When I say “too much personal influence”; I’m talking about the times that either I myself have influenced another reader’s interpretation, the personal influence when reading for those close to me and the personal influence that sometimes prevents me reading for myself objectively.

To explain why I think there is even a point for discussion here, let me give you an example… A good few years ago a lovely tarot reader was recommended to me by a friend. She is brilliantly accurate, has a lovely caring personality and I’ve found myself growing really fond of her over the years. Whenever I have a major issue I go to see her for some much needed guidance.

Now although she is a talented professional with years of experience, I’ve found that since we have become friends and therefore more familiar with each other, I have unwittingly influenced my readings with her. Like the time I was offered what appeared to be a great business opportunity and considered leaving my full time job. I was so excited that I’d already half made up my mind when I went for the reading and was really just looking for confirmation that I was making the right decision.

I was so enthusiastic about my new venture that I’m sure I made it difficult for my tarot reader – who was now my friend – to burst my bubble. I could kick myself; I remember her telling me that she saw disappointment next to the ace of pentacles and that she saw me out of work, but every time I heard that or anything else that was even a tinsy wincy bit negative, I would just find some kind of explanation as to what that must mean. I just kept throwing other things into the mix and confusing things. Instead of allowing my reader to go with her gut instinct I made her ‘think’, reconsider her interpretation and soften the blow.

What I should have done was keep my mouth shut and let my dear friend sucker punch me with the truth. To cut a long story short; the fantastic business opportunity turned out to be a complete nightmare beyond anything that I could have ever predicted. I’d left my job and  found myself out of work, disappointed and feeling very sorry for myself.

My tarot reader agrees that she had allowed me to influence her interpretation and that even after her 30 years of experience she was still always learning. Now when I go for readings I say only the bare minimum, I don’t ask questions I just take in whatever tarot wants to tell me.

Since I’m both a client to other readers and a reader myself; I have seen this problem from both perspectives. As a reader I can honestly say that I find it easier to read for complete strangers whose lives I know nothing about. When you read for a stranger you cannot think or consider the individual’s circumstances, you only have your tarot skills and your intuition to go by. When you are reading for a friend or family member it’s very difficult (but not impossible) to eliminate all you know about that person. For example, you read for a friend who you think is single yet the spread is full love cards. Would you gravitate towards another interpretation of a card that would appear to be more relevant to their situation, or do pretend you know nothing of their situation and talk about the wonderful relationship that you see blossoming? Obviously you have to go for the latter, you can’t assume you know everything – maybe your friend does have a relationship blossoming but s/he just hasn’t broadcast it yet. Never ‘think’ too much, just trust your cards implicitly and they won’t let you down.

Then there’s that thing about delivering bad news to someone you care about. It’s tough, but I’ve learnt (sometimes the hard way) that honesty is the best policy; whether you’re delivering or receiving a bit of a blow. Otherwise you’ll be doing a disservice to yourself and others.

Then the last point; reading for yourself. For me this is my biggest tarot challenge yet. I read my own cards daily, I try and try to be objective, forget who I am and be open to whatever the cards are telling me. Sometimes the messages are blatantly obvious or support how I’m currently feeling, but put me in a situation were I’m confused or emotionally attached and then give me cards I don’t like the look of  and I’ll be straight on the phone to my reader. How can you be objective about your own life? I know there are readers out there who are quite happy reading for themselves. Maybe they have evolved to a level of inner calm that I haven’t yet managed to achieve, who knows?

Have you ever faced an issue where either you or someone else has had to much influence on a reading?

There’s definitely no shortcut to learning how to read tarot cards. However, if you are in tune with your sixth sense and class yourself as intuitive then it needn’t be as daunting a process as you think.

The biggest task will be to learn all the different meanings for each tarot card. There are no hard and fast rules to what each card means. The more books you read from different authors, the more you’ll  notice the variations in their interpretation. Your relationship with your tarot cards is very personal and it’s what a card means to YOU that is paramount.

The more time you spend establishing your own associations with the cards, the faster you’ll learn. That means practice, practice and practice. Like anything the more you do it the more confident you’ll become. I believe that having that confidence and trust in your own intuition is one of the biggest challenges a beginner will face. If you can achieve that then you’re 90% there.

Practice on your friends and get as much feedback as you can. If you had trouble reading a particular card, then following up to see how the story unfolded can help you to better understand what it might have meant.

Record your practice readings and listen back to them months later. Sometimes you’ll find that your friend was so focused on one point that they didn’t pay attention to anything they considered to be irrelevant to it. When you listen back it’s often the little, seemingly meaningless things that are said that turn out to be the most poignant. Getting these confirmations and assurances will go a long way towards helping you to achieve that confidence and trust your intuition implicitly.

