Where do I look for a very gradual intro?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 05 May 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Lyyda	05 May 2005
I asimulate slowly, step by step. Right now I'm just handling and looking at my new deck. Not even shuffling it yet. I'm treating this new deck like my child, cuddling it, handling it, showing it love and wondering what its going to surprise me with...:) Lyyda-the slow learner

zhahmi	05 May 2005
I found this to be very helpful. I've been referring to it constantly because it's a good jumping off point for a beginner. Kudos to Thirteen for this, it's certainly a valuable resource! Light and learning, Zhahmi *** edit to include the URL *** http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/

Fulgour	05 May 2005
When I was first learning the cards I cleared a table just for laying them all out and simply enjoyed them. Let the cards show you what they have to say now, and follow your imagination when checking in books. No two books are alike, and it is "you" that is special.

Imagemaker	05 May 2005
Just lay out the majors and imagine a progression of a story. It all grows from that seed.

Lyyda	05 May 2005
I've just come from Thirteen's lesson. Wow, it did explain a lot. The layout of the story helped with understanding what was going on. Some of it I printed out. I'll go back later with a new printer cartridge. :) Heh, running out of ink. Thanks for the encouragement and the help. Lyyda

ArcanoMáximo	10 May 2005
try to connect your own life situations with the images you see in this cards, for me work! You'll see how much meanings you can reach!!!

light2000	10 May 2005
i put a soft music and do meditation whith cards. first i choose a card, and i choose a good book of tarot and i read the meaning of tha card. then i sit on one chair.i star to do the yoga repiration. 5 minutes later i start imagin that my body is turnning at one rock. and i´m only soul and respiration. then i fell the energy of the card and i imagine that my 3´th eye is white or gold. then i put the card at the front of the third eye. i see a lot whith this. situation, people... so it´s the way that i learn tarot. oh, i´ve forgoton you do whith the eyes closed. if you dont remember the neaning that the book said it´s dont matter. after the meditation you open your eyes and you read again the book. i do one card a day ( only). the day that i meditate whith a card that card is the same that i´m going to sleep. when i say sleep, ís i put that card inside the pillow, to make me dream whith situations of the card.

Annabelle	10 May 2005
Fulgour wrote: When I was first learning the cards I cleared a table just for laying them all out and simply enjoyed them. Let the cards show you what they have to say now, and follow your imagination when checking in books. No two books are alike, and it is "you" that is special. Fulgour has given you some excellent advice here, Lyyda. I agree wholeheartedly...one of the best things to do when you are first starting out is to simply spent time looking at your cards. Spend a lot of time looking at your cards. Something else I did early on that helped a lot was use tarot cards to tell stories. My partner and I would pick a deck, shuffle it, and turn one card over at a time, putting a story together as we went along. As I recall, almost every story ending up involving a sherrif, a mayor, the mayor's wife (who may or may not have been seeing the sherrif in secret), and a big fat bartender who knew everyone's secrets but knew when to keep his mouth shut. But I digress :)...anyway, telling stories with the cards may seem like a silly idea, but it's a really great way to encourage yourself to study the images closely, and to be imaginative about the meanings.

Emily	11 May 2005
I like to lay out the suits in order from Ace to ten - just to see if the cards follow one another - I'd never done this before but with some decks you can see the progression and a story develop - I've only just started doing this but I'm finding it helps understanding the meanings of the cards and also it seems to kick start the intuition. :)

Asenath	11 May 2005
Fulgour wrote: No two books are alike, and it is "you" that is special. Thank you for posting that question Lyyda. Like you, I've just started learning. I've been reading about the meaning of the cards for the past few weeks and have opened my first pack last Sunday to start reading them. Right now, nothing is really making sense to me. Especially, when I've read the meaning of the cards from different sources and they don't seem to fit together. I also feel that I'm trying too hard to get instant results and I'm really confused because I've never had a tarot reading done before and have never listened in on one. I'm not quite sure how much I'm supposed to get out of a reading or how to know if it worked/didn't work/read for myself or ended up reading for someone else. I like the advice that I've read in this thread so far about derriving my own meanings from the cards. I'll definitely give it a try.

IDN	11 May 2005
Although we all learn at different rate, I'm sure others on here will agree that learning to read the cards takes a long time- and (I suspect) you never stop learning. I have been studying for about 11 months (sometimes a few hours a day) and I don't feel I have really scratched the surface yet! Regards, Ian

Fulgour	18 May 2005
All the "answers" in the world will not provide you with as much benefit as simply one good question.

Fudugazi	18 May 2005
Fulgour wrote: All the "answers" in the world will not provide you with as much benefit as simply one good question. BRAVO! One could write a whole series of essays on this - but simply put, that's the nub. And the answers are everywhere, when the question is well-framed. Have a look at this thread - the 1st post by elf on that page: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=41791&page=4&pp=10 Mind-blowing, really :)

kalliope	18 May 2005
I wanted to share that I just recently bought The Complete Tarot Reader by Teresa C. Michelsen, and think it's great. It starts out by giving exercises that allow you to explore your cards on your own before learning any background or traditional symbol systems. But it includes the latter, too, in other parts of the book. It's not deck specific, and doesn't provide a big section on card meanings. So if you're looking for some structure to your exploration and learning that still lets you find your own answers, you might want to give it a try.

Lasiren	19 May 2005
Lydda, thanks for posting this! I think I've got a bit of an inherent bent for the tarot, but that can only take one so far. I, like many people, still have a lot left to learn Anyway, the replies to your question yielded some great ideas for me. Telling stories... I also like to lay the cards out and see if they "follow" each other in anyway. When I get a new deck, I try and take some time studying the imagery of it, to see what first impressions I get from each card. It's all very intuitive. I also "wash" the cards beneath my hands: spread the entire deck face down on a table and just spread the cards around beneath my palms over and over, picking up the ones that push themselves into my fingers and studying them. This way, I get to know each card.

Asenath	20 May 2005
Asenath wrote: I like the advice that I've read in this thread so far about derriving my own meanings from the cards. I'll definitely give it a try. ...After a few days... Lydda, What I've found to be quite helpful is when I draw a card I write down what I feel about the card, not necessarily trying to remember what I'd read that the card meant. Then I go back to any of my sources about meaning and see if my impressions match the book meanings. It's not a test, but just a comparison so I can see how my interpretations differ or match. For the past week I've been doing a morning/afternoon/evening spread and a mind/body/soul spread. I don't really get any useful information out of them nor do I really try since my mind is only focused on seeing if I'm developing some sort of comprehension that I'm comfortable with. And for me anything goes at this point. I'm using the Golden Tarot deck and this is what I came up with for the Nine of Cups (last Wednesday) First spread: - Virgin Mary with Jesus - Cups floating above them - (I don't feel anything from this card today) Second spread: (less than 10 minutes later) - calm - Mary looks like there is an urgency in her message but one that will bring either peace/satisfaction or joy It could be worth your while just writing down your impressions for the first little while even if you're pulling the same cards over and over. I find that sometimes the expressions on the character's faces start to look different as the days go depending on thier/my mood.

The Where do I look for a very gradual intro? thread was originally posted on 05 May 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.