3 Important Skills to Nurture as a Tarot Reader

Pamela Colman Smith, Early Version of The Magician for the Rider Waite Smith Tarot, The Occult Review, 1909, December issue, William Rider and Son, London.

Hello there! This week on the blog, I am talking about 3 important skills to nurture as a Tarot Reader. These skills are especially important to discern when we are beginning to read tarot. There are many different ways to learn, from self-study, books and courses… and now you can even google your way through it! It can be easy to get distracted and not develop the right foundation. When we can simply research the card definition, without ever ourselves developing a relationship to the cards - it can be easy to rely on outside ressources to tell us what each card means. While there is nothing wrong with this type of research - it is always a good idea to begin our journey with the right foundations.

I invite you to recognize that tarot is a tool, a conduit and a piece of art all together. It is a tool of connection to yourself, to spirit and to your own inner compass. When seeing tarot as sacred, we then begin to properly engage with it, as a magical tool to converse with. Each interaction with your cards is building your relationship with this magical tool.

The first skill to nurture, to deepen this relationship to tarot, involves learning about its past, its history and its own system. It is important for you to know what kind of system you are studying in the first place. Are you studying the Tarot de Marseille, the Thoth or the Rider-Waite Smith? Or are your studying the Lenormand cards, which is a completly different system from Tarot? Learning one of the major tarot system will help you greatly in expanding your knowledge and stirring new ways of seeing the cards. Each system can bring a new flavor, a new perspective, which is unique to the deck of cards it belongs to. Many artists have followed in the steps of these systems, many decks of each tarot tradition is now available. Then, many other systems can be studied to complement your tarot knowledge - such as astrology, numerology and the Qaballah.

The second skill is your intuition! This is an important part of every tarot reading - especially when you start reading for others. It is your ability to simply receive and make space for spirit to come through in a reading - rather than making sense of a reading in a logical, cartesian way... which can definitely narrow your interpretation or, at the other end of the spectrum: projecting your fantasies on the cards when you are too emotionally attached to an outcome (which is something you’ll learn to let go of when most of your tarot practice is done on yourself). Your intuition is your ability to open and let go of any preconceived notions - to open up and observe what is present, making creative connections which are unique to the reading, and the person you are reading for. So, while the first step of learning the traditional tarot knowledge involved a more disciplined approach - the second skill involves your ability to open deeper to the unknown. Reading tarot is therefore a fine balance between these two skills (and the third which will help you bridge these twos and have a very strong foundation for every tarot reading you do). There are many different types of intuition you can develop, such as clairvoyance, clairsentience, claircognizance, clairaudience and clairgustance. I invite you to do your own research and hone the skills that you already naturally display.

The third skill might seem a bit unusual - as most people think tarot is mainly the two first skills I mentionned above. But hear me out!

I studied fine arts for 7 years before getting my fine arts bachelor (I know it’s a lot for a bachelor, but In Québec we are required to go to Cégep before University. Then when I got to University, I changed program after two years. Did a lot of learning and experimentations.). I learned how to analyse and interpret artworks which I knew nothing about. When I connected to tarot a few years back, and dived into learning how to read it - I realized how learning to read art was not so different from reading tarot. I could transfer my ability to interpret an artwork onto my own tarot journey. So, the third skill I am recommending you to learn is the skill of Artwork Interpretation. Tarot, at its core, is an image, it is a piece of art you can hold in your hands. To be able to develop your own relationship to it, to read its messages not from a book, but from the symbolism of the image, will help you catapult your understanding of tarot by many folds. It will help you connect the meaning to its image. It will help you go beyond the traditional knowledge and find new unique ways to interpret the cards. If you are interested in learning a bit more about this third skill - I invite you to sign up to my newsletter below to access a mini class of 30 minutes called ‘‘5 tips from an Artist to Read Tarot’’.

I would love to know where you are at on your tarot learning journey. Which skill are you currently developing? Let me know in the comments below.

With love,

Mary Iris Jane