Advice

Don't quit your day job.

All of what others have said. Also, don't fall into the trap of using the cards to back up personal beliefs if that's not what the cards are telling you. For instance, if you don't believe in abortion but a sitter asks whether or not they should have one, you have to tell them the message of the cards, untainted by your own personal prejudice and beliefs. This echoes what someone else says, but it bears repeating.

Imagine Tarot is a foreign language for your sitter. You're the sub-titles. You know the language of Tarot and they may not, or at least may not know the particular way the cards speak to you, so if the cards say go for the abortion, don't give them any other advice. Be honest with them because their lives are their own and they have their own lessons to learn that we know nothing about.

Remember, too, that reading cards for someone casts you in the position of being a counsellor to them - and as I have said before - no matter what you have to say, no matter how true, important, or immediate it is for the Querent --- 90% of what you tell them they didn't hear, and 50% of what they did hear they will pay no attention to.

Try not to compare yourself to others too much, I found that a struggle, especially with a place as wonderful as here! I went through a phase of worrying that people always had much better combinations and interpretations than me! I thought I had to learn every combination (you know like in the back of books, they have every mix together but still not all of them). Seriously you don't have to learn them all!

After about a year I would talk to people on AT a bit more privately and I found out that the people I had seen how amazing their skills were, had been doing tarot regularly for a minimum of 10 years! They were experienced, something I was not! I was in my first year of serious study with them. But keep going with it, your knowledge changes so much year after year and new stuff just keeps coming up!

Find your own method and your own takes on the cards. Don't worry if they don't match other people's and also don't worry if you don't use all the other techniques you might see going around. Find your style and your method and then with wisdom comes confidence to just go for it

huntd04 said:

Just to be curious, if you could give one piece of advice to a brand new tarot reader what would it be?

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Set up your business hours and stick with them. Be dependable.

Leave your own assumptions and bias at home.

Don't be afraid to read.

gregory said:

Don't be afraid to read.

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bits of advice and insightThese are all great--I might add something about some days/readings/years/etc. being good and easy, and others not, so not to get too upset when things go up and down (follow The Wheel of Fortune advice and stay centered when it happens!)

earthair said:

Find a deck where the court cards connect with you and the rest of the cards will follow!

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This is perhaps the best advice for choosing a deck I've ever heard!

When practicing on yourself as a new reader try to avoid assuming very negative connotations when difficult cards turn up because it seems to be a common mistake, we're usually wrong in our assumptions and the mind set will actually draw negative energy into a situation. It's a case of 'As we think so shall it be' yet it may not have been that way in the spread. Mental energy is powerful stuff but have fun

My piece of advice would be: in tarot, there is no One True Way. Don’t be afraid to try out what appeals to and works for you, and respectfully reject what doesn’t.