Get Started With The RWS Tarot: A Mentor’s Guide
Master the divinatory meanings for the RWS tarot system by seeing how they apply across life areas, spread positions and key combinations. Based on the 2,000+ readings experience of a practicing divinatory tarot reader and neo-Hermetic occultist (Toby Skibinski) who uses a blend of modern popular and original divinatory meanings in both his public and personal (self-reading) practice.
How To Use This Series: A Mentor’s Do’s and Don’ts
Don’t try to tackle all 78 cards at once. Start with just the 22 Major Arcana cards. When you get to the Minor Arcana, look at only the Numbered/Pip cards (the Ace-10s of those 4 Suits) before you worry about the Court Cards.
Don’t just study the cards; regularly practice reading for yourself. This is possible to do accurately, but it takes patience and careful practice.
Do keep a tarot journal in the beginning. This is to help you organize your thoughts, connect cards together and verify your predictions or intuitive insights.
Do use 3-5 card spreads at first. Whilst you can use other techniques such as lines and tableaus, spreads provide a structure for you to lean on that can help you to learn these other techniques much faster. Whereas if you start with lines or tableaus, spreads may be tricky for you.
Don’t pull more than a couple of clarifiers. This is a common beginner mistake when someone is struggling to interpret the actual spread.
Do shuffle in an occult scientific manner. Without explaining the reasoning here, I suggest that you shuffle and select your cards using a mix of riffle and overhand shuffles, then select cards by intuition. If your deck is new, do 9 or more riffles then a minute or two of overhand.
Don’t forget to prepare for every reading through a) thorough relaxation of mind and body b) heartfelt prayer or ritual. This is important for psychic protection, intuitive insights and mitigating bias from your lower self.
Note: meanings for all 78 cards were finished in December 2025.
The 22 Major Arcana: New Readers Start Here To Avoid Overwhelm
Site Author’s Commentary On Major Arcana
I have kept these RWS Major Arcana meanings true to the spirit of the perennial philosophy of Right Hand Path Western occultism, which is my personal practice. For example, I have not made the Magician a card success in personal desires through New Age manifestation. Instead, I have kept it true to the older definitions of white vs black magic, a distinction which is rarely recognized among occultists today.
Similarly, I have not made the Devil a positive card upon the squinting of the eyes: it is a card of vice and sin. Nor have I reduced The Tower card solely to Waite’s allegorical intentions, but I have kept to the meanings as practiced in divinatory circles. And I have not reduced Justice to a card of legal disputes but have retained it’s occult signfiication of Karmic Law.
The Minor Arcana Suits: Save Court Cards Until Last!
Remember, my recommendation for learning the Minor Arcana is that you take the 16 Court Cards out of your deck until you have mastered the Numbered cards (Ace-10s).
Site Author’s Commentary On Minor Arcana
For the Minor Arcana, I have used mainly the popular modern meanings used by divinatory readers in the 21st century. However, I have made exceptions where these meanings have become irreconcilably psychologized.
For example, with the 8 of Swords, the modern readers speak of ‘taking off the blindfold’ to realize that one is only stuck within their own mind. I have stuck to Waite’s more serious divinatory meanings here I take the modern descriptions as an egregiously offensive victim-blaming insult.
The same is true for the 9 of Swords, which means ‘imprisonment’ and ‘isolation’ in Waite’s original divinatory list. Yet, in the 21st century, the card has apparently been reduced to self-imposed anxiety.
The Aces I have paid close attention to in their divinatory meanings, for in the esoteric structure of this deck they are very arcane.
Sources For This Series
Original RWS Meanings
Key To The Tarot, 1910 by A.E Waite (from sacred-texts.com)
Modern Divinatory Meanings
This is a broad set of personal influences which includes:
Popular tarot card meanings resources from the internet: The Tarot Guide, Labyrinthos, Truly Teach Me Tarot.
DuQuette’s Tarot of Ceremonial Magick (book and deck). I do not use the deck anymore. But it was once in regular use to the point of being bought twice within two years.
Josephine McCarthy’s Tarot Skills for the 21st century (2020). This book was influential to my personal practice. Whilst I am not a Quareia initiate, I am a particular fan of various spreads which she released in that book (and of her approach to esotericism in general).
In 2020, when I was first learning, I did also use various YouTube tarotscope creators. The channel names I do not recall.
Further Sources: Full Bibliography
Tarot: History, Symbolism & Divination by Robert M. Place. This book is out of date compared to his new title: The Tarot: Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism and neo-Platonism.
LLewellyn’s Complete Guide To the Rider Waite Smith Tarot by Sasha Graham.
Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen.
Looking Up Card Meanings For A Reading?
Use this method to genuinely master all 78 card meanings within 12-30 months. With some refinements, this is the same method that I used when I was in your position looking up card meanings online. Nowadays, it works well with mentorship students.