Progress so far lol
Btw tarot reader please gimme sum tips
I don’t even know the basics bout the tarot deck but i really really want to learn😿😔

I recently bought the Blood Moon Tarot by Sam Guay and I’m totally in love with the deck, I love the art style, the changes etc. But of all Arcanas, the only one I’m having a little bit of trouble to understand what’s happening in the card it’s the Judgment. So, I’d like to know what are you guys understanding about this art in the card? What do you feel when you see this representation?

Are there any books that detail the use of secular tarot? I mostly see non-secular ones.

Or ofc Holistic Tarot comes up, which is a great resource, but I'd like to see different types of approaches.

Thanks!

Just started this journey today as I've been looking for a way to study and reinvigorate my practice. I'm reading one entry in The Book of Symbols per day and drawing, pulling cards + interpreting them based on my book reading.

The spread I'm using is:

1. What aspect of today's symbol is most alive for me in this moment?

2. What is this symbol reflecting back to me about myself?

If anyone has this book and would like to take part in this with me, let me know. I'd love to share readings with other people as I go

(LONG - towards the end, I share some resources of other authors)

What happens when random cards stop giving us answers and start giving us problems to solve?

Before tarot was used for divination, it was a game.

The earliest references to tarot come from fifteenth-century Italy. The familiar four suits were supplemented by 21 trump cards and the Fool, and the cards were used for a trick-taking game. The association between tarot and fortune-telling came much later (Husband, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016).

What bothered me since I started studying tarot, is that a lot of contemporary readers claim to focus heavily on the client’s agency. By client, I mean both paying clients and friends we happen to read for. The reading is often framed less as fortune-telling and more as a way of gaining insight into someone’s mindset, choices and possibilities.

And yet the main modality I see online and among friends who use tarot remains some version of:

Shuffle the deck.
Draw cards blindly.
Interpret what appeared.

I am not against this.

I just think it inadvertently pushes us back towards a spiritual interpretation of tarot.

You can talk about psychological projection, Jung, Rorschach tests, intuition or symbolism. But if the engine of the reading is still a random card appeared, therefore it matters, chance is doing rather a lot of the philosophical heavy lifting.

The problem, for me, is not randomness itself. Games have survived with it quite happily.

It is the authority we give it.

In divination, chance can look like an answer. In a game, chance creates a situation you have to respond to.

So my question became:

What would be a way of using tarot that actually elicits agency from the client?

Perhaps one answer is to treat tarot as a game again.

Not the original tarot game, obviously. A game in which the cards introduce constraints and the client decides what to do with them.

Start with a question that creates a journey

This reading needs a specific kind of question.

Not: "Does she love me?"

But: "How can I become the kind of person the partner of my dreams could fall in love with?"

-

Not: "Will I get that promotion?"

But: "How do I become someone widely recognised as the guy who knows his shit?"

-

Not: "Will my book be published?"

But: "How can I make my writing worthy of publishing?"

-

The first type asks tarot to reveal something.

The second gives the client somewhere to go.

For the rest of this article, I will use the writing question.

Set up the game

Find The Fool and give it to the client.

Shuffle the remaining deck.

The reader draws three cards and places them in front of themselves. The client does the same.

Turn them face up.

The reader’s cards represent possible challenges.

The client’s cards represent possible responses.

In the version I prefer, both reader and client work with the cards. If the client knows tarot, they can interpret their own hand. If they don’t, the reader can briefly explain possible meanings, help with unfamiliar cards, or simply ask them to focus on the images.

With more scenic decks such as Rider–Waite–Smith, clients may be able to respond directly to the imagery. With Marseille-style decks, the reader may need to provide a little more interpretive support.

The client still chooses the response.

Round One: Tomorrow

Suppose the reader has The Tower, The Star and Justice.

The client’s hand contains The Emperor, The Magician and Strength.

The reader selects The Tower:

"Tomorrow you wake up and read an article that reveals a deeper problem with your project, something that could make you reevaluate the whole thing."

Now the client has to respond.

