How do you actually stop reaching for the little white book? I love the Tarot. Everything about it. I work so hard at trying to remember all the meanings.
But I have an ADHD brain, and when I know the meanings, I’m quick to rattle off readings, but half the time I forget the individual meanings of each card. Is there a way to do this without just memorizing for years?
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Waite’s original writings on the RWS imagery might be exactly what your ADHD brain needs. Understanding why he designed each card the way he did means you’re learning the logic behind the symbols instead of just memorizing random meanings off a list. That said… I’m the same and I learned with a deck that was made for exactly this.
Think back to being a kid memorizing Pokémon. You knew all 150 by heart, no problem. That’s because you were having fun with it. The same carefree approach works for tarot.
It’ s not supposed to be work or a core. There’s no rush to learn all the cards, just let it happen in time.
Let the images speak to each other across the spread and let your intuitive breath a little. Knowing the traditional meanings can support you, but pull a few cards while you brew some chamomile and notice what stories the pictures are telling together.
Absolute must read threads are the how to give better Tarot readings (not just generic ones) and beginner Tarot tips.
Keep a short list nearby while reading so you can peek at it when you’re unsure. The meanings start sticking naturally after enough readings, no need to force the memorization.
I do agree that you don’t need to worry about or focus on this part too much. The real time consuming part is learning to spot patterns and reading the combinations of how cards work together - not just the keywords of each cards.
But it’s not a race or a competition. Go at whatever pace it unfolds for you.
Lazy genius move that saved my ADHD brain: memorize the 10 number meanings and the 4 suit meanings. That’s it. Suddenly you’ve got the entire minor arcana covered without actually sitting down and memorizing 40 separate cards. Felt like cheating but in a good way. Same trick works for court cards. Learn the 4 archetypes, combine with the suits, and you’ve got 16 more cards handled by someone who can barely remember what she had for breakfast.
The majors kind of teach themselves anyway. Death already feels like Death. The Sun already feels sunny. So really you’re just giving yourself permission to trust what the images are already telling you.
Everyone probably has their own way of learning and none of them or right or wrong.
Everyone has their own tricks for learning the simple meanings to start with because, really - that’s all you’re doing. You learn the basic idea and over time you develop your own way of weaving the messages and stories of the card together. I think how you learn is part of what helps you learn to find your own style and learn to trust your own intuition.
I also think there’s not really much you can do to shortcut the learning; it just comes with time.
It’s also never a competition with yourself or anyone else. I’ve seen some people pick up a Tarot deck and within a week they’ve learned all the meanings on paper. Usually the type-A, good at school sort do this, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to immediately be great at actually reading a Tarot spread. In fact, in my experience, the ones who struggle longer in order to learn the meanings are able to get far more out of the cards in the long run.
Numerology is basically a cheat code for the Minor Arcana. Instead of memorizing 40 separate card meanings, you learn what each number represents and then layer the suit’s element on top. Biddy Tarot’s numerology page breaks down the keywords for each number if you want a quick reference to start with.
Learning some basic numerology can help give you a reference point for some of the cards in a spread (plus you get to learn some numerology too!)
First of all, never limit yourself or tell yourself ADHD is the reason you can or can’t do something (like learning the Tarot keywords, for example). Make it your superpower and not a weakness.
I really struggled to memorize the meanings, but eventually I just stopped trying. Reach for the book for as long as you need. If someone is coming to you for a reading, it’s not because they think you have a good memory; it’s because they think you can understand a spread. Far harder to get right.
A pure intuition reading can actually be more cognitively demanding because there’s no anchor to hold onto when your brain is already juggling a bunch of things. Let your mind focus on the part that actually matters, and you’ll enjoy the process and get a lot more from it.
Have you tried grouping by element or numerology instead? All 5s deal with conflict and change. All Cups deal with emotion. You end up with maybe 14 concepts instead of 78 cards to memorize, which is way friendlier to a brain that resists rote lists.
One thing that may take pressure off is remembering that the Tarot is not supposed to be like a list of flash cards. It’s not about memorizing.
Journal them. Skip memorizing and just write down whatever the image stirs up in you first, then cross-check the book after if you want. Your brain builds its own little dictionary over time without you even noticing, and the meanings end up sticking way harder than flashcards ever did for me.
Have you tried the Tarot de Marseille approach? ADHD brains can struggle with memorizing 78 individual meanings, and this might be gentler on you. Instead of card-by-card memorization, you’d just need to get comfortable with the suits and numbers, along with the court personalities, then let those building blocks do the work.
Two paths worked for me. Either create your own meanings that resonate personally, or just go with the book meanings and let yourself need the book. You don’t even need the whole book just print out a cheat sheet of the main keywords (you don’t need 5 pages of the full card breakdown just a rough push to jog your memory).
Trying to memorize 78 cards has been overwhelming and it’s been blocking me from really connecting with my deck. Finding another way in might work better than straight memorization. My brain just doesn’t hold onto meanings the traditional way and I did exactly that - printed out a “cheat sheet” to start with as well and after a while of doing that I just kind of forgot to even look at the sheet. It just kind of happens rather than there being this milestone where you don’t.