Best learning technique for Tarot?

[biddy9]

Hello,

What is the one learning technique that has helped you the most to learn Tarot? For example, was it learning the keywords for the cards, understanding more about the symbolism, learning to use your intuition, finding some great Tarot books, etc.? What made reading Tarot really easy for you?

I think, for me, it was using a Tarot journal and drawing a card for each day. I really saw the cards open up and start to become much more 'real'.

Brigit

[AJ]

sorry to disappoint, but there wasn't (or isn't) any one thing. It was just a matter of using the cards every day, day after day after day. Sometimes looking, sometimes reading books, sometimes journaling, certainly blogging every day... and it some point it all comes together, and yet you will realize if you stay for the long haul you will never be done learning.

[HOLMES]

after all this time,, i have come to the conclusion.

for each person there is a best learning path that works for them,, and no one else.

what i mean is i learned best from books, and no journalling , yet as you suggest for yourself it was drawing a card every day.
the reason why that doesnt' work for me is I find the tarot works best to get a reading once every 2 to 3 months when i do a reading, also for me self readings dont' work with the tarot.

to another person it could be a logical workshop appraoch works best for them, or a correspondance course, tarot school tapes. (which I never took any of so i can't really speak for them ).

one thing that worked for me was contrasting and comparing reading styles and coming to atf and doing differnt types of readings.

[LRichard]

What helped me most was learning more about the symbolism.

[Amanda_04]

After much trial and error, I've learned to assign a weight and a rank to the cards logically that sits well with my intuitive impressions, and now I don't have to work so hard.

[Labhraín]

I agree with Holmes. I know that there is a tremendous amount of information on how to learn Tarot out there (not to mention the number of decks that are available!) However, it is important that you create your own way of doing things. Use what you like and leave the rest. Customize your very own way of doing things - what you feel best works for you. Forget the rest. The study of Tarot is, I think, what you make of it. Read and study and talk to other Tarot enthusiasts. Choose a great Tarot book or class or whatever you like to start your studies and make that the root of your learning. Add on to it, don't add on to it, the recipe is up to you. That's part of what is so fun about Tarot - you can make it your own.

[SA12]

Besides conferring with other Tarot readers (especially on here!), keeping a journal of the readings/spreads I've done has really helped me.This way I can look at my readings as 'experiences' with the cards, which has an added benefit of helping me to study the manifesting "patterns" of energy in a given situation, and it also helps me if I ever feel blocked, or doubt my intuition.

[LRichard]

I like to know why and how the deck was created. What was the author trying to communicate? Such information is readily available for the Thoth and Rider-Waite, and I greedily drink of the authors' fountains of wisdom. For those whose only interest in Tarot is fortune telling, my curiosity may seem madness.

[SunChariot]

\when I was first starting out, journalling was a big one. I saved all my readings and at the start I have to say there were many that I had NO idea what they were tryuing to tell me. But I saved all my readings in my journal. And for the ones about the future, I was then able to look back 3-4 months later and see what had actually happened and compare it ot the cards that came up. That was when the light turned on and I had the AHA moment, like "THAT was what they were trying to say." It did a lot to teach me HOW the cards talk to me and the language they use to talk to me specifically.

That was a biggie for me, but there were others too of course. Another turning point for me is learning that you do not h ave to follow the rules (not that there are an hard and fast ones) and you are free to be creative and invent your own methods.

And well, since trust in your intuition and in the source that sends you the ansewrs is such an important part of Tarot, I guess another turning point for me was hearing that when you get that rather uncomfortable feeling in a reading that you have no idea where what you just said came from and that it seemed toi come from nowhere like you were making it up....that that is when you are most in track.

I heard that this is the way it works because when your intution is most on track either: 1) you are pulling things up from your unconsscous mind that consciously you were not aware of. So when they first come up, you have no idea where they came from or how you knew that. OR 2) that you are connecting on a spiritual level to a source that knows the answera and is communicating them to you in a way that you can sense on some level wtih your intuition...

Either way, the point is that the more you have the feeling that you have no idea where what you just said came from and like you must have made it up, the more on track you are. As soon as I heard that, for me, everytime I got that feeling I'd tell myeslfl "Good, now I am REALLY on track." And I just put away the discomfort and wrote down what I saw there in the card. And the more I was able to trust that this was the case, the more and more accurate my readings became.

Also, needless to say, I learnt a ton from everyone here on AT! And for that I will always be grateful.

I personally never did a daily draw thing,. I prefereed to just ask the questions that came to me at the tiem, I was so excited by Tarot and a tool that could answer anything. I am sure I did readingds over 10 times a day though at the start. LOL

Babs

[closrapexa]

Although I'm on LRichards`s team on this one, and follow so-called "rules" in reading (you could call me perhaps not an armchair occultist, I'm too lazy for that, but a sofa one) I think that the most important thing is not to learn by rote and memorization. Reading and handling the cards develops you as a person, and that important step of "making the cards your own" shouldn't be underestimated, especially if, like most people, you read intuitively. As long as you do the mental processes and go through that "Tarot boot camp" you'll never be wrong, even if your meanings are radically different than other people`s. Merely reading and memorizing others`"meanings" for the cards is a bit sterile, and anyone can go a lot further and do a lot better, but it does take time and effort.

I study the Thoth, and so like to know why a certain card means what it means, but after analyzing the Kabbalistic and astrological attribution, I try to "forget" all of that and "experience" the card. That`s the point, I think, to experience Tarot rather than merely learn it. For me (this may not be your experience) the reading itself is secondary. The "true" benifits I reap from Tarot is indeed that behind the scenes work; formal study of the occult is study of how the universe works, and I feel that merely reading a myriad of books, using the deck as a guide, has already enriched my life beyond any reading (although I do read the cards as well).

I like to give beginners to read Enrique Enriquez`s amazing, inspirational words on the subject, which sum up what I think perfectly!

www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=68320