tarot cards reading for love how to read tarot cards for yourself
How to Read Tarot Cards: A Step by Step Guide
There are a million different ways to read Tarot Cards, how to read tarot card but this is my favorite!
In this simple, step by step process, tarot cards reading for love you will learn how to give yourself a meaningful, intuitive Tarot or Oracle card reading, regardless of your level of experience. This process helps you tap into your intuition and look at your Tarot cards in a whole new light.
Before get into the nitty gritty, want to clarify that there are two ways to read Tarot cards. The first way is to memorize all the Tarot card meanings that are in your Tarot book. The second way is to use your intuition and psychic abilities to interpret the cards. Most Tarot readers do both – they know and understand the meanings of the Tarot cards, but they also use their intuition to guide them.
The method of Tarot reading that I am going to explore here is based primarily on using your intuition. So if you are totally new to Tarot cards. How to read tarot card you don’t need to rush off and memorize all the Tarot card meanings. You don’t need to “know” anything to do this exercise!
Before you begin this exercise, make sure you are sitting comfortably with your deck of Tarot or Oracle cards in front of you. Have a notebook and pen nearby.
Step 1: Relax
When you are relaxed and your mind is quiet, the soft voice of your intuition can be heard. Make yourself comfortable and begin by taking slow, deep breaths in through the nose and out through the nose or mouth. Visualize exhaling everything that’s on your mind – you can come back to your worries later – but for now, let your mind become clear and empty.
How to read tarot card Relax your body by breathing into any areas of tension or discomfort and exhaling the tension until your body feels warm and calm
Step 2: Clear your Tarot Deck
Since your deck will have absorbed the energies of your last reading or of the last person who touched it, it is important to clear your deck of any residual energies. The best way to do this, in my opinion, is by shuffling.
After you shuffle your deck a few times, hold it in your hands and give it a “light bath” –how to read tarot card visualize breathing in a beautiful white light and sending that light down your arms and into your tarot deck so that it is bathed in white light. This not only clears your deck, but it helps you connect more strongly to your Tarot cards.
Step 3: Ask Your Question!
As you hold your deck, ask your question silently in your mind or out loud. If you don’t have a specific question, you may simply ask your Tarot cards “what do I need to know right now?” or “What messages do you have for me today?”
Let your question settle into the deck. Imagine that your question is traveling from your mind, down your arms and into your Tarot cards.
Step 4: Cut the Deck
Place your Tarot deck on the table in front of you and using your left hand, cut the deck in half and place the top half on the left. You should have two piles of cards now. how to read tarot cards for yourself Choose the card that is on the top of the right pile and turn it over.
Steps 5-10: The Reading
For this part, you may want to get out your pen and paper…
First Impression – Notice what your first thought, feeling or reaction was when you turned the card over. Often, our first impression is loaded with intuitive insight because our egos/minds haven’t had a chance to jump in yet.
Body Messages – Your intuition will often communicate with you through physical feelings, like a tight stomach or tingly feeling in your hands. Notice if you get any physical sensations as you look at your Tarot card.
Say the card’s name out loud – doing this can sometimes open pathways in the mind, giving you access to new insights and information. Notice how you feel when you speak the cards name out loud.
Color – Notice the colors in your Tarot card. Is there a mix of color, absence of color or mostly one color? If one color is more dominant than the others. How to read tarot cards for yourself what does that color mean to you?
Action! – What is going on in this Tarot card? Are people communicating or struggling? Is there a lot of movement or stillness? This one factor can often indicate the issue you are dealing with and its solutions.
Characters – Notice which figures, whether human or animal, are present in your Tarot card. What message does this character(s) bring to you? Imagine yourself stepping into the Tarot card and having a conversation with this character. What would they say?
Symbols – What symbols stand out to you? What do those symbols mean to you? Tarot cards communicate to us through symbols and many “hidden meanings” can be discovered when we take the time to meditate on the symbols.
Step 11: Closing the Tarot Reading
When you feel it is time to end the Tarot reading, hold your deck in your hands and silently thank it for all the insights and guidance it has brought to you today. You may want to enjoy a brief moment of silence just to let the reading settle in.
Reshuffle your Tarot deck and return it to its resting place.
7 Tarot Tips for Learning Tarot Card Meanings
Learning all 78 Tarot card meanings can seem like a daunting task! Here I will share with you my seven favorite techniques for learning Tarot card meanings. These exercises will allow you to engage with your Tarot cards on a deep level, etching the Tarot card meanings into your brain! Take your time with these exercises. How to read tarot cards for yourself and I promise you will gain a strong connection to and understanding of your Tarot cards. I recommend having a good book of Tarot card meanings as your companion for these exercises.
Scroll down to read the written version of my 7 Tarot Tips
Many Tarot cards in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck illustrate some kind of scene unfolding. Really look at each Tarot card and ask what is going on here? What is the card imagery telling me?
