Though the practice initially started off as a leisure activity, tarot card reading has taken on a more serious role in today’s times. In spirituality, tarot is often used for personal growth and self-discovery. It is believed that the cards can help people connect with their inner wisdom and intuition and provide guidance on their spiritual path. The card’s position in a tarot spread can provide insight into its meaning.

If you don’t have a tarot deck but want some guidance from cards, enter cartomancy — the act of reading tarot with playing cards. It’s hard to trace the origins of cartomancy, but it may date back as far as the 14th century. Tarot cards reportedly first appeared in Italy during the mid 15th century. On the other hand, the Minor Arcana deals with the daily trials and tribulations of life that we all go through.

What are some good tarot spreads for beginners?

Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. As you do this practice, think about your question or what you need guidance with while keeping your mind and heart open to whatever answers may come through the cards. Once you feel ready, open your eyes and shuffle the deck, again thinking about your desired query. When they feel sufficiently mixed (I assure you, you will know!), begin dealing out the cards in front of you. Tarot is one of the most popular divination practices, and though occultists have been drawing the allegorical cards for centuries, illustrated decks are now popping up all over. The intrinsic aestheticism of this ancient art has revitalized interest in tarot, and after seeing so many tarot readings over on TikTok, perhaps you’re ready to start your own practice.

You don’t want to spend time staring at drawings you consider ugly. The beginner-friendly Rider-Waite-Smith system uses imagery that hints at each card’s meaning. Other decks draw from different sources for their symbolism, such as international folklore, shamanic practices, or even Jungian psychology. These physical considerations may seem superficial and shallow, but they’re not.

Choosing a Spread

Once the cards are laid out, their meanings are interpreted based on their positions and their neighboring cards. There are many different meanings that each position can have — it depends on who you ask. This set of meanings comes from the Angel Paths Tarot and Healing website. In addition, combinations of cards or card pairings also affect meanings. Open readings address the larger aspects of your life rather than a specific problem area or question. They’re usually done when you’re entering a new phase of life, such as getting married, graduating from college or starting a family. You can somewhat direct the reading if you have a general area you want to cover, such as your career or health, but that’s as specific as the direction gets.

Let your energy merge with the cards by being present and breathing deeply as you shuffle. Like with tarot cards, the power of the intel you receive will depend on how good the question is. That’s why Campbell recommends first getting really clear on what, specifically, you want to receive guidance on and form a question around it. The major arcana represent significant moments in your life. These cards are slightly more powerful than the minor arcana because they can affect the meaning of the minor arcana in a reading.

Most people become curious about tarot when they are faced with great uncertainty in their lives. And when the cards are used correctly, they prove to be a formidable tool to help you consider other perspectives and move forward in the best way possible. It can be as simple as, “What am I supposed to learn today? Here at Golden Thread Tarot, we acknowledge that tarot is not about revealing a fixed future, but rather about exploring your unconscious self. They are a tool in which you can project hidden perceptions. If you find your clients asking a lot of questions that fall into the “don’t” category, don’t feel stressed! Oftentimes these are newbies when it comes to getting readings, who may have very different expectations of what a tarot reading means based on what we see in movies or television.

Read more about free angel card reading here. Tarot card images courtesy of the Biddy Tarot Deck, Everyday Tarot, The Wild Unknown and Lumina Tarot. Then, bring it all together for deep and profound insight into the situation at hand.

You can do a simple three-card spread to become familiar with the cards. The tarot reader begins a reading by dealing a series of cards from the deck and placing them in an arrangement called a spread. Each card in the spread is interpreted by the reader based on its face value and position in the spread. The spread position indicates a different aspect of the question posed. Sometimes an oracle card deck doesn’t quite fit your needs or you don’t vibe with it, in which case it might be time to cast it out of your life. “If you’re scared of your deck or you feel it’s causing you harm, maybe in that case it’s okay to throw it away but I’ve never had that experience,” she says.

This oracle deck includes 52 cards and is meant to help you access safety, direction, and joy when you use it. With Halloween quickly approaching and many of the paid psychics around town being fully booked, learning to read tarot is a great way to give yourself the psychic reading you’ve always wanted. Read more about Free Tarot Readings here. The meanings of each card can then be strung together into a story format to give you the possible answers to your question.