Reading Tarot Cards: Meanings, Spreads, Interpretations

Reading Tarot Cards – The Basics

Written by GHP on 12:18 AM

Reading Tarot Cards – The Basics

There are a few basic but important things you should keep in mind when reading Tarot cards.

First:

You can do a generalized reading (i.e., one in which no question is asked, just a description of what’s happening in the querent’s life at this time). But if there is a question, it must be phrased properly. Remember: the more specific your question, the more specific and accurate your answer will be.

Second:

What you want to hear is not necessarily what the Tarot cards will tell you. This is the case whether the querent asks a question or not.

Third:

Some people might disagree on this: the future is mutable. You don’t get your fortune told to find out the inevitable; just like you don’t get your fortune told just to be informed that you’re going to die EVENTUALLY. The cards will tell you what is most likely to happen, given the current and past circumstances. And if the question has been properly phrased, they will also tell you why these events are occurring or likely to occur, and suggest a possible course of action. The decision then lies in the querent, to decide what steps he or she is prepared to take to either make sure this event does occur, or to prevent it.

Fourth:

The situation can occur in that the question asked, no matter how well-phrased, is not the one that’s answered. This is most likely to occur if the querent has never had their cards read before, or if it’s been a long time since they’ve had them read. This can be thought of as seen on TV: “We interrupt this program for an important announcement.” What is happening here is that the cards is addressing a much more important issue at hand to the querent, and ignored the question that was asked It’s almost as if something had been trying to get through to this person and grasped the opportunity the querent reading Tarot cards as a means of communication.

Should this happen, complete the reading anyway, giving the querent as much information as you can. Then, if your querent still wants their initial question answered, you can do a second reading. In that second reading, usually the initial question will be answered.

And Finally:

Sometimes the question will not be answered. Period. Assuming the reader is not having an off-day, usually this results from two things. The first reason is because the question was not specific enough. If you think this might be the problem, simply rephrase the question and try again. Over time, you will learn how questions should be worded to elicit the best information from reading Tarot cards.

Another reason the cards won’t answer is simply because the querent is not suppose to know the answer at this time. There are some situations that people have to take on trust. Almost everyone can appreciate and understand that there are times when it is unwise or even dangerous for someone to know in advance what the outcome of a given situation will be. The answers you get from the Tarot cards will be whatever information is currently available to the querent – and that means information the querent is allowed to know.

If the cards refuse to answer, you can try again at a later date, when the situation has changed enough so that the cards can give you some information.

There is also a third reason why an answer may be confusing or entirely off-base – or seem to be. This generally happens in a reading that you do for yourself, although it can also happen when you read for someone you know very well.

In this case, it’s very likely that you are getting an accurate answer, but that you’re simply not “listening”. You are trying to read what you WANT to read, not what is actually being told to you by the cards. This is the primary reason that the hardest reading to do is one you do for yourself. So the key here is to learn how to be objective when reading Tarot cards; let the cards lead you, not the other way around.

Reading Tarot Cards – The Basics