For example, the Eight of Cups shows a figure walking away from eight stacked cups. It would appear as though this person is going off in search of something, perhaps even abandoning the cups. Indeed, the Eight of Cups meaning is all about moving on and searching for deeper meaning and fulfillment even if it means leaving something that one has worked hard to build up.
Jot down your impressions and then look up the Tarot card meaning in your companion book to see how close you were. Of course not all Tarot cards are so obviously illustrated, but this technique will work for many of the minor arcana cards.
2) Pay attention to the symbols
Go through your Tarot deck and choose one symbol. How to read tarot cards for yourself On each card that represents an aspect of that cards meaning for you.
For me, the sun in the right hand corner of The Fool Tarot card represents optimism. The shining star in The Hermit’s lantern, in my opinion, stands for the guiding light of conscious awareness, and the uneven ground that the Page of Swords is standing on symbolizes instability.
The next time you do a Tarot reading, the symbols will act as memory triggers, reminding you of the Tarot card meanings. This is a really fun exercise to do on a rainy day!
3) Understand the Tarot suit qualities
Remove the Major Arcana cards from the deck and group the remaining Minor Arcana cards and Court cards into four groups – Cups, Swords, Pentacles and Wands. Each suit has a particular quality and deals with specific aspects of everyday life.
Cups– emotions, feeling, relationships (Water)
Swords – mental aspect, thought, communication (Air)
Pentacles – physical world, body, health, money (Earth)
Wands– spiritual aspect, passion, creative drive, vocation (Fire)
- Lay out each Tarot suit in a row in numerical order from Ace to ten, omitting the Court cards. Look at the progression from tarot cards reading for love Ace to Ten as a “journey” of that suit and notice. How each suits qualities are expressed in many different ways depending on the card number.
For example, the Suit of Swords shows us the many ways our thoughts can effect us, from the Ace of swords (representing clarity, insight and great idea) to the Four of Swords (calmness resulting from letting our minds become quiet) to Nine of Swords (anxiety from letting our negative thoughts spiral out of control).
- Compare each Tarot suit and notice the different vibes you get from each one. What vibe do you get from the Suit of Cups compared to the Suit of Swords? Does looking at the Suit of Wands make you feel different than when you gaze at the Suit of Pentacles?
- If you are the creative writing type, try crafting a story starting with the Ace and then progressing all the way through the suit. Tarot cards reading for love Using each card to inspire the next stage of the story. This can really help you understand each Tarot cards meaning on a deep level. (Another good rainy day activity!)
4) Understand the numerical qualities
Re-organize your Minor Arcana cards so they are grouped according to their number. Put all the Aces together, all the Twos together, etc…until you have ten groups of four cards. Now look for the similarities – can you grasp a particular theme with each numerical group? Sometimes this is obvious and other times it is not. If you can’t see a link between the cards in each number group, what are the differences?
5) Observe any movement (or lack thereof)
Go through your deck and take out the cards that show obvious movement (eg: The Tower – people falling downward. Knight of Swords – tarot cards reading how to charging toward something, Five of Pentacles – limping along with difficulty, Five of Wands – lots of movement but nobody’s going anywhere!)
Looking at each Tarot card individually, tarot cards reading for love how does the movement in that card relate to that cards meaning?
Now go through your deck again and take out the cards that show a total absence of movement (eg: The Hanged Man, Four of Swords, King of Wands, Knight of Pentacles).
Looking at each Tarot card, how are these Tarot card meanings characterized by a lack of movement?
6) Personalize the Tarot card meanings
See if you can relate each card to a time in your life. When you experienced what this card is portraying or to someone you know who has these characteristics. Maybe the Four of Cups reminds you of the time you kept getting job offers that just didn’t interest you. Firstly The High Priestess may represent your feeling of deep connection to the divine feminine within you. And perhaps the Knight of Cups reminds you of your sensitive, artistic nephew who always follows his heart.
Doing this will help you understand and remember the Tarot card. Meanings in a deep. Personal way so that you won’t forget them easily! So This isn’t something to be done in a day however – give yourself lots of time for this exercise, breaking it up over a period of several days or weeks.
7) Write on your cards
Jot down a few keywords on the back of each card, or on the white margins of the card. I have to be honest – Similarly this is my least favorite technique for learning Tarot card meanings. haven’t actually tried this myself but many people tell me that this has worked well for them. Tarot cards reading for love Would recommend using an old deck or an extra deck that you don’t care about, since this pretty much ruins your cards!
This technique will not give you the depth of understanding. That the previous techniques will, but if you still find yourself getting stuck. On the Tarot card meanings after trying them, give this one a shot!
So as you can see, these aren’t Tarot tips for learning. Tarot card meanings quickly – but if you play around with these techniques. So I guarantee you will not forget the Tarot card meanings quickly, either! how to read tarot card Have fun with these and let me know what exercise was your favorite in the comments box below…
