100% inexperienced

Hey! I have absolutely no experience reading tarot, although I've been intrigued by it my whole life. A really long time ago, I bought a mini deck/book combo and just kind of put it away in a drawer without ever using it. Just about a month ago, I decided to dig it out and educate myself a little bit. I also bought a book called "Tarot Plain and Simple" by Anthony Louis. I haven't read it cover to cover, but I've been using it as a reference guide.

I've never read for anyone else before since I'm so new, so i've been "practicing' on myself. (I'm not sure if this is a mistake or not, to be honest.) I just figure that I know what's happening in my life, and I'll ask the deck a question and see if the spread actually corresponds with what I'm asking it. So far, I'm really not having much luck. I just can't seem to grasp the meanings. I totally understand I'm new at this and new to practice, study, read and learn as I go.

My question is: If I keep drawing cards and trying to interpret spreads for myself, am I going to confuse myself? In other words, if i keep reading for myself, all different cards are being pulled for each session, and each time it's like, completely different. I'm not quite sure how else to "practice". Sorry if this is an odd or weird question, i'm just feeling a bit uneasy about always reading for myself, i'm not sure if this is going to mess things up for me, spiritually.

I've read that a lot of people focus on each card and see how it makes them feel and how they feel in that exact moment. I don't get those kinds of strong feelings yet. Is this something that is learned or is it just "in you"? I've always been told that I'm intuitive, but I don't' seem to see it or feel it, although I'd love to bring it out if I can!

Any advice would be really helpful!!

I would go to "learntarot.com" and start there. I'm just a bit obsessive so for each deck I get I pick a card a day (typically) write about what it looks like, how it makes me feel at that moment and if I can apply it to something in my life. I've done decks different ways but eventually I've gotten to each card and at the end am more than comfortable reading with it. At the moment I'm doing ace-10, courts, then majors on my deck of choice. Each card is thought provoking and enough on its own in its capacity. Cards change meaning with each question and each combination so that can be overwhelming if you're starting out. There's nothing wrong with reading for yourself, as long as you're being objective.

trial and error but remain analytical, always

NinaMarieNinaMarie said:

My question is: If I keep drawing cards and trying to interpret spreads for myself, am I going to confuse myself?

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I think that is the only way to learn: to practice on yourself. But you need to be patient and it only works through trial and error. It took me two years to become fluent with cards and now after 3.5 years I still check meanings, learn more from AT, learn more from my own experiences, add layers to each card meaning, add nuances... so it's a long journey but fulfilling.

I found daily, weekly and monthly readings useful instead of asking 'how I feel' etc and then trying to see if I feel what the card says I feel. It's not about strong feelings or flashing visions, it's about studying your own life, emotions and motifs analytically and objectively over a long period of time to detect patterns that actually correspond with the cards (i.e. in retrospective you'll start noticing that the cards showed what you felt or experienced each day, week or month).

The main things to remember when reading to yourself are (IMO):
be absolutely objective. For example, if you draw 2 Cups for your daily card, acknowledge that it wasn't a wrong card if you didn't meet the love of your life. Did you go for a coffee with friend and have a good talk about your lives and plans? Then that very likely was the 2 Cups in a daily setting.

But then again, try not to force a round block through square whole and twist the meaning retrospectively - say, you got that 2 Cups, nothing heart-to-heart happened at all and you'll decide the card must have meant the small talk you had with the post office lady. Maybe the card indeed was wrong or you haven't understood all possible meanings of the card, so keep record.

Take note of the card you got, and what happened or what you felt you think fits. Eventually you've built a mental and physical database you can refer back to. It really is like learning a new language: slow, have to practice a lot, you get sudden insights about "oh this is where you use that word/card", etc.

I think the area where you can get confused is if you're emotionally attached to the outcome. If you really want a new partner, job, friends, you might interpret the cards either uber-positively or equally negatively. Try and remain objective and always check card meanings from multiple sources, don't just rely on one book or one website. Eventually you'll have the vocabulary together and can start speaking the language

Reading for others

Forgot to add that I only started reading for others 3 weeks ago, after 3.5 years of daily practice on myself. I didn't feel confident earlier because if I'd get a lot of negative feedback or my cards wouldn't seem to fit, I may have thought I don't know how to read or the cards don't work, and I would have abandoned it. I've noticed now that 90% of the card meanings that apply to myself apply to other people too (how a certain card = situation, feeling, event, mindset = feels). The remaining 10% I'm picking up from others as I read and get feedback.

NinaMarieNinaMarie said:

Hey! I have absolutely no experience reading tarot, although I've been intrigued by it my whole life. A really long time ago, I bought a mini deck/book combo and just kind of put it away in a drawer without ever using it. Just about a month ago, I decided to dig it out and educate myself a little bit. I also bought a book called "Tarot Plain and Simple" by Anthony Louis. I haven't read it cover to cover, but I've been using it as a reference guide.

I've never read for anyone else before since I'm so new, so i've been "practicing' on myself. (I'm not sure if this is a mistake or not, to be honest.) I just figure that I know what's happening in my life, and I'll ask the deck a question and see if the spread actually corresponds with what I'm asking it. So far, I'm really not having much luck. I just can't seem to grasp the meanings. I totally understand I'm new at this and new to practice, study, read and learn as I go.

My question is: If I keep drawing cards and trying to interpret spreads for myself, am I going to confuse myself? In other words, if i keep reading for myself, all different cards are being pulled for each session, and each time it's like, completely different. I'm not quite sure how else to "practice". Sorry if this is an odd or weird question, i'm just feeling a bit uneasy about always reading for myself, i'm not sure if this is going to mess things up for me, spiritually.