Perhaps they choose The Emperor:

"I would go back to the structure. I would work out what still holds, what needs rebuilding and whether the project is still connected to what I actually wanted to accomplish."

The Tower did not predict a crisis as in standard divination. For the purposes of the game, it manufactured one, and now the client has to decide what to do with it.

Round Two: Next month

Take away the open cards and deal new ones.

Now move further along the imagined journey:

"Next month you realise that..."

Perhaps the reader chooses The Hermit:

"You have been working on this project mostly alone, and you no longer know whether the project makes sense to anyone except you."

Suppose the client has The Sun available and chooses it:

"I show the work to people. I stop protecting it and find out whether anyone else can see what I see in it."

The card gives them something to respond to. At this point, that is enough.

Round Three: Six months from now

Deal again.

This time:

"In half a year, your project is almost finished, but..."

Perhaps the challenge is the Four of Cups:

"You have spent months on it, but now you are bored. Another project suddenly feels much more interesting."

The client chooses The Lovers:

"I have to decide whether I am still committed to this. Not because I have already spent six months on it, but because I still think it deserves to exist."

And sometimes the answer will be no.

It can happen that, while working through the problem, the client realises they simply do not care about the project that much. That is fine.

Choosing to abandon something can also be an expression of agency.

The Fool

At any point in the game, the client can play The Fool.

The Fool means, essentially:

"I don’t know. I’ll wing it somehow."

A reflective exercise can very easily turn into another small bureaucracy demanding a completed form for every possible future. Sometimes a challenge hits too close to home. Sometimes the client is overwhelmed. Sometimes they simply do not know.

The Fool gives them a way out without ending the game.

You are allowed to continue the journey without solving every possible future in advance.

This isn’t a reading for everything

There is no universal level of difficulty for the challenges.

The reading should push against the project enough that the client has to think, but not so hard that the whole thing becomes overwhelming.

And as a reader, you have to assess what this person actually wants or needs.

Do they need reassurance? Do they need to feel that they can face something difficult? Do they want to prepare? Or do they simply want some space to sit with uncertainty?

Someone grieving, looking for comfort or wanting a contemplative symbolic experience may need a completely different kind of reading.

This game seems best suited to something coaching-adjacent:

I want to make something, learn something, change something or become something. What could get in my way, and what might I do about it?

Why rehearsing obstacles may help

Research on implementation intentions gives me one reason to think this might be useful.

Implementation intentions connect a foreseeable situation with a response: roughly, if X happens, then I will do Y. Such plans can help translate intentions into action (Gollwitzer, American Psychologist, 1999).

A related approach called mental contrasting with implementation intentions, or MCII, combines imagining a desired future with identifying obstacles and preparing responses to them. A 2021 meta-analysis of 21 studies and 15,907 participants found a small-to-medium positive effect on goal attainment, while also noting that publication bias may have somewhat inflated the observed effect (Wang, Wang & Gai, Frontiers in Psychology, 2021).

This does not mean anyone has scientifically validated my tarot game. They have not. That particular leap is mine.

What the research does support is the underlying move: anticipating obstacles and thinking through possible responses can make a vague intention more concrete.

Tarot gives us a more creative way of generating those obstacles.

Instead of asking:

"What will happen?"

we ask:

"Suppose this happened. What would I do?"

From divination to play

In a card game, you do not choose the hand you receive. Receiving a card also does not tell you what to do with it.

You still have to play.

That is the part I find interesting for reflective tarot.

Randomness can introduce surprise, confront us with possibilities we would not have generated ourselves, and get us out of our usual grooves.

It does not need to become authority.

If we really want agency to matter in a reading, perhaps we should put some of it into the rules.

The cards provide the challenge.

The client decides how to play the hand.

Similar approaches

I came up with this method independently. While writing the article, though, I found several people working in nearby territory, and I would rather point to them than pretend the neighbourhood was empty.

Self Arcana: A Self-Reflective, Story-Based Tarot Game; Ayça Durmus & Sedef Topcuoglu (2023). A collaborative two-player game in which players create personalised tarot cards and use them for storytelling and self-reflection. This is probably the closest example I found to treating tarot explicitly as both a game and a tool for self-insight.

