Should beginners' emphasis be on book or cards?

My initial experiences in learning about Tarot have shown that the emphasis should be on the cards, although I think that books have their place. For example, a few good books provide strictly basic information that all beginners need to know before they work with the cards. For beginners with no previous Tarot knowledge or instruction, just working with the cards alone, I believe, is not very productive.

I think you've got it right.. It's all about balance.

I think that journalling is far better than relying on the book meanings of others. I think that the best way to learn the cards is to pull a card a day and write down your thoughts on it, how it makes you feel, what you get from the colours, how you think it's relating to your day etc.
Then and only then look in a book and see what the 'traditional meaning' or the authors take on the card is..
See how yours is similar and how it differs.
Journal all your readings too.
Go back to your journal regularly and review your meanings...
You'll end up with a book of your own meanings that are a combination of book learning and real life experience....

I think the important thing is to know when to put the books down and start winging it.
When actually reading the cards I think that you learn much quicker if you don't bother looking up answers and card meanings in books, I know my readings improved loads once I'd stopped relying on books and second guessing myself.

Libra1 said:

...For beginners with no previous Tarot knowledge or instruction, just working with the cards alone, I believe, is not very productive.

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The Tarot has at times been described as a book sans bindings, whose pages may be arraigned in different orders.

I believe the inquisitive mind, using the deck alone, will be lead to books; and perhaps not even Tarot books. The questioning mind will eventually ask, “What does the triangle within the square mean on Temperance?” The answer won’t be found in a ‘Tarot’ book.

Whereas if one begins with a book, often a questioning mind is stilled by sophomoric opinion and pedantic ‘meanings’.

Myself – I believe that the Tarot teaches, that one should not begin with books, but with a deck and a journal – and an inquisitive mind.

As you puruse these forums, you'll find many an exposive thread that discusses this very topic.

Great question...

When I started with my first deck, I read the book that accompanied and "learned the meanings" for the cards. Then I found AT, and when I began to read others' interpretations of the cards, it really shook me. I was so confused. Why were books and booklets available with the decks if the right thing to do was to wing it intuitively? Why, in the readings threads, did so many people seem to have conflicting opinions about cards and what they meant in a particular reading? How could anyone expect that a reading could be "true" if another reader, given the same cards in the same spread, could come up with a totally different reading?

So I basically put all I had learned from my books on a back shelf somewhere in my mind, keeping that knowledge for reference, but not accepting it as gospel. Then I spent hours on AT soaking up conversation, study, debate, and opinion. I also began giving my deck a good workout, using it constantly by doing readings for everything I could think of, comparisons, meditation, and just plain admiration.

Basically, that's still where I'm at. My confidence in my readings has grown by leaps and bounds. I read all the tarot books I can find and also just kind of go with what comes to mind in a reading. I'm still watching the threads, inspired by and sometimes in awe of the members here who sit so far above me in their skill, but the combination of it all has me feeling stronger and more sure of myself daily.

Just my own experience, but I thought I'd share. Good luck to you.

I'm one of those that studies everything heavily. I love to read and I love to learn. So I've done a lot of both. I read lots of books on tarot, symbols, and color, etc. I've also journaled with some of my decks.

For me, the more info I have, the better I am able to see the cards in different ways. My knowledge of tarot comes from other people as well as myself.

I think books are very important. Even if you decide you don't agree with what you find, there is still value in knowing it. That's how I feel about it.

I think it would be ok to begin with just a deck as long as it does speak to you. But I would recommend that one eventually read some books. You can never know too much. I did the opposite, I started with books and then went to a deck.

I bought a book and cards at the same time, but didn't read the book from cover to cover. I tended to study the cards and became so annoyed with myself at first because I was unable to go beyond a literal interpretation of a given image. For example, I'd look at the Tower card and "read" it as a rather disturbing picture of a tower with people falling out of it. And try as I might, I could not get anything else out of that particular card! So I looked its meaning up in my book as an attempt to interpret the card beyond its images and symbols. To this day, I've made a little progress. I say this because I still draw a blank when it comes to given cards and wind up using their images as a crutch of sorts.

Sulis said:

I think you've got it right.. It's all about balance.

I think that journalling is far better than relying on the book meanings of others. I think that the best way to learn the cards is to pull a card a day and write down your thoughts on it, how it makes you feel, what you get from the colours, how you think it's relating to your day etc.
Then and only then look in a book and see what the 'traditional meaning' or the authors take on the card is..
See how yours is similar and how it differs.
Journal all your readings too.
Go back to your journal regularly and review your meanings...
You'll end up with a book of your own meanings that are a combination of book learning and real life experience....

I think the important thing is to know when to put the books down and start winging it.
When actually reading the cards I think that you learn much quicker if you don't bother looking up answers and card meanings in books, I know my readings improved loads once I'd stopped relying on books and second guessing myself.

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I totally agree with everything written here. This is exactly how I did it. Doing it this way takes the pressure off trying to learn the meanings and it helps you realize that YOU have the power to control your own tarot learning.

You realize that you do not have to go by someone else's meaning and that if you ever feel like accepting another's meaning or keyword, you can because it resonates with how you feel about the card and meaning.

Sometimes you'll feel lazy and feel like just opening a book to read someone else's meaning. You will learn that if that meaning doesn't feel right to you, then you know to gived yourself a break, that you just feel a bit lazy and you need to forget about the card you drew until later when you feel like going inside your own head for it's meaning! Make sense?

I think Sinduction's recommendation on a book of symbolism is an excellent idea.
The cards are made up of symbols so if you know what the symbols mean, you can read the card so you're on the way to getting there - it's putting it all in the context of the question and making your story fit when the fun really starts .

I have Sandra Thomson's 'Pictures from the heart, a tarot dictionary' that covers symbolism in the RWS deck and some other decks too, it's excellent.

Libra1 said:

My initial experiences in learning about Tarot have shown that the emphasis should be on the cards, although I think that books have their place. For example, a few good books provide strictly basic information that all beginners need to know before they work with the cards. For beginners with no previous Tarot knowledge or instruction, just working with the cards alone, I believe, is not very productive.

Click to expand...

I think it depends on the beginner.

Remember too the *possibility* of doing practice readings for close friends or family who know you're in a learning stage.

For me, I found people who would be comfortable with me looking up the meaning of the card during the reading. Then I would talk with them about what that could possibly mean in their lives. It opened up my mind to different meanings with different cards, not to mention getting my querents involved in their own readings - their own answers. I began having a relationship with the cards based on real-life experiences of real people.

Along with journaling, reading, imagining, studying, etc. Just be sure to keep it light and fun, so you don't DREAD it - that will make you want to quit.