Okay guys, what is the best way to learn what the cards are for?

[artsytiger89]

Hiya everybody!,

I just wanted to know what (in your opinion) the best way of learning what all the cards stand for? should I learn like if I was studying for a test w/ flashcards? Or should I just do so many spreads that I learn that way, or every day learn a new card or somthin'?
What work(s), worked for you guys?

-Gabrielle

 

[MareSaturni]

If you know how common this question is here

It's hard to know where to start...first advice i give: a journal. A tarot journal, with your studies & impressions about every card. You can pick one card daily, study it's meaning, see what 'feelings' it gives to you...think about it during the day...and then write down on your journal all you think is relevant.
The best way to learn is also to get used to the cards...play with them, look at the pictures. Get an idea of the traditional meanings, so you have a basis.

The journal will help you to remember what the cards mean. There you can also write spreads you find and, more important, READINGS. *ALL* readings, i can't stress this enough. Believe me, it'll help you a lot to learn if you do a reading and can meditate on it later.

Many say to start if one card only, but i think it's better for studies purpouses (as i said bove). If you want to try a reading, never, please NEVER start with the Celtic Cross. TOO complex and complicated. Start with three cards in a row...you know, those "Past-Present-Future" readings. The positions can also mean "Body-Mind-Spirit".

IMO, that's the way to go. Start slowly...don't hurry up. Get used to the Tarot. And tell us whatever you find out or feel free to ask any questions

Yuko

 

[Ilithiya]

My first deck was one of those that (to me) told stories, at least with the Minors. I would try to figure out the meanings from the stories, and it worked well enough.

One way is: If you have access to sufficient material, grab a notebook and set aside one page for each card; write down everything you can find on the meanings and then figure out what each card means to you.

Illy

 

[Flidais]

Everyone's learning style is different, so it's important to do what works for you. I found/find it helpful to:

1. Go through the deck, card by card (I like to go in order, but some folks prefer to draw cards randomly). Write down your initial impressions in a journal. Review the meanings provided by the creator of the deck or other sources that seem to relate well to that deck.

2. Practice. Do small spreads at first. Use "pretend" querents or yourself if you don't have a willing guinea pig. Experiment by using the same card to answer several different questions, and see how its meaning might change.

3. Come up with a key phrase (or maybe two -- one "positive" and one "negative") that you feel is the strongest message from each card. Use these in practice readings and see how they work for you.

IMO, using the cards is the best way to incorporate and internalize their meanings.

 

[artsytiger89]

thanks!!

Thank you for your posts, and i do find it very helpful, I will follow your advice.

 

[Thirteen]

At top the "Using Tarot Cards"....

Now right at the top of this section you'll see: "What do the cards mean?" This is a library of threads and posts on what the cards mean. You need not use it, but there is a wealth of discussions there all about card meanings.

As for me, I actually do recommend memorization of the cards and keyword system (one memorable word. In this respect you go through the cards like flash cards and memorize) rather than journals or meditating or free association. But that's the method that worked for me--as you can see, there's no one method that works for everyone. There are dozens of methods and you pick, choose, mix and match to find which one suits you best.

One keyword method can be found in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1567180019/ref=nosim/aeclectic/
The author connects majors with minors--so, for example, you assign a word to the High Priestess (card #2) and then all the "2's" use that keyword as well. In the High Priestess' case, the word Abraham uses is "Choice"--so the 2 of Cups becomes "I choose love." A very simplistic but often effective method. There's also a fun game of keyword going on in the Tarot "Fun and Games" section. Aphabetical keywords for each card.

If this works for you, go for it. If it doesn't, don't. Whatever gets you absorbing the cards best, that's the way to learn.

 

[psychicbody]

The process of elimination works just fine, too.

1. Familiarize yourself with the cards and their images, by flipping through them.
2. Start learning meanings, by first learning the Elemental significance of the Minors. This is fallowed by the numbered cards and then the Court cards.
3. The Majors are usually easier to memorize, because of their illustrations, but they are harder to generalize, because they are not divisable the same way that the Minors are.
4. Practice with 1-4 card spreads. I used to remove the Minors all together; you could also work with just one arcanum at a time.

I had worked with playing cards and other caromantic systems before I got a real Tarot deck, so perhaps that is also another route you may take. Learn the difference between Numerology (which works with playing cards) and the numerical associations used in Tarot - there are similarities and there are differences.

 

[TheOld]

And if you REALLY REALLY want to learn you get a deck with you ALL THE TIMES, allways the sames deck, you eat with him , you sleep with him and you go to the bathroom with him ;-)
take cards every often you can, when you watch tv, flip card every minutes or 2, look at hundred of cards each day !!!
take card for the day, for the night, to understand things and someday you'll see some corespondence with your mind, with your life and you will understand how ALL is connected together and it will make Bing Bang Badabom, you will see that it's your tarot deck that is dreaming of you!!!

The Dreamer had become the Dream and the Dream is now the Dreamer...
Thats the way of the Realisation of Self with Tarot

The old man way ;-)
Love, Light & Power
Oméada

 

[augursWell]

I think both "book learning" and "intuitive learning" are important and I go back and forth between both, one benefits the other. You have to start somewhere so buy a book that you like or use the little white book that came with the deck or checkout the Card Meanings section of this forum. That gives you a starting point.

For the intuitive side you can pick a card a day and just notice all day anything that suggests, or is suggested by, the card for that day. If you're more impatient then sit down at the end of the day and thumb through the entire deck and for each card ask yourself if anything happened today that is related to the image on the card. Do that for the entire deck. I also like this because there are many images in my decks that I like artistically but I never see them because they don't come up in readings.

Then go on to the next book. And back again to intuition, rinse, repeat.

 

[HudsonGray]

Right, stay with one deck only to avoid confusion. Not all the decks use the exact same meanings, and have a learning curve of some sort with them, which can be too complicated when you're just starting.

Try applying a card to characters in tv shows too -- you'll see archetypes on tv all the time, and the cards will help make more sense to you as you apply them to even fictitious characters. The situations on tv or in the movies work as well. Remember the mashed potatoes scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind? A Tower moment! In Shrek 2 when he sees the Prince Charming impersonating him below the window--a 2 of Swords situation.