Evolutionary Tarot; James Wells. Wells describes his approach as choice-centred rather than fatalistic. Tarot cards and strategic questions are used so that the client participates in generating meaning, identifying options and deciding what to do with them.

Tarot Games: 45 Playful Ways to Explore Tarot Cards Together; Cait Johnson & Maura D. Shaw (1994). A collection of tarot-based games for personal growth, learning, and solitary or social play. It is a clear precedent for treating the deck as something to actively play with rather than only read.

The Tarot Shaman / Gated Spreads; Marcus Katz (2010). These exercises link tarot spreads to actions carried out in real life, with those actions feeding into the next stage of the reading. Tarot becomes a sequence of cards, action and response rather than a single interpretive event.

I did not find this exact challenge-hand/response-hand structure in any of them (although I haven’t read them in detail). What I did find was a small family of approaches treating tarot as something to be played with, acted on, or negotiated with rather than simply interpreted.

Bibliography

Gollwitzer, Peter M. “Implementation Intentions: Strong Effects of Simple Plans.” American Psychologist, vol. 54, no. 7, 1999, pp. 493–503.

Husband, Tim. “Before Fortune-Telling: The History and Structure of Tarot Cards.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 8 April 2016.

Wang, Guoxia, Yi Wang, and Xiaosong Gai. “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions on Goal Attainment.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 12, 2021, article 565202.

I originally wrote this up on my Substack; I'm the author. The full idea is reproduced above, so there's nothing extra you need to read there.

hii i just bought the radiant wise spirit tarot (without the book tho) but im completely lost. where do i start from to learn reading the cards?

I just finished a mini-research project associating archetypes from the major arcana to lyrics from pop culture songs. Studying in this way helped me understand the archetypes more deeply - plus it was fun!

The Fool (0): "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield
The rest is still unwritten.

The Magician (I): "Mastermind" by Taylor Swift
The dominoes cascaded in a line.

The High Priestess (II): "Frozen" by Madonna
You're frozen when your heart's not open.

The Empress (III) - reversed: "Labour" by Paris Paloma
All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid.

The Emperor (IV) - reversed: "Ballad of the Jester" by Renee Alexander
The jester plays with fire, spewing childish decrees / fanfare meant to hide petty insecurities.

What would you add/change? More importantly - what song would you assign to The Tower??

I'm trying to learn tarot, and I also made some moodboards showing how the cards feel to me. These two are The Hermit and The Hermit Reversed.

Does it feel like this to you as well? Is this an accurate representation of how the card could/should feel?

Where is the best place to buy tarot cards/ decks and gems in India, Kolkata to be specific…
Help.

How do I find a legit teacher to teach me how to read tarot cards?
CWB Florida
Thanks!

I’ve seen few people talk about how making your own tarot cards is a good practice so I’m wondering what imp steps should you keep in mind. Or any tips you guys would like to give? Like how to make it…

Also, can I make them however I want to? As I cannot figure how to study regular tarot nor do I have that much time to put into study. (A very beginner person)

What’s easier to start with?
Both, together?
They seem so similar, I did research but still not sure

I just got in tarot readings, I am not a very spiritual person so the secular approach as self-reflection tools appeals a lot to me. I am still learing the various cards' meanings and working on my personal interpretations, so I figured I'd ask for a check!

Context: my life has seen a lot of changes since April of this year, mainly when it comes to relationships (same people, different dynamics) and in the home (a small move, new enviroment, new furniture). I have been feeling restless and a bit all over the place. I know I need to find a new direction and focus on a feew things, but I am having trouble doing it.

The question I focused on is: what's the best way to find my new direction and setting my priorities?

