Are you interested in tarot but stuck at the very first step, wondering "where do I even start" or "I don't think I could ever memorize what the cards mean"? Here's the short answer: tarot reading requires no difficult qualifications and no memorization. All you need is a deck you love, a few minutes to sit with the cards, and the willingness to put what you feel into words. This article walks beginners through the concrete steps for starting a real tarot practice today, covering everything from choosing a deck to drawing cards, interpreting their meanings, and the pitfalls that trip newcomers up. By the end, you should be ready to do your own one-card reading.

✦What Is Tarot Reading?

Tarot reading is the practice of drawing tarot cards and using the symbols illustrated on them as a guide to understanding your current situation, feelings, and future possibilities. It's often called "fortune telling," but the cards don't lock in a fixed future — in practice they work as a mirror reflecting who you are right now, in this moment. That's exactly why tarot is used so widely, both as a tool for self-reflection and as a way to offer advice to others.

The 78 tarot cards are made up of the 22 Major Arcana, which represent the big themes of life, and the 56 Minor Arcana, which capture the small, everyday moments. Beginners are best off starting with readings that use only the 22 Major Arcana cards. With fewer cards, each one carries a stronger, clearer message, making it easier to grasp what the card is trying to tell you.

☾Step 1: Choose Your First Deck

To start reading tarot, you first need a deck of your own. You can easily find one at a bookstore or online, but many people aren't sure what to base their choice on. Here are the three points that matter most when a beginner is choosing a deck.

The Classic Starting Point: A Rider-Waite-Style Deck

Tarot decks come in several traditions — Marseille, Rider-Waite (Rider-Waite-Smith), Thoth, and others — but for beginners, a Rider-Waite-style deck is overwhelmingly the best choice. The reason is simple: nearly every tarot guidebook, blog post, and video out there is written with the Rider-Waite tradition in mind. Because there's such an enormous amount of learning material available, you're far less likely to get stuck when studying on your own.

Choose the Art That Speaks to You

More important than any logic is simply whether looking at the artwork moves you. Tarot is a tool for dialogue with its imagery, so if a deck doesn't resonate with you, your motivation won't last. Even within the Rider-Waite tradition, styles vary enormously by artist and brand — cute illustrated decks, decks steeped in serious mystical atmosphere, cool modern decks in monochrome, and more. Compare the artwork for yourself, and choose the deck you'd genuinely want to look at every day.

Check the Size and Paper Quality Too

This is easy to overlook, but card size and paper quality make a big difference in how comfortable a deck is to use. If you have small hands, pocket-sized cards (about the size of a standard playing card) tend to be easier to shuffle; if you want to enjoy dramatic detail in the artwork, a larger-format deck suits you better. As for paper, something with a bit of flexibility and a matte finish tends to be easiest to handle. Very cheap cards are often too thin and crease easily with repeated shuffling, so choosing a deck with sturdier card stock will save you frustration.

What to Look for in a Beginner-Friendly Deck

Once you actually start browsing shops or online stores, there are so many options it's easy to feel lost. Narrowing your search to decks marketed for beginners is a safe starting point, but when you're still unsure, use these criteria:

• A full 78-card deck. Some decks contain only the 22 Major Arcana, but if you plan to progress further down the line, starting with all 78 cards from day one is the better investment.
• Court cards with individually illustrated figures. Decks like the Marseille tradition, where only numbers and suits are shown, tend to be harder for beginners to read.
• An included guidebook (a "little white book"). This lets you quickly check the basic meaning of each card.

✧Step 2: Prepare Your Environment

Once you have your deck, the next step is setting up the space where you'll draw cards. You don't need an elaborate ritual — simply setting aside "time to focus on tarot" dramatically improves the accuracy of your readings.

Set Out a Cloth

Having a cloth to lay your cards on helps shift your mindset into reading mode. It doesn't need to be a dedicated tarot cloth — a plain scarf or handkerchief works just as well. Dark colors like deep navy, purple, or black are popular because they make the cards stand out. There's also a practical benefit: cards stay cleaner on a cloth than laid directly on a surface.

Choose a Quiet Time of Day

All a reading really needs is five to ten focused minutes. Right after waking up, before bed, or after making a cup of tea — pick a time when you feel settled. When your surroundings are noisy or your mind is unsettled, the state reflected in the cards tends to be unsettled too.

