SOURCE – Hillbillyoracle on Tumblr

Tarot is a language

“In the same way you learn letters and string them into words and then string words into sentences to communicate, tarot is a language you learn so your intuition can communicate more fully with you and others. And like a language, it’s often best to start with the phrases that you’ll use the most.”

• Practice
  • Pick 12 cards that call to you and look up/write down the meanings
  • Pick 12 cards that give you a feeling of unease and look up/write down the meanings
  • What recurring symbols do you see?

Tarot is a story

“How you understand that story may vary on your tradition, your experience level, your aims. Most standard Tarot decks follow the Fool’s Journey through the Major Arcana as he becomes more skilled and then more enlightened. A similar pattern can be seen in each of the suits. The Court Cards are less narrative in my opinion but a similar progression can be seen.”

• Practice
  • Take out each of the suits one at a time and lay them out in a row
  • Read the meanings of each card and see how the story progresses 
  • Write a summary
  • Do the same for the rest of the suits and the Major Arcana

Tarot is a system

“You aren’t fluent until you know the language well enough to speak smoothly and in most situations. Similarly, it takes understanding Tarot at a high level to give the best quality readings and read without a book. No card exists in isolation and just like when they show up in a reading, you must read them in relation to the rest of the spread – it helps a lot to know them in relation to the rest of the deck.”

• Practice
  • Lay every card in the deck out as shown above
  • Major Arcana at the top, court cards to the right, numbers lined up with the Fool and World to the left
  • Pick one of the cards that resonated before and see how it relates to the other cards in the deck
  • For example if you chose the 8 of Pentacles;
  • What do other 8’s look like/speak to?
  • What do 8 and 18 (Strength and Moon) connect to in the Major Arcana?
  • How does this relate to the rest of the story of the pentacles?