At What Point Did You Stop Feeling New To Tarot?

I find myself saying it over and over again here on the forum and in my personal world. "I'm still relatively inexperienced..." I hope I'm not just excusing myself in case I read the cards wrong, and even to my own ears it's beginning to sound like I'm telling others to take it all with a grain of salt.

I don't want to label myself as "NEWBIE" forever.

So I'm asking all those who've been using the Tarot for years and years...

When did you stop thinking of yourself as a beginner? What was the turning point?

I've been studying the tarot for 20 years now. Although others may disagree with me, I by no means consider myself to be an expert. But I also don't consider myself to be a beginner or a newbie. As the title under my username says, I'm a "student of tarot."

Thinking of yourself as a beginner suggests that at some point you'll be an expert and will know it all (or at least most of it). I know that will never be the case for me, which is why I'm happy to be a student of tarot for the rest of my life.

I think to some extent I'll always feel like a beginner. At least, I hope I will. Because as long as there's a little smidgen of feeling like a beginner there, I'll always know I have more to learn. The point where I think of myself as not being a beginner at all anymore, I could start stagnating. There are many, many people who have way more experience than I do and in comparison, I probably am a beginner and will always be because there will always be those folks way ahead of me. I just sat down recently to really try to figure out on paper how long I've been using the cards. I started in 1998 so that's been about 13 years ago. Compared to some of our members with 30 or 40 years, I'm not much more than a beginner.

I think there's a definite difference between being a newbie and being inexperienced! I do know that I hide behind the label of "inexperienced" sometimes when friends catch me off guard and press me for readings, but I wouldn't consider myself to be a newbie anymore either

Compared to so many of the members on this forum, I'm still quite new to Tarot - I bought my first deck when I was very young (11 or so?) but I've only been studying it seriously for maybe two years. And while I feel that I now have a comfortable knowledge of Tarot and feel confident reading for myself and a few close friends, I know that there is so so much still to learn, and so much more experience to be gained on my Tarot journey. And I know that I would be happy to never stop learning!

I've only been studying for 17 years, so I'm still a n00b. I'll tell you when I get over that feeling

Well, for starters, i do NOT consider myself an apept at Tarot. But really i stopped considering myself a novice or considering it "something i just do" after Samhain this year. I did a reading or two, and for the most part they were spot on. Honestly what helped the most was receiving affirmation from people i was talking to. Like, even later, when i was describng something for someone, they said "that is SO what is happening now". That stuff boosts you up and makes you think, "hmm, maybe i know what im doing after all"

Thank You

I appreciate the responses.

For me, I think it's a confidence issue, not so much about expertise because I'm certain that I'll never feel that way. There is always something new to learn and a new way of seeing things.

I'll have to work on omitting my "relatively inexperienced" statement out of things and see if that helps. I had been thinking about how others perceive those words when they ask for a reading or input and I don't want to put them off.

Oddly enough, not so many years ago now (3 or 4) when learning Tarot was first suggested to me, I scoffed. Yep, that's right. Cynical me wasn't going to tote Tarot cards along anywhere.

Nowadays I just hope for anyone to take an interest. Life has changed in a big way.

Thanks again everyone!

RunningWild said:

I find myself saying it over and over again here on the forum and in my personal world. "I'm still relatively inexperienced..." I hope I'm not just excusing myself in case I read the cards wrong, and even to my own ears it's beginning to sound like I'm telling others to take it all with a grain of salt.

Click to expand...

I've been reading since the late 1970s. I still feel new. The more I learn, the more able I am to see the gaps in my knowledge. Yeah, I've taught people and mentored people, but only from the stated base of my own inexperience.

Worst case scenario: I could drop dead tonight, as a complete newbie to tarot. Best case scenario: I could drop dead in another forty years to so, still stumbling around learning things. Yeah, I'm still a beginner.

RunningWild said:

There is always something new to learn and a new way of seeing things.

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You said a mouthful right there! That is really at the heart of how I feel too. Especially right now as I'd taken a couple of years away from Tarot and I'm just getting back to it these past couple of months.

Still, I don't consider myself to be a "newbie" any more. I guess as I got better, gained more experience with reading for other folks, I just felt more comfortable with Tarot. Actually, being able to discuss it with the wonderful people here at A.T. helped me a lot - especially when I realized that they actually accepted me and ... well, respected what I had to say. But that is part of being a member here - I think your thoughts are almost always respected here.

But, I guess I'd have to say that I kind of consider myself to be a "journeyman" in some respects. Not so much because I'm becoming more experienced. Rather, in spite of being comfortable enough to do readings for people and to believe in the messages I'm receiving during a reading, I also know that, as you so aptly put it; "there is always something new to learn and a new way of seeing things."

I don't know if I'll ever go beyond a "journeyman" feeling. In a way I hope I don't. Because, though the journeyman may be more comfortable with his skills, he still retains some of that Fool-like freshness of the apprentice.

rwcarter said:

I've been studying the tarot for 20 years now. Although others may disagree with me, I by no means consider myself to be an expert. But I also don't consider myself to be a beginner or a newbie. As the title under my username says, I'm a "student of tarot."

Thinking of yourself as a beginner suggests that at some point you'll be an expert and will know it all (or at least most of it). I know that will never be the case for me, which is why I'm happy to be a student of tarot for the rest of my life.

Click to expand...

I completely agree with this.

But to answer your question; 'When did you stop feeling new to tarot?' - I'd say it took me around 5 years of reading and study until I started to feel that I was actually reading and not struggling...
I think what really helped me was when I decided that I would not look in books at all during readings. I read books about tarot a lot but I never second guess my meanings or interpretations by checking in a book... The cards are enough... It was when I realised that that I really felt as if I'd made a leap with my readings.

I think the thing to remember when learning tarot is that if you want to read well you have to accept that it's a slow process. I think of it in terms of learning another language.. You pick up the basics pretty quickly and can get by but you only start to become fluent when you've immersed yourself in that language for a long time. It becomes part of you and you stop having to think about it. Getting to that stage can't be rushed and it takes a long time. It's an old cliche but with tarot I think it's very appropriate to say that the journey is more important than the destination - don't rush it.