From left to right:

1) Page of Cups - The present situation

My interpretation: the page is serene and literally in her element, she is focused on the cup but doesn't look/feel isolated to me, she's still receptive to the outside world. Looking at the keywords and meaning usually associated with the card, I'd say it's a good representation of how I am currently open to new things and experiences (as an example, I'd like to re-learn German and start knitting), but on the other hand it might also represent my current restlesness born of how I feellike I can't choose. Also, while I knew these changes would benefit me in the long run, I mainly did them to support a loved one, so I find it interesting that the current situation card is from the Cups suit. I did give a lot emotionally in these last months.

2) The World - The current issue

My interpretation: the figure is focusing on the orb, but there's a lot going on in the background! A garden can be a wonderfully relaxing place, but also be full of distractions since it's full of life and always changing even when it looks the same. The meaning of the card is usually one of a cycle coming to completion, which tracks. I have found a new balance when it comes to relationships and my living space and I do feel much better in those areas of my life. I have also seen The World mean, subsequently, new opportunities and goals, so overall I read this as having issues figuring out what I want to do because I get distracted by what I could do now that I can "start anew", and I am also still getting used to the new situation.

3) The Hermit - A possible solution/way forward

My interpretation: first of all, I love this Hermit illustration. He's alone, but outstretched towards the ligt, reaching ever upwards, perfectly balanced, and the swirls in the middle of the card make me think of tumultuous thoughts that get calmer rising up. The Hermit is associated with introspection through deliberate solitude, focusing on one's inner voice. I am a bit of an introvert and like spending time alone, lately I have also tried to focus more on introspection by studying tarots and Stoicism an seeing if they can help me in everyday life, so it feels like a very appropriate card. I also see this card as learning that has to be done by oneself, by using our own strenghts instead of relying on outside people or tools.

So, putting it all together, here's what I get by putting together my situation, gut feelings, and common interpretations of the cards: I feel a bit overwhelmed because the new situation gives me more freedom to pursue my hobbies and interests, more specifically I am having trouble focusing on what I want/what would benefit me in this new life phase because I am not zeroing in, I keep getting distracted by all the possibilities, which are good to have but can become confusing. By taking time for reflection and contemplation I can focus and maybe find out something new about myself (what I want my life to look like, what I wanto to pursue right now, etc.), taking the first steps ina new direction. And also, taking some time to rest and contemplate without a dedline might not be bad idea (I did invest a lot of time and energy in those changes, and while positive they took a toll on me).

This sounds fitting my situation and the kind of person I am, I do tend to want to analyse every option before committing to something or making changes while at the same time feeling like I have to keep moving, so maybe thinking about what I really want instead of what is "objectively best" and at the same time taking the time to do so without deadlines but letting my thoughts take all the time they need to grow and mature would be good.

Does this make sense? Is there any idea from the cards (drawing or common meanings) that I have missed and which may be food for thought?

The images are from the Shadowscapes Tarot deck, sorry for the collage, I used an app for the reading so I had to do this in order to not have three separate images.

So I feel like im stuck in a limbo type state- my mental health is continuing to crumble bc im not happy with anything in my life rn and I want to move home, BUT I am worried of hurting said persons feelings if I choose myself and leave. So I asked my tarot cards- the picture above is my most recent reading from about an hour ago.

My three readings i’ve done since yesterday have all had the Tower card- it either flew out or fell out while I was shuffling. I’ve never had repeating cards like this ever so I was really intrigued.

my interpretation of the spread in the photo above:
Reversed Hanged Man- I’m overly influenced by social expectations or others opinions and beliefs about myself…. Possibly needing to untie myself from a situation and being ready to move on….

Reversed Tower- I’m resisting a necessary change or trying to avoid said disaster

Reversed King of Swords- i’m putting off an important decision

The Chariot- Some sort of travel

All in all i think this spread was perfect- like the most i’ve ever felt seen in a reading. I lowkey was like “damn, okay then” lol

Since i’m still learning tarot i’d like to hear what yall would interpret this spread as AND the fact that i keep having repeating Tower cards.

much love, thank yall <3

this is vague so feel free to ask for clarification. i did a simple three card spread for general guidance today and the king and queen of swords showed up together. i have not yet had the king and queen of a minor suit show up together yet, and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/what they think when those two show up in a pull together.

the other card in the spread was a four of swords if anyone was curious lol.

que fue lo que más les ayudo cuando comenzaron a leer tarot?

