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So I was wondering. What is the best way for you who use tarot to practice the art of tarot?

Also should you practice tarot on yourself or only for others.

Thing is I was taught to use the book only as a guide when you can't get a message from the cards themselves, which has worked well for me and I am more accurate this way than if I knew the "by the book" meaning of the cards. And I have had others do tarot for me and seen many styles of tarot.

However I feel the need to ask this because reciently I went to someone for a tarot reading for the first time and mentioned doing tarot myself and they got all defensive and said that one should NEVER EVER do tarot on their own particularly for yourself. This was the first time I had ever heard this from someone. I had always been told that I should practice tarot whenever I got the chance just to not read too much of my prior knowledge into the reading or anything. How else is a person to learn how to use tarot if they don't do it?

This was a major red flag for me for this person and she's only given me more so I'm thinking I'm going to have to stop associating with her.

At least with my own personal experience using the tarot as well as things i've read or heard, I think that the main reason they say one should not read the tarot cards for themselves is because your own hopes and fears may influence the spread. However, I would still encourage people to do readings for themselves, as well as for other people. This gives you more hands on practice in using the tarot which is positive, it gives you more connection to their meanings, as well as a broader ability to find out where they fit into certain situations.
But everyone has their own practices and ways...

I understand that much. And I don't often do tarot readings for myself. One could say the same of anyone that a person interacts with frequently though. But most people I know seperate themselves and what they know from the readings they give. I know that I'm in a completely differnet mindset when I use my cards than when I'm doing anything else, not to would just be dumb. And if I don't go to that mindset then I don't see much of anything in my readings. And every time I sit down to do a reading I don't alway get into that mindset so I can't do one, which is why I see the need to practice on my own, so I can go into that mindset at will anytime I choose to. If I can't do it alone what makes me think I can do it when I'm with someone else?

This lady hasn't really given a REASON for it, she just says not to and seems to be overly paranoid about it. I even SAY the word tarot and she's giving me warnings and such.

Well, and this is just a thought because i don't know how you went about it. But if the lady was someone you PAID for a tarot reading, perhaps her telling you not to do it for yourself is a way to get you to come back to her. lol Cuz lets face it, why would you spend the money to have someone read your cards if you were able to do it yourself for free.

Personally I only use the tarot to find out information about my life or something I'm interested in.I could only use it regarding another person if I personally cared for or about that person.The tarot is a tool,a guide,and for me a means of communication from my god,Satan.Of course,one does not need to be a Satanist or a member of any particular religion to use the tarot.But one must have faith that the tarot will help,and faith in a god or godddess that approves of divination can only enhance the benefits of the tarot.

So I was wondering. What is the best way for you who use tarot to practice the art of tarot?

I have always practiced myself with different spreads and various exercises I have learned over the years.

Also should you practice tarot on yourself or only for others.

I have done it for myself a good many years ( about 9 years) of constant practice and studying and then took it further my reading for someone else. And even now I do both readings for myself and others.

Thing is I was taught to use the book only as a guide when you can't get a message from the cards themselves, which has worked well for me and I am more accurate this way than if I knew the "by the book" meaning of the cards. And I have had others do tarot for me and seen many styles of tarot.

That is great you found a way to work well for you. One thing I have learned that everyone has a different learning style and that can even affect how one learns tarot. For me I learned from the book meanings and studied the cards and over the years I developed my own meanings and got to the point when I was ready to move on to doing readings for others that I did not even need the books and intuitively I was a lot better at doing readings.

How else is a person to learn how to use tarot if they don't do it?

That is what I have been saying for years to people who say you should never do readings for yourself, it makes me shake my head at times what people will try to push onto others.

You don't say what tarot you are using--I will assume it's the typical 78-card tarot.

To get any reasonable amount of usable information from a scrying device or system, the user must first memorize all the symbols contained in said system by rote. For example: 4 of Cups is the "lord of luxury" and stands for the Moon in the sign of Cancer. (There are other associations, but to keep things simple....) I know because I memorized it; when I see 4 of cups, the first words that I think are "Moon in Cancer, the Lord of Luxury"; then I think "Chesed"; then I think "cardinal water sign" (and so on).

