Resources for Teaching Beginners

[Barleywine]

This is kind of a different wrinkle on the "professional tarot" discussion.

I've been offered an opportunity to teach tarot to beginners at the local shop where I read. Although I have public speaking experience, it's been decades since I last taught tarot, and teaching resources have exploded in quantity and quality since the late '70s. I'm thinking that the following would be a good place to start, and welcome any additional advice from more experienced teachers here (and also from recent students who know what they liked and didn't like about their training).

A newbie-friendly deck to recommend for students to buy for study and class-work. The shop owner suggests the Mary Hanson-Roberts Universal Waite, and since she will be providing the space and probably furnishing the decks, I have no compelling reason to impose my own preferences. A middle-of-the-road RWS-based deck seems like the best choice.

Self-written course material that reflects my views and teaching style, broken up into logical chunks for presentation in 2-hour sessions. This would include reference material like charts and diagrams I use in my own practice.

A beginner's textbook to back up my own material. I'm not really interested in a "workbook" with exercises since I have my own opinions on how to best approach self-study, and I don't plan on giving "tests" of any kind. This is where recommendations would be appreciated, since any I don't choose could go into a "recommended reading list" for further study.

A copy of the Giant Rider Waite for display purposes, just for the visual "show-and-tell" effect. I already have a perfect small, folding metal easel for this.

Possibly some kind of magnifier for students to examine small details in the cards, if we happen to get that far down into the symbolism. Not something I would strive for in a beginner class, but it might come up.

I can't think of anything else in the way of useful tools or props.

 

[Cocobird55]

Sounds like you have everything covered. Good luck!

 

[IHeartRescues]

This is kind of a different wrinkle on the "professional tarot" discussion.

I've been offered an opportunity to teach tarot to beginners at the local shop where I read...


...A beginner's textbook to back up my own material. I'm not really interested in a "workbook" with exercises since I have my own opinions on how to best approach self-study, and I don't plan on giving "tests" of any kind. This is where recommendations would be appreciated, since any I don't choose could go into a "recommended reading list" for further study...

I can't think of anything else in the way of useful tools or props.

SINCE THIS WAS POSTED 4 days ago this is getting further down the list and still no replies, but I am SURE an experienced member here will have some helpful recommendations.

 

[Redfaery]

Anthony Louis's "Tarot Plain and Simple" is a great book for beginners.

 

[violetdaisy]

Actually if you're creating course material, you may just try hooking up with somewhere that does mass printing and binding and have prints of your diagrams and outlines of the sessions with pages after for notes. (Including headers).

As for beginners books instead of having them purchase them I recall a pretty decent website I used ... of course my brain can't remember which one now I liked best but there are threads here that have them listed I'm sure.

 

[Grizabella]

Univeral Waite was the deck I chose for learning. And the book I've found to be the very best go-to in my Tarot library is Tarot Wisdom by Rachel Pollack. I know it's not necessarily a beginner book, but it's got everything in it so that even a beginner can understand it and then it's also a very good resource for years of use, too. Also, I liked Tarot Your Everyday Guide by Janina Renee but that one might be for later on. I got mine early on, though. Another book by her that I really liked is Tarot for a New Generation and it's more geared toward new students.

Then there's a book called The 2-Hour Tarot Tutor . It's one I've used in teaching others, too. I can't remember the name of the author but Amazon has it.

I think one of the most important things a teacher can share with a student is that even though a Tarot deck speaks to us in special, unique ways that work for us, it's still important to get the basics down first. Learning traditional meanings lays the foundation for then being able to build on in future readings. They'll be able to look at a card, recall the traditional meaning and then be able to pick up the visual cues to use as a springboard into their readings.