I've read that a lot of people focus on each card and see how it makes them feel and how they feel in that exact moment. I don't get those kinds of strong feelings yet. Is this something that is learned or is it just "in you"? I've always been told that I'm intuitive, but I don't' seem to see it or feel it, although I'd love to bring it out if I can!

Any advice would be really helpful!!

Click to expand...

In this forum, 'Your Readings', draw one card and say what you think it's telling you. Others will comment and widen your perspective. Give them feedback on whether you agree or that makes sense etc and why.

NinaMarieNinaMarie said:

My question is: If I keep drawing cards and trying to interpret spreads for myself, am I going to confuse myself? In other words, if i keep reading for myself, all different cards are being pulled for each session, and each time it's like, completely different. I'm not quite sure how else to "practice".

Click to expand...

It can be confusing if you do multiple spreads for yourself on similar questions. One thing to remember is to not expect yourself to understand everything or to get clear answers at first. It can be helpful to relax, contemplate, and not worry too much about expectations.

Another approach is to look at the Reading Exchange forum here and look for exchanges that have been completed. Look at the question, and the cards that came up, but don't look at the interpretation or feedback. Go off and lay out those cards and take some time to try to interpret the spread. Writing up your interpretation can be very helpful. (Sometimes the process of writing facilitates the process of thinking.) Then, go back to the thread and compare your interpretation with the thread.

Another idea -- when you read for yourself, take time to study with the cards that came out. For example, if you do a Celtic Cross and you've drawn ten cards, you could work with that spread for ten days, taking one card per day to study and contemplate. You could look at the same spread with a different deck, and certainly with different books.

I'm sure you will get a lot of other ideas and plenty of help here. Take your time.

NinaMarieNinaMarie said:

Hey! I have absolutely no experience reading tarot, although I've been intrigued by it my whole life. A really long time ago, I bought a mini deck/book combo and just kind of put it away in a drawer without ever using it. Just about a month ago, I decided to dig it out and educate myself a little bit. I also bought a book called "Tarot Plain and Simple" by Anthony Louis. I haven't read it cover to cover, but I've been using it as a reference guide.

I've never read for anyone else before since I'm so new, so i've been "practicing' on myself. (I'm not sure if this is a mistake or not, to be honest.) I just figure that I know what's happening in my life, and I'll ask the deck a question and see if the spread actually corresponds with what I'm asking it. So far, I'm really not having much luck. I just can't seem to grasp the meanings. I totally understand I'm new at this and new to practice, study, read and learn as I go.

My question is: If I keep drawing cards and trying to interpret spreads for myself, am I going to confuse myself? In other words, if i keep reading for myself, all different cards are being pulled for each session, and each time it's like, completely different. I'm not quite sure how else to "practice". Sorry if this is an odd or weird question, i'm just feeling a bit uneasy about always reading for myself, i'm not sure if this is going to mess things up for me, spiritually.

I've read that a lot of people focus on each card and see how it makes them feel and how they feel in that exact moment. I don't get those kinds of strong feelings yet. Is this something that is learned or is it just "in you"? I've always been told that I'm intuitive, but I don't' seem to see it or feel it, although I'd love to bring it out if I can!

Any advice would be really helpful!!

Click to expand...

How long have you been learning?

It takes a while to learn Tarot, some say a lifetime.

A lot of the learning comes from trial and error. So you have to make the errors to learn. I don't think there is a way around that. There is no one size fits all way to read that works universally for all readers. We all need to find the way the cards talk best to US. And to find the way of reading that works best for us, for who we are inside. It takes a lot of trial andn error. It just does,

What I can tell you about my beginnings (about 11 years ago now)....First I read ONLY for myself the first 8 months or so. It did not have any negative effect at all on my learning process.

Next, yes of course my experience was a lot like yours. At the start I have LOTS of readings that I could not make any sense of. Really, the cards made no sense at all. What helped me was to record the questions, what cards have come up in response to them and what I thought they might mean in a Tarot journal. Tarot journals are essential to learning imo.

Even, and especially the readings that made no sense, I recorded them all down. Then I read the journal again a few months later and amazingly, all the cards that made no sense, I could then see and understand exactly what they have been trying to say. Partly because I have learnt to read more effectively by then. And partly because for the predictive readings I could then look back at how the events have played out and compare that to the cards that have come up. And bingo, it all made sense.

And that taught me a ton about how the cards talk to me personally, that I could use from that point forward.

I personally found it easier to read for myself too at the start, as I do know my own life better.

Hope this helps.

Oh and one book may not be enough to learn on. You have us here on AT too of course. But I read at least 40 Tarot books to help me learn to read. You find that each gives very different advice, since there is no set correct way to read. There is something to be learnt from all kinds of methods. Until you find and develop your own that suits you best.


Babs

Try reading one card AT THE END of the day, and see how it fits the way your day WAS.

Try reading for fairy stories where you know the outcome (Will Cinderella's sisters prevail; stuff like that...) or TV shows, and see what the next episode shows. These are ways to read where you aren't heavily invested in the outcome.

NinaMarieNinaMarie said:

I just can't seem to grasp the meanings.

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Start with just a single card. How about Sun? Then move to Moon. Then keep going. Focus on the Majors first.

If you have some sort of class available in your area, or could attend a workshop, that's another option. I had the same problem as you when I first got my cards, and the only book I had was more limited in scope than many beginner books available now. I put the cards away for years, but I came back to them after finding 78 Degrees of Wisdom in a used bookstore, and then I found a tarot class. I seem to be in the minority here, but I struggle with self-directed study, and for me, the class was extremely helpful because we did practice readings and I could see in person what more experienced readers did.