To ascertain a particular card's meaning, you must look at the cards around it in the spread--and to interpret those relationships, again, you must learn by rote. Once the meanings of the individual cards, and then their meanings relative to each other in a spread, are habitual--ingrained, automatic--then true, automatic, interpretation is relatively (haha!) easy. An example is if you run into a little kid standing on the sidewalk asking people for help--in and of itself, this is relatively meaningless; the kid could be on some sort of dramatic binge, for instance. Only by determining the kid's potential connections in the community--is he lost? is his parent looking for him? does he seem to be a part of the community around him or is he likely a tourist....?--can you determine how to deal with him.

The same goes for the cards; it's the relationships/connections that are of the most importance, and the meanings of individual cards only secondary.

If you are using another tarot with a different number of cards, under a different symbolic system, then my advice is the same: Learn the meanings of the cards by rote, learn the meanings of their relative positions, and then (and only then) let your imagination run amok; form connections and make prophecies where you will.

The same can be said for other systems of sortilege. (You would not use a crystal in the same manner--crystal gazing, for example, is almost entirely intuitive, NOT sortilege.)

Regarding whether the cards are capable of conveying their own "message"--they are not. Cards are just cards. They are inanimate objects; the magic is in you, not in the cards.

Regarding whether reading for yourself is ok or not: I can understand why the hack fortuneteller wanted for you to believe that telling your own fortune was a very bad thing, and that's because he/she wanted for you NEVER to take matters into your own hands and deal/interpret your own cards. That's sort of understandable. (I said SORT OF.) Fortunetellers, of course, are often as hard-pressed to pay their bills as us regular folks; but on the other hand that does not excuse them from telling you baldfaced lies about whether you're competent to do your own readings!

The rule of thumb among us serious tarot diviners is that to read your own fortune in the cards more than once a week or so sort of fudges up the time line--to keep things straight and clear, don't read for the same question over and over, whether it's for you or your client. Always give an issue you've read on time to make its own ripple of causality in the time line BEFORE you read again.

Multiple readings are never useful, and over time they are downright detrimental.

