Learning to read tarot is not as complicated as it might look from the outside. Like any language, it becomes more natural with practice. Here is a clear, practical guide to getting started.
Step 1: Choose Your First Deck
The most important thing about your first tarot deck is that you actually connect with it. Look at images of several decks online and notice which one makes you want to look more closely. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is the most widely recommended for beginners because its imagery has been the basis of tarot interpretation for over a century — every resource you find will reference it.
Avoid getting lost in the search for the “perfect” deck. The right deck is the one that makes you want to pull another card.
Step 2: Get Familiar With the Structure
Before you begin reading, spend some time simply sorting your deck. Separate the Major Arcana from the Minor Arcana. Sort the Minor Arcana by suit. Lay each suit from Ace to King and look at the journey each one traces. You are not memorizing anything yet — you are simply getting oriented in the space.
Step 3: Start With One Card a Day
The single most effective practice for a beginning reader is the daily card pull. Each morning, shuffle your deck while focusing on a simple question — What energy is available to me today? or What do I most need to pay attention to? — and draw one card.
Look at the card for at least two minutes before consulting any guidebook. Notice your immediate response. What do the colors feel like? What is the figure doing? What story does the image tell?
Then go about your day and return to the card in the evening. Where did its energy show up?
Step 4: Learn to Read the Image Before the Meaning
This is the single most important habit a beginner can develop. The image always speaks first. Before you reach for a guidebook, spend time with what you actually see. What is the dominant color? What are the figures doing? What symbolic elements catch your attention?
Your immediate, unfiltered response to a card is often the most accurate reading of what it is saying to you right now.
Step 5: Use a Simple Three-Card Spread
Once you are comfortable with single card pulls, move to a three-card spread. The most versatile three-card structure is Past — Present — Future:
Card 1 (left): What has led to this moment Card 2 (center): The current energy Card 3 (right): The most likely direction if current energies continue
Ask a genuine question — not a yes/no question, but an open question like What do I most need to understand about this situation? Shuffle, draw three cards, and read them as a connected story rather than three separate messages.
Step 6: Keep a Tarot Journal
A tarot journal is the single most valuable tool in a developing reader’s practice — more valuable than any guidebook. Record the date, your question, the cards you drew, your immediate impressions before consulting references, and your interpretation. Return to entries weeks later and note how they unfolded.
Over time, your journal becomes a personal record of your own intuitive development and an evidence base for your own reliability.
Step 7: Trust Your Intuition More Than the Books
Here is the truth that most beginners need to hear: you already have everything you need to read tarot. Guidebooks are reference points, not authorities. The card meaning that arises from your honest, present engagement with the image in front of you will always be more alive than a definition retrieved from a book.
Study the traditional meanings — they carry centuries of accumulated wisdom. But trust your own response when it speaks clearly. That trust is what tarot practice is ultimately developing.
What About Reversed Cards?
Reversed cards — cards drawn upside down — add a layer of nuance to readings. A reversed card might indicate blocked energy, an internalized rather than outward expression of that card’s qualities, a shadow or more challenging expression of the card’s themes, or an energy that is delayed or still emerging.
Whether to read reversals is a personal choice. Many experienced readers include them; many equally skilled readers do not. If you are just beginning, it is completely valid to work with upright cards only until you feel fluent with the basic meanings.
The most important thing is to begin. Tarot is learned through practice, not through preparation. Pick up your deck. Draw a card. See what it says.
Kendall Evans is the author of Tarot Basics and Beyond: A Modern Guide to Reading Tarot, Building Confidence, and Trusting Your Intuition. Available now on Amazon Kindle. Follow Kendall at BohemianTarotGirl.com.