Learning Tarot: A Beginner’s Guide

What is Tarot? A Beginner’s Guide

We asked that question ourselves and tried to explain it as plain and straightforward as we could in this blog post called Learning Tarot: A Beginner’s Guide. Tarot first appeared in about the 14th century in Europe. There are many stories about the real originating location and time, yet I personally believe it’s hard to prove that and it’s somewhat not the case and spirit we are after here. I personally take the Waite-Smith design as the framework and the meanings/the symbology behind it as a basis. There are many decks and symbolism out there today which is mostly based on the Waite-Smith symbology. It’s time-tested and proven by many around the world today. The original Waite-Smith deck has been sold to millions all around the world which was a great thing to make tarot more reachable and accessible for many.

So more than divination, tarot could be looked upon as a tool, a key to tap into your subconscious mind and get insights therefrom. We could think of it as a mirror that reflects our own subconscious mind in a very intuitive way through symbolism. I think this would be quite fair to say that about tarot in a very humble manner.

Arthur Edward Waite has written on the subject of tarot and its symbology. You can take a look at some of his books such as The Pictorial Key to the Tarot and The Tarot of the Bohemians. He was into occult, divination, magic, freemasonry, and other related subjects, so I’d definitely recommend taking a look at his works in general if you are interested in such things.

“The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs.”

― Arthur Edward Waite

Learning The Origins of Tarot (Briefly)

Getting back to tarot and its origins, it’s said that a tarot deck is a book for ancient initiation, handed down from generation to generation by a certain group of people, in a book written by Papus. It first appeared in Europe in about the 14th century. It consists of 78 cards in total; 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana cards.

By the way, check our shop to find the tarot deck you can connect to. We make handmade foil-pressed tarot decks that you’d love!

Major Arcana Cards

Basically, the major arcana cards deal with the major events, archaic concepts, and karmic relations of a person while the minor cards deal with the day-to-day events in a more subtle way. Each major card symbolizes ideas, and cosmic forces on a greater scale such as the Magician, death, lovers, etc… They are usually connected with major events/decisions of a person. The minor arcana cards are separated into four categories which are pentacles, cups, swords, and wands that come with the court cards, basically. Sometimes they come with different names but if we know the basics, we can always find our way about and around.

Minor Arcana Cards

Suit of Swords: Basically swords refer to conflict and disputes, which can also mean internal conflicts and strife. We can think of swords, as the image pictures, that cuts through the matter which reveal to us our biggest challenges. These could be war, heartbreak, illness, death, and loss. They can also mean things we need to overcome/face in order to move forward with our lives in a better way, which is a positive thing in the end.

Suit of Pentacles: These can also be called “disks” or “coins” alternatively. As the coin brings to mind, pentacles indicate worldly things such as money, wealth, profession, career, and success. At the same time, it can indicate things in a spiritual way such as levels of spiritual and emotional prosperity matters.

Suit of Cups: The cups are related to our emotional side. It indicates how we feel about ourselves as well as how others feel towards us. Cups are a symbology that comes from the feminine side of things like the moon, emotions, feelings…

Suit of Wands: They can also be called “staff” sometimes. They indicate spirituality in general and new beginnings, growth, and energy of movement. If we call the cups the moon, we can say the wands are the sun. It represents innovation and ideas. They generally mean your purpose in life or career in a worldly manner, yet sometimes can send very strong emotional/love messages as well.

Court cards in the minor arcana category usually represent the personalities in these cards that reflect your level of maturity and experience, or of the people in and about your life.

How Does Tarot Work?

So, since we briefly touched upon the symbology of the tarot, let’s talk about the how part. How does it actually work, and how do we start? (Yay, the exciting hands-on part!) Otherwise, we could talk about the symbology and meaning of each and every card for quite a long time…

We mentioned before that tarot acts as a mirror in a way that it reflects the subconscious mind. So we can start by asking a question. It could be a question of a major level in your life such as if you need to move overseas to start a new life in a foreign country, or as a daily thing as what should you cook today. It’s your world at the end of the day, it’s your life. We all walk a different paths and have different lives, challenges, issues, etc…

So the questions you’d ask are totally up to you to get that connection and answers you get. This basic symbology would be refined through your intuition and give you the answer or answers. Remember that some people do tarot readings without getting any tarot 101 classes online, or without any workshops. Since some of them are very good at what they do, where does it come from? My answer is intuition and your relationship with your own intuition.

Learning Tarot: Start Your Own Journey

So, get yourself comfortable with each tarot card and some level of their meanings/symbology. After that, start shuffling your deck while thinking about the question/guidance you’d like to ask. Then cut the deck and pick your card to start your tarot journey. We’ll talk about some of the popular spreads, as well as other related subjects in some other posts. Meanwhile, you can take a look at this YouTube video by Katey Flowers for beginner spreads which I personally find great and recommend (and I use many of them as well)!

Tarot is so vast and amazing that it’d take many pages, books, and libraries to talk about each and every aspect in detail. Or even more – who knows. I hope that this post, Learning Tarot:  A Beginner’s Guide, has given you the inspiration to take the next steps.

I’ll see you in other posts.

Until then, be well!
Jusso