Tarot Beginner’s Guide

✦Where does tarot come from?

The name "TARO" is often explained as TAR (law) + RO (king): the king’s law, the road to the emperor. The scroll on the High Priestess’s lap reads TORA — read it clockwise and it becomes TARO, the same idea.

There is no single accepted origin. The best-known story is that it arose where civilisations began — ancient Egypt, China, the Islamic world, India — and was carried into Europe by travelling Romani. Others say the Egyptian goddess Hathor gave the word its root, or that Egyptian divination cards crossed into Europe with the Crusades and became a game. The Romani carried wine-casks, swords, cups and coins — a close match for the four suits — so their playing cards may be the ancestor. Indian, Jewish and Christian-Gnostic origin theories exist alongside these.

Whichever is true, the tarot we use today is a tool for reading the symbols in the pictures. Know the history lightly; spend your time training your eye for the images.

✦How the 78 cards are organised

More than eight thousand tarot decks are thought to exist — built from famous paintings, historical figures, letters, shapes, myths, animals. There is no fixed rule for which deck is "best": the best deck is the one you like most and feel drawn to, because that is the one you will get familiar with.

This site uses the Rider-Waite family (Universal Waite). Its pictures are clear and its symbols are explicit, which is why it is the most common deck for beginners and the standard in English-speaking countries (Europe leans toward the Marseille tarot). Learn this deck properly and other decks follow easily.

Whatever the deck, the 78 cards split into 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana; the Minors split again into 40 pip (number) cards and 16 court cards. An easy way to tell them apart: number and title together = Major; number only = pip card; title only = court card.

• 78in total
• 22Major Arcana · 0 The Fool – 21 The World
• 40Minor pips · 4 suits × Ace–10
• 16Court cards · 4 suits × Page, Knight, Queen, King

✦Numbers carry meaning

Ten heavenly stems plus twelve earthly branches make 22; ten planets plus twelve signs make 22; the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters — tarot scholars have long believed the Major Arcana’s 22 is no accident. The Minors work the same way: once you know why 4 comes after 3 and before 5, the number alone gives you the card’s skeleton. Below are the meanings shared across all four suits.

1. ACE
   Beginning · opportunity

   Creative force and potential. Something lively starts afresh. The moment an opportunity or offer lands in your hand.

2. 2
   Opposition · balance

   A counterpart appears. Creative force not yet complete; two forces in balance. The number of relationship.

3. 3
   Growth · first completion

   The number of expansion. A first stage achieved, the fruit of cooperation — me, you, us (a group) coming together.

4. 4
   Reality · stability

   Logic and reason. Mind, body, spirit and matter take shape. A stable start once the group is formed; remarriage, birth.

5. 5
   Uncertainty · hardship

   The number of the real world (a water molecule is pentagonal). Conflict and trial within change.

6. 6
   Harmony · balance

   Balance of heaven, earth and body. Relations between groups, perfect strength. A divine number (the Star of David) — 3 doubled, so completion deepens.

7. 7
   Wisdom · end of a cycle

   As seven days make a week, a stage ends. A cycle completes.

8. 8
   Renewal · letting go of the old

   Balance of opposing forces. One short of 9, "2% missing" (4+4, groups in opposition; two steps past 6, just before completion).

9. 9
   Completion before completion

   The combined strength of all the numbers. The foundation before 10, humanity’s last perfect number, the number of awakening.

10. 10
    Wholeness · the divine number

    In Cups and Pentacles the highest stage of happiness and joy; in Swords and Wands, judgement and trial.

11. PAGE
    Page · teens

    The princess or boy. Lively and fresh but lacking stability. Apprentice, trainee, youth. Wood.

12. KNIGHT
    Knight · 20s

    The prince. Activity and movement. A seeker working hard for their own ideals. Fire.

13. QUEEN
    Queen · 30s

    A feminine authority with practical, realistic sense. Not number one, yet she governs the King. Earth · Metal.

14. KING
    King · 40s–50s

    A masculine, confident ruler. Has attained insight, but the seat can fall — so he may cling to fear, possession, authority, and ignore advice. Water · Metal.

✦The four suits — elements and signs

The 56 Minors fall into four suits, each paired with one element and three zodiac signs. The element tells you the card’s "temperature"; the signs tell you who the court cards are. Dates, ruling planets and traits follow the textbook tables.

✦The 10 planets — what rules the signs

Each sign has a ruling planet, and the Major cards pair with planets too (the Magician–Mercury, the High Priestess–Moon, the Tower–Mars). Knowing a planet’s nature tells you which way a card’s energy points.

✦Colour is the second language

The Rider-Waite deck uses colour very deliberately. Whether a figure wears red or blue changes the direction of the reading. When you look at a card, first ask: which colour covers the most ground, and what is the main figure wearing?

