A Collection of 37 of the Simplest Yet Most Powerful Tarot Reading Ideas

1.Learn one or two keyword phrases for each tarot meaning of the seventy eight cards of the tarot deck. It's easy and fast. Armed with these nuggets of knowledge you will gain confidence in reading the tarot. You will have more success than memorizing a whole bunch of tarot meanings of all the cards.


2.Choose a tarot deck whose images you particularly like working with. Choose something that speaks to you.

3.You can put your deck in your drawer. No need to wrap it up in a silk cloth and place it in a pine box. These are just rituals to get you in a tarot reading zone.

4. Master one or two types of general tarot card spreads. These tarot spreads are convenient if client will ask a vague or general question like " what does my future hold"?

5. If clients will ask many questions,try to generalize all the questions if they are related.

6. If clients will ask many,unrelated questions, do a specific tarot card spread for each question. Better yet, there is no need for a tarot layout, just draw one card for each question.

7. If clients will ask an uncomfortable question that is totally out of boundary of your code of ethics, use rephrasing. If not, you can ask the clients to re-word their own question themselves.

8.When you first begin to learn to read tarot cards, you can do practice readings for yourself.

9.If you get bored doing practice readings for yourself, you can do readings using archived news, historical facts or something that happened in your past. Check the accuracy of your reading with the outcome (you already know) and see if they match. These exercises are meant to test your tarot card meanings.

10. Everything in the universe is energy. Tarot reading is energy. Money is energy. In order to have balance of energy there should be an equal trade of your tarot reading services and the money clients pay you. So feel comfortable accepting payments clients give you in exchange for your reading the tarot cards for them, so there will be an equal flow of energy.

11.Read good books on counselling and psychology. Reading tarot for others is also a counselling vocation. Attend workshops and seminars. Listen to popular advice radio shows or read "dear dr. phil" columns. You will get to feel how good advises are being dispensed. Learn from expert advisers.

12. Before you can advise anyone, sharpen your listening skills. Listen carefully, if not intently and emphatize with your clients as they tell you their concerns.

13. Don't frighten your clients. There will always be a positive spin out of a negative situation. So when you/they draw a negative card, frame your interpretation in a positive way.

14. If there is a certain card or cards in your tarot spread that do not speak to you or its tarot meanings just don't flow, the it's time to look for other approaches of interpretation. Look at the symbols, images and numbers of the cards. Are there any repeaters or some kind of progression going on? This might give you a hint.

15.You can start interpreting any card in your tarot layout. There is no rule that says you have to start reading the first card.

16. If there is a particular card that stubbornly sits there and its traditional meaning is not applicable to your client's situation, you can avail the hekp of others e.g. tarot online forums. Other members can bounce off useful ideas to help you in your interpretation.

17. Tarot readers are in a way like meteorologists, stock market analysts etc. They engaged in predictive activities. They take the known facts and information ( weather charts, wind patterns,barometric pressures etc.) check the influences and trends and make an intelligent assumption and forecasting.

18. Like any other learnable skills, tarot reading is actually learn by doing, not solely by reading books. There is no substitute for action,application and gaining experience.

19. A student who reads one tarot book thoroughly and gives a dozen readings is a more experienced and has the right to be called a true tarot reader compared to the one who reads a dozen tarot books and gave only one reading.

20. It is definitely okay to combine tarot meanings by Joan Bunning, Rachel Pollack and Eden Gray etc. and add a touch of your own.

21. A great tarot reader is someone who has the courage to toss away all what he learned academically about tarot and just let his intuition reign control. A great tarot reader relies and trusts his experience.

22.To interpret large tarot spreads easily, break it down into 2 or 4 cards and read and interpret and then focus on the next set.

23.. In a reading, scan immediately your tarot layout. Are there more Major Arcana cards than Minor? When majority pf the cards are Major Arcana cards that means you have tapped into an energy that is powerful in some area of your life unlike the Minor Arcana cards. They register the ups and downs, feelings and thoughts on a daily basis.

24. While scanning your tarot layout,check if there are more reversed cards than upright ones. When many cards are upright, all your energies are expressed powerfully and freely. You aim is clear. When many cards are reversed, the energies are low, your purpose is vague. You feel blocked and restricted, the overall situation is not well developed and could be topsy-turvy.

25. Record or tape yourself as you tell your tarot story or narrative while sitting in front of your client. This method will show you, how you actually sound and reveal your style. Therefore you can critique yourself on which part you want to improve.

26. If you opt to do quick, short, successive readings like... a 5minute one or two card spread, plan your presentation in such a way you begin and end each session with style and grace.

27. If you can afford it, have your cards read by other well known tarot readers and by some local readers. You will be exposed to and learn a smorgasbord of tarot reading styles and presentations. Then, amalgamate what you learned to your own style. As a result, you will develop a unique,customized personal tarot reading style.

28.. Devise a formally written code of ethics with regards to your tarot reading practice. Make sure it is gathered from your own experience and not extracted from an already established organization.

29. On the business side of reading tarot professionally, you should know the legalities of setting up your tarot reading services. Have several "plan B" as contingency plans for unexpected events. Know hoe to refer clients to other readers and have a set of phone numbers of health care professionals close by.

30.Don't revert back to giving freebie readings to your friends when you already have started to become a pro. If not, have friends do favors for you in exchange for your reading services. They will treasure more your readings if they have paid a certain amount or exerted some effort in order to get it. Again , the equal exchange of energy theory.

31..As a tarot reader always remember not to appear all-knowing when reading for clients. The best psychics and mediums don't have all the answers, so we should not pretend we know all the answers either.

32. One sure way not to appear all-knowing is not to breeze through the card's traditional meanings in their corresponding positions. Instead, ask the client about her situation and concerns. Make the clients tell their story, so that we can help them. After all it is their reading not ours.

33. To carve out your own special niche and to edge off tarot business competition, it won't hurt if you throw in your expertise in other related but complimentary fields to tarot reading. Like ,offer your unique slant to tarot reading with astrology, palmistry,aromatherapy,Qabbalah,i-ching,runes or reiki. etc.

34.Traditionally, there are three layers of interpreting the tarot cards. Firstly, you interpret the individual cards. Secondly, you interpret the cards by blending the traditional meanings with their assigned positions and thirdly, you interpret the cards with how they relate to other cards in the tarot spread. And this brings us to the next subject of....

35.Elemental Dignities. (Cups-water) (Swords-air) (Pentacles-earth) (Wands-fire). The card's elemental qualities, weakened,strengthened and neutralizes each other. The purpose of learning elemental dignities is to know right away which cards to focus on and which irrelevant cards to eliminate in a tarot reading.

36. Court cards (kings,queens,pages,knights) of all suits add a human dimension tot he tarot reading system. Court cards may also mean an approach,activities,professions and organizations.

37. Tarot Journal. Start one. You can be brutally frank or profane or anyway how you express yourself. You can write anything in your journal in any fashion as your mood dictates you. After all it is your journal. The main purpose of it is, to document your feelings and thoughts about a certain situation in conjunction with a certain tarot card and its tarot meaning. If a certain card's meaning is hazy to you as of this moment write it down and then come back to it later as soon as you acquire more tarot meanings to work with. It is a great way ans useful tool to aid you in learning to read tarot on a deeper level.