Welcome to the eight, or last, lesson in my Reading Tarot series! If you’ve missed the first few lessons in this series go check it out first. Previously we went over the topic of spreads.
In this lesson, I will go over ways to read for yourself as well as for other people. While I’m sure the majority of these things can be applied to more systems than just Tarot, as with all the other lessons, Tarot will be the focus.
For the pictures in this post I used the Terra Volatile Tarot.
Why do you read?
First of all I want you to think for a minute why you read or want to read tarot. What does it mean to you, what do you expect? Not everyone has the same reason to read tarot. Some use it exclusively in ritualistic contexts, others only for basic self reflection at the start or end of the day and others do it for a platitude of other reasons. It doesn’t matter what it is, and it may change with time, but knowing your reason will help you find ways and methods to read more efficiently for that purpose.
This purpose will help you find the time and frequency along with the type of spreads you may want to use for your readings. For some that is daily, others its weekly or even more rare. For some that means big intricate spreads, for others it means quick small spreads or single card pulls.
Reading for yourself
Some people express difficulty reading for themselves, saying they have more trouble detaching themselves to give a more objective reading. Sometimes being more objective or unbiased can be helpful or preferred, in other times it can be detrimental. In those latter cases, we need our mindscape to make the connections that are naturally there. We can explore unbiased interpretations to see different ways to a situation when we are stuck, but depending on what it is we read, say for example a bit of self-reflection, we may need the connections of a situation to help things fall into place more easily.
If you do have trouble detaching, one way you can try to do this is by going back to basics. Write down your initial thought and then going over the theme of the card, its suit and number, the keywords attached to it and how those could apply to the question or situation. Essentially, have another look at the “Reading Layers & Patterns” lessons and how I described reading according to different methods.
At the end of the day, chances are these readings are personal, private and the only person who will know or see your notes on it may be you. You don’t need to share these readings with others, though you can and there is nothing wrong with that. Allow yourself some privacy if you need it to build confidence in reading.
Most people will likely be reading for themselves as to an impression of their day, being mindful on a certain topic or to reflect on their own thoughts, experiences and emotions. I see this most often in the form of daily morning or evening readings where one pulls one to three cards to reflect on their day, and usually bigger spreads for bigger events than just their day to day life.
My own personal practice is a mix of daily impressions, insight into things I struggle with and spiritual connections with ancestors, archetypes, etc. I go periods without doing any personal reading, switch between types of divination mediums and such, but I always come back to these things one way or another. And of course, I also do the occasional client reading.
Reading for Others
From what I’ve seen people either struggle reading for themselves or they struggle reading for others. Reading for other people can sure be nerve wrecking. People come to you for your insight, skill and intuitive advice. We do not read for others to convince them however. While we can certainly try, I’ve found it is often wasted energy. People who don’t want to be convinced wont, those who are simply curious might. That’s not why most people struggle with reading for others though. Often it is to do with confidence and a sense of what is the right or wrong way to do things. I will tell you, as long as you’re respectful to your querent, there’s not a lot you can do wrong.
We can worry about not knowing the meanings from memory, or not knowing how to actually explain a reading to someone else even though we have it clear in our own minds, or doubt that the conclusions we came to are completely off from the reality. Some people struggle with sharing their unbiased opinion when they know more details about the querents situation. Reading for others is in some ways no different than reading for ourselves. The actions are fairly often the same, yet they feel very different when another person is involved.
A lot of how we read is personal ‘style’. People come to you for your way of doing things, the way your mind makes connections and how you communicate. If you struggle with explaining a reading to someone else, you may want to practice that by doing practice readings in private, explaining them on a recording as you go through it, or start by explaining your own readings for yourself out loud. This was a tip I saw mentioned in Julian Moore‘s book Speed Learning Cartomancy (review), he was of the opinion it is very important to speak out loud when going over an interpretation, to help you learn the meanings as well as being able to do them for others.
Some people are of the opinion you can not ever use a guidebook or reference sheet while doing readings for others. While I do think it’s in general good practice to not be dependent on reference items, I don’t think there’s any real harm in it, though, how you handle that might affect how professional you come across, if that is something you care about. Try to get a basic impression first and then flesh out the details with the guidebook. Don’t beat yourself up over it, not all of us have the memory capacity or mental focus to memorize all of the cards but do have a strong intuitive feeling about them. In some cases, using decks with keywords or different depictions may help you out here.
In all cases, reading for yourself or others, it takes time and practice for you to get the hang of it. There’s no shame in acknowledging where you are on your Tarot journey, only truth and honesty.
Exercises
The following questions and exercises are meant to help you understand why you read as well as learn how to move past obstacles reading for yourself or others.
- What is your purpose/expectation for reading Tarot?
- How can you take a more detached/objective approach to your readings?
- How can you learn to memorize card meanings while also training to give a reading to others?
Exercise: Feedback & Reflect
What you need: a deck, a notepad and either a friend or voice recorder.
In this exercise I want you to try and practice giving a reading. You (and your friend) pick a question or situation, you do an appropriate spread and write it down on paper what the intent is of the reading. You write down the cards you picked and some first impressions and keywords, after which you start to flesh things out. If you’re not doing this with someone else I still want you to speak out loud what you’re doing/seeing/thinking as you’re going through every step of the reading.
At the end either your friend can give you feedback on how it went, or you can listen back to the recording and notice where you get ‘stuck’ more often or if you notice anything about your thought pattern in doing a reading. Keep a written record of this reading including how you felt about doing it so you can look back at this at a later time and see where you wanted to improve or how you have improved since.
That’s it for the Tarot Lessons in this series! If you have any suggestions for topics I didn’t cover in this series please let me know so I can see about adding them in somewhere.
Path of Ashes 