Data as of Aug 25, 2026 · Based on 315 AI responses from ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode · See how Parse measures this
For beginners in tarot, the best way to start is by selecting the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. This classic deck is recommended because its imagery is highly symbolic and clearly illustrated, making it easier to interpret. Most importantly, it is the industry standard for study, meaning nearly every book, online guide, and course for absolute beginners uses this deck as the primary reference, simplifying the learning process.
Brands AI recommends here
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is the ideal choice for beginners. Because it serves as the foundation for most tarot literature, learners benefit from consistent visual references that match instructional materials.
Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot DeckSource | Citation share |
|---|---|
 How to Read Tarot Cards: A Beginner’s Guidehttps://the-line-up.com/how-to-read-tarot-cards-a-beginners-guide | 5.8% |
 How to read tarot cards with Michelle Tea : Life Kit : NPRhttps://www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1077397838/how-to-get-into-reading-tarot-cards-with-michelle-tea | 4.1% |
 How to Read Tarot Cards for Beginners | Tarot.comhttps://www.tarot.com/tarot/tarot-101-how-readings-work | 4.1% |
 How to Read Tarot Cards: A Beginner’s Guide | Voguehttps://www.vogue.com/article/tarot-101-beginner-guide-how-to-small-spells | 4.0% |
 What's the best way to learn tarot for a complete beginner : r/tarothttps://www.reddit.com/r/tarot/comments/12cla54/whats_the_best_way_to_learn_tarot_for_a_complete/ | 3.0% |
 Tarot Basics: How to Read Cards – Tarot MasterGuidehttps://www.tarotmasterguide.com/pages/tarot-basics-how-to-read-cards | 3.0% |
r/tarot Wiki: A Beginner's Guide to Tarothttps://www.reddit.com/r/tarot/wiki/beginners/ | 2.7% |
 A Beginner's Guide To Tarot - The Good Tradehttps://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/how-to-read-tarot/ | 2.3% |
 How Do I Even Start Learning Tarot? - Practical Magichttps://www.practicalmagic.co/pm-blog/2020/3/15/how-do-i-even-start-learning-tarot | 2.0% |
 How should I start tarot? I'm a beginner and I want to learn it ...https://www.quora.com/How-should-I-start-tarot-Im-a-beginner-and-I-want-to-learn-it-professionally | 1.7% |
Starting your tarot journey is an exciting path! For a beginner, the secret is not trying to memorize all 78 card meanings at once, but rather building a personal connection with the imagery and structure of the deck.
Here is the best, step-by-step approach to starting your tarot practice:
- **Major Arcana (22 cards)** : Representing major life themes, spiritual lessons, and karmic influences.
- **Minor Arcana (56 cards)** : Representing day-to-day life, broken into four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles/Coins) corresponding to the elements (Fire, Water, Air, and Earth) and numbers 1 through 10 plus court cards.
Beginner Perspectives
Community members often share how overwhelming it can feel at first, but emphasize starting simple:
I started by just pulling one card every morning and journaling about it before looking at the book. It really helps you build a personal connection.
Don't stress about memorizing everything. Learn the suits and numbers of the minor arcana, and the pictures will do the rest of the work for you.
If you'd like, I can:
Let me know what you'd like to explore first!
No sources cited
Absolutely. The easiest way to learn tarot is not to memorize 78 definitions. Treat it more like learning a visual language: learn the structure, practice with a few cards at a time, and gradually develop your own interpretations.
I'd recommend a Rider–Waite–Smith (RWS) deck, or a modern deck closely based on it. The RWS system is especially useful because its Minor Arcana cards have detailed scenes, and a huge amount of beginner material uses those images as its reference point.
You don't need to wait for someone to gift you a deck—choose one whose artwork you genuinely enjoy looking at.
A tarot deck has 78 cards:
Once you understand this framework, individual cards become much easier to remember.
When you draw a card, look at the picture before looking at the guidebook.
Ask yourself:
Then look up the traditional meaning and compare it with your first impression. That combination of traditional symbolism + your own observation is much more useful than rote memorization.
