to consider how the two cards interact with one another.

There's lots more. Inspired by a thread on these forums, I've just finished summing up every card in a 6 word sentence, which was fun (and sometimes difficult!) and helped me really think about the most important aspects of each card. Try studying the court cards and choosing a person in your life who would fit each character. When you hear a song, think of which Tarot card it would describe (or vice versa; you could pick a Tarot card then choose a song to represent it). Another exercise I'd recommend which worked well for me is this: think of an event in your life and pick three Tarot cards which would tell the story of that event. (Often harder than it looks!)

Depending on what kind of person you are, you may enjoy other ways of interacting with the cards too. If you're an arty person, you may connect with a card better by drawing it. If you're more spiritual and introvert, maybe you'd enjoy meditating on the image. Doing a reading for the sake of it isn't helpful and doesn't usually yield accurate answers. So just experiment with a few of these ideas and find something which suits your style of learning. Good luck

Topsy

Hurrah!

Games! There are games?? Woo hoo!!!

Thanks for all your help!

I like to look through the deck, and when an image grabs my attention stop. Look at it for awhile, imagine a story you might write about that scene or person. Imagine how they might sound, where they might be going, what might be over the horizon. What do the colors and shapes suggest to you? Does the style of the artwork imply anything to you?

You get the idea. Let your imagination go WILD and see what comes up. Journal it to think about later. Don't edit yourself, just let the ideas flow. It's amazing what'll come up for you. And it's always fun to look up the traditional meanings afterwards and see where your imagination might have picked up on a traditional concept without your studying it. That's when you know the artist has nailed that particular idea.

jdev said:

Om Namah Sivaya!

I've read here and there on the forums that it's not good to do lots of readings a day. But I'm new! Can you advise me on how to work with my cards for long periods each day and it be productive? I know I can study them, symbology, colors, etc., but I want an element of the magic to the learning, too. After all, that's why I bought them! I just don't feel it's conducive to make up questions I don't really care about to see what the cards say, and I don't know if it's possible, but I don't want to abuse the cards! There's got to be a way to have my hands on my cards hours at a time without doing readings. Help!

Ever Hers,
Jagadeesh

Click to expand...

I don't believe there is anything in Tarot that it can be generally said is not good to do. Tarot is a very personal thing. What works well for one person willl not for another and vice versa.

My rule of thumb is to follow your heart and do what calls to you. If YOU want to do many readings a day, do them. It may not be right for the next person, but if you feel called to do it then it is right for you.

Do what feels fun and exciting to learn, follow your heart and you can't go wrong. You may learn a few things through trial and error. But then again there is no way to avoid that anyway.

You cannot "abuse" the cards. They are painted cardboard, they have no feelings or reactions of any kind. The thing is though, or course, that they answers do not come from the cards. They come to us through the cards, In the same way that when we are talking on the telephone it is not the telephone that is giving us the message. There is somone on the other end talking to us through the telephone.

While we can't abuse the telephone through usage exceot throwing it at the wall and breaking it...The telephone does not care how often we use it or even how we use it.

But there is something there on the other end that is wise and sending us answers and that source, to me, whatever you feel that is is to be respected. If you disrespect it can shut down and stop answering. As in of you repeatedly ask the same question over and over....it will just get bored with answering and shut down and stop communicating...Just as you would in effect if someone kept asking you the identical question over and over and over. Like if someone kept asking you if the sky is blue today every 5 minutes...on and on. Just as you'd soon stop feeling like answering,. the source behind the answers reacts in the same way if we keep asking teh same things over again.

But you can ask differnt questions each time and that tends to work just fine. There is no right or wrong to Tarot. It's finding what's right for you. If you feel the need to read ofter, follow that feeling.

Babs

What I did when I started out and what I still do every day is shuffle and put out 7 cards. Over and over again, no particular question or situation in mind. It's kind of fun to just see what message I can get from doing that.

Three card spreads are a favorite of many people but I got stuck on 7 cards early on and that just seems to be what works for me. I vary the positional meanings in actual readings sometimes and sometimes I don't use positional meanings.

There's a really good book by James Ricklef called Get the Whole Story that shows you how to do three card readings for fictional characters using books, movies and TV shows that's a great one for getting practice, too.

My advice is to do all the readings you want to. The more the merrier. Just don't confuse yourself by reading over and over again on the same subject. By doing lots of readings you get good practice, get to know your cards better and break the cards in so they shuffle better.

Hi Jdev,

I started learning tarot last year. I do many readings in a day but I don't repeat my questions because the energy or source which provides answers should be respected. I always ask questions for which I will have an answer in few day/weeks/months and then looking at my journal I can learn what a particular card was trying to say. I usually use one card for one question to keep things simple and easy to learn. I also do a daily card in morning and keep notes throughout day and try to see what the card meant to say. By comparing notes of same card I have started to learn what a particular card in particular decks tells me. eg I have learned every time moon shows up for me it has meant dissatisfaction(either at work or home or social party). To connect with the cards I also use to put one card under the pillow and then keep a dream journal and see how the card tied into dream and what was the meaning.
Enjoy your cards

I like to pick 3 cards, and then write one sentence. The sentence usually contains a comma.

I love getting to know the characters portrayed in my decks. Sometimes I will get out my tarot journal and write a list of questions about how one court character would relate to another, and then try to answer them based on imagination and intuition. This helps me delve right into a court card as soon as I see it, opening up more possibilities for a reading. I'm less tempted to just accept the surface impressions and give my readings more depth and detail. Not to mention, it's a fun meditation, especially if you're a writer. I'll also make lists of associations or adjectives to describe the cards, trying to make each card a familiar face. I feel like these meditations help prevent that "block" or blank feeling when reading with a new or detail-oriented deck.
Also a plus, I get to "play" with my cards without the intensity of a reading. I would be drained if I did a lot of readings for myself each day, because I reserve a reading for deep and often profound introspection. Everyone is different though, so if readings give you a boost, do what feels right. Have fun exploring your cards!