Lately, my mornings have undergone a subtle but transformative revolution. Instead of doom-scrolling on my phone like I used to, I attain for my tarot deck and pull a card. Even though I'k still a beginner, reading the tarot (specifically, Rachel True's new deck) has get an essential part of my forenoon routine.

"At that place is absolutely a difference in my solar day when I sit down with the tarot and spend some time with myself before the craziness kicks in," memoirist Michelle Tea, who also wrote Mod Tarot , tells OprahMag.com. Tea also appreciates the tarot as a "piece of art that echoes back through the centuries."

Technically speaking, the tarot is a set up of 78 busy cards that dates dorsum to the 15th century. The cards initially were used in Europe equally a game, and but gained a mystical connotation in the 18th century. The deck is divided into the major arcana, 22 cards that correspond major themes in a person's life, and the minor arcana, which represent everyday events. The minor arcana is subdivided into four suits, each containing ten cards and four court cards. But yous'll find out well-nigh this when you lot get-go using your first deck.

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Ultimately, actress and reader Rachel True says, these cards are pieces of paper. "The magic and beauty and power of the tarot cards is their ability to help y'all unlock your ain personal ability," she says.

Learning the meaning of all 78 cards, not to mention reversals, can be daunting—simply any beginner can offset on the journey. "Tarot is for everyone, because everybody has an intuition. Tarot is a manner to connect to that," psychic medium Michael Cardenas says. Tarot reader Aerinn Kolfage agrees, telling OprahMag.com, "You can go a proficient reading merely from the images of the deck without being psychic at all. The symbols can open another way of looking at the world."

OprahMag.com spoke to multiple professional person tarot readers to acquire their tips and tricks. While each pro offered their own version of tarot 101, they all agreed that the journey is a personal one. Read their advice—and so notice what works for you.

Pick a tarot deck that speaks to you.

The kickoff footstep, of form, is procuring a tarot deck—and there are many options. Do you lot get for the nature imagery of the popular and mod Wild Unknown deck? Or the Tarot de Marseilles deck, one of the oldest in existence? Or interruption out a deck of playing cards, with each corresponding to a tarot card? Beginners may want to start with the influential Passenger-Waite-Smith deck first published in 1909, every bit its artwork inspired many after iterations.

Psychic medium and tarot reader Sarah Potter recommends researching the decks' artwork on sites like Aeclectic Tarot prior to buying, since the pattern conveys the cards' significance. "Being able to connect with the imagery is then important. Select a deck that you discover yourself in and offers the right mirror," she says. She also dispels a long-held myth that people shouldn't buy their own decks: "Go ahead and buy your ain."

Take care of your cards.

Bri Luna, the creator of the Hood Witch, stresses the importance of caring for your cards. For Luna, that ways storing them in a pouch or a box and cleansing them with crystals, similar a Selenite wand.

"Tarot isn't a toy. Information technology'south a tool," Luna says. "There should be some reverence when you're calling upon your higher self to lead you in your readings and to give you insight into the information y'all desire to know."

That said, Tea cautions against feeling similar you need certain materials, like a silk pouch or crystals, to read. "Some of these traditions create a more ritualistic space around the tarot practice. But I don't like feeling similar people have to practise those things," Tea says. "You can meet your tarot cards right where you lot are. Your tarot is always there for you."

Yous can utilize books—but brand your own meanings too.

Got your deck? Great. At present, information technology's time to go acquainted with the cards. Luckily, you're not on your ain: There is an abundance of data about the tarot on the cyberspace and bookstores. Further, most decks come with guidebooks that interpret the deck'southward particular artwork.

That said, professional tarot readers recommend trusting yourself above all the supplemental cloth. Brand your ain pregnant. As a first step, Luna recommends writing a journal entry for each bill of fare. "Sit down with each carte commencement. Write out your thoughts and impressions, and see how they align with the books' interpretations," she says.

For astrologer and tarot reader Lexi Ferguson, the process of learning the cards is never-ending. "Don't ever assume you have the final answer about each carte. Merely considering you read it in one fiddling book doesn't mean at that place's an ultimate answer for cards. The dazzler of it is in that location are e'er more layers," she says.

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After condign acquainted with the cards, showtime doing readings for yourself and others.

Learning the cards' meaning is the first footstep. Putting them in conversation is the adjacent one. According to Tea, doing readings for yourself, others, or even imaginary friends is the only way to learn. "The fine art of reading tarot is connecting the cards—non only remembering what each card ways, but gaining deeper intuition and agreement about the way that they would influence each other in a spread," Tea says.

Ferguson compares tarot to a speaking a language. "You lot can but take so many classes. You lot have to jump in, and that's how you're going to get fluent," Ferguson says, calculation that—if reading for others—you should inform them you're a beginner.

Ironically, doing readings for yourself tin can sometimes be even more complicated than doing readings for others. "What'due south challenging is remaining unbiased," Potter says. "Before doing a reading for yourself, be open-minded to any comes through."

fortune teller female hands and tarot cards on wooden table

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Visit other readers, besides.

