Question: Building up your tarot reading muscles

[Kundalicious]

I learn by doing and not reading so I feel I would build a rapport between my intuition and the cards faster by doing spreads as opposed to studying the cards. I love my deck and the cards are beautiful so I enjoy looking at them, reading about them, and pulling my own impressions from them but that doesn't teach me how to interpret them and their variables in actual lay outs.

I've done a few readings for myself and I "see" good information in there but at the same time it's muddy, as though there is a veil over the essence of the answer and I'm only seeing a faint version of it. I hope that makes sense to anyone reading this. So I think I shouldn't do readings for myself.

I was wondering if there were quick result type readings I could do to practice and to verify. So preferably not penetrating, insightful readings for other people. For example, I've seen people do general readings on youtube for a specific date, I'm assuming for their geographic area or sometimes for a particular sun sign. I still think that is a bit broad but that's why I'm here asking.

Are there some sorts of readings I can do on a daily basis (or a few times a day!) in this way?

One of my ideas is I could do a layout for a couple of different news networks and then watch them the next day. For example, say I draw cards and for some reason I think of a crazy cat lady, and that channel the next day highlights a local shelter that takes in cats, and then I draw cards for a different network and get the impression of education, and that news station happens to have a special about a local high school that is doing a charity drive.

I would like to know what other people have done for practice and maybe get some new or better ideas.

Thanks so much!

 

[nisaba]

Pull a card for a news item, or a character in a movie.

Just keep shuffling and looking at your cards - the more familiar you are with them, the less muddy they are.

 

[Kundalicious]

Pull a card for a news item, or a character in a movie.

Just keep shuffling and looking at your cards - the more familiar you are with them, the less muddy they are.

I like the character in a movie card. Would it be to compare the card with a character I'm familiar with, or to predict what a character is going to turn out to be like in a movie I haven't seen yet?

It's not the cards that are muddy for me. When I read on anything aside from my own self, sometimes things come right to me and sometimes I have to sit and kind of expand my mind and go into the card but it's never foggy. For some reason it just does that to me when I'm asking about something personal only to me so I need to find things outside of myself to use for practice.

 

[aurafields]

I like the character in a movie card. Would it be to compare the card with a character I'm familiar with, or to predict what a character is going to turn out to be like in a movie I haven't seen yet?

It's not the cards that are muddy for me. When I read on anything aside from my own self, sometimes things come right to me and sometimes I have to sit and kind of expand my mind and go into the card but it's never foggy. For some reason it just does that to me when I'm asking about something personal only to me so I need to find things outside of myself to use for practice.

Nasaba is making a very good suggestion to you. I went through the same thing when I began reading cards. IT is true that the more you practice, the better you will become. My daughter keeps a notebook of every reading she lays out for herself as well as for general questions about others and information she wants to know in advance. She makes notes as to what she thinks the cards are saying and doesn't edit them. Then she waits to see the result and keeps track of how close her interpretation was to the outcome. It has been a remarkable study for her and bumped up her reading capabilities. She is finding the cards to be right nearly one hundred percent of the time. She learned a lot this way. You may be intuiting more also, which will cause you to be less dependent on the actual meanings of the cards. The meanings will change a bit more for you as you are just using them to get you going rather than actually interpreting each card. Keep practicing and the laying out of a character in a movie card sounds like a great way to train your intuition which is what Tarot is doing. Just my take.

 

[nisaba]

I like the character in a movie card. Would it be to compare the card with a character I'm familiar with, or to predict what a character is going to turn out to be like in a movie I haven't seen yet?

<shrug> Your choice. Or even what they might do or say next.

 

[ana luisa]

All the ideas proposed here are great. I have a question for you, though. Are you trying to develop your practice on predictive type of reading or present situation ? I know this line is not usually drawn but you'll notice that many times, what shows in a spread is something that is already happening and you manage to see the intricacies and details whereas sometimes, you get a reading about something yet to come. I've noticed that the "vibe" does differ for both but i'ts hard to explain how... I would work with tv. It is a rich means for practicing accuracy.

1- Set a time you'll turn the tv on on a certain channel, lay out cards and see how your reading and the actual show matched.
2- Pick a hot subject being investigated (accidents, political affairs,etc) and try to find out more about it through the cards. And then match.

