Welcome to another post by myself and my guide Melinda. Melinda and I work together to help people better their lives through the tarot readings I deliver. Melinda was a reader in her lifetime. She has a great perspective drawn from both her last lifetime, being born in 1696, and her subsequent time as a spirit.
Learning to read the cards involves many different tools. Integrating them all is where the real magic happens.
“The Reader” image by Andrew McGregor
How can you learn to read Tarot?
I think a post discussing how to learn tarot is in order. Actually I can’t be so bold as to state that the way in which I learned is the only way to learn so I’ll restate it as the way in which I learned to read the cards. There are a few parts to the process I went through so I will talk about each in turn.
As I have already said I learned to read cards from my mother. Really most of the people in my family knew some level of card reading. I never sat and received meanings from my mother. It was not so much a question of this card is equal to that meaning as drawing links between the cards and the world. That client was like the King of Cups. This harvest in this area is like the 8 of Disks. That man was killed by his neighbour over the neighbours wife – what card do you think speaks to that event? It was a very open approach. Many family members added their opinions to these conversations.
I also learned that reading came from the spirit world. That our family had what we would now call guides – just as Andrew has me – that would help me know what to say and when. Working with my guides involved praying, sitting in silence, giving them food, and learning how to listen. On certain saints days we would go to church and pray for them. With every step I got closer to them these guides they would share another way in which we could be closer. Over the years they became my constant companion. My family as they passed joined their ranks – just as I help my family that are living now.
Finally – I watched. Sometimes I was able to sit and see a whole reading but more often I would only catch a snippet as I brought tea in to my mother and the person she was reading for. The people who came in were often very secretive and so I grabbed a detail here and a detail there when I could. Something about seeing the person getting the reading, the cards and hearing my mothers words all together created the strongest associations. The energy of all of the parts working together conveyed much more than just the words by themselves ever could.
Then I practiced.
Thanks for listening.
Melinda.
Want to learn tarot? Check out The Hermit’s Lamp school for classes.
Header image “The Hierophant” from the Rider Waite Smith Deck.