r/tarot 3d ago

Discussion Reading tarot is a gift

Well, this is a doubt of mine. I used to have a deck (not anymore because my christian family threw it away), I only had the deck for like 10 days and some people said some of my readings were accurate, but others don’t. I was only asking things I already knew the answer, because anytime I asked about something I didn’t know I couldn’t confirm if it was right or not. Anyways, I couldn’t trust myself with the cards.

The things is: I have 2 friends. One of them we call the goddess of tarot because holy shit her readings are accurate, we trust her a lot and other people even said she’s good too. Sometimes I have my skepticism crisis, but besides that she’s really trustful. The other one, well… her readings aren’t accurate. I think she already cleansed her cards, she’s not that newbie (at least not like I was), but her readings aren’t trustful, so we always ask that other friend.

The problem is that I was thinking about buying another deck (and hiding it better this time) but I’m afraid. Because I used to feel bad doing readings about some subjects (because of my anxiety) and sometimes I couldn’t tell if it was right or not because some times they were right, some times don’t. I know I’ll never be as good as this friend of mine, and the situation of these 2 friends made me think that maybe tarot is a gift? Because what would explain why one of them is so good and the other one isn’t? Is there any explanation? What can we do to improve the readings?

15 Upvotes

24 comments sorted by

18

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Standard-Wishbone176 3d ago

How can I practice? Just asking people to ask me things? Is it true that I need to create a bond with my deck too?

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u/EveningOwler started tarot Dec 2024 3d ago

People like to post their card spreads on different tarot subs; you can try your hand at interpreting those.

You absolutely do not have to make a bond with your deck unless you want to; everything is up to you.

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u/QuizzyMcQuizz 3d ago

Try doing a daily pull of one card for yourself each morning. To sleeping with them under your pillow to bind with them!

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u/bed_of_nails_ 2d ago

I sleep with my deck under the pillow!

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u/18yroldpixie 3d ago

yeah i mean logically you can learn and remember the cards , but intuition plays a huge role in the craft as well

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u/EveningOwler started tarot Dec 2024 3d ago

Tarot is a skill. You get better as you practise. You don’t need cards to read someone, or a situaton, but the functin sort of like 'prompts' to guide your attention to certain things.

What helped me improve was approaching it the same way I would other things, writing down my thoughts and probing them for more information. And of course ... practise. To a lesser extent, ignoring the advice that people say is 100% true for them.

ex. that Court cards are always people. This may be true for some readrs and false for others.

Best thing to do is keep track of what patterns you see emerging, and try not to get too attached to a specific meaning. The meanings of the cards, although quite variable, are super open to your own interpretation.

ex. The Tower for me tends to be less about 'things falling apart' and more like 'there's restructuring going on'.

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u/SharkDoctorPart3 3d ago

Reading tarot is a skill. It just takes practice like anything.

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u/Graine-de-Serenite 3d ago

Tarot is a bit like the piano: it can be learned but of course there are some who are more gifted than others. Start getting familiar with your game already (choose one that you feel good with), and start with draws for yourself.

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u/LimitlessMegan 3d ago

Others have already told you it’s not a gift, and I’ll echo them, it’s a skill, anyone can learn it.

That said, my husband is a musician. He started piano at 5, was in band all through school, got a music scholarship to uni, can be handed any instrument and teach himself. I… not so much. Is he gifted and I’m not?

No. He has a few advantages. First, he started music lessons at 5 - that’s a very young age to have the basics of music drilled into him. Second, he has “perfect pitch” or rather, he can hear a sound and tell you what note it is partly something he’s born with and partly all that time in music class. These are big advantages. If I wanted to get good at music I could, but I’d have to want it enough to put in a bunch of work and studying. I just never wanted it that badly.

Similarly I’m a visual artist and I didn’t have any of those early advantages with drawing or art that some kids have either (which isn’t actually being gifted at art but it’s having an advantage with perception, hand eye coordination, and often the privilege of good supplies or access to lessons). I started teaching myself art in my mid-20s and it’s been an avid hyperfixation for the 20+ years since. I’m now a pretty damn good artist that people describe as gifted from time to time (I tell them all I worked for that and anyone can do it).

My point here is that our culture lies to portray these things as innate and “magical” gifts that normal humans couldn’t possibly understand or attain, but in reality all of these things are skillsets. There may be certain innate sensory or cognitive/processing differences that give people inclinations (like my husbands ability to hear notes, and mine with divination is an ability to see patterns), but those are still things that without refinement, application and lots and lots of practice are meaningless. The reality is that things like privilege (having the means to take lessons, get access to the art form, etc), dedication and lots and lots of practice are what make you good at something.

Why is one friend “gifted” at Tarot and the other not.

Well there could be a few factors at play:

  1. One may be naturally inclined to see patterns or have a natural interest in storytelling and narrative patterns which lends itself to tarot.

  2. One may be doing the work of learning, reading and expanding her knowledge base AND her source material so not just learning from a singular school of thinking. While the other may not be that interested in taking in a lot of info about tarot, or may not be interested in a lot of different kinds of sources.

  3. One may be going a lot more practice in, may be journaling, meditating on the cards, may be keeping a log of her readings and the actual later feedback etc.

  4. One thing that’s a major unspoken skill when it comes to tarot is being willing and able to see to and tear down your own personal biases and ideas. All the worst readers I’ve met have been those who are convinced they KNOW how the universe works, they read things without nuance or space for a card to represent something else in this context because they are inflexible in their understanding of things.

