Theta Choir
Though I bought my first tarot deck some years ago, I only buckled down and started really working to learn the meanings of the cards within the last six months.
The first thing I did -- and mind you, it was a DISASTER! -- was to gather a stack of tarot books together at the same table, find the meaning of The Fool in one book, and then compare that to every other book I had with me at the table. Then I did the same for The Magician, then The Empress, and so on. My thought was that I would notice the overlapping areas where all the books agreed, and there would be the "real" meaning. I say it was a disaster because in reality it was more like standing in a crowded room with everyone talking to me at the same time telling me conflicting stories. My eyes glazed over and I quickly became frustrated and confused.
What helped me was making the decision to pick a book -- ONE BOOK -- that I felt I connected with, and go from there. I learned ONE author's meanings for all 78 cards. Yes, there were a few card meanings that, although I memorized, didn't seem *quite* right to me, but I set those feelings aside to examine later. As an aside, the one book I chose was Barbara Moore's "Tarot for Beginners: A Practical Guide to Reading the Cards", which had very simple, short "core" meanings for the cards.
Once I had the core meanings memorized, I then returned to the cards that had core meanings I didn't feel I fully connected with, and picked a different book (which just so happened to be Joan Bunning's "Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners") and checked the meanings I had memorized against my *new* book. Basically, now that I had a base of knowledge to work with, I could tweak and adjust my understanding of a card in response to new sources of information without overloading my brain with trying to figure out what I should even bother remembering in the first place!
I'm not saying that my method of learning the card meanings is superior to any other way or system, but my decision to *temporarily* eliminate all other sources of information really helped alleviate my confusion and frustration. I stopped worrying "...but what if the book I chose has the "wrong" meanings?" when, after reading these forums, I realized that no one source is ever completely right or wrong, and that we will always adjust our understanding of the meaning of a card depending on our situation, level of experience, or just plain ol' gut feelings.
Now if only those dang court cards would start making some sense...
The first thing I did -- and mind you, it was a DISASTER! -- was to gather a stack of tarot books together at the same table, find the meaning of The Fool in one book, and then compare that to every other book I had with me at the table. Then I did the same for The Magician, then The Empress, and so on. My thought was that I would notice the overlapping areas where all the books agreed, and there would be the "real" meaning. I say it was a disaster because in reality it was more like standing in a crowded room with everyone talking to me at the same time telling me conflicting stories. My eyes glazed over and I quickly became frustrated and confused.
What helped me was making the decision to pick a book -- ONE BOOK -- that I felt I connected with, and go from there. I learned ONE author's meanings for all 78 cards. Yes, there were a few card meanings that, although I memorized, didn't seem *quite* right to me, but I set those feelings aside to examine later. As an aside, the one book I chose was Barbara Moore's "Tarot for Beginners: A Practical Guide to Reading the Cards", which had very simple, short "core" meanings for the cards.
Once I had the core meanings memorized, I then returned to the cards that had core meanings I didn't feel I fully connected with, and picked a different book (which just so happened to be Joan Bunning's "Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners") and checked the meanings I had memorized against my *new* book. Basically, now that I had a base of knowledge to work with, I could tweak and adjust my understanding of a card in response to new sources of information without overloading my brain with trying to figure out what I should even bother remembering in the first place!
I'm not saying that my method of learning the card meanings is superior to any other way or system, but my decision to *temporarily* eliminate all other sources of information really helped alleviate my confusion and frustration. I stopped worrying "...but what if the book I chose has the "wrong" meanings?" when, after reading these forums, I realized that no one source is ever completely right or wrong, and that we will always adjust our understanding of the meaning of a card depending on our situation, level of experience, or just plain ol' gut feelings.
Now if only those dang court cards would start making some sense...
