Learning tarot completely from apps

Winterchild said:

Whaaaaaaaat... you left your hoe for more than a day without a real card Tarot deck? That's like going out naked!

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I really need to buy some of those mini decks to have in my bag all the time
but I find it easy on my phone because my phone is always on me! but good point Winter

I thought about this issue so more and it's like in the UK, you can take 2 driving tests. One for automatic and manual cars or one for automatic only. So cars are increasingly going more automatic but if you do that test, you can basically never drive manual (stick) cars. I think if you learn digitally entirely, you miss out on something. Learning needs to be real cards or mixed but maybe I am just *so old school*

I have the Tarot Illuminati app and Kim Huggen's Complete Guide to the Tarot Illuminati on my Kindle Fire and have used the 2 together to take great strides in my understanding of the cards. Every day I read Kim's chapter on my Card of the Day from the app. I do this before bed; it is really easy -- I don't need to take out my cards or clear a space to use them, or put them away after. Plus I get a notification of my Card of the Day so I'm reminded to do this daily practice. I share my Card of the Day on Facebook, and in the comments note how I see this card in my life for that day.

I also use my apps to export images of my readings to share in Tarot learning forums to discuss with others.

Also, when I am studying with a book, I take notes on the individual cards (I usually use Galaxy Tarot for this ) so that later when I do a reading with that app, I can read the notes on that card that I took from the book I'm working with. For instance, I recently did the Tarot card meaning kaleidoscope exercise from 'Around the Tarot in 78 Days' by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin, for the Five of Swords and had some wonderful insights about that card that I added to it in the app. Now when I get the Five of Swords in a reading, my notes are there to remind me of what I learned in that exercise and add to.

I learned a lot before I ever had a Tarot app, but I don't think it's impossible to study the cards without a paper deck. I personally really love having apps and books on my Kindle Fire -- it's like a portable Tarot school.

Alta said:

There are some very good tarot apps available, I have three myself. Generally you can do single card draws, spreads etc and generally they have some sort of abbreviated meaning (at least) for the cards.

I note that people are signing up for ATF with only apps, no deck. Now this isn't to say that they might not acquire a deck in future but it made me wonder.

Do you think it is possible to become fluent in Tarot, become at least a decent if not excellent reader using only apps?

I am so old school, even liking and using the apps, that I am inclined to say that arranging, shuffling and pondering the cards at least in part requires a physical deck. What do you think?

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I would never say never, but I think it would be limiting and much harder to learn that way. An app is to a deck, what shorthand is to actual writing. It may leave out parts that are understood. But you first need to learn the full version to understand what is omitted and to imaging its presence as being part of the experience.

Not to mention that holding a real deck in your hands is a much fuller experience sensually. You feel and see and smell it and hear it....It affects all your senses more. And that can create a fuller more enjoyable experience. And the more we enjoy a tool the better we learn with it.

Babs

I think it is possible. I do not have an app. I do not plan to get one (unless you count Orphalese) - and I don't want one. It isn't a route I would want to take, but I can see it as a valid one. I don't want to read books in a kindle either - but I can see why people do it. To me, the physicality of a deck (or a book !) is important.

That said - while learning, maybe that would be less true. Anything that keeps learning moving has to be good - and it is very portable, which can keep things moving in a way that carrying books and decks around can't at times.

And to each his own.

I also find what Ace of Stars said to be compelling in the area of learning. What is described sounds like a great way to build up a 'library', and a very accessible one, of personal and gathered material.

I have a number of tarot apps on my phone & iPad. I like them. Especially on the iPad - when I was using just the phone I lost a bit in terms of size. On the iPad the cards are beautifully big!

However, I really cannot see myself reading for others using only the apps. It's so easy just to take along a deck. or wait till you get home. Is seeing the cards so urgent?

The best tarot app experiences for me have been with (firstly) the Tarot of the Holy Light app - with a deck this complex it really helps to consult the meanings and it has extensive meanings from the book-in-progress (my favourite Fool's Dog app). Basically if you have the deck app you have oodles of info that the deck only & LWB won't give you. That and the book for the Cosmic - this has been hugely helpful for me (though there isn't a Cosmic Tarot deck app) just in terms of learning. So learning, yes, I think apps have a lot to offer. If I have to wait longer than expected at the dentists I can learn a bit more about the Cosmic.

But reading? For others? I just find myself thinking that something of the experience is lost and that it's something you might do if you were locked out or something.

