How to Read the Tarot Using Your Intuition

Have you ever wanted to learn how to read tarot cards, but didn't want to go to the trouble of memorizing all the different meanings? (This article assumes you have the Rider-Waite or a similar deck) I have always loved looking at different tarot decks with their colorful pictures. However, for years I didn't try to do readings with my tarot deck because I got tired of having to always look up what each card meant, and I didn't have time to memorize each card's meanings. So, how can you use your intuition to read the Tarot?

One possible way to do this is to randomly pull a card from your tarot deck and examine the picture on this card. Is there a male figure, female figure or both? Does the person or people look happy or sad? What other things are in the picture such as swords, cups, pentacles (a 5 pointed star with a circle around it)? Is the scene indoors, or outdoors? Is there water or trees? Carefully look at the card you chose mentally noting all the details.

Next, take a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil and write down a brief story about the picture in the card. Don't forget to write down which card it is as well! This story doesn't have to be complex, just 3 or 4 sentences is fine. Read it back to yourself. What kind of story did you tell? Keep in mind that different people will see different stories, but most likely there will be common themes. There is no one "right" story or interpretation of a tarot card.

There are a couple of ways you can use this technique to learn to read the Tarot. You can keep your stories of each card in a notebook that you can then refer to, or you can use this technique each and every time you do a tarot spread. The second method can allow for different stories depending on what your intuition is telling you at that particular moment which can be very useful. However, the first method will allow you to quickly grasp the different possible meanings for each card. Also when you go through the whole deck and write the different stories down this helps you to remember meanings of the different cards, and to see how certain cards relate to each other. Both methods are valuable and I have actually chosen to use both. Sometimes I will know intuitively that a card's story is going to be different because of the situation around the question that either I or another person has asked, and so I will write or tell a new story for that card based on that "knowing."

One rule of the Tarot to keep in mind while doing a reading is that any card which appears upside down is then going to tell whatever story is opposite to the one which would be told were the card right-side up. For example, let us say that I pulled the Queen of Pentacles. This card has a woman who to me looks sad. She is sitting on a throne that has a goat head carved on the arm, and a lion head on the top inside. There are also what look like stars on her throne. Her throne is outdoors surrounded by flowers, and then mountains in the distance. She is holding a pentacle in her lap and staring down at it. She looks like she is middle-aged, and there is a small brown rabbit in the far right bottom corner. I could tell a story about an older woman who is dealing with the loss of a beloved son, perhaps the pentacle is all she has left of him. Even though she has power, she is a queen after all, and there is beauty all her as evidenced by the flowers, and mountains, she cannot see anything but that she has lost that which she loves. All right, if this is the story that I tell based on the card, if this card were to turn up in a reading reversed, that story would be exactly the opposite. The story that I told when the card was right-side up was one of loss and the inability to see the beauty around her. So for example if the card was reversed then the story would be one of happiness and the ability to see the mountains, the flowers and wildlife around her. She would be happy rather than sad. This is just one way to understand the meaning of a tarot card. It is also useful when you are writing down the story of a particular card to also write down it's opposite meaning for those times when you draw a card upside down.

There are many possible ways to do a tarot spread. My two favorite spreads are the three card spread and the one card spread for a yes or no answer. The three card spread reads from left to right Past, Present, and Future. When asking a question this allows the reader to see what in the past is influencing the issue, what is happening in the present, and what the possible outcome might be. However, sometimes you just want a yes or no answer. When this is the case you can draw one card, and rather than actually "reading" the card, if the card is right side up your answer is yes, if it is reversed the answer is no. I only use the one card spread when I have two choices and want help deciding which one to use. The three card spread is more useful to get an idea of the influences around a question and or situation.

Since the Tarot was probably originally created using images that would spark a person's intuition, it makes sense to learn the Tarot using this method as well. Whether you choose to record your "story" for each card before beginning to do readings, or you choose to begin doing readings right away and tell a different story each time is up to you. Whichever method you choose I know you will find reading the Tarot using your intuition to be one of the most user friendly ways to read the Tarot.