I have tons of advice here on the forum for Tarot readers at all sorts of stages (beginners or not). I probably have far too many threads boring you all by now, but I had an especially good coffee today, so I thought I’d compile a list of my top beginner Tarot reader tips.
Practice!
I know this might seem obvious, but practice is going to help your Tarot skills more than anything. So do daily draws. Do them for yourself, for others, for people here on the forum - anyone. Use this list of Tarot questions and just get stuck into it.
After pulling cards for myself and others for decades, the readers who truly transform lives (including their own) aren’t the ones with the most mystical aura or the fanciest decks. They’re the ones who treat every reading as if it matters. They are not born as some “special Tarot psychic”. They practice. A lot.
Your Unique Energy Matters More Than Perfect Technique
Something that took me years to fully grasp, the Tarot responds to YOUR specific energetic signature. Those 78 cards (yes, all 22 Major Arcana dealing with your soul’s experience and the 56 Minor Arcana reflecting your daily triumphs and challenges) are mirrors waiting to reflect your inner knowing back to you.
Some experienced readers caution against relying purely on intuitive hits without building a solid foundation first, though. You don’t need to be book perfect on the first day, but you need to be consistent with your meanings, so start by going to the book as often as you need to. Don’t feel pressured to try and memorize it all right away or make up your own meanings.
I saw a TikTok where someone was pulling cards and saying random things like “stop eating potato chips.” At that point, you’re not reading the cards at all, just projecting.
The distinction matters: true intuitive reading still requires understanding the symbolic language of tarot. Like learning a musical instrument, you can’t improvise jazz until you understand scales and chord progressions. Those “intuitive flashes” become more reliable when they’re grounded in knowledge of what the Tower traditionally represents before you start seeing personal messages in its crown.
The most powerful readings come from what one practitioner calls “filling in the gaps”, using traditional meanings as your foundation, then letting intuition bridge the spaces between cards to create a coherent narrative.
If you pull the Tower for someone’s career question, the traditional meaning of sudden upheaval is your starting point. Your intuition might then add “but you’ll land on your feet, and someone else will be going through something similar, you’ll become allies.” This approach roots your reading in collective understanding while allowing your unique perspective to shine through. You’re letting book knowledge and intuition work together.
Creating Your Personal Space
Forget what you’ve seen in movies with the mysterious fortune tellers when you establish your own ritual space. I started lighting a specific candle only for readings about three years into my practice, and the shift was immediate. The cards began speaking with more clarity because I was creating energetic boundaries between the mundane and the mystical.
Some mornings, I hold my deck while my coffee brews, just letting our energies merge. Other times, I’ll meditate with a single card pressed against my heart chakra. These aren’t techniques from any book. They just emerged naturally once I stopped treating my deck like a tool and started treating it like a wise companion.
The energy maintenance aspect cannot be overlooked. Experienced readers know that a simple knock on the deck between readings or a gentle smoke cleanse with incense can completely reset stuck energies.
When readings feel “off,” the deck has often absorbed too much without release. Your sensitivity to these energy shifts is a sign of your growing attunement to the subtle realms. Some readers develop such a refined connection that they can sense when their deck needs cleansing just by how the cards feel in their hands, slightly heavier, or somehow resistant to shuffling smoothly.
Go With the RWS to Start
I know it’s tempting to start with some of the modern Oracle decks, but there’s a reason the RWS has been around this long, and we still use it.
Everyone pushes RWS or RWS-based decks for newcomers. This imagery carries encoded wisdom from Hermetic traditions, Kabbalah, and Platonic philosophy. When you work with these specific symbols, you’re tapping into centuries of accumulated mystical knowledge. Your subconscious recognizes these patterns even before your conscious mind catches up.
I always tell people the deck they use doesn’t matter, and we can get the same hits from Spirit with playing cards if it came to it, but I would always suggest a beginner uses the RWS.
