There are a lot of decks out there, some of them are stunningly beautiful.
To begin I would personally use the Rider Waite deck. It is not the most beautiful, but it is the easier one to use while learning.
There are pictures in every card. The symbols are clear. They are not intimidating and if you carefully look at the cards, you will understand the basic message.
I started with the Marseille deck. The minor arcana have no pictures, just 7 swords or 5 disks and so on. It is no surprise that for over a decade I only used the Major Arcana. A whole new world opened up to me when I switched to the R.W. S. deck and instead of 5 disks I had a homeless couple walking down a snowy street.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Also, most Tarot books refer to the Rider Waite deck in their teaching.
I have read a ton of Tarot books over the years. I own most of them. Public libraries unfortunately do not share my passion for Tarot.
A great book to start with is ” Learning the Tarot” by Joan Bunning. My copy is falling to pieces, but I am still holding to it.
You can even try the free Tarot on line course by the same author and save money.
In my opinion, the best way to learn Tarot is to truly become familiar with the deck. Don’t just memorize the meaning of the cards. Become familiar with the deck. Look at the cards! Every time you do, you will discover something new, a detail will grab your attention. When you study/ read the meaning of a card, always keep the card handy and look at it.
When you start practicing, come up with your own interpretation first, then compare it to what the book you are reading says.
This is extremely important, or you may, like me, end up dependent on books for years. The longer you use the books as crutches in your interpretation, the harder it becomes to trust your own intuition.
Daily readings are a great way to experience the cards and learn more about them.
Some pick one card a day. Others pick up several.
I believe the number of cards chosen is less important than the reflection over them. When you pick up your cards in the morning it helps to have an intention. You may ask which energy is going to be prevalent during the day.
Or, what is the best way to handle the situations you will encounter that day. Once you have posed your question, draw your card and write it down. Look at it and think about what the card may try to tell you. Write it down.
Leave the card out, if at all possible in a spot where your eyes will wonder often.
At the end of the day, or the following morning, go back to what you wrote. See how much was correct and what you missed.
If you do not see the correlation between the card and the events of the day, I suggest you write down what happened. It may turn out useful the next time you draw the same card.
As you evolve on your path, and you look back to your journal, you may see the connection between the card and the events of the day as clear as light. The journal is a great tool, but only if you write down your thoughts and the events that followed. At least this has been my experience with it.
Finally, the Internet can help you a lot. There are so many great Tarot readers, writers, teachers out there. So many of them have web sites or blogs full of information. Many of them post incredibly informative articles. Not only they are all free, but people write comments, questions and the authors answer them.
Some of the people who post comments are also great experts in the field. The Tarot community all over the world is very friendly. If you have the passion and the dedication now days you can progress on your Tarot path faster and cheaper than I did.
I wish you all the best on your quest for knowledge, please don’t forget to have fun along the way.
Anna
