We learn more by doing than by reading.
Of course, this isn’t strictly true.
Reading about the Tarot is one way we all learn. We can get ideas or inspiration from reading books, and in many ways, this helps us realise different potentials.
However, there comes a point when we have to put the book down and start “doing”. If we want to really improve upon our connection with Tarot, we have to start living the Tarot, we have to start breathing the Tarot, and the best way that I know, is by “doing” Tarot.
Next time you walk outside your house and see a car, I want you to think, “Ah, there goes the Chariot”. Next time you pass a church, school or large corporation, I want you to think, “Ah there stands the Hierophant”. Next time you see newlyweds or lovers meeting at a train station, I want you to have a wry smile for the Lovers. If you pass a garden, think “Empress”, when you meet friends think “3 of Cups”, and when you pick up your mail, think “Pages”.
The point is – make the Tarot a living, breathing part of your every day life. It shouldn’t be confined to your armchair. The Tarot is as much a part of life, as life is of the Tarot.
If you’re learning Elemental Dignities for the first time, or you’re practicing a new Tarot spread, or are really excited to trial out a new divinatory meaning for a card you’ve just learned, then you need to drop the inner “academic” and get creative.
Let me hand you over to my good friend, Aleister Crowley, to explain further:
You are familiar with the Four Powers of the Sphinx, attributed by the Adepts of old time to their Four Elements. Air is to Know, Scire; Fire is to Will, Velle; Water is to Dare, Audere; and Earth is to Keep Silence, Tacere. But now that a fifth Element, spirit, is generally recognized in the Qabalah, I have deemed it proper to add a Fifth Power corresponding: to Go, Ire. (Book of Thoth, p. 275)
When you’re reading about something new for the first time, you’re learning about a “skill”. But all the reading in the world won’t teach you this new skill – you have to learn it by doing.
You have to put away the Tarot books, turn off the computer and start by living it in your everyday life.
If you happen to see someone light a cigarette, ask yourself, what Tarot card is this? What Element, or combination of Elements, represents this? What cards would represent the completion of this “Act”?
Only in doing, will you actually learn.
When you open up your deck of cards, don’t do a reading for yourself; do practice readings for phantom clients. Practice, practice, practice.
Reading books does actually help. It helps you keep motivated and it helps you understand the skills you want to learn, but reading is only the first step.
Now, turn off your computer and start “doing” Tarot.
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18 comments… Let's discuss
Now I have to find my tarot cards. What If I can’t find the whole lot, Can i still do tarot readings? Or do I have to buy a new deck?
Hi Maz,
You’ll need a full deck of Tarot cards before you begin
I find this happens quite a lot in everyday life but I shall make the effort to look out for more connections. It’s fascinating when the two worlds integrate with each other and it’s a great way of bringing life to the cards.
Hi Lori,
Thanks for dropping by
I found that once I started consciously looking for these connections, a momentum was built up, and more and more connections were made almost automatically.
I started doing this years ago, and I remember it taking a bit of time before it became a sort of automatic thought process, but once it started, I was really amazed at just how differently I was interpreting the cards.
What an excellent post. I have had the “oh, there is the ______” experience. But I really like how you suggest extending it. Don’t just notice an obvious card connection, but think about the cards that together represent something. It would be a great activity for beginners, to start to see how the cards work together to communicate something. Not just for beginners, though…it would be good for anyone.
Hi Barbara,
Thank you for your kind words
Extending the technique can be challenging (a sort of crossword puzzle for Tarot) but after a while it gets easier. In many ways it’s like trying to remember your dreams; it takes a bit of time before a momentum builds up and dream recall becomes more frequent. Likewise, with Tarot, it takes a bit of time before a momentum also builds up and it becomes easier to see how the cards combine to represent many different things.
