How Long Did It Take You?

I was just wondering - how long did it take you guys to get "acquainted" with your cards and get in the groove of reading?

I suppose it came fast - it was the confidence that took longer..
a few weeks to 'read' but longer to trust I was making sense... years...

MARINA

-With a new deck

It depends on the deck, some read great right away, some take some "geting in to"

-Tarot in general

It has taken me different amounts of time to feel aquainted enough for different purposes. To read for myself came rather quickly, simple reading for others took me a year... or so. Doing deep and intense readings for anybody, including complete strangers has taken me about ten years, taking into account that I have had a period of time (couple of years) in which my interaction with the cards was on a very low level.

It took me around 3 - 4 years before I felt like I could do a reading without having to second guess myself with a book.
With Tarot, I think you never stop learning.

It's not just about knowing the meanings of the cards, it's linking the meanings in with the context, the question, the querant's life.

If you want to learn to read well, I would advise you to take things slowly.

I dunno, Sulis...expect to *really learn slowly, yes. But i 'acquainted' myself with the cards in about 2-3 months because i didn't take things slowly. I ploughed right in, and i don't think it would have gripped me so much if i had paced myself or structured my learning. I was pretty random and urgent about it. Very rough book meanings - i gathered what a card meant broadly speaking, from a couple of books, then stopped using them to see if i could do it. I was able to read ok-ish.

Of course, 'acquainting' is not learning.

i've talked to 1 person who told me she downloaded bunning's book for free from http://www.learntarot.com/download.htm, spent 6 weeks with it at first, and then just began reading 3 or 5 cards for her friends as exercises. she seems comfortable with the nigel jackson cards in just about 9 months or so. . .

Yeah, I agree with Sulis. 3- 4 years. I think I am still in my second year. I forget how long it's been.

I just got the book, "Tarot Combinations" and that is a great help in learning how the cards read next to each other, or 2 to 4 cards out in a spread.

rebecca-smiles said:

I dunno, Sulis...expect to *really learn slowly, yes. But i 'acquainted' myself with the cards in about 2-3 months because i didn't take things slowly. I ploughed right in, and i don't think it would have gripped me so much if i had paced myself or structured my learning. I was pretty random and urgent about it. Very rough book meanings - i gathered what a card meant broadly speaking, from a couple of books, then stopped using them to see if i could do it. I was able to read ok-ish.

Of course, 'acquainting' is not learning.

Click to expand...

Hi Rebecca-smiles,

No I didn't go for a structured learning plan either and 'aquainted' myself with the general meanings of the cards in 2 - 3 months as well but I still wouldn't have said then that I could 'read'.
I didn't feel confident and fluent in the language of the cards till I'd been reading with them and about them for at least 3 years maybe (even probably) longer.

I don't think that knowing what each card means (in a broad sense) and being aquainted with them is the same as being able to read tarot at all.
I often meet people who ask what I do and when I tell them I read tarot they say 'oh I can read tarot' - it soon becomes apparent that they can't read at all but they can tell you what each card means, parrot fashion because they've read it in a book.

I think to get a good grasp of what each card means to you comes with experience. It comes from doing loads of readings and from doing loads of daily card draws. The card meanings are dynamic, they change with the context and I think that I (and most people) need time to get to grips with that, it can't be learned in a few months.

rebecca-smiles said:

But i 'acquainted' myself with the cards in about 2-3 months because i didn't take things slowly. I ploughed right in, and i don't think it would have gripped me so much if i had paced myself or structured my learning.

Click to expand...

Good point. I would think that much depends upon how much time you spend at concentrating on this pursuit. (For example, do you pick up the cards for a half hour every other day...or do you sit with them for three or four hours a day?)

That said, I have been reading for years, and I still learn something new with every spread I throw.

Yet another vote for "still learning." Meanings become more layered with time.

As for a new deck, doesn't take me more than a readsing or two to know whether or not I can work with it. But it has to be a reading about an actual issue, not a trial reading.

Then there are decks that I didn't like, but later came to appreciate greatly. And vice versa.