Mallorca-based tarot reader Caitlin McGarry recommends consulting other readers, likewise. "In that location are and so many means of interpreting cards when you arrange them with other cards. Going to dissimilar readers can assistance you see that," McGarry says.

When it comes to readings, choose your question wisely.

Before pulling the cards for a particular spread, you'll need to formulate a question. Think virtually your intentions for the reading and what you actually want to know about your dear life, career, family drama, or wherever else you lot're seeking clarity. Crafting effective tarot questions is an art of its own.

Ferguson recommends starting questions with the word "how" or "what," instead of "will," and fugitive elementary "yes or no" questions entirely. In this manner, Ferguson says, yous can inject agency into your reading, and have a hand in creating your ain time to come. "It gives you something actionable. Instead of just sitting around, waiting to see if the tarot was right, y'all could actually do something to make modify in your life," she says.

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Shuffle the cards until you're ready.

While shuffling the cards, meditate on the question yous're asking. There are multiple shuffling techniques: Spread the cards out in front of yous, shuffle them casino fashion, or hold the deck in one hand and use the other to shift chunks from one side to the other. "Do whatsoever feels correct," Potter says. "I recommend closing your eyes, taking a deep breath, and immigration your heed." As for when to stop? Similarly, Potter says to trust your intuition (sense a theme?). "I merely know when the cards are throughly mixed and set up," she says.

If you're doing a reading for another person, you tin can also have them shuffle. "I like people putting their energy into the cards," Tea says. Or, Ferguson suggests a compromise between the two: She shuffles, and her client cuts the deck into iii piles, selecting one. But as there are methods for shuffling, in that location are as many options for cutting the deck. Ultimately, how you divide the deck comes down to intuition.

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Inquire Brigit: How to Shuffle the Tarot Cards

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Exist certain to pick a spread, like the Celtic Cross, earlier you shuffle the cards.

When using a tarot spread, each chosen carte du jour will correspond to a certain position, like "past," "present," and "future." Ferguson emphasizes the importance of picking a spread prior to dealing the cards. "Yous demand the context of the spread to have meaning. I don't recollect cards accept very much to tell u.s. without relationships. If a menu is in the by position, why is that?"

Beginners may gravitate toward one-card readings or 3-card readings, like: past, present, futurity; opportunities, challenges, outcomes, and mind, body, spirit. The 10-bill of fare Celtic Cross is as well a pop spread, giving a more comprehensive look at a certain question. There are boundless ideas for spreads to be found online and in books. You can even make upwardly your ain.

By repeating the same spread daily, you may glean deeper insights. True recalls the summer she pulled a Celtic Cross spread daily, to illuminating results. "I would draw a diagram for the Celtic Cross every 24-hour interval. I'd write it downwardly. After a calendar month you offset to encounter things similar, Oh my goodness, I keep getting the Justice card in the same position all the time, or, I go on getting the Justice card, but information technology's moving around the spread."

You tin can read reversed tarot cards—or ignore them. Your call.

Ah, reversals. Nosotros have arrived at one of the about debated topics in tarot. Anybody has an opinion on whether or not readers should identify extra significance on cards that are positioned upside down. Here'south the long and brusque of it: If yous choose to read reversals, yous're going to have to larn another 78 meanings.

"When a card falls in a spread in reverse, it's well-nigh oftentimes a modified pregnant of its upright position meaning," Blue June, a professional tarot reader, tells OprahMag.com. June gives the Fool equally an instance: One of its upright meanings is spontaneity, even so in reverse it means recklessness. Still, June recommends placing the reversals in context of the "story" of the spread. "Ane mutual mistake is to get direct to the contrary meaning merely it's not usually and so black-and-white. This is where intuition comes in," she says.

While most of the professional tarot readers OprahMag.com spoke to use reversals in their readings, everyone has a different approach. Tea, for example, considers them capricious and chooses to forgo them entirely. "I find reversals add together more than negativity to the tarot deck. Good cards go bad. Bad cards don't become skilful—they become differently complicated. Yous finish up with more than bad news when you reverse the cards," she says.

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Rail your progress by keeping a tarot journal.

Modern Witch Tarot Journal

Modern Witch Tarot Journal

No tarot exercise would exist complete without a journal to track the cards you lot pull—and what you larn from them along the way. "The most of import thing is your journal," Cardenas says. "What the journal does is requite yous receipts. You'll write something down and yous'll see, vi days later, that you were correct. You'll get-go to meet how many days it'll take for your visions to come true. Yous'll accept a record that this is real."

Sample journal entries include logs of by spreads, a record of personal card interpretations, and daily pulls. When you're starting time getting comfortable with a deck, devote entries to writing outset impressions and interpretations of each card, which y'all can consult afterward on.

Through writing in a periodical, beginner readers tin develop the confidence in their ain intuition and abilities, which will guide the rest of their practice. "Writing is a way to get to know the tarot so yous're not reliant on what some book says. Starting with your own dedicated periodical is a great place to brainstorm," Kolfage says.

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