How to read tarot

Reading tarot is mostly looking carefully and then talking sense about what you see. There is no secret method, but there are good habits.

Start with a question, or without one

Open questions work best: "What should I be paying attention to this week?" or "What is getting in the way of this project?" Yes-or-no questions give thin readings, though yes or no tarot exists for when you do want one. You can also draw with no question and treat the card as a theme for the day.

Look before you look up

Before reading any keywords, spend a minute with the picture. Who is in it, what are they doing, where are they looking and what is the mood? The Rider-Waite-Smith cards were painted to be read this way, and your first impression is a legitimate part of the reading. Then check it against the card meanings.

Positions give the answer a shape

In a spread, each position asks its own question of the card. In a three-card spread of past, present and future, a card in the first place is read as background, and the same card in the third as a direction. A card that seems wrong for the position is worth a second look rather than a reshuffle.

Common spreads

• One card. A theme for the day, or a single answer. The easiest way to learn the deck.
• Three cards. Past, present and future; or situation, challenge and advice; or mind, body and spirit.
• The Celtic Cross. Ten cards: the present, what crosses it, the foundation, the recent past, the crown, the near future, then four cards in a column for yourself, your surroundings, your hopes and fears and the outcome. It is the classic long spread. Try it on the reading page.

Reversed cards

A card drawn upside down is called reversed. Many readers ignore reversals, which is perfectly sound. Those who use them read a reversed card as the same theme blocked, delayed, turned inward or excessive, or as the opposite of the upright meaning. Each card page gives both, and the reading tools let you switch reversals on or off.

When a card makes no sense

It happens to everyone. Describe the picture in plain words, name the feeling it gives you, and ask what part of the question that could apply to. If nothing comes, move on; the other cards often explain it later. Notice also that Death, the Tower and the Devil do not mean what they sound like. Death is a card of change and endings, and almost never of literal death.

What tarot cannot do

Tarot cannot see the future, diagnose a condition or settle a legal or financial matter, and a reading should never replace a doctor, a lawyer or a friend. Its value is as a structured way of looking at a situation from a few angles. If a reading leaves you with a new question, it did its job.

Tarot, astrology and numerology are traditions of symbolism. This page says what the tradition associates with its subject. It does not predict anything and it is not advice.