This had a huge impact on my ability to read Tarot cards
Great advice and one that for me started happening naturally without forcing it…slowly of course…the truth is I can “see” the Major Arcana more at play in the world then the others because I still have trouble remembering the meanings for the Minors…
It actually started a long time ago with my Froud’s Faeries oracle deck first because I would “see” the faeries mischief and influence on different things…like Gloominus Doom….in a person stuck in negativity and or Lys in a person that works with lost causes etc….it was as if the faeries came to life and lived in the world with me…offering insight and advice….
I think I would suggest someone working with this idea with the major arcana first….if they want to make it more manageable…the concepts there are more archetypal and really show up almost every day in some way or another…
The Wheel of Fortune when things take an unexpected turn…or destiny intervenes
Justice: Lately I have been noticing what I call poetic justice…lol….when balance is achieved in unusual ways but it still forces its will into the situation
The Devil…..duh he is everywhere….
The Moon….in someone’s disappointment or disillusionment
And so forth and so forth….
Hi Ginger,
Wow! Awesome advice Ginger!
I really enjoyed reading your comment and I’m sure people will get a lot out of what you’ve shared
Great post Doug! I like this idea of associating your environment in your tarot practice… it’s like a never-ending exercise for the tarot.
Now if I see someone smoking a cigarette (a chain smoker) and seems stressed out, I might see that as the 9 of Swords.
Cheers!
Hi AJ,
Thanks for your kind words
9 of Swords – Awesome!
Hey something else came to mind about this….hiding in books and knowledge….sometimes I find that people “hide” in books and knowledge…rather than move out into the world and LIVE ….life they stay “holed up” and only experience life through books./knowledge….so for example the romantic that reads tons of romances but never ventures out into the world to form relationships with others….safer to “read” about love than experience it and risk the possibility of pain.
There are lots of other examples of course….even on a scholarly level…and it could be the same of tarot…..maybe it is a block….it is easier to read and learn than to do…because once “doing”…once “experiencing” one may encounter things they perfer not to face…or it may open up new ways of thinking that are harder to deal with or it may present questions that one wishes to avoid…IDK….but just a thought as to why it might be hard to move from reading to doing.
Hi Ginger,
I agree, for many people the possibility of “experience” can lack “safety”, and this does seem to create a tension between allowing experience to unfold, or seeking safety in a book. This tension can create a block that’s hard to overcome. Great comment
Great post Doug – just to add to what you have to say I’d point out something that I’ve found useful is doing a Tarot reading in the morning simply to ask what will happen today. Often times a card’s everyday meaning will become clear this way and it tempers your reading for others so that they aren’t so full of pomp and bombast and the querent can relate to what you have to say better. For example, more often than not the Devil card for me means illness. While I appreciate that the card has far broader associations and far greater depth this has become my contact point with the card and is usually my starting point when it appears (depending on the surrounding cards obviously).
This technique is especially good for the small cards/pips and court cards which can often be more elusive than the major arcana. An example of this would be the page of disks which usually means “employee” for me and means that I know that the reading is referring to someone at work either someone at my work or perhaps someone who in the context of the reading is fulfilling some kind of work duties. This helped me get to grips with the grammar of the Tarot.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for dropping by
I’ve written a few posts on this blog on why I don’t like the “card a day” method. However, you’ve raised some good points as to its usefulness in helping you learn the “grammar” of the Tarot. I especially like how, through the use of this technique, you’ve been able to extend your understand of the cards in a unique and specific way to you – “the Page of Disks – an employee”.
It seems to me that this technique can be used to great success when approached correctly.
Thanks for sharing
Hello Douglas,
I won’t go into a lot of detail just now, but I would like to share the basics of how I came to understand the Tarot as I do.
Let me begin with this. I had been reading cards for about three years and thought I knew it all. I suppose this happens to everyone now and then. But, as is usually the case, I discovered just how little I knew when I was dumped by my first, “true love,” lolol. I couldn’t understand how I had been so blinded, that I didn’t realize she had been sleeping with another guy the whole time we were together. I even lived with her for a short span while my Mother had a nervous breakdown. Yes, I saw that coming well before I started tarot, (I was a complete nuisance as a child).
