Learning Tarot may seem overwhelming at first, but by focusing on the basics and taking it one step at a time, the meanings of the cards will become clear after only a short period.
First of all, learn which cards are the Major Arcana and which ones are the Minor Arcana.
The Major Arcana are the 22 trump cards of the Tarot.
They represent important issues that affect your life, such as psychological habits and influences, spiritual truths, and life lessons.
These cards show the underlying forces making an impact on your personal circumstances.
The cards called the Minor Arcana deal with daily life.
They reveal information about finances, family matters, romance, health, friendships, and your career.
There are 56 cards in this part of the Tarot deck, and they are similar to the style of modern day playing cards.
Take time to look through them and write down your immediate, instinctive feelings about them.
Do the characters in the image seem happy or sad? Do they look as though they are adventurous or shy? Is the card filled with bright colours and energy, or subdued hues and a contemplative mood? After making a few notes detailing your thoughts about the cards, pick up a Tarot book and look through the traditional meanings.
See which of your interpretations match the words that the author has associated with each card.
Learning the meanings of the suits is another straightforward step.
All of the cards in the suit of Cups relate to the realm of the emotions.
Pentacles are the suit of finance and business.
The suit of Swords is all about the mental plane-your thoughts, worries, fears and decision-making ability.
Wands are cards of energy, enthusiasm, and passion.
With these key words you can fine-tune your interpretations and have an immediate sense of what the card is likely to be about.
The final stage to learning the cards is to look for the symbols in the picture and discover how they help to refine the overall meaning of the image.
Symbols are simple images that the subconscious uses to send subtle messages to your objective consciousness.
The result is a hunch, gut feeling, or instinctive impression in the back of your mind.
The secret is just to allow it to happen, and to trust your intuition.
When you do a Tarot spread about a particular situation, your subconscious picks up clues from the symbols on the cards, and in conjunction with your intuition, gives you insight about future possibilities and outcomes.
Tarot is not a process of instant wisdom, but becoming familiar with the cards and gaining intuitive insight to the symbols displayed in the images is not as hard as you perhaps imagine.
Grab a pack of Rider-Waite Tarot cards and flick through them and you'll be surprised at how much you already know about the meanings of each card.
Taking slow and easy steps is the best way to master the art of Tarot.