If you’ve never used the tarot before, wait until you’re relatively familiar with the cards before giving any serious readings. Otherwise, both you and the person for whom you’re reading the cards are likely to become fed up with the long pauses while you frantically look up a card‘s meaning or vainly try to remember it. So, at first, read the cards for yourself but try to resist the temptation to look up the meanings immediately. Instead, study the illustrations on the cards and see what comes to you. Only when you have searched your memory should you actually read the interpretation of the card.
When trying to remember the meaning of a Minor Arcana card you can give yourself clues by analysing the significance of the suit and the number. Let’s imagine that you’re staring at the Four of Pentacles and trying desperately to remember what it means. First, think of what Pentacles represents — money, material possessions, the way you organize work and business. Then think of what four means – completion, stability, structure. You can then put these two meanings together and, perhaps helped by the illustration on the card, deduce that the Four of Pentacles symbolizes a healthy financial situation, about which the person probably feels quite satisfied, but there’s a danger that this could lead to complacency and a materialistic, possibly even greedy, outlook.
It is very important not to frighten anyone when you give them a reading. Some people are especially wary of the tarot, believing that it is somehow allied to black magic (probably partly thanks to its associations with the self- styled ‘Beast’, Aleister Crowley) or is so accurate that its predictions are set in stone. Neither of these claims is true. When you deal out the cards for a spread, they are a snapshot of the potential of that moment.. If you ask the same question and deal out the cards the following day, you’ll probably get a slightly different answer. Some of the cards might be the same while others will have changed, because even in that short time your circumstances – or your attitude towards them – will have altered. So although the tarot can be extremely accurate, it isn’t infallible and what it predicts does not automatically happen. Above all, remember that we have free will and can alter our destinies.
One of the main messages of the tarot concerns change, and many cards deal with this theme. Some cards are wonderfully positive and happy, others urge caution, while a few seem extremely negative at first, yet they always have an underlying meaning that’s much more positive. However, it has to be said that some cards – the Hanged Man, Death, the Tower and the Ten of Swords – often bear images that can be alarming. Always reassure your questioner that choosing the Death card or the Hanged Man doesn’t mean they are about to die or to be strung up. Instead, they are facing major changes in their life.
When giving someone a tarot reading, always err on the side of caution. If you deal out what can only be described as a very negative spread, full of Swords (which represent problems and, sometimes, arguments) and some of the more difficult Major Arcana cards, you can issue a few carefully worded warnings but avoid putting the fear of God into the other person. Remember that we can choose either to act on the suggestions that the cards give us or to completely ignore them. Sometimes the cards appear to play games with you, or give you nonsensical messages, in which case it’s best to leave them alone for a day.
In other words, what appears in a reading is not an inevitable outcome. Of course, if you’re giving a reading for someone who you know has money worries, and these are emphasized in the reading, with perhaps a card of massive change (such as the Tower) as the outcome, then there may be rough times ahead, but this doesn’t always follow. The person having the reading may take avoiding action, so the prophecy of the Tower is never fulfilled.
