How Long Did It Take Till You Were Comfortable With Tarot?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 25 Nov 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Justin	25 Nov 2003
I've been interested in tarot for a few years, but didn't really start my intensive study till about 5 months ago (you know, reading everything i could, buying decks, living here on aeclectic...!) Anyway, i'm finally getting to the point where tarot doesn't feel like such a mystery anymore and i'm getting comfortable with all the stuff i've ingested. This doesn't mean i've learned all there is! That's one of the coolest things about tarot, i'll still be learning things about it when i'm 90! But i was just wondering, how long was it before you really started feeling like you had the basics under your belt and didn't feel intimidated by talking about something like court cards? (just for example...) Justin

jog1118	25 Nov 2003
i crammed joan bunning's basics and thirteen's basics in...around 1 week...i dunno, i kinda learned fast and did'nt go through the daily 1 card draw and everything...plus i'm blessed with good intuition (considering i'm a guy) i was interested with tarot since i was...13...and only got to get into it this year...btw i'm 27 already (told my story in one of my earlier posts); most probably my long-time interest in the tarot helped me too... :smoker:

Justin	25 Nov 2003
So you were comfortable doing readings and knew that you had THE deck and knew what spreads worked for you all in a week!? I'm impressed!! Very nicely done! I thought i was quick with 5 months! That's really cool that you were interested since you were 13 though, i'm sure that helped a ton. I grew up in a very stict conservative christian home, so i didn't get to explore anything else till i went off to college. I'm now 24, wiccan, and obsessed with tarot! Funny, isn't it?... Justin

Inana	25 Nov 2003
Justin, I still not feel comfortable when doing readings and if my memory is not fooling me, i started studying on february or so? So if in five months you feel right about it its quick enough. Jog needed less time (you're lucky :mad: :P). I guess it depends in the time you can invest, memory, intuition, your personality and lot of other apects. Everyone needs are different. I feel comfortable talking about tarot, studying the cards, taking notes, learning new stuff, knowing some basics e5tc.. but i dont feel very comfortable when doing a reading. I need more confidence and more practice. By the way, is nice you are not feeling intimidated anymore but comfortable. Hope now we will read you more here in the forum!!

ros	25 Nov 2003
It took me YEARS to get confortable with it. I was the only person I knew that was interested in it so of course I was WIERD or something was of course wrong with me. I studied the cards, numbers, colors etc. Well, the more readings I did & practiced it, made it common to all that I wasn't hiding anything, people started to become amazed with the readings. Then they began telling me that I was right. Now the WIERD one does readings for them all. People I find are afraid of what it not common to them. Just do it & be yourself, do all readings for the positive & you have nothing to worry about. Learn as you go!!!

Maati	25 Nov 2003
I've always been comfortable with the tarot but I'll admit, it takes me awhile to 'solve' a deck. Weeks, heck, months can go by before I feel comfortable enough to use it in a reading.

sagitarian	25 Nov 2003
umm, I think it was around a yr or so, until I felt comfortable with my cards. I learned strictly from my intuition though, no books, no web sites, nothing. Just did readings and learned through what I felt.

Star Spirit	25 Nov 2003
Still getting there ;)

Majecot	25 Nov 2003
I have been reading for 6 or 8 years. I was fairl comfortable reading myself and my friend (who taught me ) and my daughter, pretty much right away. I think that is because my friend and I did daily readings. I do not feel comfortable enough to read for strangers, but I will read for other family members and friends. I am intuitive enough, I think it is just a fear factor for me, ( the strangers part, not reading)

Jewel-ry	25 Nov 2003
I feel comfortable but have been doing this for almost a year and still feel a complete novice! I do feel though that I notice more in the cards now. I did a comparative study on the Fool in a different thread in which I looked at the Arcus Arcanum Fool. When I compared it to my own notes from several months ago I had noticed so much more detail and symbolism. I dare say that if I did a similar exercise on the same card in 6 months I will see even more in it. I personally think you can take this as far as you want to. The more I learn the more I want to know. (Dont think I'll ever really get the court cards though!!). J.

Rusty Neon	25 Nov 2003
How long it'll take for a person to be comfortable with tarot will also depend on their preferred approach to tarot: - If you take the intuitive approach, you could perhaps be moderately comfortable with tarot within a relatively short time. Perusing one or two introductory books, if at all, coupled with reflecting on the cards would suffice to be moderately comfortable. - However, if your preferred approach is to understand the tarot within a particular approach to tarot (e.g., Golden Dawn approach), within the context of correspondences with other esoteric systems such as astrology and numerology, or to understand symbolism, it could take considerably longer. Some people aren't comfortable until they've gone through this more time consuming approach. - This is not to say that these two approaches are mutually exclusive. Some intuitive approach peole will also, on over time, study corresponding systems, symbolism, etc.

jog1118	26 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Justin So you were comfortable doing readings and knew that you had THE deck and knew what spreads worked for you all in a week!? I'm impressed!! Very nicely done! I thought i was quick with 5 months! That's really cool that you were interested since you were 13 though, i'm sure that helped a ton. I grew up in a very stict conservative christian home, so i didn't get to explore anything else till i went off to college. I'm now 24, wiccan, and obsessed with tarot! Funny, isn't it?... Justin awww!...justin...your making me blush :D...anyway, i almost forgot to give a big THANK YOU to AT for being (and still is) a great community that helped a lot with my tarot studies... :smoker:

