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How to REALLY Learn Tarot in One Day

Reading tarot like a master requires a natural talent for divination. Barring that, years of constant practice will suffice.

But anyone can learn the basics. And it should not take longer than a day to cover. Start in the morning, and by evening, you will be a tarot reader.

This post is Day 1 of the Divination class that I teach. By 8:30 PM, my teenage initiates were already correctly predicting each other’s crushes and the winners of tennis matches.

THE DAY BEFORE

Get a deck and a resource.

Acquire a Rider-Waite deck or a clone of it. You may opt for something else, but be forewarned that you could lose out on a multitude of symbolism. The Rider-Waite may not be the prettiest, but there is nothing more complete.

Find a reliable resource. The Ultimate Guide to Tarot by Liz Dean is a perfect book for beginners. So is Labyrinthos’ website, if you prefer something free of charge.

THE DAY ITSELF

9–10 AM

Pick one keyword for each card.

With a belly full of breakfast, quickly skim through your resource and pick just one keyword per card. For example, “destruction” for The Tower, “happiness” for The Sun, and “wealth” for the Ten of Pentacles. Note it all down on paper or on your phone.

10–11 AM

Associate the word with the image.

Look at your keyword side by side the card. Make an undeniable connection. 

Why is The Tower “destruction”? Because the tower on the card has been “destroyed”.

Why is The Sun “happiness”? Because the child on the card looks “happy”.

Why is the Ten of Pentacles “wealth”? Because the family on the card looks “wealthy”.

Memorization becomes much easier when based on visual correlation.

11 AM–12 PM

Quiz yourself.

Hide your notes from view. Keeping in mind the word-image associations you made, go through each card, reciting its keyword. Put in one pile all the cards you remembered the keyword for, and in another, the ones that escaped your memory.

Then look at your notes side-by-side the second pile to remind yourself of what you missed. Go through the whole pile again, repeating the process until you can recite the keywords for all 78 cards without making a mistake. One card, one word. Should be as simple as pre-school.

12–1 PM

Take a break.

Have a meal. Nap a little. Stretch a bit. Give your mind space to absorb everything you just memorized.

1–2 PM

Quiz yourself again.

You are guaranteed to forget some of your keywords. That is fine. It is why you are doing this again, to strengthen your memory. Be patient with yourself, and keep going through the whole deck until you are no longer making any mistakes.

2–3:30 PM

Pick a key phrase for each reversed card.

Quickly skim through your resource again. Now that you know the upright meanings, reversals should be fairly easy, because they can only be one of three: the opposite of the upright card; the upright card watered down; the upright card made worse.

To illustrate:

If The Devil upright is “addiction”, reversed it is “overcoming addiction” — the opposite.

If the Nine of Cups is “fulfillment”, reversed, it is “fulfillment delayed” — watered down.

If the Seven of Swords upright is “manipulation”, reversed it is “betrayal” — made worse.

Note it all down next to your upright keywords.

3:30–5 PM

Quiz yourself on both upright and reversed meanings.

Hide your notes from view. Keeping in mind the upright-reversed meaning associations you made, go through each card one by one, reciting its upright meaning followed by its reversed meaning.

Like before, put in one pile the cards you had no problem with, and in another, the cards that escaped your memory. Look at your notes for those you missed. Go through the whole pile again, repeating the process until you can recite the upright keywords and the reversed key phrases for all 78 cards, without making a mistake.

5–6 PM

Take another break.

Have another meal. Nap some more. Stretch again. Let your mind and body breathe.

6–7:15 PM

Quiz yourself again on both upright and reversed meanings.

Go through each card one by one, reciting its upright meaning followed by its reversed meaning.

Like before, put in one pile the cards you had no problem with, and in another, the cards that escaped your memory. Look at your notes side by side the cards you missed. And go through the full deck again until you are no longer missing a beat.

7:15–8 PM

Read.

For the last time today, bring out your resource, and from it, choose any spread you like. But if you really want to do it right, the Celtic Cross spread is recommended. Do not worry about being overwhelmed. You can leave the book or the website open on the page where the spread is.

Ask tarot your question. Without looking at your notes, interpret its answer to the best of your ability using the keywords and key phrases you just memorized.

Congratulations. You are now a tarot reader.

But if you wish to keep learning, then keep reading.

THE DAYS AFTER

Day 1 – Day 4

For the next four days, quiz yourself again on both upright and reversed meanings, to really cement them in your mind. Then perform the same spread you did the first time, but ask a different question each time. Interpret the cards to the best of your knowledge. This should only take an hour at the most.

Day 5

By now, everything you learned has been drilled into memory. Feel free to expand your knowledge. Read your book cover to cover. Fully explore your chosen website.

Most of the new meanings you will learn will be related to the ones you committed to heart, so do not worry about being confused. For example, if your keyword for The Empress is “abundance”, you will find that its other meanings are “harvest”, “creativity” and “fertility”. “Harvest” is financial abundance; “creativity”, an abundance of skill; “fertility”, an abundance of growth. They vary slightly, but they are all the same, essentially.

All the best in your tarot journey.