This is probably the single best beginner exercise.
Each morning, shuffle and ask something like:
"What should I pay attention to today?" Draw one card and write down:
Card: The Hermit My first impression: I need some quiet time. Traditional themes: introspection, solitude, seeking wisdom. What happened: [fill this in at night]
After a few weeks, you'll start recognizing cards almost instinctively. Daily single-card practice is commonly recommended because it builds familiarity without overwhelming you.
Once you're comfortable with individual cards, try three cards.
A great beginner spread is:
Situation → Challenge → Advice
For example:
The important part is to read the three cards as a story, rather than interpreting them as three unrelated definitions.
You don't have to learn upright and reversed meanings immediately. Some readers use reversals and some don't.
I'd personally recommend learning the 78 cards upright first. Once you're comfortable, experiment with reversals and see whether they add something useful to your readings.
This makes an enormous difference.
For every reading, record:
After a couple of months, you'll have your own personal reference book—and you'll start seeing patterns that no generic card-meaning list can teach you.
Week 1: Learn the Major Arcana and draw one card each day. Week 2: Learn the four suits and continue daily draws. Week 3: Start three-card readings. Week 4: Begin practicing on fictional scenarios or with a willing friend.
And don't worry about being "psychic." Tarot can be approached as a symbolic or reflective practice; what matters for learning is developing your ability to connect imagery, traditional meanings, context, and intuition.
If you want, I can also teach you tarot interactively—starting with the 22 Major Arcana, one card at a time, with little exercises to help you actually remember them.
A good way for a beginner to start learning tarot is to treat it less like memorizing a dictionary of meanings and more like learning a symbolic language. Tarot decks typically have 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana cards (big themes and archetypes) and 56 Minor Arcana cards (everyday experiences divided into four suits).
Many beginners start with the Rider–Waite Tarot Deck (often called the Rider–Waite–Smith deck) because its imagery is widely used in tarot books and courses, and the scenes on the cards give you visual clues to work with.
Pick a deck whose artwork you enjoy looking at. You’ll learn faster if you actually want to spend time with the cards.
Start by understanding the “grammar” of the deck:
Knowing the suit often gives you a starting point before you even know the exact card meaning.
A simple practice:
Keeping a tarot journal helps you track patterns and develop your own understanding over time.
Avoid jumping straight into complicated layouts. Try:
One-card spread
Three-card spread
The goal is to learn how cards interact, not just what each card means alone.
A common beginner mistake is trying to memorize every keyword. Instead:
People use tarot in different ways. Some view it as a spiritual or divination practice; others use it as a tool for reflection, creativity, journaling, or exploring perspectives. Historically, tarot cards began as playing cards in Europe before later becoming associated with divination and esoteric traditions.
A solid first-month plan could look like:
The most important skill is not reciting meanings—it’s learning to combine the card’s imagery, traditional symbolism, and the context of the question into a coherent interpretation.
Starting your tarot journey is an exciting process! The best approach is to balance foundational structure with personal intuition so you don't feel overwhelmed by all 78 cards.
Beginner Steps to Start Reading Tarot
Community Perspectives
Practicers on the r/tarot Reddit Community emphasize taking your time and avoiding burnout:
“Patience There are people who have been reading for decades and still feel like there's more to learn.”
“Do daily practice readings. Try different spreads and reading styles.”
Would you like recommendations for a beginner-friendly tarot deck with great artwork, or should we look at a simple 3-card spread to try out your first reading?
Starting your tarot journey is an exciting experience! Here is a clear, step-by-step roadmap to help you build a strong foundation without feeling overwhelmed.
Would you like me to recommend a few beginner-friendly books or explain the four suits of the Minor Arcana in more detail?
Absolutely. The best way to learn tarot is not to memorize 78 definitions at once. Start by learning the structure of the deck, then practice interpreting cards yourself.
For a first deck, I'd recommend the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) or a deck closely based on it. It has 78 cards, with illustrated scenes on the Minor Arcana, and a huge amount of beginner material is built around its imagery.