Anyhow, when I’m upset I study. I have to learn everything I can so that I might avoid another catastrophe. (Never works though) heh!
If I’ve been fooled, knowledge is really the only thing that can restore any modicum of self respect. So I went to the library. I wanted to know what made the Tarot tick. I’m not just speaking of divinatory meanings or elemental science. I really needed to understand the connection on a practical level. I won’t bore you with the particulars, but I would suggest you look into wave theory and disambiguation with regard to source and medium. Also, EPR paradox & Synchronicity principle parallels, fractal geometry in stock market analysis, and the golden ratio & recurrence relation in chaos theory. I’m not suggesting you understand anything more than what patterns these studies exhibit and what they have in common with Tarot. I certainly don’t have all the answers either, but I’m smart enough to recognize a trend. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. Once you do, you can help me figure out exactly where neurophysiology fits into the equation.
For now, however, you can simply take out your cards. Find the system that’s wrapped up inside, and begin to tear it all down. One of the first books I read after this girl, “woke me up,” was about boosting the intelligence quotient. The author stated that any subconcious process done on a concious level would constitute compound intelligence. I wish I could find the book, as I don’t remember the title and would love to share it with you. However, it was written by a man who later became head of the psychology department of Whittier College. I wish he had written one on memory as well. lol. Moving on…he contended that the subconscious went through several finite stages of evaluation in achieving knowledge. Yet another parallel we can use to understand the tarot, and maybe get a little smarter.
Stimulation, awareness, quantification, qualification, analogy, identification. and reaction. These were his seven subconcious processes. I challenge you to now take a look at each card. Pull the first and take a look. You see it, (stimulation). You acknowledge it, (awareness). How much doesit weigh? There is only one, (quantification). What color is it and how does it feel? Is it hot or cold? (qualification)? What is it like? It reminds me of, (analogy). You name it, (identification). You use, discard, fight, or flee it, (reaction). Repeat the process until you’ve run out of energy! Then, if your anything like me, you do the same to the different suits, arcana, and deck. Then the system is called into question…
Maybe it occurred to you in the last exercise that the stimuli reminded you of the Ace. If so, did the awareness of it remind you of the Deuce? How about qualification and qualification, are they the feminine principles of thought? Surely the emperor would define and utilize it as necessary. So what happens to it now that the king is done with it? I guess that depends on his Karma, (V). Did he use it in the best manner possible? Furthermore, how will it service the kingdom and what will take it’s place, (VI)? If he directed the elements, how will they be encountered, (VII)? How will I survive, (VIII)? What do I now understand, and how will I react to this in the future, (IX)? If the Emporer had given me a directive, How would the world have received me? Better still, How will they deal with me? We see all this again after, (X) my friends. Only then, the cycle has doubled and returned. The energy of the greater cycle is complex and we will discuss that at another time. Until then…
Love and Light,
Bulal
Hi Bulal,
Great comment
Yes, this happened to me as well. I’d been studying for a while, and thought that I had all the answers. Luckily for me, this phase was short lived when a similar event happened to me
That’s very interesting. I studied some of those same subjects at a time when, on reflection, I was pushing my self hard to make similar connections.
I also studied various philosophical systems, Derrida, Heidegger, Gadamer and so on, in an effort to find a system of interpretation itself.
I looked into the Philosophy of Science as a way of getting to grips with what I was reading.
I read the theories, then I read the philosophy and so on – one informing the other.
This is an awesome comment because it looks like you went down a completely different road – in terms of how these theories inform your practice.
I’m looking forward to trialing out this system – trying the exercises you suggest and seeing how this furthers my own understanding.
What you’ve written is really innovative as an approach to the Tarot and I’m looking forward to reading more
Good advice. I can’t tell you how many articles or books I’ve read on Tarot. Practice is what really makes it.
Hi Kat,
I’m glad you enjoyed the post
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