If you are a beginner in tarot, it’s common to ask your question, draw the cards, and then struggle to interpret their meaning. Many people turn to books or Google to find the right interpretation, even if they’ve been reading for years. And that’s totally fine.
In fact, I believe it can benefit you and actually help you become a more intuitive reader in the long run. So don’t be hard on yourself if you rely on external resources. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad reader or incapable of learning. Eventually, you’ll come across the “right” interpretation that resonates with you during this process anyhow.
There’s a common myth that reading from the book while doing a tarot reading is somehow a bad thing and disconnects you from your intuition. Many courses and teachers promote the idea of reading without relying on books as soon as possible. But why?
It’s funny because most people understand that learning from various tarot resources is essential, regardless of how long they’ve been reading. Yet, when you consult a book during a reading, it’s seen as wrong.
This doesn’t make sense. Of course, if you’re reading professionally and charging for your services, there’s an expectation to have a certain level of proficiency and be able to intuitively understand the cards. It’s understandable to aim for confidently interpreting the cards without relying on a book, especially in a professional setting.
However, when we are in the learning process and practicing readings for ourselves, friends, family, or anyone else, it is perfectly fine to refer to the book. There seems to be a lot of pressure to skip this phase nowadays, as if you should first memorize everything and then interpret the cards from memory.
Yes, reading this way may seem more impressive, but when you’re just starting out, it’s actually advisable to consult the book when performing readings. In doing so, this will expand your knowledge base.
Many tarot teachers advocate reading intuitively without the book. While it’s something to aspire to, it’s worth noting that the reason they can read intuitively without the book and you can’t is because they have accumulated a great deal of tarot knowledge and have years of experience reading for others.
Sometimes we forget how we started as beginners. They can say this because they are more advanced and have already developed the ability to read intuitively. However, you still need to go through the learning process, and there’s no shame in that!
It’s like telling someone who has never ridden a bike to just ride it and it will come naturally; it doesn’t work that way. If you know how to ride a bike, you do it intuitively, but if you’re a beginner, you need stabilizers and step-by-step instructions.
After practice, riding a bike becomes intuitive, but you would never dream of telling a beginner to just ride it. It’s the same when we tell others to just look at the cards and “let the message come to you.”
Unfortunately, if you are a beginner, you don’t have the knowledge and skills to do that yet. This is a process you have to go through to become an intuitive reader, and it’s not an overnight process by any means. It’s the “get rich quick scheme” of the tarot world, if you ask me.
You can’t just stare down the cards and wait for something to come to you and suddenly become an intuitive reader. Yes, anyone can pick up something by doing this, even if they’ve never read tarot before, but they won’t be as good as someone with more experience and knowledge.
Experts and novices think very differently from each other, which can be seen in virtually any field or profession. When faced with new problems, experts rely more on intuition, drawing on past experience and a wide array of knowledge they have acquired over the years. Novices, on the other hand, rely on their reasoning faculties and follow instructions rigidly.
There’s no shame in being a novice; it’s just part of the learning process. You become an intuitive reader when you advance in tarot; you don’t become a more advanced tarot reader by learning to read intuitively.
Intuition isn’t really a magical superpower. I believe in all sorts of weird, supernatural things, but intuition isn’t a magical ability. It is the ability to automatically know something based on accumulated patterns and knowledge over time.
Thus, it takes a lot of practice and study before one can read intuitively. This also means that even if you don’t consider yourself an intuitive reader or never will, if you have been practicing for a number of years, you become one by default.
There are things we can learn from more experienced readers or other experts to aid our learning process and help us reach their level. However, putting down the book during readings is not one of them. So don’t beat yourself up if you feel the need to refer to the book while you’re still learning.
In fact, not referring to it may actually hinder your learning. You will acquire important and relevant information that will stay with you if you take a moment to look up the possible meanings in the book.
I think the idea that pulling out the book during a reading is bad encourages a habit that is very detrimental to your learning, namely pulling “clarifier” cards. If you’re stuck on the meaning of a card, you might be tempted to draw another card to supposedly help clarify its meaning instead of turning to the book. Just a heads up: this doesn’t work.
Chances are, if you are still learning, you might not know how to interpret the next card that comes out. In this case, you might keep pulling cards until you draw one that you can interpret, if at all. However, this approach doesn’t actually teach you anything or help you gain a better understanding of the original card that was drawn.
It would be more beneficial to look up the meaning of the original card because doing so will allow you to learn something new about that specific card. This new knowledge will likely assist you in interpreting it the next time it appears in a reading.
Using “clarifiers” (NOT picking up the book) can hinder your progress in mastering tarot because they can prevent you from learning new meanings and alternative interpretations of the cards. The reason you feel the need for a “clarifier” is because you currently lack knowledge about that particular card. By consulting a book or other resources for its meaning, you can overcome this lack of knowledge and expand your understanding.
Don’t hold yourself to any impossible standard when you are just starting out (including being able to read intuitively). The next time you find yourself stuck during a reading, don’t hesitate to pick up a book or seek out other sources for guidance. Gradually, this habit will help you build up your knowledge and eventually enable you to perform more fluent and intuitive readings in the future.