Don't worry about the idea that your first deck has to be gifted to you—you can absolutely buy your own.
A tarot deck consists of:
Each Minor suit runs from Ace–10 plus Page, Knight, Queen and King.
This is probably the most useful beginner technique.
Draw a card and ask:
"What do I notice?"
Before looking at a guidebook, describe:
Then look up the traditional meaning and compare it with your interpretation.
This gradually teaches you to combine traditional symbolism + your own intuition, rather than becoming dependent on a list of keywords.
For your first few weeks, I'd keep it extremely simple.
Each morning:
"What perspective might be useful for me today?"
Draw one card. Write down your immediate interpretation. At the end of the day, look back and see how the card related to your experiences.
Keeping a tarot journal is particularly useful because it lets you see recurring patterns and develop your interpretations over time.
Rather than treating the 22 Major Arcana as 22 unrelated things, learn them as the Fool's Journey—a progression from The Fool through experiences such as learning, relationships, power, crisis, transformation and ultimately The World.
That makes the cards considerably easier to remember.
For example:
The Fool → The Magician → The High Priestess → The Empress → The Emperor...
Instead of memorizing "The Fool = new beginnings," you start thinking of The Fool as the beginning of a journey, which gives you much more flexibility when interpreting it.
Once you're comfortable with individual cards, move to a three-card spread.
A great beginner format is:
Situation → Challenge → Advice
or:
Past → Present → Future
Three cards are enough to teach you how cards interact with one another without overwhelming you.
You don't need to learn reversed cards immediately. Learn the upright meanings and, more importantly, how cards change meaning depending on the question and the surrounding cards.
Once you're comfortable, you can introduce reversals as another layer of interpretation.
You don't have to decide whether tarot is "really" supernatural before learning it. Historically, tarot began as a card game in 15th-century Europe and developed its associations with divination much later.
Some people use tarot spiritually; others use it as a tool for reflection, storytelling and accessing their own intuition. You can approach it in whichever way is meaningful to you.
If I were teaching you from scratch, I'd suggest this progression:
Week 1: Learn the deck structure + one card per day
Week 2: Study the 22 Major Arcana
Week 3: Learn the four Minor suits and numbers
Week 4: Start doing three-card readings
And importantly, don't try to memorize all 78 cards before you start reading. Start reading immediately and let the studying happen alongside the practice.
Starting your tarot journey can feel overwhelming because there are 78 cards , countless guidebooks, and a million different opinions on "the right way" to read. The best approach is to keep it simple, focus on building a personal connection with the cards, and avoid trying to memorize everything at once.
Here is a practical, step-by-step roadmap for beginners:
Learning the Meanings
I found that looking at the pictures and symbols first and reading a little bit every night before bed helped me internalize the card definitions much better than stressing over instant perfection.
“Read the cards more than you read about them.”
Would you like recommendations for classic beginner tarot books/online resources , or should we look at a few specific beginner-friendly decks to see which art style fits your vibe?
Absolutely. The best way to learn tarot is not to memorize all 78 cards first. Start reading immediately, keep the process simple, and let your understanding grow through practice.
If you don't already own one, the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck is probably the easiest place to start. Its imagery is highly descriptive, and a huge amount of beginner material uses it as the reference point.
The important thing is that you actually like looking at your deck. You'll learn much faster if the artwork speaks to you.
A tarot deck has 78 cards:
The Minor Arcana also has numbered cards and four court cards in each suit.
Don't worry about memorizing everything yet. Learn the map first.
This is probably the single most useful beginner exercise.
Each morning:
Keeping a tarot journal is especially valuable because you'll eventually see patterns in how you interpret particular cards.
Suppose you draw The Hermit.
Instead of trying to remember a list like solitude, introspection, wisdom, withdrawal, look at the card and ask:
What is happening in this picture?
What emotion does it evoke?
What might the person be doing?
How does that relate to my question?
Then combine your observations with the traditional symbolism.