Picks are also good for intuitive work. Ask a friend to bring you a picture of a person or place you are not familiar with and you read about it and check.

Most important though, enjoy the journey

 

[danieljuk]

if you wanted to practice with other people, if you get your post count up to 25, you can take part in the reading exchange. You could post a thread doing one card readings for something really simple about each person that they could verify. Maybe even a question about themselves and then they give feedback. also we have reading circles here, they are also in that area and you need the minimum member commitment. They are more complex, you get a partner for the month and take part and give feedback, but I improved my reading skills so much from that.

Finally there is a tarot games section here and one for oracles in the oracle section. You can take part in those threads and get feedback. I do one card readings in the games sections quite a lot and learnt a lot about how my one card, one sentence affects others. You also get feedback often if it fits the person very well just some ideas!

 

[Kundalicious]

My daughter keeps a notebook of every reading she lays out for herself as well as for general questions about others and information she wants to know in advance. She makes notes as to what she thinks the cards are saying and doesn't edit them. Then she waits to see the result and keeps track of how close her interpretation was to the outcome. It has been a remarkable study for her and bumped up her reading capabilities. She is finding the cards to be right nearly one hundred percent of the time.

That is an excellent idea. I will definitely start doing that. I've done that with dreams and noticed that when I go back and read them I do find recurring things that I wouldn't have remembered and it makes it easier for me to interpret them.

You may be intuiting more also, which will cause you to be less dependent on the actual meanings of the cards. The meanings will change a bit more for you as you are just using them to get you going rather than actually interpreting each card.

I feel like that is how I work in other areas in my life which is why I feel it is more important for me to learn through using them as opposed to just memorizing their book definition.

I have a question for you, though. Are you trying to develop your practice on predictive type of reading or present situation ?

Predictive is my aim right now. I'm very intuitive with people (well, I used to be) and when I casually tried readings for fun many many years ago I would use a card as a reference and then just kind of "read" the person and their situation. In other words, if a love card came up I would go in that direction and same for a financial card. So in a way, I wasn't really working with the cards. I've never attempted any sort of prediction in anything and I would like to try it out and see where it takes me.

Picks are also good for intuitive work. Ask a friend to bring you a picture of a person or place you are not familiar with and you read about it and check.

That is a really good idea!

if you wanted to practice with other people, if you get your post count up to 25, you can take part in the reading exchange. You could post a thread doing one card readings for something really simple about each person that they could verify. Maybe even a question about themselves and then they give feedback. also we have reading circles here, they are also in that area and you need the minimum member commitment. They are more complex, you get a partner for the month and take part and give feedback, but I improved my reading skills so much from that.

Thank you so much! I did see that forum and noticed there had to be twenty five posts. I can't wait to get there but I don't want to spam the forums just to get a post count. But I'll get there eventually!

Finally there is a tarot games section here and one for oracles in the oracle section. You can take part in those threads and get feedback. I do one card readings in the games sections quite a lot and learnt a lot about how my one card, one sentence affects others. You also get feedback often if it fits the person very well just some ideas!

I actually did do the 3 card 3 word and just now read my feedback and it turns out the reading was pretty accurate! I think I'm going to go back to that forum and see what else is going on in there.


Thank you so much everyone! This was very helpful.

 

[danieljuk]

definitely spamming to up your posts is bad on the forum but add your own knowledge and thoughts to the tarot discussions and also there is a welcome forum area here, say hello to some of the new people who join. That is the way to get to 25 positively

 

[Ladyblackbyrd]

There are some new spreads that I've been wanting to try and I really want to get more confident reading for others. I decided that I would offer free readings to my Facebook friends list. I got responses from 6 people and then closed the offer. I got a mix of some people who wanted email readings (something I have wanted to try) and some real life readings, so it really worked out for me.
I had the people requesting email correspondence message me privately and I told them that I would respond within a few days in order to think of what spread in my repertoire would work best for them. When I am done, I will ask them for a critique to figure out what they liked and didn't like. I offered free, but really they are paying me by letting me know what works and doesn't work.
I'm not sure how the IRL readings will work out, but I am already looking forward to them.
Hope that helps.