How to read tarot cards

Learning how to read tarot cards required a balance of intuition and knowledge of the tarot's symbols. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and everyone eventually finds a method that they are comfortable with. We'll walk you through a step-by-step approach that will have you reading cards in no time.

Step 1: Choose a deck

The most important step to learning how to use tarot is choosing a tarot deck that you are comfortable with. If you don’t like your deck, then it’s going to be difficult for you to learn how to use it. You need to be able to visualize the images on the cards and know what each card means.

I’ve been using a Lenormand tarot deck for a long time and I’ve seen some really beautiful decks come out over the last few years. There are a few different decks out there that I’d recommend, but I’ll start with the Lenormand.

The Lenormand is the oldest tarot deck that has survived to the modern-day, and it’s still one of the most popular decks in the world. It’s still sold in stores today, but you can find a beautiful version online or in a bookstore.

One of the reasons why this is a good starting point is because it has a very clean and clear design, and it has a lot of symbolism. The most important thing to remember when learning how to use tarot

Step 2: Understand the basics of a tarot deck

Understanding how a tarot deck works can be a bit confusing. A lot of people are worried about getting it wrong, but there’s no reason to worry. It’s very easy to learn and get started. For example, most tarot decks have two basic types of cards: the high arcana and the low arcana.

The low arcana are the suits of the tarot, such as the Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles.

- Wands
The meanings of the Suit of Wands Tarot card are linked to primal energies, spirituality, creativity, dedication, power, instinct, innovation, desire and growth, original ideas, and the seeds of life.

- Cups
The Suit of Cups Tarot cards are related to love, feelings, relationships, and connections, and they deal with the emotional plane of consciousness.

- Swords
The Suit of Swords Tarot cards with the psychological level of consciousness which is focused around the thought and the wisdom. Swords reflect the mental state shown in your thoughts, attitude, and beliefs.


- Pentacles
The Pentacles Suit Tarot cards deal with the physical or exterior level of consciousness and hence reflect your health, finances, work, and creativity in the outside world. They have to do with how we shape, transform, and grow our surroundings - how we create, shape, transform, and grow them. Pentacles are related to the ego, self-esteem, and self-image on a more esoteric level.



The high arcanum is the cards with unique symbols, such as the Tower, World, Wheel of Fortune, Sun, and so on.

The second most important thing to understand is that each card represents a certain aspect of life, and each card has a unique meaning. It’s really important to know what each card means before you start reading it.

Step 3: Come up with the question you want to ask

The best way to learn how to use tarot is to find a question that you want to ask the cards. It can be anything. It could be about your health, love life, family, work, etc. You can even ask about your life in general.

For example, if you want to know how your relationship is going, then you can ask the cards “How are my relationships?”. If you want to know how your work is going, then you can ask the cards “How is my work?”.

One of the best things about the tarot is that there are no right or wrong questions. You can come up with as many questions as you want. It’s all about finding out what you want to know.

Step 4: Prepare your area

The next thing you’ll need to do is prepare your area. This is very important because it sets the atmosphere for you. You can choose to use candles, incense, or another type of scent. You can also light a candle, or play some music that will help you get into the right mood.

You can choose to decorate the space with flowers, candles, or anything that will help you feel good. It can be a simple or a complex thing. You can choose to set the mood yourself or let someone else do it.

Lights, music, and candles can all help you get into the right mood. You want to be in a relaxed, peaceful, and serene mood.

Step 5: Shuffling and cutting

The next step is to shuffle the cards. There are many ways to do this and but first, you need to decide for which spread you will shuffle. First, ask yourself:

- will I need low/high arcans separated?
- will I need reversal cards or only uprights ones?

Decide how cards will appear - only upright or with a reversal. If you want a real answer you should shuffle the deck not only by its position in the deck but also by its rotation. So ordinary shuffling will not rotate cards to their reversal meanings. The easiest way to rotate cards is to put all cards on the table and shuffle their rotations first and only after you collect them and align corners you can do ordinary shuffling.


While you shuffle, think about your question. Shuffle cards until you feel that you have thought about the question enough and the answer is ready for you.

If you have a few aspects to be answered - you can cut the deck into smaller decks and pull cards with answers for each aspect. Also, there are spreads where you pull low arcan and high arcans separately. In this case, you can have two decks separated and shuffled.

Step 6: Pull the cards

There are many ways to pull cards - single card or spreads or intuitively which is harder. Best for beginners is to start from 1 card in the morning and 1 card in the evening creating opportunities to check in with yourself.

There are infinity ways of custom tarot spreads. And horizontal alignment is not a single method to read cards.

Step 7: Begin to learn to read the tarot deck

The minor arcana comes first. The suit of Cups, which is related to water, is mostly concerned with emotions, openness, and imagination. Wands, which are associated with fire and passion, signify movement, energy, and creativity. Swords represent your thinking, how you think, communicate, and solve problems, and are related to air. Pentacles, which are related to the earth, represent issues such as money, the home, and careers, and they investigate the physical world and how we interact with it.


The court cards come next. Each suit has a face or court card, which is generally referred to as king, queen, page, and knight in a standard deck of cards.




You can think of them as independent things that stand on their own, or as a series or progression, according to Ms. Dore. The page and knight can denote youth or inexperience, but the queen and king can denote maturity and mastery.

Major arcana cards, such as the Star or the Lovers, represent bigger life events. Though these cards may appear frightening at first, take your time with them and read up on the various interpretations available. They're always more complex than they appear on the surface: Pulling the Death card, for example, may appear to be a bad omen, but it might also be viewed more innocently – that something in your life may come to an end.

Step 8: Keep a tarot journal.

On our site, you can do that automatically just by using it daily with a signed-in user. By going to cards history you can see all your readings.

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