Think of tarot as learning a language of symbols, rather than studying 78 flashcards.
Once one-card readings feel comfortable, try three cards. You can use a simple structure such as:
Situation → Challenge → Advice
or
Past → Present → Future
or, for something more reflective:
What I'm experiencing → What I'm overlooking → What might help
Three cards are enough to teach you how cards interact with each other without overwhelming you.
You don't need to learn upright and reversed meanings simultaneously. I'd start with upright cards and add reversals later once you're comfortable interpreting the basic cards. Reversals are a useful additional layer, not a prerequisite.
You don't need special abilities to learn tarot. Whether you approach it spiritually, symbolically, psychologically, or simply as a tool for reflection, the practical skill is the same: observe the card, understand its traditional symbolism, consider the question, and construct a coherent interpretation.
I'd also avoid treating a reading as an unquestionable prediction of the future. Tarot can be a useful reflective practice, but it shouldn't replace professional medical, legal, financial, or mental-health advice.
Days 1–3: Look through the entire deck. Don't study—just become familiar with the imagery.
Days 4–7: One card every morning + journal.
Days 8–10: Learn the four suits and their general themes.
Days 11–14: Start doing one three-card reading each day.
After two weeks, you'll know considerably more than you would from trying to memorize 78 definitions.
If you'd like, I can also teach you tarot interactively, one card at a time—starting with The Fool and working through the Major Arcana, with little practice readings along the way.
Absolutely. The best way to learn tarot is to practice interpreting cards rather than trying to memorize all 78 meanings at once.
A standard tarot deck has 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana tend to deal with larger themes and archetypes, while the Minor Arcana describe more everyday experiences through four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles.
1. Get a Rider-Waite-Smith-style deck.
I'd recommend starting with the classic Rider-Waite-Smith system or a deck closely based on it. The imagery is highly developed and most beginner books and online resources use it, so you'll have lots of learning material available.
2. Learn the basic structure before individual meanings.
Think of the suits roughly like this:
Then familiarize yourself with the 22 Major Arcana. You don't need perfect definitions—start with a few keywords and, importantly, look at the pictures.
3. Do a one-card pull every day.
This is probably the single best beginner exercise. Draw one card and ask something like:
"What should I pay attention to today?"
Before looking up the traditional meaning, spend a minute observing the card. What catches your eye? What emotion does it evoke? What story seems to be happening?
Then check your guidebook and write down both interpretations. Keeping a journal helps you develop your own associations instead of merely memorizing somebody else's. This approach is also commonly recommended by experienced tarot learners.
4. Move to three-card readings.
Once one-card pulls feel comfortable, try:
Past — Present — Future
or, even better for learning:
Situation — Challenge — Advice
The second format teaches you how the position of a card changes its interpretation.
5. Don't worry about reversed cards yet.
You can read only upright cards for your first few weeks. Reversals can add nuance, but they're another layer of interpretation you don't need while you're learning the fundamentals.
Week 1: Learn the Major Arcana + do one card per day.
Week 2: Learn the four suits and the Ace–10 progression.
Week 3: Add the court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King) and practice three-card spreads.
Week 4: Start combining cards and reading for friends who are comfortable participating.
One useful trick is to learn patterns rather than 78 isolated definitions. For example, once you understand what Cups represent and have a feel for what the number 5 tends to represent, the Five of Cups becomes much easier to understand.
And you don't have to decide whether tarot is literally predicting the future. You can approach it as a symbolic or reflective practice—using the cards to generate questions, perspectives, and stories about a situation. That's a perfectly legitimate way to learn the system.
If you'd like, I can also teach you tarot from scratch, starting with the Major Arcana and giving you a little lesson + exercise for each card.
Starting your tarot journey is easiest when you focus on a classic system like the Rider-Waite-Smith deck , mastering core meanings step-by-step rather than trying to memorize all 78 cards at once.
Fast Start: The Core Architecture
3-Step Learning Sequence
Beginner Daily Spread
Red Flags & Common Pitfalls
If you'd like to dive deeper, let me know:
No sources cited