Hello dear readers! Today I would like to share with you all the art of tarot reading!  

We will start with a mini history lesson first. The original tarot decks had no occult meaning behind them, they were simply playing cards that had four normal suits and a trump suit. Today there are still places, like France, that play these card games instead of using them for cartomancy, divination using cards. The first record of tarot cards being used for cartomancy was a manuscript dated around 1750. Since then, many occultists have turned to these tarot decks to find guidance, or to glimpse their future. Some people have tried to claim that tarot cards are linked to ancient Egypt, or other ancient places or writings, but no one has found any suitable proof that tarot were used for divination much before the 18th century. 

So, now that we have that established here’s how reading tarot cards works. You can either do readings for yourself, or for another person. Depending on preference either you, or the person you are reading for shuffles the deck and concentrates on the question, or guidance you want the cards to help answer. Then you lay down however many cards for the spread you have chosen and go through which card means what and how it interacts with the rest of the cards in the spread. A quick, easy example is the simple past, present, future spread. The first card is supposed to represent where they have already been, or what has already happened. The second card is what is going on now, and the third is what could happen if they do not make any changes in their life. 

I personally do not try to divine the future; it is ever changing and there’s no way to know what choices will affect what part of your future. Knowing your future doesn’t do much for your now anyway, so I find that seeking guidance is much more effective than simply looking into the future.  

The first thing I ever learned upon getting my first tarot deck was that each individual deck comes jam packed with its own personality. To properly read tarot you must learn how your deck, or decks, communicate with you. For example, my first deck is the Angel Tarot by Doreen Virtue. This deck is a total smart ass, and no matter what I am trying to do this deck likes to yell at me. I am forever haunted by any card associated with the archangel Gabriel. So, this deck I can only use for self-reflection, whether I like it or not. 

You are supposed to clean your deck regularly, to not collect negative or foreign energy. There are dozens of methods to clean a deck, a few that come to mind are full moon light, salt, and various cleansing spells. I just sprinkle salt on my decks and let them sit for a while, and that seems to work fine for me, especially since I use salt for pretty much all my cleansing needs. I will say that every reader should find the method that feels right for them, and not anyone else. 

I love trying different spreads. I have an entire Pinterest board full of different tarot spreads, but when it comes down to it all you need is intent. Whatever intent you, or the person you are reading for, put into the cards, is what the cards respond to (excluding decks like my Angel Tarot). Want a relationship reading? Make sure you put that energy into the deck. Life guidance? Same thing, so on and so forth. There is nothing wrong with staying simple, there is nothing wrong with being fancy, I do both ways on occasion. 

One drawback I run into with my tarot readings is that I only have so many people that want readings to begin with. I only have about four different people at any given time who let me give them readings, and unfortunately to really improve it helps to be able to read for a lot of different people. I have mentioned Pagan Pride before, I tried doing readings there one year, but I guess something in our paperwork got messed up and I was told to stop because I was not “registered” as a reader. While this was going on a little girl in another booth was giving free readings. Guess who everyone was going to. 

At the end of the day, just as with many other crafts, there is no wrong way to go about reading tarot. There are certainly more efficient ways, more useful ways, but no truly wrong way. Let your deck help guide you into a routine that works best for you.