First Steps on the Tarot Path

Tarot is one of the most popular tools for divination and self-transformation around today. With over a thousand decks and hundreds of books available to the learner, there is a myriad of possibilities the beginner can choose when starting to learn Tarot. So, where do you start?

The first step is to get yourself a Tarot deck that you can read, feel comfortable with, and one that preferably has plenty of opportunities for deeper study. When choosing a deck it is a good idea to base your choice on many things, including:

• The style of artwork
• The theme: Many decks are based around 'themes', which can range from Arthurian legends and children's nursery rhymes, to famous comic books and mythology.
• The background: Often a Tarot deck creator will instil their own views and beliefs into the deck they create, thus creating feminist decks, Pagan decks, Christian decks, Buddhist decks... You name a belief or view, and there's a Tarot deck based on it!
• The symbolism: It helps to have a deck which is full of symbolism in its images, so that when you are using it you are given 'clues' as to the meanings of the cards, instead of having to memorise the meanings all the time.
• Size: If you have very small hands it helps to get a small deck that you can easily shuffle and handle.
• Accompanying book: Some publishing companies print decks in two formats- the deck alone, or the deck with an accompanying book. This book is specific to that deck, and includes explanations of what each symbol in the cards represents, why the artist created the cards in that way, and other information which can help you become more accustomed to the deck. For beginners it helps to have the deck explained fully to you, so you might like to buy the accompanying book along with the deck.

Most shops that stock Tarot decks will not let you open them, to find out what the cards in a particular deck look like. However, you could browse through websites that offer reviews and images of the different decks available such as these:

• aeclectic.net
• tarotpassages.com
• wicce.com

You can usually buy the deck you want from tarotgarden.com or amazon.co.uk but if not, you could try ordering it through any bookshop as you would a book: Simply give the shop the deck's title, name of its creator, and possibly its publisher and ISBN number. (All this information you can find in online reviews of the decks.) The shop will order it in for you, at no extra cost.

Once you have got your Tarot deck, the second step is to find yourself a blank notebook of any sort, which will become your Tarot Journal. This journal will be your personally created Tarot resource throughout your study of Tarot, and you will find it coming in handy later on! You can put whatever you like into the journal, but some suggestions are:

• Your insights into the cards' meanings, symbols, and concepts
• Research into the cards
• Any readings you do
• Any Tarot spreads you create yourself
• Results of any exercises you do to understand the cards
• Daily Draw results (More on this later)

Keeping a Tarot journal means you not only keep a record of your understanding of the Tarot, but you can look back at readings some time later, and see how your readings and interpretations of the cards develop. It is also a fun way of tracking your progress and pinpointing your strengths and weaknesses for later improvement.

In order to start filling in your journal, you will need to 'get inside' the cards themselves. This means you are trying to understand the deeper meanings and concepts within the cards, through various exercises such as meditation. Try meditating with a particular card, and during the meditation visualise yourself walking around inside the card, interacting with the characters and scenery within it. Ask the characters questions, and listen carefully to the answers. How do the characters react to you? How do you feel in the card? You could also try to apply the cards to everyday life. For example, try and live one day as the Empress, or as the Emperor, and see what happens. Try and work out how they would react to situations in real life, and even more importantly, how would they react to each other? In Tarot, realising the relationships between the cards in a reading is an important part of what turns a good reading into a great reading.

A Daily Draw is a wonderful way of gaining new insights into the cards: Simply pick one card at random from your deck each day. Write down what you see in it, what you think it means, and at the end of the day you could write down how it applies to the day you just had. This way you gain more insight into the cards, and you will be able to see how they relate to real life. You could even play a game of Tarot charades with your friends. Pick a card and then act it out, or talk about it without mentioning its title. See if your friends can understand which card you are talking about! This game is even more insightful if you talk about the cards in the first person: 'I' instead of 'he/she'. Be creative with these exercises, and remember that there are many other ways of improving your understanding of the cards' meanings than just sitting down and wading through books. Using these exercises you will find that while you do start to understand the more traditional meanings of the cards you also add your own personal insights to them. This makes understanding the cards a lot easier.

When you feel you are comfortable with what each card represents to you, you could move on to giving readings either to yourself, your friends, or anybody who will let you! Try not to start with huge spreads though. Your best bet is to stick to a 3-card spread, which is far more versatile than you would expect. You can look at the Past, Present and Future, or you can have one card representing Mind, another Body, and the last one Spirit. Or how about 'Situation', 'Challenge' and 'Outcome'? Often, less is more when it comes to the number of cards you have in a spread. With a small number of cards you can really focus on them, whereas with a large number of cards you would only spend a little time on each. Spending a lot of time on each card means you won't run the risk of missing out important details or hidden issues. Try not to simply give the meanings of the cards in the spread, but also examine the hidden issues which may have caused the things represented in the cards to occur: read in between the cards! For instance, if you were to see a card that represents anxiety, instead of just saying 'You are feeling anxious', explore that further by discussing it with the person you are reading for. Often you will find that just talking about what the cards bring up will help them, and it turns simple fortune-telling into something which can have positive effects on somebody's life.

Finally, practice, practice, and practice some more! The more readings you do for yourself and others, the more confident you will feel about it. You will worry less about if you are good at it, and you will learn more about the cards. If you make mistakes, learn from them, but enjoy every minute of it.

It is important as well that you listen to your own intuition when interpreting the cards: I would not suggest limiting yourself to traditional book meanings. Instead, say what you see in the cards! Each card in the Tarot deck is full of symbolism, so just by looking at the images in the cards you can understand the meanings. Look, and ask yourself what the colours in the card mean to you, what the facial expressions on the characters' faces represent, and what is happening in the card. All these things will help you understand the meaning of the cards, in a fun and light-hearted way.

Once you start your journey down the Tarot path, you will find that beyond the first gate is a world of mystery, enjoyment, and wisdom just waiting to be discovered.