How to Read Tarot Cards: A Beginner's Guide

How the 78-card tarot deck is organized

A standard tarot deck has 78 cards in two groups. The Major Arcana has 22 cards, numbered 0 (The Fool) to 21 (The World). These carry the big themes and turning points of a life story, such as The Lovers, Death, The Star and Judgement.

The Minor Arcana has 56 cards in four suits of 14 cards each: Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. Every suit runs from Ace to Ten, followed by four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King.

For a first reading, you only need a rough map:

• Major Arcana cards point to significant themes or lessons.
• Minor Arcana cards describe everyday events, moods and choices.
• Wands relate to energy, ambition and drive. Cups relate to emotions and relationships. Swords relate to thoughts, communication and conflict. Pentacles relate to work, money and the body.

Other guides in this series cover the Major and Minor Arcana, the suits and the court cards in depth. You can begin reading well before you have mastered any of that.

Choosing your first deck

The best deck for a beginner is the Rider-Waite-Smith, first published in 1909 with artwork by Pamela Colman Smith. Its biggest advantage is that every card, including the number cards, shows a complete scene. Instead of memorizing that the Five of Cups means loss, you can see a cloaked figure staring at three spilled cups while two stand upright behind. The picture teaches you the meaning.

It also happens to be the deck most books, courses and online guides assume, so what you read will match what you see. Many modern decks are built on its structure and symbolism, which makes them good second decks later.

Whatever you choose, pick artwork you actually enjoy looking at, in a size your hands can shuffle comfortably. Despite a popular superstition, you do not need to be given your first deck as a gift. Buying your own is perfectly fine.

Set the scene and frame your question

You do not need candles, crystals or a special cloth, though you can use them if they help you settle in. What matters is a few quiet minutes. Silence your phone, clear a flat surface, and take three slow breaths before you start. The ritual simply signals to your mind that this is time for reflection.

Then choose your question. Open-ended questions that begin with "what" or "how" give the cards room to say something useful. Yes-or-no questions, questions about what another person secretly thinks, and questions demanding an exact date tend to produce flat or confusing readings.

Compare these:

• Instead of "Will I get the job?" ask "What should I keep in mind as I prepare for this interview?"
• Instead of "Does he like me?" ask "What can I learn about how I'm approaching this connection?"

If your question touches health, legal or money decisions, treat the cards as a prompt for reflection and talk to a qualified professional for the decision itself. There is a separate guide on asking tarot questions if you want more examples.

Shuffle, cut and lay out three cards

Shuffle in whatever way feels comfortable. You can use an overhand shuffle, a riffle, or spread the cards face down on the table and swirl them around. Keep your question in mind and stop when it feels right. There is no correct number of shuffles.

Next, cut the deck. A common method is to split it into three piles and restack them in any order you like. A single cut works just as well. Then turn over the top three cards and place them face up in a row from left to right.

For your first spread, give the positions simple meanings:

• Card 1: the situation as it stands.
• Card 2: the challenge or the thing to be aware of.
• Card 3: helpful advice or a possible direction.

The Past, Present and Future version and other three-card layouts have their own guide. For now, read every card upright, the way it appears. Reversed cards can wait until you feel steady with the basics.

Read each card: image first, then meaning

Before you reach for a guidebook, spend about half a minute with each card and just look. Ask yourself:

• What is happening in this scene?
• Who is here, and what are they doing or feeling?
• Which way are they facing or moving?
• What do the colors and weather suggest: calm, tension, hope?
• What is the very first feeling or word that comes to mind?

Only then check the traditional meaning and compare it with your impression. They often overlap. The Tower, for example, shows lightning striking a tall structure as figures fall from it. You may sense shock before you read the keywords, which are sudden upheaval and false structures collapsing.

Don't try to memorize long lists. Take one or two keywords per card and let the picture fill in the rest. Suits and numbers offer extra clues: an Ace is a beginning, a Cups card involves feelings, a Swords card involves thinking or conflict.

Weave the cards into a story

A reading is more than three separate definitions. Once you've looked at each card, step back and read them as a sequence. How might the first card lead to the second, and the second to the third? Linking words such as "because," "but" and "so" help: "You feel this way, but something is holding you back, so consider doing this."

Notice the relationships between the cards, too. Do the figures face toward or away from each other? Are there several cards from one suit, suggesting a theme of emotion or action? Is there a Major Arcana card among Minor ones, hinting that the matter carries extra weight?

If a card looks unwelcome, ask what it is inviting you to notice, not what disaster it predicts. Finish by summarizing the reading in a sentence or two. If you can't, the story is probably still too complicated. A separate guide covers card combinations in more detail.

A worked example reading

Imagine the question: "What should I keep in mind as I think about leaving my current job?" You shuffle, cut and draw three cards:

• Situation: the Eight of Cups
• Challenge: the Two of Swords
• Advice: the Ace of Wands

Start with the images. In the Eight of Cups, a figure in a red cloak walks away from eight neatly stacked cups, heading toward mountains under a night sky. They are leaving something that looks complete, yet they are leaving it anyway. The keyword is walking away from what no longer satisfies. That could describe feeling restless in a job that looks fine on paper.

The Two of Swords shows a blindfolded woman holding two crossed swords, a calm sea behind her. She is balanced but stuck, avoiding a decision by refusing to look. As the challenge, it suggests indecision or avoiding the facts.

The Ace of Wands shows a hand emerging from a cloud, holding a sprouting wand above a distant castle and green land. It speaks of a spark, new energy and a fresh start.

Woven together: you feel pulled away from something that no longer fulfills you, but you may be stalling because you haven't faced the choice honestly. The advice is to follow the spark of enthusiasm. That could mean a small, concrete first step, such as researching a new field, instead of waiting for certainty. The cards don't say you should quit. They point to where your attention might be most useful.

Trust your intuition and keep a tarot journal

Intuition in tarot is not a psychic gift. It is simply noticing your own reactions: the detail in the picture that catches your eye, the card you feel a small tug of resistance toward. Treat your first impression as valuable data. When it conflicts with the book's meaning, write down both and see which proves more useful over time.

A journal turns scattered readings into real learning. After each reading, jot down:

• The date and your question
• The cards and their positions
• Your first impressions, before checking any meanings
• Your interpretation of the story
• A later note on what actually happened or how the reading felt in hindsight

A notes app works as well as a beautiful notebook. Reread your entries after a few weeks. You'll start to see which cards keep appearing, which interpretations held up, and how your own reading style is developing. That record is what makes your second month of tarot noticeably better than your first.

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