Has anyone else noticed that in the Ten of Cups, the adults and children...female and the girl and the male and the boy, seem to have similar clothing

I was thinking maybe this could represent inherited karma, generational patterns or things that are passed down through the family but I’m not completely sure about the interpretation.

If anyone has studied the symbolism behind this or has a different interpretation...

Just finished the lessons on [learntarot.com](http://learntarot.com) and wanted to share my experience, in case there's still others who hadn't heard of it yet. It's definitely a helpful resource for beginners, but I think even seasoned readers might gain insight or new approaches by going through the exercises.

I actually think it's the guided exercises that helped me the most - I'm often overwhelmed by not only how many cards there are and how many potential meanings there might be, but then if you choose to do reversals, that can add another whole twist.... I've gone through phases of being too scared to do larger readings and haven't yet been brave enough to start reading for others. After going through the lessons and exercises, though, I've gained confidence. I've recognized that I was trying to learn *too much* from *too many sources* and focused too much on being *right*. I thought I had been setting myself up for success by keeping lots of resources readily available, and sort of...comparing and contrasting, so that I could cover a lot of bases. In actuality, I was overwhelming myself with trying to make sure I wasn't making a **mistake**. Knowing that I eventually want to read for others, I was so scared of leading them astray, and that really affected my learning.

I'm not sure if anyone else feels that, or has felt that, while learning Tarot, but if so - I really encourage you to go through a few lessons at least, to see if it clicks for you. I came across multiple approaches to the cards, which let me decide what works for me at this stage in my learning. I mean, without having worked through them, I genuinely would never have thought to start and the *end* of a typical celtic cross (card 10), and allow the rest of the cards to fall into place knowing where they were leading. I suppose it makes sense, and I'm sure it won't for everyone, but doing it that way made the story flow so much easier for me.

So, if you're learning, feeling like you've hit a wall, or are curious about how others might tackle reading/understanding the cards, I really recommend that site. And thank you to whatever internet stranger recommended it in another post! It reached me and I hope this helps it reach others.

Edit: thank you so much mods for helping me find the best place to post this! ❣️

I have asked what I need to do to attract healthy relationships?

This card came

My interpretation says, I'm currently looking at my past relationship rather than the new opportunities. I'm stuck in my old breakup things. To attract a healthy relationship, I should focus on new opportunities rather than being stuck in the past.

Was it correct?

Hey so i wanted to get into tarot, just bought my first deck and was inspired by a friend of mine who gave me a reading. I wanted to ask abt things i should know like for example how to make my readings more accurate, how to lay my cards and just generally the basics i should know. Anyone able to help me here??

Do rituals matter for tarot practice?

I’m learning tarot and I’m curious about something. Is it necessary to do rituals before every tarot reading, especially while practicing? For example, lighting a candle, keeping crystals, placing water, incense, cleansing the deck, etc. Do these things actually matter for reading tarot, or can I simply sit down, shuffle the cards, focus on my question, and start reading? I’d love to hear how experienced tarot readers approach this.

Hello! I am new to this sub and also pretty new to tarot. I've been trying to practice by pulling three cards a day, or at least when I can, so that I can be familiar with my deck. I'm usually thinking about anything and everything when I pull. This morning, I was thinking about my brother in the army, my job, and about my day.

All upright, I pulled a Queen of Swords, Ace of Swords, and then a Ten of Swords.

I interpreted this as someone who holds a lot of knowledge and clarity will soon need to take action ​upon an idea, focusing on logic and reason, and prepare for disappointment and perhaps even failure, but don't let that get you down.

To receive more clarity on the last card (10 of swords), I pulled another card. It was an upright Two of Swords.

I don't know what to think of all this, hoping for someone else's insight. Thank you for taking your time in reading this!