DeLani	27 Nov 2003
OK, please don't think I'm bragging or anything, but I was comfortable the minute I started. I just felt like I had done it before, and just needed to be reminded. Now, don't get me wrong, at the ripe old age of 13, I still didn't have as much under my belt as I do now, but I never doubted myself for an instant. I was reading for other people as soon as I got a deck (the Aquarian by the way - which I really didn't like and traded away ASAP)

Simone	27 Nov 2003
Hmmm - have owned Tarot decks for about 12 years now, but really comfortable ... still not! I think practice and opening myself to new ideas (thanks to all of you, I get loads of those these days...) will do the trick for me. But my problem is my block to tell everything I think of because I am afraid to be wrong. I'm working on letting my intuition flow more freely now, though! Light and love Simone

Moonbow*	27 Nov 2003
I was comfortable with Tarot from the moment I bought a deck. I was so stoked that I'd found something I really wanted to do. But, when it comes to readings, it wasn't until I joined my friends in Aeclectic that I really got confidence to read for others. Until then I was reading to myself and my family occassionally. Its more a matter of confidence and the ability to express yourself I think. We all get there in our own time Moonbow* ;)

Sulis	27 Nov 2003
I've been using cards for just under 2 years and I would say that I'm just starting to feel as though I'm getting a grasp of how to put the cards together. I grasped the basic card meanings within a couple of months and folk who don't know anything about tarot think that that's all there is to it. I go through phases where for a few weeks all will be going well and I'll feel as though my readings all make sense etc, then a few weeks will come where it all just seems like double dutch :) That's one of the things I really like about tarot. I'm usually bored by something by now but with tarot there's always more to learn and it just isn't boring. It's what my dad would call a slow burner;) Love and light Sulis xx

ros	27 Nov 2003
We would never learn anything if we were not wrong once in a while. The world is not perfect so how can we be perfect. If we are wrong we may be wrong in our eyes but not someone elses. I use to be the shyist, now I'm the modest, when I read cards people appreciate what you tell them as long as your doing it all for the good of mankind. For all who are not confident enough take it from someone who was insecure & now I learned how to be confident through reading Tarot for others. Bless you all & get reading.lol If I can do it anyone can!!! You will enjoy helping others, it will be a gift to yourself. Tarot should be shared!

Moonbow*	27 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Sulis I've been using cards for just under 2 years and I would say that I'm just starting to feel as though I'm getting a grasp of how to put the cards together. I think thats the secret of good reading. Being able to tie it all up! Quite early on I think we can remember the meanings of the cards, its just relating them to the question and then giving an overall picture that seems to make all the difference. I've read your readings Sulis (being a fellow Seeker) and I think you do have a great way of expressing yourself. Moonbow* :)

Logiatrix	28 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Justin ...But i was just wondering, how long was it before you really started feeling like you had the basics under your belt and didn't feel intimidated by talking about something like court cards? (just for example...) Justin Answering your question, I gathered all that information in about four or five weeks, like I was possessd--I became singlemindedly focused on learning to read tarot cards and nothing else existed. I not only felt comfortable talking about tarot, I was obsessed with talking about tarot! In fact, it is my Fourth Anniversary of sorts right now; I consumed books and wrote out a stack of notes during the holiday time off, between Thanksgiving and the first day of January, 2000. On that New Year's Day of the New Century, I consecrated myself to the practice of tarot and ceremoniously conducted my very first reading ever. That first reading was pretty shaky, but I was proud because I didn't need to consult my notes, which was a goal of mine. I can honestly say that I have never felt uncomfortable with tarot. :)

Marion	28 Nov 2003
I got my first deck of tarot cards and two books in my early twenties. (I am mid fifties now) I worked with them obsessively, and I don't remember how long, many years. Then, sorry my memory seems fuzzy here, at some point I decided this wasn't for me and I chucked the whole lot. Books, cards, notebooks and didn't come back for more years. (I however got into I Ching shortly after that and followed the same obsessive route). I came back to tarot with AT, which opened it up to another dimension. A learning community is a powerful force.

Alissa	29 Nov 2003
I've been Tarot reading for about ... 10+ years, and more *seriously* Tarot reading for about 6-7. I started reading books on Tarot reading (call it academic study rather than practicum) last year. I'll let you know when I feel comfortable though. I still haven't found that point.

Cerulean	29 Nov 2003
In terms of art symbols, I took to the Ukiyoe Tarot right away, but I had enjoyed looking at Japanese art quite a bit and could see it fit with my understanding. I found the landscape and limited decorations in the pips and minors quite good for me and in keeping with what I thought of as Japanese or Asian style arts. But the ordering was Marseilles based and the decorative, not full scenic pips is quite different from twentieth and twenty-first century full pictures with human forms. I could only do tarot reading for myself or sis. Say a few months to a year. I found some 22 decks only and could do one or two card pulls based on the trumps after a few months--that was my second year. When I got the Rider Waite style decks, upon the known advice in the late 1990's, it was okay, but I wasn't really happy with such decks. I found more fun when I found online in 1998 and found fans of the Italian decorative Milanese/Marseilles patterns--they pleased me as much as anime or fantasy decks. I also related better to Crowley style decks because I could see their shapes and patterns had artistic moods and ideas...that was when the courts really engaged me. Third year, third and fourth style of decks... But it took me awhile to connect tarot with creative writing and art projects, so I'm more comfortable after five or six years with more creative themes...still like Marseilles ordering best...

The How Long Did It Take Till You Were Comfortable With Tarot? thread was originally posted on 25 Nov 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.