Published 04/10/2022 by Joanne Jones

How Tarot Readings Work

Tarot readings have always fascinated and encouraged us to discover the unknown forces driving our lives.

Since the 15th century, tarot has been surrounded by mysteries, intrigue, and some disbelief. However, through the centuries, it has become a popular and effective divination tool to help us better understand some of our challenges and uncertainties.

A tarot reading is a form of cartomancy consisting of 78 beautifully designed cards, each individual card having its own meaning and interpretation.

These cards can be broken down into the Major Arcana, which represents significant life events and spiritual lessons, and the Minor Arcana, which helps us understand everyday challenges and new opportunities.

Whether you need guidance about love, work or personal experiences, tarot provides immediate and insightful answers. It doesn't make predictions about the future, but it gives you insights to enable you to make better choices confidently.

Ready to uncover its secrets? Let's look at what makes online tarot readings work and why they continue to be such a powerful, timeless art form.

How Do Tarot Readings Work? Step-by-Step Guide

1. Ask a Question or Focus on a Situation

The tarot reading starts with you, the client, specifying a question or area of life for which you would like the reading to focus on where you seek guidance. It could be about your relationship, love, career, finance, or challenges you may be facing. Being purposeful redirects the energy required for a good card reading.

1. Shuffling the Cards

The tarot deck is shuffled by the reader, which is essential before the start of the reading to align the deck with the energy of the person asking the question.

While shuffling, the reader's attention focuses on the question or context, and they may also concentrate on voice energies to further strengthen the relationship. When the cards are shuffled, the reader selects single cards, and throughout the reading, any additional cards can be picked for deeper insights or complex questions.

1. Choosing a Spread

The tarot reader selects a particular sequence of cards (called a "spread") to organise the reading. Each spread aims to give guidance in response to the querent's question or circumstance.

The most basic spread is a Three-Card Spread. This simple layout represents the past, present, and future, providing an easy explanation of how a situation unfolds.

A classic spread or in-depth analysis can be answered with the Celtic Cross Spread, which is used when a detailed overview of a situation is required to understand the challenges being faced and their possible outcomes.

1. Laying Out the Cards

After the reader selects a spread, the cards are placed in specific locations. Each space on the spread represents one aspect of the querent's question or life scenario. For example, one card can represent present obstacles, another the future, and another is advice and actionable steps required. This layout allows the reader to interpret the meaning of each card, providing unique insight and an integrated overall picture.

1. Interpreting the Cards

The process of Interpreting the tarot cards is where a reader's knowledge and experience are essential for an accurate reading.

While the Major Arcana cards describe major life events, spiritual lessons, and life-changing experiences, the Minor Arcana cards depict everyday experiences, choices, and challenges. Together, these interpretations reflect the unconscious mind, offering an integrated picture of the overall situation and providing clarity, guidance, and resolution.

1. Gaining Insights

The tarot reader will advise what each card in the spread represents, how it relates to your situation, and in relation to the questions asked.

The future is not fixed, so providing intuitive insights from your subconscious mind can be enlightening to see the influences affecting your life and the actionable steps required to resolve the situation. Reading the cards' meaning and placement in the spread gives you a better understanding of the forces at play in your life.

1. Empowering Your Decisions

A tarot reading seeks to give you the insight you need to make informative decisions. The interpretation from the reading serves as your guide to make the best decisions and move forward in your life by overcoming obstacles that may be holding you back.

If you're searching for guidance and solutions or to explore new possibilities, an online tarot reading offers insight and direction so you can go forward purposefully and confidently.

The Basics of Tarot Decks

The standard tarot deck is made of 78 cards in two main classes, the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The 22 Major Arcana represent major life occurrences, Spiritual understanding, and life-changing experiences. Classic cards, including The Fool, The Lovers, and The World, all belong to this set, representing strong forces at work in life's larger context.

The Minor Arcana contains four card suits: Cups, Pentacles, Wands, and Swords. All the suits deal with specific experiences of day-to-day life: feelings (Cups), material objects (Pentacles), passions and ideas (Wands), and knowledge or difficulties (Swords).

There are 14 cards in each suit ranging from Ace to Ten, along with 4 Court Cards: Page, Knight, Queen, and King. These cards explore everyday life events, choices, and experiences, offering insights into difficult situations and possible outcomes, including new possibilities.

Although most tarot readers continue to use the standard 78-card deck of cards, others choose special, themed decks that fit their reading style or spiritual beliefs.

Learning the meanings and symbolism of the entire tarot deck is essential to understanding its messages and delivering accurate tarot readings. If you're a beginner in the world of tarot or an experienced reader, learning and understanding the deck's structure and symbols is the key to interpreting its messages.

The Role of the Tarot Reader

The tarot reader is an interpreter and spiritual guide who connects the person seeking guidance to the vibrations conveyed by the cards. Expert readers draw on their knowledge of tarot imagery, intuition, experience, and understanding to help clarify doubts, emotional truths, and opportunities, offering wisdom that is both practical and life-changing.