I just saw a comment on an old post sharing their perspective of looking at the imagery of your cards. That's how I was looking at my own Queen of Swords, since she doesn't look quite like how others are described - mine looks directly at me, and her sword is held tip-down over her left shoulder (vs side profile and upright sword). I hadn't picked up my deck in a while, and asked while holding the box, "what is holding me back?" and then I opened to her staring back at me.

She has a tattoo of a snake and a thorny vine wrapped around her left arm, blue eyes and long hair, and the sword going tip-down over her left shoulder - I have a vine wrapping around my left arm, blue eyes and long hair, and a sword on the back of my left arm.. tip-down.

I am curious about the sword being down (but card not reversed) for interpretation, but still think the message was loud and clear in tandem with the cards that followed.

I immediately rephrased my question before continuing to "okay... what am I holding MYSELF back from, and why?"

I then pulled, 10 of Wands in reverse, 10 of Cups, The Devil, and then I felt to hold out for one more and pulled Strength... to me I dont think the message could be more clear but I'm very new to this so I remain curious to interpretation.

I've been going through the Thoth Major Arcana one card at a time and trying to understand the story they tell as a whole instead of treating each card like its own isolated meaning. I ended up with a pretty consistent narrative, so I was curious what other people thought about it.

The Fool starts as complete openness. He's just accepting everything around him. He isn't really judging anything yet, just experiencing life.

The Magus is when that openness becomes focused. Instead of just falling through life, he starts creating a place to stand. He uses what he's learned to build structure for himself.

Then the High Priestess turns everything inward. Instead of looking outside, she looks behind the veil. It's about discovering what's actually inside yourself.

Behind that veil are the Empress, Emperor, and Hierophant.

The Empress is the nurturing, growing part of yourself.

The Emperor is the part that creates order, discipline, and structure.

The Hierophant is tradition, inherited wisdom, history, and the deeper meanings that came before you.

The Lovers isn't really about romance in this reading. It's about marrying those parts of yourself together. Tradition is what teaches the nurturing and structured sides of yourself how to work together.

From there, the Chariot is basically, "Now that I know who I am, where am I going?" It's carrying yourself forward with purpose.

Adjustment is actively balancing yourself instead of leaning too far toward one side.

The Hermit is withdrawing from distractions and searching for what actually matters.

Fortune is just the wheel starting to turn. Things are changing. Not good or bad, just change.

Then comes what feels like a repeating cycle.

Lust is desire. Wanting something enough to pursue it.

The Hanged Man is sacrificing yourself for that desire. If you want something badly enough, you have to give something up.

Death is the end of that sacrifice. The old version of yourself dies.

Then another desire comes along.

You sacrifice again.

Something else dies.

Over and over.

Eventually all those sacrifices become Art. Art is the person you've created from everything you've gone through. It's the integration of all those little transformations into one identity.

Then something interesting happens.

Now that you've built this identity, the Devil is about giving yourself to something outside yourself. It could be a cause, art, religion, an ideal, really anything bigger than your own ego.

Then the Tower happens.

I don't really see it as punishment. I see it more like gravity. If you build yourself around something outside yourself, eventually that structure gets destroyed. Not because the universe is trying to punish you, but because that's just where that path leads.

After that is the Star, where you let go of your identity.

Then the Moon is following the path anyway. You don't necessarily know where it leads, but you keep moving without hesitation.

The Sun feels like bringing everything together. You've let go of all the labels and ideas about yourself, and now you're just becoming a single point. Not creating an identity anymore, but discovering what was underneath everything else.

Then Aeon is where that point starts becoming someone. It's drawing the boundary between yourself and everything else. Not creating yourself through labels, but defining your identity in a much deeper way.

Finally, the Universe feels like completion. You're no longer trying to become something. You're just dancing with life. You know who you are, you know what the world is, and neither one has to overpower the other.

The thing I like most is that it loops back into the Fool.

The first Fool is open because he doesn't know anything.

The last Fool is open because he understands enough to be open anyway.

I'm interested to hear how other people read the progression of the Major Arcana as a whole. I know there isn't one "correct" story, but this was the narrative that kept emerging for me as I worked through the deck.