Remember; if it pops into your head then spit it out, even if it makes no sense – you’ll be surprised how relevant it is.

To learn more about learning to read tarot, including tarot card meanings and combination interpretations, check out Tarot for Beginners for a no nonsense approach.

In my experience I have only come across a handful of tarot card readers that don’t read reversed meanings. When I very first started reading tarot I did too! I didn’t take me long to realise that it wasn’t necessary to reverse the cards; that I could give a perfectly good reading without doing so, and so I stopped.

I recently posted a Facebook poll and asked the question: Do you read reversed tarot meanings? Yes? No? Or sometimes? I was the only person who clicked no, and the third option was removed. I assume that it wasn’t considered to be a valid answer and I left it with just the two yes and no options.  However, there was a valid reason for including that option.

A while back I did a tarot Q&A with some of the best readers out there; including Mary K Greer. Ironically, it was her answer to the same question that inspired the third option in my poll. Mary answered: “You don’t have to read reversed cards. I don’t with some decks and for some kinds of readings, although I usually do read reversals now.” In fact only one of the six experts I interviewed said that they didn’t read reversals and two basically said sometimes.

It’s quite clear that reading reversals is common practise. However, if you’re a beginner and you’re feeling under pressure to do so just because everybody else does, I’d say don’t worry an iota about it. It’s not necessary. In my opinion, time is better spent learning how to understand the dynamics between pairs or groups of cards.

To me, tarot cards are so multidimensional and intricate that they contain both positive and negative energy anyway. I use the influence of surrounding cards to determine which way the energy is flowing. The ace of wands next to the sun or the world denotes a completely different feeling to me than if it was next to the devil or the five of cups.

Once you’ve mastered how to interpret the relationships between different cards then you’re half way there, the rest is down to your ability to tune in and gather the clues that aren’t so obvious. Once you accomplish this, deciding whether or not to read reversals will be easy.

One of the most challenging aspects of reading Tarot cards is interpreting card combinations. Seeing lots of cards in a spread can be quite daunting to a beginner and so it’s a good idea to keep things simple in the early stages. That said, the addition of more cards to a spread can be helpful, they can offer more insight and reveal the details that put a more ambiguous card beside it into perspective.

I tend to lay cards in groups of three, I feel that placing three cards in each position gives me three different dimensions and angles on the subject or situation at hand. Sometimes it can throw me; especially if two of the cards in the group are supporting each other and the third is completely contradictory. Over the years I’ve learned that that very contradiction can be quite poignant. For example a very negative card in between two positive cards can represent an event that will disrupt a seemingly harmonious situation.

Using card combinations we can also help to uncover the identity of people that show in our reading. Often the cards surrounding the court cards can reveal a little more about their situation, their perspective, their motives etc. An example of this would be The King of Swords beside the Seven of Swords. We know that the King is a mature and intelligent man who processes information using rational and tactical thought. I would be a little concerned about the honesty of this character if he appeared next to the seven. The seven is also a card that represents tactical and strategic thinking but since there is an element of deceit about this card I would be concerned that the person represented by the king might be using his shrewdness to outwit, outsmart or just downright rip off .

Another thing to glean from cards laid in combination is how the people in the spread interact with each other. If you had two queens side by side but not facing each other you could see that there is a breakdown in communication or dispute between the two.

If you saw three major arcana cards together you could assume that there are some major changes going on in the seeker’s life, depending on other cards they may be going through a major life transition. There are many ways the cards interact with each other the key is making the connections with the cards laid next to each other and also the connection between the cards throughout the spread.

Once you’ve become more familiar with your chosen deck you’ll probably be eager to start doing your own readings. From now on it’s going to be a case of practice makes perfect; the more readings you do the easier it will become.

Start with an easy spread, the Celtic Cross is a great beginners spread and is still used by many seasoned Tarot readers – the Celtic Cross is a classic. Shuffle and and deal yourself a spread daily, refer to your card reference for each card you lay.

As the days and weeks pass; you’ll probably notice that you see some cards more than others. You may even find it a little spooky how often the same cards come back, and in exactly the same position and combination too. These cards are probably very relevant to a particular situation that you find yourself in now or reflect a future outcome based on the path you’re currently following.

Identifying with a card on a personal level like that, really helps to understand the essence of the card. After all, reading Tarot cards is not just about memorising the meanings; the idea is allow the card to trigger your intuition.

As you get more experienced and familiar with the spread you might want to practice on a few patient friends. Eventually you’ll find yourself saying things that you didn’t read in reference guide. Instead you’ll be elaborating on situations that you know nothing about. The words will just tumble out.

Although the fundamental meanings to the cards will always remain the same; the translation to a client can vary dramatically from reader to reader and also from client to client.

