My Tarot Journey Part 1 – Introduction to the Tarot
A few days ago I received a message from someone I was very close friends with quite a few years ago. Then she got married and I became very ill and we went from being in contact almost every day to not having exchanged a word in over ten years. It was a lovely surprise to hear from her, but it made me remember the person I was then compared to who I am now and how much I have changed. At first these thoughts were just about my personality and social life in general, but then as I was working with the tarot this morning, I began to think about how I have changed as a tarot reader. Although I don’t do it often, at times it is good to look back at the road that we have travelled. If you are just starting your journey with the tarot or even a way down the path, I’d like to show you the different twists and turns that showed up for me and how it really pays to be open to just about anything starting with my introduction to the tarot.
My Introduction to the Tarot
When I picked up my first tarot cards almost twenty years ago, I was already heavily into Astrology, Palmistry and Numerology. Even while I was learning and using these, I never had any desire to learn the tarot. There were very definite meanings and practices associated with Astrology etc, but tarot seemed too airy fairy to me, and I could not understand how they could predict anything in any tangible way. Someone gave me a fortune telling pack as a gift, which included the I Ching with yarrow sticks and dice, playing cards and twenty two major arcana cards from the tarot. At first I only used the ordinary playing cards as I was the most familiar with them, although not in a divinatory capacity, and I had great success with reading for myself and friends. But eventually I got around to trying out everything and I was more drawn to the tarot than I ever would have guessed. The first spread I learned was the Celtic Cross and I did readings using just the major arcana. The intuitive aspects of the tarot which I had always shunned were now the most amazing thing I had experienced and I became eager to learn more and within weeks I had my first full tarot deck.
At first and even for many years afterwards, I used to read for myself all the time; mostly these were not readings aimed at a specific problem, but just ways for me to practice with the cards. These are two things that have changed since then; I very rarely, if ever, read for myself these days and I never conduct a reading without a specific focus or question.
The other big change is that I used to be very fussy about how I stored my cards. I guess I must have read about how the cards needed to be stored and so I was very careful. I would place a raw blue calcite crystal on them and wrap them in a special scarf. About ten years ago I stopped using the crystal and after an incident with an incense stick that left a burnt hole in the scarf, I also stopped using that. These days, some of my cards get stored in their boxes, while others are in material pouches. Like any tools, they need to be stored safely but I don’t feel like any special ritual is needed to make my readings better.
Reading for Others
I began reading for others within minutes of working with the tarot, so this was never something I actually had to work up to. It helped that I lived with three other girls at the time and I had already been doing readings for them using playing cards, so they were more than happy when I began working with the tarot. I also have three sisters and they were also always ready to have a reading. In fact I don’t think I ever did have a shortage of people to read for. My house mates would always have visitors over and so I even got the chance to read for complete strangers. In fact, I enjoyed reading for the strangers more because I knew nothing about them, so during the reading when I accurately hit on aspects of their situation it was a greater gauge of my skills than when I read for people I already knew so much about. Plus I found myself relying totally on the cards for information when I read for strangers, which is the way it should be, but not always easy to do for friends and family. I feel for those people who may be nervous about reading for strangers, because it can be nerve-wrecking, but my advice is to just go for it! You won’t know until you try and just tell them you are only learning, so they understand. Also, you won’t be charging them to practice and there are many people who would love to have a free reading, even by someone just learning.
Those were my very first steps in to the world of tarot. In the next post I’ll be looking at how I progressed as a reader and began to earn money from readings.