Put Your Question Into Words

It's often said that the clarity of your question determines eighty percent of the quality of a reading. Compare "I sort of want to know about my love life" with "What should I be mindful of right now to deepen my relationship with so-and-so?" — the second version brings the card's message into focus immediately. Simply writing your question down with pen and paper helps you clarify what you actually wanted to know.

☀Step 3: Try an Actual Draw

Once your setup is ready, it's finally time to read. Here are three beginner-friendly draws, introduced from the simplest.

One Oracle (Single-Card Draw)

This is the simplest draw, and also the deepest. Shuffle the deck well, draw just one card, and receive a message from its imagery. Ask one question, draw one card — "What's today's theme?" or "What should I be mindful of with this issue?" That's it. Doing this every day lets the meaning of each card gradually sink in naturally. There's no better practice for a beginner's first month.

Three-Card Spread

Lay three cards from left to right, assigning them meanings such as "past, present, future" or "situation, challenge, advice." What makes this more interesting than a single-card draw is that it carries more information and can be read like a short story. Once you're comfortable with the one-card draw, moving up to the three-card spread gives you a real sense of progress. Deciding the meaning of each position in advance keeps you from getting confused.

The Celtic Cross (Ten-Card Spread)

This is tarot's signature spread — a full-fledged layout of ten cards arranged in a fixed pattern. Because it reads the other person's feelings, the surrounding environment, the near future, the final outcome, and more from multiple angles, it suits deep, complex questions. Beginners who dive straight into this can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information, so progressing from one-card, to three-card, to Celtic Cross is the least stressful way to build up your skills.

How to Shuffle

There's no fixed way to shuffle tarot cards, but here's a basic method beginners can follow without confusion. First, spread the cards out on a table and mix them in circular motions with both hands — a hindu shuffle. Next, gather the cards into a pile, silently repeat your question in your mind, split the pile into three smaller piles, then reassemble them into one stack in whatever order feels right intuitively. Finally, draw the number of cards you need from the top. This whole sequence is easy for beginners to reproduce, and it helps build a rhythm of focus.

Some traditions hold that if a card jumps out during shuffling, it "carries a message you need right now." Set the fallen card aside and check its meaning after the reading — it's an interesting practice to try.

⧗Step 4: How to Interpret Card Meanings

It's easy to assume you can't do a reading until you've memorized all the meanings, but the opposite is actually true — looking up a meaning after you've drawn the card sticks in your memory far better. Follow this order: observe the artwork first, put your own impression into words, then check a guidebook or online resource for the meaning.

Feel the Artwork First

Once you've drawn a card, spend about thirty seconds simply looking at the image as it is. The figure's expression, the colors, the light, the background, the objects they're holding — notice what catches your eye. Try putting your impressions into words: "This person looks lonely," or "The sky in the background is bright." This becomes the foundation of intuitive reading.

Learn Just Three Keywords per Card

You don't need to memorize every meaning of every card. Just three keywords per card is enough. For The Lovers, that might be "choice, connection, harmony"; for The Tower, "collapse, sudden change, realization" — it really can be that simple. Combine those three keywords with your impression of the artwork, and surprisingly specific messages about your current situation will surface.

Don't Worry About Upright vs. Reversed at First

What confuses beginners most is deciding when to use upright versus reversed meanings. The short answer: it's fine to read only upright meanings at first. Whether to use reversed cards at all is simply a matter of the reader's style — a reading works perfectly well without them. Once you can read upright meanings smoothly, it's natural to gradually start adding reversed meanings into the mix.

⚖Common Beginner Pitfalls

Trying to Memorize Every Meaning by Rote

Drawing a card, then looking up its meaning afterward — if you don't follow that order, the meaning won't stick in your memory. Rote memorization tends to fizzle out, so repeating "draw, feel, look it up" every day is, in the end, the faster way to actually learn.

Labeling Cards as "Bad" or "Good"

Cards like The Tower, Death, and The Devil have strong visual impact and can feel like "bad news" when they turn up, but no card carries a meaning that can be neatly sorted into good or bad. The Tower is a sign that "an existing framework needs to collapse once before you can move forward"; Death signals "the arrival of a time to let go of something old" — both are messengers announcing the need for change. It's important not to jump to negative associations first, and instead to receive the meaning with a neutral mindset.

