7 Tarot Tips for Learning Tarot Card Meanings

Learning all 78 Tarot card meanings can seem like a daunting task! Here I will share with you my seven
favorite techniques for learning Tarot card meanings. These exercises will allow you to engage with
your Tarot cards on a deep level, etching the Tarot card meanings into your brain! Take your time with
these exercises and I promise you will gain a strong connection to and understanding of your Tarot
cards. I recommend having a good book of Tarot card meanings as your companion for these exercises.

Scroll down to read the written version of my 7 Tarot Tips…

Many Tarot cards in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck illustrate some kind of scene unfolding. Really
look at each Tarot card and ask what is going on here? What is the card imagery telling me?

For example, the Eight of Cups shows a figure walking away from eight stacked cups. It would appear as
though this person is going off in search of something, perhaps even abandoning the cups. Indeed,
the Eight of Cups meaning is all about moving on and searching for deeper meaning and fulfillment even
if it means leaving something that one has worked hard to build up.

Jot down your impressions and then look up the Tarot card meaning in your companion book to see
how close you were. Of course not all Tarot cards are so obviously illustrated, but this technique will
work for many of the minor arcana cards.

2) Pay attention to the symbols

Go through your Tarot deck and choose one symbol on each card that represents an aspect of that cards
meaning for you.

For me, the sun in the right hand corner of The Fool Tarot card represents optimism. The shining star
in The Hermit’s lantern, in my opinion, stands for the guiding light of conscious awareness, and the
uneven ground that the Page of Swords is standing on symbolizes instability.

The next time you do a Tarot reading, the symbols will act as memory triggers, reminding you of the
Tarot card meanings. This is a really fun exercise to do on a rainy day!

3) Understand the Tarot suit qualities

Remove the Major Arcana cards from the deck and group the remaining Minor Arcana cards and Court
cards into four groups – Cups, Swords, Pentacles and Wands. Each suit has a particular quality and deals
with specific aspects of everyday life.

Cups– emotions, feeling, relationships (Water)

Swords – mental aspect, thought, communication (Air)
Pentacles – physical world, body, health, money (Earth)
Wands– spiritual aspect, passion, creative drive, vocation (Fire)

 Lay out each Tarot suit in a row in numerical order from Ace to ten, omitting the Court
cards. Look at the progression from Ace to Ten as a “journey” of that suit and notice how each
suits qualities are expressed in many different ways depending on the card number.
For example, the Suit of Swords shows us the many ways our thoughts can effect us, from the
Ace of swords (representing clarity, insight and great idea) to the Four of Swords (calmness
resulting from letting our minds become quiet) to Nine of Swords (anxiety from letting our
negative thoughts spiral out of control).
~

 Compare each Tarot suit and notice the different vibes you get from each one. What vibe do
you get from the Suit of Cups compared to the Suit of Swords? Does looking at the Suit of
Wands make you feel different than when you gaze at the Suit of Pentacles?

 If you are the creative writing type, try crafting a story starting with the Ace and then
progressing all the way through the suit, using each card to inspire the next stage of the story.
This can really help you understand each Tarot cards meaning on a deep level. (Another good
rainy day activity!)

4) Understand the numerical qualities

Re-organize your Minor Arcana cards so they are grouped according to their number. Put all the Aces
together, all the Twos together, etc…until you have ten groups of four cards. Now look for the
similarities – can you grasp a particular theme with each numerical group? Sometimes this is obvious
and other times it is not. If you can’t see a link between the cards in each number group, what are the
differences?

5) Observe any movement (or lack thereof)

Go through your deck and take out the cards that show obvious movement (eg: The Tower – people
falling downward, Knight of Swords – charging toward something, Five of Pentacles – limping along with

difficu lty, Five of Wands – lots of movement but nobody’s going anywhere!)
Looking at each Tarot card individually, how does the movement in that card relate to that cards
meaning?

Now go through your deck again and take out the cards that show a total absence of movement (eg: The
Hanged Man, Four of Swords, King of Wands, Knight of Pentacles).
Looking at each Tarot card, how are these Tarot card meanings characterized by a lack of movement?

6) Personalize the Tarot card meanings

See if you can relate each card to a time in your life when you experienced what this card is portraying
or to someone you know who has these characteristics. Maybe the Four of Cups reminds you of the time
you kept getting job offers that just didn’t interest you. The High Priestess may represent your feeling of
deep connection to the divine feminine within you. And perhaps the Knight of Cups reminds you of your
sensitive, artistic nephew who always follows his heart.

Doing this will help you understand and remember the Tarot card meanings in a deep, personal way
so that you won’t forget them easily! This isn’t something to be done in a day however – give yourself
lots of time for this exercise, breaking it up over a period of several days or weeks.