Plus - very telling this - I never get apps of decks I don't have in hard copies because I think I subconsciously feel that a tarot app is probably only 70% - 75% of the experience of the actual deck. I'm intrigued by the Prairie Tarot but know that the app won't really tell me if I like it or not. Only the deck will do that. Am I old school? Probably not entirely as I browse my tarot apps most days. But for readings I go to the actual deck.

Resurrecting this thread. My cousin just purchased Orphalese tarot. I checked it out & it falls way short from reality or accuracy, IMO. I think software that shuffles & lays out the cards in your preferred spread or deck is OK, also doing online & remote readings; but it's my understanding that this software also interprets those cards for you. A computer can't possibly pick up all the nuances & possibilities, let alone intuition. Not until AI becomes a reality. You still need to use your own brain to interpret a computer generated spread. I do prefer to have paper & ink in my hands, but that's just me. Can tarot be learned this way? Certainly. But to rely on a computer to give a reading, absolutely not. It can only use meanings that have been programmed & misses so much of the fluidity of meanings, cards playing off one another, etc. It takes years, perhaps lifetimes, to become proficient in doing that. Am I wrong?

RunningWild said:

I can't tell if I'm old-school...or just old.

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This made me chuckle. lol

canid said:

Resurrecting this thread. My cousin just purchased Orphalese tarot. I checked it out & it falls way short from reality or accuracy, IMO. I think software that shuffles & lays out the cards in your preferred spread or deck is OK, also doing online & remote readings; but it's my understanding that this software also interprets those cards for you. A computer can't possibly pick up all the nuances & possibilities, let alone intuition. Not until AI becomes a reality. You still need to use your own brain to interpret a computer generated spread. I do prefer to have paper & ink in my hands, but that's just me. Can tarot be learned this way? Certainly. But to rely on a computer to give a reading, absolutely not. It can only use meanings that have been programmed & misses so much of the fluidity of meanings, cards playing off one another, etc. It takes years, perhaps lifetimes, to become proficient in doing that. Am I wrong?

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Extremely well said. I agree. I need the actual cards in my hand. An app just wouldn't do it for me. I don't say this just because I wouldn't like using an app I'm saying it because I don't think it would be fair to my sitters, either. Reading the cards is a very personal, hand-on thing. I had enough trouble deciding to read online, I surely don't intend to take it any further than that in cyberspace. Personal interaction is very important in my opinion.

Coming back to add that the question was about learning the cards with apps. I think that would tend to make a person lean too heavily on letting the app. It's important to learn the cards hands-on. Learning with the app would make a person too heavily reliant on letting the app do the reading vs. actually doing the reading yourself.

canid said:

Resurrecting this thread. My cousin just purchased Orphalese tarot. I checked it out & it falls way short from reality or accuracy, IMO. I think software that shuffles & lays out the cards in your preferred spread or deck is OK, also doing online & remote readings; but it's my understanding that this software also interprets those cards for you. A computer can't possibly pick up all the nuances & possibilities, let alone intuition. Not until AI becomes a reality. You still need to use your own brain to interpret a computer generated spread. I do prefer to have paper & ink in my hands, but that's just me. Can tarot be learned this way? Certainly. But to rely on a computer to give a reading, absolutely not. It can only use meanings that have been programmed & misses so much of the fluidity of meanings, cards playing off one another, etc. It takes years, perhaps lifetimes, to become proficient in doing that. Am I wrong?

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Orphalese only gives the meanings if you set it to do so. I use it without, myself - mostly when I am in Canada and have limited decks (by my standards...) But I MUCH prefer to use real cards.

I've noticed something very interesting in the last month. I've been using my Fool's Dog apps at work to do quick little 2 card reading (Do This, Not This) because I honestly have been so busy at work, I'm almost never home.

It has helped me reconnect with Tarot in general, simply because I never have the time to actually sit at my table at home with a deck in my hands. (Although I absolutely feel that an app will never replace physical cards for me.)

But here's the interesting thing... I use apps of decks I physically own, and the energies I feel between the app deck and my physical deck are completely different, though the actual deck is the same. I was hoping to get to know my Hidden Realm through the app and then carry that relationship over to my physical deck when I'm on vacation next week, but I'm finding that's not what's happening. The energies are very distinct. Interesting.... ;-)

As far as Orphalese goes, that's my favorite tarot program, but I've never used it to DO readings. I do readings with my physical decks and then record them in Orphalese to distribute to the querents. It gives them a digital image of the cards I drew for them with my own personal interpretations. And I prefer Orphalese because I can use scans of my own decks, and there doesn't seem to be a limit to how many decks you can load. At least, I haven't reached that limit yet.