The reader's role is to create a safe and understanding environment, allowing the querent to share emotional and spiritual realities. A Professional tarot reader will use their intuitive skills to feel the energy or spiritual resonances of the person they are reading for, providing an additional layer of personal context and spiritual wisdom.

Card Spreads and Layouts: Understanding Tarot Patterns for Insightful Readings

A tarot spread or layout is the pattern of how the cards are laid out when drawn. Choosing the right spread for the information you want to receive is important. Simpler spreads are adapted based on the question or emphasis of the reading.

Three-Card Spread

One of the easiest and most basic spreads, the Three-Card Spread is ideal for questioning an event's past, present, and future. It can also cover basic queries, so the common three-card spread is ideal for simple questions.

The Celtic Cross Spread

This ten-card cross is the most common and well-loved tarot spread. It comprehensively views situations, exploring difficulties, external influences, and potential future outcomes. It depicts a spiritual approach to a situation, including identifying obstacles and offering solutions.

The Relationship Spread

The relationship spread is typically used to determine romantic relationship dynamics between two individuals in a love reading. The relationship spread is not limited to romantic relationships; it can used for any relationship between people, such as family and friends.

Career Spread

The career spread is a useful spread that can provide insight into the work environment, highlighting challenges that may be holding you back, new career opportunities and skills required for career growth.

What Can Tarot Readings Reveal?

Tarot readings can help you discover secrets and hidden emotions, find meaning in every aspect of your life, and bring clarity and resolution.

The tarot can also give insights about careers, obstacles, and where you have the potential to flourish. They can also explain the relationship dynamics of intimate relationships, family bonds, and platonic relationships, helping you to see what is at stake emotionally when conflicts occur and the steps to take to find resolutions. 

Tarot cards offer a look into your subconscious, helping to reveal fears, desires, and hidden potential.

You may have a life-changing decision to make that is causing you to feel anxious or want to heal from a traumatic event, or you may be stuck in certain behaviour patterns and need to find ways to make changes. Tarot can reveal the undercurrents in your life and help you find solutions to problems and answers to questions.

The Role of Intuition in Tarot Readings

Intuition drives all tarot readings, converting the cards into transformational insights. Traditional tarot card symbols can provide a basic interpretation, but an experienced reader can provide intuitive insights that deepen the process.

Intuition allows the tarot reader to sense unseen energies, emotions, and hidden truths during a reading. It's a language between reason and the unconscious mind that offers answers and insights that may be unable to be accessed via reason alone.

Instinctive guidance can take the form of intuitive intuition, vivid imagery, or flashes of insight, where the reader's attention is directed towards the cards to correspond to the querent's concern or circumstance.

Tarot readers offer enlightenment by interpreting the symbolism of the cards and their intuitive intuition. This intuition makes every reading unique, personal, and meaningful, enabling the querent to unmask secrets and act with intention.

Common Questions About Tarot Readings

Are Tarot Readings Accurate?

A tarot reading's accuracy is determined by the ability and expertise of the reader, the clarity of the question in mind, and the energies invoked in the reading.

Tarot cards do not predict a clear future set in stone; they simply point towards likely scenarios and outcomes. An accurate reading will likely be detailed and point out patterns, opportunities, and directions that align with the challenges that may be faced. It will also offer space for thought and decision-making.

The best tarot readers online have a proven track record of providing accurate online readings, usually with excellent customer reviews from previous clients. These readers have years of experience and can usually be seen on reputable psychic services such as Trusted Psychics, which are proud to offer some of the world's best tarot readers.

Do I Need to Believe in Tarot for It to Work?

Tarot belief is not necessary, but it is useful. An open mind can enhance the reading experience. Tarot works by channelling the forces and intentions of both the querent and the reader, leaving belief behind in favour of curiosity and engagement.

Even those with doubts might benefit from an accurate tarot reading because the cards offer a form of introspection to discover the emotions and anxieties we may be feeling.

Can I Do Tarot Readings Myself?

Absolutely! To start your tarot journey, all you need to do is learn the standard tarot card meanings and what the cards mean in various card combinations; with each tarot deck of cards comes a tarot book to help you practice interpreting the card meanings.

We all have a degree of human intuition; you must learn to use and trust your intuition to interpret the card meanings and understand how they relate to your life or situation.

You should start by picking a deck you feel attracted to and learn the symbols and card meanings, both upright and reversed card meanings.

While personal daily card readings performed by yourself can be enlightening, contacting an experienced reader can bring new unbiased insights and a meaningful, fulfilling experience.

Can Tarot Be Affordable and Reliable?

You can find top-quality tarot card reading services offering affordable readings by reliable tarot readers.

Many good and reputable tarot readers offer sessions at low rates, not because they are inexperienced but because they have a passion for their ancient practice and genuinely want to feel they are making a difference in a person's life.

It is a myth that affordable readings may be of low quality which is usually spread by services that are highly priced.

With a little research, you can find many highly skilled and popular tarot readers who offer affordable readings to their valued clients to ensure they can share their gifts and help others by providing spiritual guidance to those in need.

Where to Find Affordable Tarot Readings?