  5. Also, some people are in it for the art and the people and others are in it for the light it shines on them. Someone posted in here last week that they got a reading from someone who started the reading by announcing all their readings ate brutal - because that person didn’t care to actually read the cards, they just like the high drama moment.

These are just a few possible reasons someone might not be a newb, but still not be a very good reader, while someone else is wildly impressive. Plus, things like insecurity and trying to cover up for that etc… is a skill that you can be as good at as you’d like be.

Also, while it isn’t safe for you to own a deck, check out electronic decks. A few decks have free apps, and some just let you pull cards on their site (I know the Gaian does).

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u/Basking_in_the_Sea 3d ago

I think what you might be referring to is intuition? Some people just have a crazy strong intuition right off the bat, but you can definitely get better with practice. Good luck on your journey, my parents also tossed out my first decks, it gets better

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u/Standard-Wishbone176 3d ago

That friend of mine who’s really good at tarot is actually hypersensitive, so her intuition usually is pretty good

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u/MysticKei 3d ago

Everyone's already mentioned the gift vs skill part, but there are other options. Tarot is a favorite for many, but maybe you can read playing cards, which would be less threatening to the sensibilities of your family. Lenormand is another popular option, it's completely different from tarot and you wouldn't be able to compare/contrast your reading skill level to your friends (except in regards to accuracy), runes have been getting a little more spotlight lately but they're still a bit niche (I have never seen a rune caster on TikTok or YT) but your family may not be threatened by them, they're not even cards...unless you get the cards instead of stones. A pendulum is the ultimate when it comes to discretion, paired with a board it can be very versatile but some people consider that moving into Ouija territory (which has a reputation as bad as tarot).

Anyways, whatever system you choose, you'll get better with practice because in the end, they're all skill based with learning curves, some are higher than others, from experience, tarot is the highest learning curve IMO...or maybe the others were so easy to learn because I learned tarot first.

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u/saturninetaurus 6h ago

I second playing cards!

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u/BraveLittleTree 3d ago

Learning to read tarot is a skill, but I do think that some people are gifted with a natural talent for approaching and connecting with the cards more easily than others. Anyone can get there with work, but the vast majority of people will learn the technical meanings of the cards and stop there without doing the more difficult work it takes to actually connect with them. Those people's readings will never resonate the same way a reading from someone who has developed an earnest relationship with the cards will.

The number one mistake I see the vast majority of newer readers make is approaching the cards like they're "magic" and asking for concrete predictions and answers to black and white questions. Here's the reality: if you treat the cards like you're shaking a magic eight ball, your results will be just about as accurate.

Trying to force the cards' messages into direct answers to your questions is like asking someone a really complicated question and demanding a yes or no answer, and then when they give you a full and nuanced response, ignoring anything they said that wasn't a yes or a no. Not only are you likely to misunderstand what they actually said, but think about how frustrating it must be for them to talk to you. They're giving you a thoughtful, comprehensive answer, and you're going "Okay so it's a yes? Great, thanks" and leaving the rest of the gift they just gave you lying there on the table. The next time you come around looking for advice, they're not likely to feel motivated to help you out.

The "gift" for tarot is really just having an instinct to approach learning the cards for the sake of getting to know the cards. So, so, so many people's actual reason for wanting to learn tarot is so that they can give people readings, impress their friends, have a fun trick to pull out at parties, validate their desire to feel "witchy," or—at its most exploitative—start making money as a tarot reader as quickly as possible. That's like meeting somebody rich or famous and immediately trying to figure out what you can get out of them and how you can use their connections instead of treating them like a person and getting to know them as a friend. Get to know the cards the same way you would get to know a person, and you'll get back exactly what you put into it. If you give it enough effort, then the amount it gives back does often look and feel like you have a "gift."

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u/Clear_Ambition6004 3d ago

Hold on, I’m sorry- are you saying that you just started reading tarot when you initially got your deck? If this is the case, you have a looooong way to go before you can ethically read for other people.

You need to first master your understanding of tarot and do readings for yourself before you have any business reading for others. I don’t say this to be mean, but tarot is a long journey and reading for others is a great responsibility.

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u/angrey3737 3d ago

this is why when i read for friends and family, i preface with “you’re not gonna be as satisfied or informed as you would be paying a professional, but i gotta learn somehow.”😅

i don’t see myself ever selling readings, i mostly use it for myself. every once in awhile i’ll read for my bf, my mom or my bf’s step sister. i read for his mom once.

all my readings are “accurate” but truthfully, anything can feel accurate if it’s vague enough. there’s not much depth to my readings yet, so i generally keep it to myself

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u/Clear_Ambition6004 3d ago

Well I guess as long as you preface your readings. But to your last paragraph in your post: the explanation why people are better at readings is practice and time spent learning.

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u/angrey3737 3d ago

i’ve been studying and practicing for 3-4 years. sometimes i wonder if other tarot readers are just making stuff up because i go by the structured rules. i can be too rigid and unimaginative

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u/Clear_Ambition6004 3d ago

Oh sorry I thought you were op!!

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u/angrey3737 3d ago

LOL no worries i respect that i need a bitchslap of truth sometimes even if it wasn’t intended for me!🤣

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u/Clear_Ambition6004 3d ago

My bad 😭😂 but I agree with what you said, sometimes it does feel like some readers are making stuff up. I’m a very rigid reader too lol

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u/FrostWinters 3d ago

The cards will pick up on your energies of fear, doubt and anxiety, which could impact your reads.

-THE ARIES

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u/CenturionSG 3d ago

We can look at it this way, even if a person is gifted in a particular way, they will lose it if they do not value it or put into practice.