Drawing the Same Question Over and Over

Avoid redrawing cards repeatedly just because you don't like the result. As a rule of thumb, ask the same question no more than once a day. Drawing again and again in search of a different answer means you're no longer really seeking the cards' message — you're searching for the answer you want. Accept whatever message comes up that day, and if it's still bothering you, wait a few days before drawing on the same question again.

Relying Too Heavily on Other People's Readings

Reference books and online articles are valuable resources you should absolutely use, but remember that the final interpretation should come in your own words. When the written meaning and the meaning you personally felt don't match, it's often your own instinct that's correct. Tarot isn't a dictionary you look things up in — it's a tool for dialogue with yourself.

♡A Real Reading Example

To make this easier to picture, here's one concrete example of a one-card reading.

Question: "What should I keep in mind to make tomorrow's presentation a success?"

Card drawn: The Ace of Wands (upright)

Reading: The Ace of Wands is a card of passion and new beginnings. In the artwork, a sprout grows from a firmly gripped staff. Its keywords are "passion, start, creation." Because this card appeared in the position for "what to be mindful of," it can be read as a message: rather than focusing on fine technical preparation, be mindful of expressing your own enthusiasm for this presentation honestly. It's advice to speak from a place of genuine excitement rather than relying on small tricks — that's what actually reaches your audience.

This is the basic approach to a one-card reading: combine the card's meaning, the impression from its artwork, and the significance of its position to build a one- or two-sentence message of your own. It's fine to keep it short at first. The more practice you get, the more you'll be able to shift the nuance of the same card depending on the situation.

✧Tips for Sticking With It

The more you continue with tarot, the better you'll get at reading it. That said, sticking with anything through willpower alone is hard, so building it into a habit helps it last.

• Keep a daily journal — Jot down a short note about the card you drew, what you felt, and what happened that day. Looking back later, you'll often notice, "Oh, the card I drew that day was talking about this."
• Do it at the same time each day — Pairing it with an existing habit, like right before getting ready in the morning or after brushing your teeth at night, makes it much easier to remember.
• Record it on social media or in a notebook — Consider creating a dedicated tarot account or notebook to share and record your readings. Connecting with other learners can also help keep you motivated.

⧗Your First Week: A Practice Plan

For anyone who wants to start but isn't sure exactly what to do, here's a practice plan for a beginner's first week. Just five to ten minutes a day, easy to keep up.

• Day 1 — Look through the whole deck. Pick up each card one at a time, study the artwork, and sort them intuitively into "like" and "not for me."
• Day 2 — Pull out just the 22 Major Arcana, lay them in order from 0 to 21, and imagine the story of "The Fool's Journey."
• Day 3 — Do a one-card draw, asking "What's today's theme?" Write three lines about your impression of the card you drew.
• Day 4 — Do another one-card draw. Note what feels different compared with yesterday's card.
• Day 5 — Read each card's meaning in your guidebook, and check how it compares with the impression you felt yourself.
• Day 6 — Try your first three-card spread. Draw past, present, and future, and link them into a short story.
• Day 7 — Look back on the week and pick your top three most memorable cards. Write down why each one stuck with you.

Just these seven days will naturally build the cycle of draw, feel, look up, reflect. Keep the same rhythm going into the second week and beyond, and by the end of the first month you should have a solid grasp of the Major Arcana keywords.

☾Frequently Asked Questions

✦Summary

All you need to start reading tarot is a deck you love and a few minutes a day spent with the cards. Start with a one-card draw using just the 22 Major Arcana — keep up that small first step for a month, and you'll genuinely develop a sense of the artwork speaking to you.

There's no need to memorize meanings by rote. Follow the order of draw, feel, look up, and the cards will naturally become part of your own vocabulary. Don't rush, don't compare yourself with others, and get to know the cards at your own pace. It's enough to approach it as simply enjoying time spent in dialogue with the imagery.

One-card draws in week one, three-card spreads in week two, and by the end of a month, a simple Celtic Cross — climb this staircase one step at a time, and before you know it, you'll be reading tarot fluently, in your own words.

Luna Factory offers a wide range of tarot and oracle decks that are easy for beginners to work with. Once you find a deck where the artwork makes you think "this is the one," your tarot journey has already begun.