• Red Have ambition. Reach the goal. Act.

  +Warmth, passion, tolerance, love, martyrdom, faith, courage, eros, desire, union, affection, vitality, active, drive, strong wealth

  −Destruction, provocation, struggle, revolt, danger, explosion, impulse, wounds, bleeding, domineering, pain, injury, sacrifice, overuse

• Pink I want to be loved, to love, to care for others.

  +Vigour, responsibility, affection, protection, nurture, giving and receiving love

  −Dependent, avoidant, fragile, "please love me"

• Yellow · gold It fits. I want to join in, I want to do it.

  +Glory, power, wealth, display, maturity, hope, harvest, real wealth

  −Disappointment, wariness, danger, indecision

• Brown Look at my hands. What I always do is a joy.

  +Vitality, stability, persuasiveness, sincerity, diligence, honest poverty, simplicity, plainness, earth

  −Poverty, dullness, staleness, obsession, neurosis, misery

• Green I want to counsel and help with sickness or poverty.

  +Hope, life, calm, youth, affection, relaxation, integrity, harmony, balance, autonomy, rest, growth, nature

  −Resistance, loss, tension

• Blue I want to be a trustworthy person or a decision-maker.

  +Freshness, neatness, self-control, adaptation, honesty, reason, thought, insight, holiness

  −Lightness, stress, fatigue (sky blue)

• Crimson · purple-red I want to express my feelings honestly and be recognised for how great I am.

  +Dignity, justice, nobility, majesty, artistry

  −Introverted (excessively), oversensitive

• Violet Intuitive, but needs a day of encouragement.

  +Harmony, healing, holiness, devotion, humility, mystery, magic, intuition, wisdom, mania (red + blue), the colour of harmony

  −Repressed emotion, instability, loss of motivation, tension, anxiety, irritation, giving up, obstruction, split (red and blue at war)

• White Attain insight. Become pure.

  +Maiden, chastity, purity, new beginning, ending, holiness

  −Concealment, defence, emptiness, desolation, hiding something

• Black Be silent. Be faithful to reality.

  +Death of what is bad, ending, shadow, time

  −Oppression, suppression, rebellion, protest, grief, death, lack, anxiety, evil, absolute

✦Basic terms

Seeker · querent Seeker

The person asking for a tarot reading.

User User

The person using the tarot. Also called the reader or master.

Shuffle Shuffle

Mixing the cards before laying them out — pulling cards from top and bottom in the hand, or spreading them on a cloth and swirling with both hands; without a cloth or space, shuffle in the hand. Breaking the shuffled deck into several piles is called cutting or tapping.

Spread Spread

Laying out the cards; the arrangement. A frame where each position has a meaning — one-card, three-card, Celtic Cross.

Cleansing Cleansing

The preparation stage before a reading: self-purification and meditation, and tidying the cards.

Reading Reading

Interpreting the cards. "Image reading" means literally looking at the picture and reading its symbols, using intuition. Putting what you read into words is storytelling.

Deck Deck

One full set of tarot cards (78).

Upright · reversed Upright · Reversed

A card that lands the right way up is upright; upside down is reversed. The basic rule: read a reversal as the upright meaning in excess, in lack, or delayed.

✦Why it "didn’t work" — how to ask well

The textbook lists ten reasons tarot fails to hit. Flip them over and they become a guide to getting good answers. Before blaming the cards, check these.

1. 1
   Be specific

   "Will it go well?" is hard even for the cards. Put in who, what and by when: "Will I pass the interview at company A within this month?" A vague question is the most common cause of failure.

2. 2
   Don’t repeat the question

   If you redraw until you get an answer you like, the cards stop answering honestly. One question, one draw. Ask again only after the situation changes.

3. 3
   Rest when you’re not well

   Tired, stressed or in strong emotion, your eye for the picture clouds. Too much self-consciousness, or your own will stepping in first, bends the answer too.

4. 4
   Hear the whole answer

   Often the cards answered correctly and the asker failed to grasp it. Even when the card says "no", read on for the reason and the advice.

5. 5
   Read the position first

   The same card means different things in the "past" slot and the "advice" slot. Rather than memorising card meanings, read position × card.

6. 6
   Ask about the near term

   Tarot reflects what can happen in a short span, so roughly 3–6 months is where it is accurate. Asking about ten years from now does not fit.

7. 7
   Communicate

   When reading for someone else, the biggest variable is communication between reader and seeker. Reading without understanding the question gives a wrong answer. Repeat the question back to confirm.

• Shuffle thoroughly. Settle your mind and focus before laying out.
• Answer only the question. Adding what was not asked blurs the answer.
• Draw with your non-dominant hand — less thinking gets in the way.
• Used like counselling: let the person draw a few cards face down, then ask "how does this picture look to you?" — that alone builds rapport.

✦Next steps