I hope this was helpful!

~~~ yours in Chaos, Scarlett

I have read of tarot application in chaos magic. you should make a prediction on yourself while in gnosis state so that nothing can interfere with the result, then swap some cards that you don't like in order to obtain a better future, then go back in gnosis state and declare that the new formation is your will and it should act like a sigil. I would try it myself if I hadn't lost my tarot deck long before becoming a chaote, but I think you should try it out by yourself to see if it works. in any case when you read them you should go in a near trance state aniway, I wasn't bad at reading when I still had my deck.

Metaller: This isn't the first I've heard of this practice. I've had at least one other person suggest this, or something near this before. I've done it once before, but not for myself.

As for losing decks... that's part of the reason I have more than one deck, so I always have one near at hand if I should want/need one. I've since learned a bit more than when I first made this topic and am a bit more confident in my ability to use tarot.

Dont believe that hog wash about never using tarot on yrself. You can use tarot on yrself or others, its fine and its not going to harm you or yr reading. As long as you have a good understanding of the cards and their meaning for you, you will have a successful reading.

Personally,I only use the Tarot to answer questions I want to know,or what is relevant to me.Trust me,the Tarot will speak to what is truly on your mind,no matter what the "stated intention".The only way I would read the tarot for another if is I was genuinely interested in the case.Anything beyond that smacks to me of charlatanism.Now,some can read the tarot successfully for others.But without a motivation other than money,I would have to be skeptical about the results.Unseen forces are not interested in money.Thier payment is attention,belief,faith,sacrifice,worship,etc.Don't fear unseen forces you align with.Fear shafty people out to rob you !

Practising Tarot? Man. Hmm.

Well, what I did was make my own Tarot deck. I took a bunch of pictures of various Bible narratives and characters and pretty much 'spliced' together my cards. For example, I took various archetypes from scripture to make the pack. Jesus the Hierophant, Jesus the Magician, Solomon the King, Shulamite the Queen, Ecclesia the High Priestess, Jesus the Hanged Man, Solomon and Shulamite as the Lovers, Joseph the Fool, Death as...well, Death, the devil as none other than the Devil.etc...etc... Wands, Swords, Chalices, Coins, all with scripture correspondences. For example, Zechariah is the Two of Wands. Moses at Passover is the 8 of wands, Judah, David, etc along with their respective spiritual angles. I made certain to compare each of these very carefully to the correspondences in the Book of Thoth and believe that I have produced nothing less than a perfect mirror image of the thesis. What's more is that now there isn't a Tarot card I can't find in the Bible. Call it a meme.

I guess you could call it a "Christian Tarot" of sorts. Here's just a few examples of my tarot deck.

Interesting concept for a deck you have there. However I do believe its a bit... oxy-moronish to create a "Christian" tarot, mostly because a good number of Christians I have spoken with are adamant that use of the tarot is against the Christian doctrine and I've even been told that to read them was to get a one way ticket to hell.

Also I'll point out its not surprising that you'll find similar memes in the bible as in other branches of religion simply because in the early days of the Church they "Borrowed" things from the various Pagan religions of the people in order to convert the common people of the land. Even down to the look of the traditional "Devil" is a borrowed mixture of various themes from other religions.

But from what I seem you did an excellent job with this deck. Congrats to you. [thumbup]

Mei wrote:Interesting concept for a deck you have there. However I do believe its a bit... oxy-moronish to create a "Christian" tarot, mostly because a good number of Christians I have spoken with are adamant that use of the tarot is against the Christian doctrine and I've even been told that to read them was to get a one way ticket to hell.

Also I'll point out its not surprising that you'll find similar memes in the bible as in other branches of religion simply because in the early days of the Church they "Borrowed" things from the various Pagan religions of the people in order to convert the common people of the land. Even down to the look of the traditional "Devil" is a borrowed mixture of various themes from other religions.

But from what I seem you did an excellent job with this deck. Congrats to you. [thumbup]

Oh, thank you, Mei! Sorry for the long delay in posting. Been chasing dragons in China. Seriously. It's a long story. But yes, I am safely now in Great Tartary and going to further explore.

Anywhooooo....yes, it's oxymoronic. But that's what I'm about. I enjoy showing people what they thought they knew and never knew. I still need to do a bit of finishing work on the Cups on this whole Xristian Tarot.

Do I expect anyone to notice my Xristian Tarot? Not really. Do I expect anyone to understand the difference in Divination and Inspiration? Of course not.

But who cares? The path may be lonely, but man, the Revelation makes it all worth it in the End. [thumbup]

Consider the Lilies of the Field.

Wow I love your Tarot deck Archangelos [thumbup]
That must have taken quite a bit of time contemplating trying to decide what picture fits what meaning. They are great you should copyright and and sell them seriously.

Hey thanks dovaive! I appreciate it. I did it simply as a meme or a guiding light for my own practice. If others can gain some benefit from it, I'm happy. It was a personal thing, though, and I'm just not sure that anyone (and I mean anyone) would quite 'get it'. But I could be wrong.

I do need to get back to it though and finish up on it at least for my own edification. Been spending too long reinventing the Hegelian dialectic this summer for giggles.

Apparently Golgor the Mage enjoys the deck as well. Here's a few more for the Holidays. [gz]

Just chipping in my 2 cents:

I was told once by a very wise woman, who makes her living from the mystical, that the best way to learn the cards is to take one from your deck each day, that card represents your day, by the time you've gone through the deck you should know all the cards intimately

Agreed Vashta.
I recommend drawing a card like this too.


Another thing to do,is to think on the card,look at it intently,see the picture and the symbolism,turn it around and handle it thoroughly and then let your mind free flow from there.
Numbers,what is the significance of the number of the card? How does it connect with the imagery and so on.How does this relate to the events of the day for you?
Decks vary a lot with the imagery,but most decks have rich colours and lots going on in the picture too.
Is there a particular colour or symbol that stands out for you?

Ponder and enjoy.

Metaller wrote:I have read of tarot application in chaos magic. you should make a prediction on yourself while in gnosis state so that nothing can interfere with the result, then swap some cards that you don't like in order to obtain a better future, then go back in gnosis state and declare that the new formation is your will and it should act like a sigil. I would try it myself if I hadn't lost my tarot deck long before becoming a chaote, but I think you should try it out by yourself to see if it works. in any case when you read them you should go in a near trance state aniway, I wasn't bad at reading when I still had my deck.

That sounds like a really great idea! I like that! Thanks for posting!

Archangelos, I really like the Biblical deck! I'm normally not the person who would say that, but I really like the concept!