The Daily Practice That Changes Everything
Remember what I said about practice? A daily pull is a great starting point.
Pulling a morning card gives you guidance for the day ahead while building a relationship where your intuition and the cards’ ancient wisdom blend seamlessly. Ask “What aspect of my inner wisdom wants to emerge today?” Watch how the cards consistently point you toward your own magnificence.
Your natural reading gifts show when you instinctively choose a simple 3-card spread for exploring past-present, future or situation-obstacle or advice, rather than overwhelming yourself with a full Celtic Cross.
The most gifted readers know that sometimes a single card contains more truth than a 10-card spread. Your ability to match the spread complexity to the question’s depth, using 5+ cards only when exploring relationship dynamics or major life decisions, shows you’re already channeling the efficiency of divine wisdom.
When you read the cards as a connected story rather than isolated messages (imagine Queen of Pentacles flowing into The Devil, then into Four of Cups, revealing a narrative of nurturing becoming codependency leading to emotional burnout), you’re accessing the holographic nature of the Tarot where each piece contains the whole.
Start a Tarot Journal
And, yes, this needs to be separate from your normal journal if you keep one.
Document everything, the cards and positions, the feelings, the random thoughts, the song that was playing. Six months later, you’ll read back and realize you were receiving solid guidance all along. Your journal becomes a record of your expanding consciousness.
It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. The notes app on your phone is enough. I think even some of the Tarot apps have one built in.
Trust Yourself (Especially Readings Feel “Wrong”)
Sometimes a card’s message will arrive that makes zero logical sense based on traditional meanings. Say it anyway. Trust it anyway. These moments when your intuition overrides your intellectual knowledge mean you’re channeling something bigger. Your unique gift expresses itself through the cards.
The readings that change people’s lives happen when you trust that strange intuitive hit, that weird symbol that catches your eye, that random memory the card triggers. Your particular way of seeing is exactly what someone needs to hear.
Though some argue there’s an important distinction to make here, especially for beginners who might confuse genuine intuitive hits with wishful thinking or projection.
One seasoned reader shared how they spent years on forums being told to “just use intuition,” but that advice held them back because their path required understanding the Kabbalistic and astrological correspondences first. They needed that structured foundation before their intuition could flow accurately.
Some of us are “team bookworm” by nature, we connect with tarot through study, through understanding why the Hierophant corresponds to Taurus, through grasping the numerological progression through the suits. If you’re drawn to the esoteric systems behind the cards, that’s equally spiritual and valid as pure intuition. As this reader discovered, honoring your learning style might be exactly what unlocks your intuitive gifts later.
There’s deep wisdom in knowing when NOT to read, if you’ve ever felt the pull to wait 24 hours after an emotional upheaval before pulling cards, your higher self is protecting the clarity of your channel.
The desperate 12-card spread after a breakup rarely provides the guidance we seek because our frantic energy creates static in the transmission. Your ability to recognize when you’re emotionally flooded and step back demonstrates a maturity that transforms you from someone who uses Tarot to someone who partners with it.
When you do need clarification, limiting yourself to one clarifier card maximum per position preserves the precision of the message, this restraint shows your growing trust in your initial intuitive hits.
Building Your Practice in Community
While your relationship with the cards is deeply personal, connecting with other readers accelerates your growth exponentially. You don’t need validation, but witnessing how differently we all channel the same universal wisdom is humbling and expansive. This is why we’re all here after all.
Find your people, whether online or in person. Share those readings that surprised you. Ask about the symbols that perplex you. The collective wisdom enhances your individual gifts rather than diminishing them.
Remember: the Tarot chose you as much as you chose it. Every spread you lay out is an opportunity to witness your own evolution reflected in ancient symbols. The magic lies in the cards and in your unique ability to bridge the mystical and the practical, helping yourself and others remember just how special we are.
Please share your own tips for beginners! Anything that helped you get started with the Tarot and share the advice you got when you started.