Let me start off by saying I'm new here and this is my first post on your forum and as such I'm really glad to be here and hope to become a part of your community. Now then, on to business

I'm a very novice Tarot reader, everything I know comes from a book and I've only ever read for myself. It's been 4 months since I started doing readings and I was wondering when it would be a good idea to transition into reading for other people as well as anything important I might need to know first, any advice would really be appreciated
Thanks in advance mates

Hello Shigrimer and welcome to Mystic Board.

The general answer to your question is whenever you feel you are ready. But the specific answer is also when you give readings to friends and relatives by using very simple and basic spreads, such as a one card or three-card spreads. Please do not be tempted to go to the complex spreads such as the well-known Celtic Cross and the likes.
See how the reaction is from your seekers as long as they are people you know and are aware that you are practising on them. One more thing: although it is very tempting at first to do self readings, but try and avoid that as self readings at the best of times can be quite daunting and are usually counter productive. We are too involved and biased when we do self readings. Try to avoid that at this early stage.

Take the book meanings of the cards as your basis, but always rely on your intuition first. Look at the card and see what story it conveys to you. If the book says about a Knight as being a man, it may as well be a woman in the seeker's life but with the qualities of that particular knight or page.

What deck are you using?

A great site to learn the tarot is Joan Bunning's free on-line tutorial. Make a search and see if you can connect with her tutelage.

Do not abandon the book at this stage. I would suggest you first look at the card and make your own notes about what it says to you and then compare with their 'meaning' in the book. If it does not agree with the book, it does not mean you were wrong. Trust your own inner message that comes through to you via the cards. The book meanings are there for guidance and I am not saying ignore them completely.

If you were considering giving or receiving readings on this site, you may be too young (lucky you) to do either. According to the law, you should be 18 or over. However, you are MOST welcome to visit the site, post your thoughts and impressions about the cards and by all means ask anything you like and one of us will be more than happy to respond and offer the necessary guidance.

Hope to see you around on a regular basis

Thanks for the warm welcome and the great advice, I appreciate it and am using the Gilded Tarot deck, I really like it since before reading into the book I could already get a fairly clear idea of what the card generally means. I hope to stick around and get to know the community ,even if I am barred from doing readings  

Oooooh...''barred'' is a strong word.... It is the law as in the Law... with the big L

I am not sure if you are not allowed to give readings at your age, but you are certainly not allowed to get readings until you are 18 - so, I presume it works the other way round too  :(

The Gilded tarot is very picturesque deck and am glad it is already 'speaking' to you. I use the Rider Waite, but don't let decks confuse you. Most decks are based on the Rider Waite.The important thing is your connection with a deck and how it speaks to you.

Do take part in the discussions and there is a huge literature in the Tarot Discussions forum prepared by one of our valued members here. If it intimidates you, don't worry, you can get to them when you feel ready. The depth of the literature in that forum does intimidate me too at times

Let's see you around Shigrimer

Hi,

We are hosting a new Tarot course for 2011, please join us.

Here are the links to sign up to the course.


To sign-up, follow this link:


To view the Index of Topics, follow this link:


Our first topic will appear shortly. Just mark those forums to alert you for postings.