Finding an affordable tarot reading service does not mean sacrificing quality or insight. Many well-respected online readers are only available on services that offer affordable rates because they are not driven by profit.

Online platforms, such as Trusted Psychics and Social Psychics, feature top psychic readers without paying high costs. These services offer cheap psychic readings with a fair pricing policy and introductory offers for new users.

To ensure accurate interpretation skills, look for customer reviews, client testimonials, and a reader whose style matches your needs. You can access meaningful, professional, affordable readings with little research.

How to Choose the Best Affordable Online Reader

When trying to find the best tarot readers online at an affordable rate, you will need a careful combination of research and personal intuition.

To start, find a well-established and highly recommended psychic reading website.

Explore each reader's online psychic profile, paying special attention to their expert gifts or abilities, reading style, and ratings or client reviews.

Many sites offer affordable tarot readings at discounted rates for a few minutes, but then the cost automatically increases to a very high cost, which is something to be aware of before you use any service.

Many professional tarot readers have affordable introductory sessions for first-time users that let you know if you are comfortable with how they work.

Trust your intuition, if a reader's profile strikes a chord with you, it indicates they could be a potential match for you. Also, knowing what divination tools they use is essential if you want a specific type of reading. Do they use tarot or oracle cards, crystals or pendulums or no tools?

Trusted Psychics Affordable Tarot Readings

Trusted Psychics is committed to honest pricing, providing the best price without compromising accuracy and quality.

The benefits of tarot readings are widely recognised and Trusted Psychics ensure you will receive the best quality accurate tarot readings from vetted readers at a price within your means.

The Trusted Psychics platform allows everyone to find a fantastic reader with excellent interpretation skills, thanks to their stellar reputation for reliability by some of the world's most famous psychic readers.

You can get easy access online or try the instant live messenger service and talk to a live psychic reader. Trusted Psychics makes it easy to have professional, high-quality affordable tarot card reading at a great value price.

6 Quick Tips on How to Prepare for Your First Tarot Reading

Preparation will enhance the overall effectiveness of the tarot session. Here's how to prepare for your first online reading to ensure you get the most out of the experience.

• Begin With Goals or Setting Intentions: Decide what you want to learn or what parts of your life you want to explore. Ask a central question to give the reader an area to focus on. An open-ended question is best as it allows for more insights and feedback from the reader. Yes-no questions are not advisable as they lead to simple and short answers lacking details.
• Choose Your Reader: Pick the perfect reader by researching their level of reading experience and decide whether their reading style suits your needs.
• Create Your Sacred Space: Before any intuitive reading, ensure you are in a relaxed environment away from other distractions. Some people light candles and play soft music to create a peaceful sanctuary.
• Be Open-Minded: Each reader's expectations of the reading will vary, but remember it's going to be collaborative, so come prepared, honest, open-minded, and prepared to participate.
• Reflection: Once the reading is complete, take some time to consider the message and what you learned from it.
• Tarot Journal: Write what thoughts, feelings or physical sensations came to you during the readings and what patterns you may notice over time and during future readings.

Proper preparation can help you get more from the tarot reading experience, allowing you to gain more clarity, openness, and more significant meaning from the advice.

FAQs on How Tarot Readings Work

What's the Difference Between a Psychic and a Tarot Reader?

Although psychics and tarot readers both provide spiritual guidance and intuitive advice, their approaches and strategies vary.

Psychics use their natural intuitive abilities, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, or clairsentience, to interpret things about your life, past, present, or future. They get their information by tuning in to your energy or connecting with other dimensions like the spiritual realm and speaking with spirit guides.

Online tarot readers use the deck of cards to discover patterns, influences and possible outcomes.

Although some tarot card readers are psychic, not all psychics read tarot; the difference lies in the methodology. Psychics will use their naturally strong intuition, whereas tarot readers interpret the cards' individual meanings and messages for insights.

Can Tarot Readings Be Done Online or Remotely?

Accurate tarot card readings can be provided online or remotely without compromising quality or performance.

The energy and intuitive connection of the reading overcomes physical proximity so that the reader can feel querent's energy and voice vibrations from any distance.

Online tarot readings, either by Live Messenger online chat, video call or tarot phone readings, are as valuable and accurate as person-to-person sessions.

For many readers, remote readings contribute to greater attention and spiritual clarity because the reader and querent are fully relaxed in their own comfortable space. Live messenger services or psychic reading platforms enable people worldwide to receive professional advice from expert tarot readers.

How Often Should You Get a Tarot Reading?

The frequency of tarot readings varies depending on your situation and requirements.

If you're facing a big life change or difficult challenge, perhaps you could use daily card readings or weekly readings to get a better grip on what is going on.

Monthly readings with a tarot card reader are often adequate for general advice or spiritual inspiration. It's also down to personal preference; if you need extra guidance, you may want another tarot session sooner rather than later.

Learn more about tarot readings now! Whether it's about love, your job, or your future, tarot can be a powerful source of advice and clarity. Are you ready to learn how tarot readings work and find the answers you've been searching for? 

Get in touch with an expert tarot reader today.

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