Your best Tarot advice....

DJP

Ok, I've definitely got to print this all off for future reading and further sinking-in....

One more for luck....

To greatly paraphrase Yoav Ben-Dov:

"Being accurate is less important than being helpful."
 

Annabelle

Be patient. Read everything you can, but mostly, just read the cards.

And keep asking yourself two questions:

"Why do I read tarot?"

and

"Where is the information coming from?"

. . . but recognize that it may take years to figure out the answers -- or even that you may never have clear answers to those questions.
 

Gaston D.

If you love to journal, fine, you are in for a treat ! If you dont, there are other options.

THANK YOU for reminding us all of this - especially those of us who, like you, don't keep Tarot journals and prefer to study by other methods.

About the closest I've ever kept to a journal is an online spreadsheet in which I've recorded my daily single card pulls for the past couple of years. It's helped me keep track of various trends and energies in my life during that time. But I've never felt compelled to write down detailed thoughts or lore about any cards in particular. Book study, quiet meditation, and discussing cards with whoever I'm reading for have all served me well in learning about the cards as long as I've been studying Tarot.

I'm not saying journaling isn't useful - just that it's never been particularly useful for me . I don't think anyone (especially Tarot neophytes) should feel they're doing something wrong if they're not keeping a journal - especially since almost every source recommends journaling as the best way to grow and develop as a reader.
 

barefootlife

Everyone else has given great advice! What personally helped me most is advice from someone that a tarot spread reveals a story, and as a reader, it's your job to find that story and tell it in a coherent, helpful way. Every card has several nuances of meaning, and reading in conjunction with other cards can really help drive home all those meanings. Don't start with the Celtic Cross or anything crazy like that, but pulling three cards and finding the story of how the past led to the present and they'll both lead to the future is a great exercise.

And, of course, practice! Tons of people here are willing to be guinea-pigs.
 

C_McQueen

The only "wrong" way for you to do something is the way that doesn't work for you. I thought for a really long time that there was a specific structure I had to follow with my studies, a specific way of laying out the cards or even shuffling and cutting the deck and that if you didn't follow those guidelines, you were doing it wrong. I've found ways to study and practice that make a lot more sense to me and just feel right. I have a basic, structured journal and I journal when something feels significant. I take pictures when I want to remember that specific spread. I shuffle until it feels right to pull cards and if I am in the midst of a reading and come across something confusing, I go ahead and pull clarifying cards.

My other tip is to learn the card meanings from different sources. Sometimes you'll come across a perspective that you never would have thought of, but it makes perfect sense for the card.
 

magicjack

Let the cards speak to you.