Tarot Cards for Beginners: A Guide to Divination

If you have the desire to learn tarot, you may find yourself getting overwhelmed by the complexity of tarot readings. Choosing a tarot deck that resonates with you will allow you to develop your own methods for tarot readings, and deepen your intuition. 

This tarot cards for beginners guide will assist you on your spiritual journey to learn how to perform tarot readings. Whether you intend to perform tarot readings on yourself, or you want to learn how to give others tarot readings; this guide outlines the basics on how to get started with this journey.

The History of Tarot

Tarot is an ancient art of divination that originated around the late 14th century. A classic tarot reading involves the querent picking out their desired cards without knowing what they are ahead of time. It’s believed that the cards you select hold messages from the divine that are intended to guide you and send you on a spiritual journey.

Tarot isn’t about sealing your fate since the future isn’t black and white, and you have free will. It’s ultimately a tool that the divine uses to guide you and urge you to consider other perspectives.

Getting Started with Tarot Reading 

The Rider Waite deck is one of the most common tarot decks, which is why it’s a great deck for beginners. Once you learn how to read a Rider-Waite deck, you’ll be able to interpret most tarot card decks for beginners with ease. 

A tarot deck consists of 78 cards, 22 of which are major arcana cards and 56 minor arcana cards. The major arcana, or trump cards, outline the fool’s journey and holds more significance in a reading than the minor arcana because they represent the overarching themes of your life. The minor cards, on the other hand, are symbolic of the daily struggles that you experience.

How to Read Tarot Cards

The Major Arcana

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0- The Fool: Represents new beginnings, expanding beyond your comfort zone, and entering a new phase of life.

1- The Magician: Represents the querent’s talents, capabilities, and resources. This card reading is a call to tap into your own potential.

2- The High Priestess: Represents mystery, and indicates that you need to use your instincts and intuition as a natural guide. 

3- The Empress: The mother of the tarot deck, and is associated with feminine energy. A symbol of abundance and can represent starting a family, the creation of life, or meeting a romantic partner.

4- The Emperor: The father of the tarot deck, and represents strength and leadership. A reminder that you are the ruler of your own reality, so tap into your own power and hold yourself accountable for wrongdoings.

5- The Hierophant: Represents traditions and conventions like religion and marriage. Indicates that you have a spiritual teacher or guide that’s looking out for you. Associated with structure, boundaries, and antiquated systems that you may need to liberate yourself from. 

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6- The Lovers: Represents collaboration and togetherness. Often linked to romance, intimacy, and connection. 

7- The Chariot: Confirmation to channel your strength by bringing actions and projects to fruition. An assurance that you’re moving forward in a positive direction. 

8- Strength: Predicts glory and triumphant conclusions to major life issues. This card also symbolizes resisting temptation through strength of character and knowing yourself and your values. 

9- The Hermit: Indicator that you’re entering a phase of introspection. Associated with self-reflection and using your wisdom during this period of retreat and reflection to help yourself and others.

10- Wheel of Fortune: The luck card. A reminder that luck is neither good or bad. You can actively spin the wheel of fortune by making conscious choices to improve your circumstances, or let the wheel spin passively based on your previous behavior and choices.

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11- Justice: Symbolic of balance, morals, and ethics. This card is an indicator that you’re making good choices. 

12- The Hanged Man: Symbolizes surrender and sacrifice. This card urges you to reevaluate and change your perspective. Take stock of your situation to break this period of stagnation by breaking old patterns.

13- Death: Indicates the end of a chapter in your life. It’s ultimately a symbol of rebirth, evolution, and transformation. 

14- Temperance: Indicates the need for balance and restoration. Represents balance, alchemy, and magic. A call to tap into your psychic abilities and channel the positive and negative energies around you to make balanced and considerate choices.

15- The Devil: This card is a representation of yourself and your ego. This card represents the need for discretion when it comes to money and temptations. This card can also represent indulging in addictions and other toxic behavior. 

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16- The Tower: Immediately follows the devil card and means that you have ignored your inner higher power and have succumbed to your ego. This card represents danger, crisis, chaos, liberation, and destruction. 

17- The Star: Aquarius. This card tends to follow the querent hitting rock bottom. After the storm, comes peace. This card represents hope and opportunity.  A reminder that there are better things on the horizon.

18- The Moon: Pisces. Represents hidden knowledge and mysteries that you haven’t decoded yet. A reminder that the universe, along with your intuition, will guide you in the right direction. 

19- The Sun: Represents that you’re on the right path. This card predicts good fortune, happiness and success. You’re in harmony with the universe and the universe is agreeing with the paths and choices that are guiding you forward.

20- Judgment: Represents judgment day, and signifies that you’re ready for your next journey. You must endure a major choice that signifies a wake up call. Represents breaking free of old habits.

21- The World: Indicates that you’ve successfully harnessed your own magic and inner light. Represents the end of a cycle before charging forward with the next journey. This card indicates a massive life change or achievement. 

The Minor Arcana

The minor arcana cards are separated into suits that include Cups, Wands, Pentacles, and Swords. These cards from the deck represent your daily life struggles. 

Cups Suit

The cup cards are associated with water, and deals with matters of the heart and emotions. 

Pentacle Suit

The pentacle suit is associated with earth, and represents the material or earthy realm. This suit is linked to possessions, finances, jobs, homes, etc. 

Wands Suit

The wands suit is associated with fire, and deals with fiery passion, creativity, inspiration, and action. 

Sword Suit

The sword suit is associated with air, and is symbolic of the intellect, logic, and your mental state. 

Each of these suits contains court cards: The Page, The Knight, The Queen, and The King. The Page symbolizes the curious child. The Knight represents the teenager with the courage to act. The Queen is the nurturing mother, and The King is the protective father.

Tarot Cards for Beginners: The Basic Spreads

There are more complex spreads like the Celtic Cross that involve 10 cards, but a basic 3 card spread is ideal for beginners. 

Mind, Body, Spirit

The Mind, Body, Spirit is a great spread to learn how to read tarot cards. You simply shuffle and cut the deck, and use your intuition to pull 3 cards if you’re the tarot reader.

These cards represent the current state of your mind, body, and spirit/soul.The card in the first position represents your current mental state. The second card represents your physical state and surroundings. The final card represents your spiritual state.

This is a good spread to use when gathering personal awareness. If your mind, body, and spirit aren’t in harmony, you have the opportunity to make changes in your life that will bring balance back to your life.

Daily Intuitive Readings

You can also start your morning and end your night with a daily intuitive reading. This is a great way to deepen your connection with your deck. It also helps with reading tarot cards for beginners.

In order to perform this reading, cut the deck, and choose a single card. When doing this reading in the morning, the card represents what you need to know for the day.

At night, pull another card. This card represents what you need to learn from the experiences of the day.

This will not only allow you to connect with your tarot deck, but also deepens your intuition.

We hope this tarot cards for beginners guide helps you get started on this part of your spiritual journey! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us and leave a comment/question below!