A Guide For Learning Tarot
(Originally posted May 24, 2020 on my old blog)
I am not an expert on Tarot. I have been studying and working with it for about 12 years though. So I do have experience with it and there are a few things I would have liked to have been told or have had some guidance with in the beginning of my journey. So here I just wanted to share with you my path. This does not mean that this is the one and only path that everyone should take when learning tarot. Absolutely not. Ultimately and ideally you will carve your own way, make your own discoveries, tap into your inner knowing, and find your own truth. It is my hope and goal that by me sharing my path and resources that I’ve picked up along the way, that I will inspire you in some way to start and/or keep going.
So let’s first talk about the Tarot deck itself and how to find one.
This is the first question people often run into:
What deck should I choose?
The most often recommended deck for beginners is one of the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) decks. The RWS is the deck that most other tarot decks are based off of. But there are quite a few RWS variations so it can be a little confusing if you are absolutely brand new. I feel ya! I’ve been there. We all have I’m sure.
So let me explain what Rider-Waite-Smith means.
First off you need to know that referring to the deck as Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) didn’t really happen until somewhat recently in an effort to give Pamela Coleman Smith her due credit, as she was the illustrator of the RWS tarot. Before that, it was mainly referred to as the Rider-Waite tarot, being that Arthur Edward Waite (A. E. Waite ) was the mystic behind the deck and the cards were originally published in 1910 by the Rider Company. Other names you’re likely to hear include Smith-Waite, Waite-Smith, or the Rider tarot deck.
Secondly, Pamela Smith, or “Pixie”, didn’t actually color her illustrations. They were colored in later by the publisher. So there are four tarot decks that use Pixie’s original line drawings but have variations in the coloring. These four decks are:
The Original Rider Waite Tarot
The Smith-Waite Tarot - Just the deck or The Commemorative Set or the small Centennial Deck in a Tin
The Albano-Waite Tarot - The Albano-Waite Tarot is, in my opinion, the most underrated of the four RWS decks, but is really my preferred of the RWS Decks.
And here is a video comparing these four decks:
There are many other decks that look very similar to the RWS deck, and often get mistaken as originals. They don’t use Pixie’s original artwork though. Two examples of these decks are:
The Universal Waite Tarot Deck
Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
And there are so many others. So, so many. I’m not going to list out any more in this blog post though. I just wanted to highlight what the deal was with the RWS deck because it has tended to be the cause of much confusion for many, many beginners. If a Rider-Waite-Smith deck is not really calling to you then that is perfectly fine. It is often recommended to beginners because it tends to be the easiest to learn with as many tarot books are written with this deck in mind. But you really can choose any tarot deck you want. In fact, you’ll likely be way more successful at learning to read tarot with a deck that you really like and are really excited about.
Now, I’m not going to get into card descriptions here or how to actually read the tarot. There are plenty of books, online resources, and courses on that and that’s what I’m going to share with you here.
What I will say though is, the most important practice you can do with your deck is to just work with it daily, even if it means just pulling a single card for the day. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Just show up to your deck as you are (it doesn’t need to be a fancy, elaborate ritual, unless that’s what you want!), shuffle the deck in whatever fashion feels right to you, pull a card, and take a moment to just sit with what you’ve pulled. Try to glean your own intuitive interpretation of the card before you check any books or internet sources. Again, there is no right or wrong. This practice will help you tap into what your deck is trying to tell you. Everyone else’s interpretations are just suggestions, bits of inspiration, and sometimes they might not resonate with what you feel to be true at all; and that’s perfect. And it’ll all likely change over time. Journal about whatever comes up.
Here are some great books for beginners to start with:
Learning The Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners by Joan Bunning
WTF is Tarot? ...And How Do I Do It? by Bakara Wintner
78 Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness by Rachel Pollack
21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card by Mary K. Greer
Tarot for Yourself by Mary K. Greer
Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth by Benebell Wen
Throughout your tarot journey, you’ll likely run into and maybe get curious about the Marseille Tarot. Here are some resources I recommend checking out. Even if you’re not particularly interested in learning to read the Marseille Tarot, these resources are still pretty invaluable to dive into at some point to enrich your tarot practice.
The Marseille Tarot:
The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards by Alejandro Jodorowsky & Marianne Costa
The Oracle Travels Light: Principles of Magic With Cards by Camelia Elias
Marseille Tarot: Towards the Art of Reading by Camelia Elias
Camilla Elias’s Online Tarot Courses
Going Deeper:
The Kybalion Definitive Edition by William Walker Atkinson writing as Three Initiates
The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo Duquette
The Book On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts
Highly Recommended Courses:
Learning the Tarot - This is a FREE online course by Joan Bunning who is the author of Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners.
Tarot for the Wild Soul - This is probably one of the most valuable courses on tarot you could take. Lindsay Mack teaches a rewilded, trauma-informed, non-hierarchical, inclusive approach to reading the cards. This is a once a year 8-week long, go-at-your-own-pace, deep dive into the spirals of the Tarot, and Lindsay teaches in a “deckless” way so you can easily use any deck you feel called to use along with the course.
Tarot Skills - Jessica Dore teaches non-hierarchical, trauma-informed skills for working with tarot clients.
So, this was by no means a comprehensive list. There are of course so many, many more great books, online resources, and courses that teach how to work with the cards, but I hope this helps to get you started. And also, of course, there is no match to your daily mundane experiences and self-inquiry over time alongside regularly visiting with the cards and journaling about what comes up to help you discover your personal truth about what they mean for you.
By this point you’ll likely need very little guidance as you become inspired on your own to carve out your own path.
But here are some of my further suggested studies:
Read the works of Carl Jung
Study psychology
Study philosophy
Become Trauma-Informed
Study History
At some point you’ll likely discover Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot. While I believe anyone at any point along their tarot journey can learn this deck, in my personal experience it is not the easiest deck to get to know. For a future post I’ll put together a quick little guide to understanding the Thoth Deck. For now though, here are two of my favorite books that helped me learn to read the Thoth deck:
Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo DuQuette