On my own personal learning journey, I found that one day it all just clicked , I suddenly stopped thinking about the cards and the translations and started to ‘feel’ the cards instead. I also read as much about Tarot as  I could find, talking to other more experienced readers was also invaluable learning.

You could even book yourself in with a professional and study the cards laid out,  try to understand why the reader is interpreting them the way she is. You can gain more insight if you experience another take on things.

As your confidence grows you may even want to to design your own spread, that way you can determine your own meanings for the positions in the spread.

To become a fluent and confident Tarot reader you have to learn to relate many sources of information and deliver an interpretation that makes sense to the client.  The main factors to consider are the symbolism and meaning of the card, it’s position in the spread and the combination and relation to other cards in the spread. I’ll be discussing Tarot card combinations in a future post.

One of the most important things to remember is to trust your Tarot cards, if you doubt what they say then others will doubt you. Read with conviction and confidence, even if what you see doesn’t make any logical sense – these things can often make perfect sense in the near future much to everyone’s surprise.

Enjoy your journey!

Tarot card meanings may vary from deck to deck but the basic symbolism and element stays the same. It’s the symbolism, and mood of the card that needs to be interpreted, not by simply regurgitating what it says in the book, but by letting your intuition decide how the message needs to be interpreted.

Of course you should refer to some sort of reference to learn the symbolism and the keywords but I’ve heard many tarot readers say that once they’d learned the basics they simply threw the book away (not literally).

As you’re learning the tarot card meanings; you will relate to the story behind the picture. This may evoke feelings and bring back good and bad memories from your past experiences. It’s much better to feel the card than to simply memorise the book.

Tarot cards are your tool; it’s really your intuition and psychic ability that does the work. See the card as a trigger and then let your third eye guide you. It won’t let you down.

You will also need to decide whether or not you want to read reversed meanings; in my experience the majority of readers do. However, I personally do not. The cards are not one dimensional, they have both positive and negative connotations. I use the influence of surrounding cards and of course my intuition to understand what aspect of the card is relevant to reading.

There is such a vast selection of Tarot cards on the market that choosing your own deck can be a daunting process. Often the retailer will have a display deck and images are always available online so you can have a good look at each card. Hunt around until you find a deck that you are drawn to.

Whether you prefer a traditional deck like Rider-Waite or a more contemporary style there are hundreds to choose from.

I’ve found myself drawn to many different decks and bought at least 4 or 5 different decks over the years, yet I still tend to stick with 1 particular deck – the Mythic Tarot which is the first deck I bought.

Another option is to make your own Tarot cards. In fact to make your own deck would be a fantastic way to stimulate your imagination and help to learn and understand the many meanings. You could make a collage using magazine cuttings, photos and drawings of things or people that stimulate your imagination and evoke particular emotions.

I never seem to have the time but making my own deck is something I really want to do.

The Minor Arcana cards represent the events we experience as we journey through life. Different decks depict different stories but the symbolism, lesson learned or moral of the story is carried from deck to deck with only a few minor variations.

There are fourteen cards in each of the four suits, wands, cups, swords and pentacles; which are numbered 1-10 and followed by the court cards Page, Knight, Queen and King.

Tarot decks do vary and sometimes you’ll find that the suit of wands is called batons, cups referred to as chalices and pentacles are often called coins or discs.

There are many highs and lows depicted in the suit cards, which is an honest reflection of most people’s lives. Associating a story or a memory to a card is good way to remember its meaning and it also gives us a better understanding of the symbolism in the card rather than just memorising the keywords.

The Major Arcana cards signify major changes and karmic lessons. If we see many of these in the same spread then we can guarantee that there’ll be major changes going on in our life.

The Major Arcana cards force us to analyse ourselves, they delve into our psyche, test our strength and our values and guide us towards the next level of growth. These cards lead us along our journey and teach us the valuable lessons that we need to learn and understand in order for us to progress.

There is such a vast selection of Tarot cards on the market that choosing your own deck can be a daunting process. Often the retailer will display a test deck and samples are always available online so you can have a good look at each card. Hunt around until you find a deck that you are drawn to. If you choose a deck that you are drawn to instinctively you’ll have a better understanding of the symbolism and attributes and therefore deliver a better reading.

Whether you prefer a traditional deck like Rider-Waite or a more contemporary style there are hundreds to choose from.

I’ve found myself drawn to many different decks and bought at least 4 or 5 different decks over the years, yet I still tend to stick with 1 particular deck – the Mythic Tarot which is the first deck I bought.

Another option is to make your own Tarot cards. In fact to make your own deck would be a fantastic way to stimulate your imagination and help to learn and understand the many meanings. You could make a collage using magazine cuttings, photos and drawings of things or people that stimulate your imagination and evoke particular emotions.

I never seem to have the time but making my own deck is something I really want to do.