I’ve been reading tarot for several years, and I’ll be honest—I struggled to remember the meanings behind the cards. I often ended up defaulting to intuitive readings rather than using the intended meanings.
But after some unfortunate friend breakups (which honestly hurt more than relationship breakups, in my opinion), I realized how incredibly lonely I’d been. Refusing to stoop so low as to make ChatGPT my only friend, I decided the infinitely cooler option was to become a full-on tarot fanatic.
Recently, I got my dream tarot deck—the Dreamy Moons Tarot—and felt instantly attached to it (review to come!). That connection gave me a huge boost in motivation. Within a few months, I could read the deck comfortably and effectively without needing the guidebook—or studying the cards like flashcards. Here’s what I learned:
1. Get a Deck You Love
This is the most important advice I can give. Tarot is such a personal practice, and trying to learn it with a deck you’re not obsessed with is just hard. The cards need to motivate you—otherwise, picking them up will feel like a chore.
Luckily, there’s no shortage of tarot decks out there. If you love the traditional Rider-Waite, there are endless variations. My current deck is a dreamy take on the Rider-Waite. Into dragons? There’s a deck for that. Supernatural? Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Mean Girls? The Necronomicon? There’s probably a deck for that too.
Pay attention to what draws you in: what colors, art styles, or themes resonate with you? Do you like foil detailing? Once you know what you’re looking for, picking the right deck becomes a lot easier.
One thing I recommend avoiding when you’re just starting out: pip decks.
Pip decks, especially in the Minor Arcana, lack detailed imagery. For example, the Three of Cups might just show three cups—no scene, no symbolism. While some pip decks are beautiful, they make learning the cards infinitely harder for beginners.
2. Learn the Suits
In the Minor Arcana, the cards are split into four suits—traditionally Cups, Swords, Wands, and Pentacles (or Coins). Some decks rename them. In my deck, for instance, Swords and Coins are replaced with Stars and Crystals.
The first thing you should look at when pulling a card is the suit. It gives you instant insight into the card’s theme—Cups often deal with emotions, Wands with passion and action, etc. Understanding the core energy of each suit makes decoding any card much easier.
👉 This blog post is incredibly helpful for learning suit meanings:
https://www.asaliearthwork.com/blog/suits-elements-of-tarot
3. Learn the Fool’s Journey
The Major Arcana isn’t just a random collection of cards—it tells a story known as The Fool’s Journey. Understanding this narrative makes memorizing the cards much easier, because stories stick in your brain way better than keywords.
👉 Here’s a great article on the Fool’s Journey:
https://www.learntarot.com/journey.htm
4. Make Guesses!
Most tarot cards show you their meaning if you just take a moment to study the art. When you draw a card, start with the suit—let’s say it’s Cups. You’ll know it’s likely related to emotions. Then, look at the image: if you see someone walking away from a crying woman, you might guess betrayal or emotional abandonment.
Once you’ve made a guess, check the guidebook and compare. Were you right? Awesome—figure out what visual cues helped you get there. Were you wrong? That’s okay! Study the symbolism and learn what it actually means. This process helps build intuitive and visual understanding over time.
5. Don’t Get Burned Out
Seriously—this is so easy to do. Tarot is a lot of work, and burnout will steal your joy and derail your progress. Take breaks. Keep it fun. Let yourself be a beginner.
Tarot can feel incredibly frustrating to learn at first, but I hope these steps help you break things down in a way that feels manageable—without reducing the process to lifeless flashcard memorization.
You’ve got this. 🔮💖
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