Tarot Divination FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

General

  • Divination is communication with the Divine, especially for the purpose of insight into a situation, or the future.

    Tarot divination is the practice of Divine communication facilitated through tarot cards: a 78 card deck with a set structure of 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana.

  • That depends on which deck you get and how you use it. If you are using the occult tarot to summon demons then it can be very dangerous.

    If you are using the Good Tarot to uplift someone who is suffering then surely the only danger is of fear or superstition creating a missed opportunity to spread Light in the world.

    Unless of course you’re a Christian fundamentalist, in which case I should remind you that there is only one God (Allah) and Muhammed (peace be upon him) is his prophet.

  • No. It was invented in 1400s Europe as a trick-taking game, akin to bridge.

    The design was an innovation of playing cards: a Trump suit (the Major Arcana) and some extra people (the Court Cards).

  • In some denominations, sure. In others, definitely not!

  • That is the perennial question!

    I attempt to answer it in depth within the Tarot Apprenticeship programme by considering the answer through an Emanationist and ancient wisdom/perennialist framework.

    That is, throughout basically the entire 5 year programme.

    But to give a very short answer, perhaps the main mechanism can be explained like this: the higher self/incarnating soul interacts with unseen realms, especially the astral light.

    For our purposes, the astral light is to be considered a storehouse of past causes and their potential resulting effects (i.e. a karmic storehouse - you may know this as the Akashic records).

    This information is then translated symbolically via tarot cards.

Tarot Cards & Decks

  • The typical tarot deck structure is 78 cards in five total suits:

    22 Major Arcana cards in order from Fool to the World.

    56 Minor Arcana cards divided into 4 Suits. Each Minor Arcana Suit contains number cards Ace-10 and 4 Court Cards. This makes 40 number cards and 16 Court Cards.

    1. As discussed in the “what is the structure of a tarot deck” answer, tarot cards are typically a recognizable set of 78 cards divided into Major and Minor Arcana. Oracle cards can have any or no structure. A tarot deck may have renamed suits and one of innumerable possible themes (like Angels or nature) but it will retain it’s 78 cards with 22 Major Arcana etc. In contrast, two oracle decks, whether on same or different themes, will be completely independently designed in terms of symbolism, number of cards, etc.

    2. Oracle cards are mostly relatively recent, being associated with the New Age movement. For example, Doreen Virtue conversion. Tarot cards were invented in 1400s Renaissance Europe for Italian elites and often retain references to this historical origin, however tangential.

  • I recommend starting with the Rider Waite Smith deck for a few reasons. Firstly, it is surprisingly deep with a set of accessible meanings based on a complex esoteric structure.

    Secondly, most of the tarot resources available in the English-speaking world are based on it.

    Thirdly, it is an enduringly popular deck which inspired a lot of other tarot decks.

    Ultimately, the RWS tarot is a very important deck in the history of tarot.

  • CHOOSING: I recommend that you pray and then pick one that you are intuitively drawn to.

    BUYING: You go into a shop and pay for it. Or, if you’re Gen Z like me, you go online to Amazon and pay for it - plus delivery!

  • My mother thinks so. But I disagree.

    This is a perennial myth possibly based on obselete laws forbidding fortune-telling. Or perhaps relating to magical beliefs about objects.

    And speaking of such, I would point out that gifting someone else their tarot deck can be a potent white magical act.

  • Yes. In reading tone, symbolic connotation, magical efficacy and otherwise.

  • Yes. It’s common in some parts of mainland Europe and is a great learning tool for beginners anyway.

  • As a rule, the Death card (and other scary cards) are allegorical and metaphorical.

    However, psychic tarot readers need to be aware that the astral light, which is the main place people get divinatory tarot reading insights from, can give you visions of death if you don’t know what you’re doing.

    So please take precautions to avoid upsetting yourself or others.

  • This question is asking whether taking scary cards out of a tarot pack is whitewashing or avoiding the bad.

    My position on this is that professional readers ought to use their discretion and common sense as regards what sort of messages they give to different audiences.

    Giving overly harsh or serious messages when it doesn’t meet expectations or may cause upset is a bit unthinking at best and local career ending at worse.

    Think before you communicate.

  • A deck should not cost less than around ÂŁ17 in the UK and you should check the seller carefully before buying from them.

    When you get a deck, the printing should be proper (e.g. clear and well aligned) and the cardstock should be decent.

  • A simple, safe and effective method to cleanse and/or charge your tarot deck is heartfelt prayer as you choose.

    Cleanse or charge when you feel it is intuitively necessary or when a teacher from the system that you are following instructs it.

  • As a starting rule, I wouldn’t.

    People have grubby hands and their “energy” (for want of a better term) could interfere with the divination.

Tarot Divination Practice

  • Yes, diviners of any sort can predict the future - sometimes with certainty - in spite of free will. The reason is simple: free will is an often insignificant factor against an outcome determined by myriad other factors.

    For example, if a man asks out a lesbian, she will not go out with him. Both her and the man do have free will - but it is completely irrelevant in the sitaution!

    It doesn’t take much thinking to come up with various other examples of future outcomes and events being definitely predictable in spite of free will.

    Of course, not all things are immutable. Whether you pass a test or not was probably down mostly to whether you studied.

    But the idea that free will (including magic!) allows you to change your circumstances all of the time is a cultural myth..

  • See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6CBnoG0Dyo

  • A safe, simple and effective method is prayer.

  • See this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1hkDQHJw5o

  • Reading accuracy is essentially dependent on your degree of occult wisdom; join a mystery school.

    No, I do not run a mystery school. My training is supplementary.

  • Link planets and seasons to the cards via symbols and correspondences.

    For example, Pentacles might mean years, Swords months, Cups weeks and Wands days.

    The Sun might mean a year. The Moon might mean 28 days/a month.

    etc…

  • I don’t focus attention on the type of question as much as what answer to give during interpretation.

    Specifically, I believe that people practice divination (or consult diviners) for wisdom and spiritual guidance. The reader can give this regardless of how an enquiry was worded.

    For example, yes/no questions. If someone asks this and it is answered literally by assigning some cards to “yes” and other to “no” and then giving a one word answer, this is basically pointless even if the practice is prevalent.

    A much more insightful way to look at a yes/no question is to explore the situation. For example, by using Josephine McCarthy’s 7 card yes/no layout from her excellent book Tarot Skills for the 21st Century (2020) which does just this, with only the final cards as the binary answer.

  • Shuffling tarot cards can be done fine by combining riffling with overhand shuffling as the intuition dictates.

    There is also some maths to this such as the amount of riffle shuffles to make the card sequence unpredictable from the starting order.

    And there are some philosophical arguments to be made regarding the non-randomness of the shuffling process (due to occult explanations behind which cards get pulled).

  • Intuitive tarot reading is the practice of picking up a deck and reading it without learning it’s meanings set.

    For example, someone might be completely new to tarot. They pick up the Rider Waite Smith deck and pull some cards for themselves. Then they simply look at the imagery and symbols in the hopes that it inspires their intuition for an insightful interpretation.

    Intuitive divination (including with tarot cards) can work, especially with the 22 Major Arcana of the tarot.

    But tarot being strictly structured and steeped in largely consistent esoteric symbolism for centuries, the intuitive side is only one portion of the art.

    The other side is the technical part, or the meanings and techniques.

    It is when you combine intuition with technicality and technique that you get masterful divination.

Professional Tarot Reading

  • You declare yourself one. There is no professional standard - just de facto standards. For an idea of such standards, see my FAQ answer about when you are ready to go professional.

  • Roughly 3-10 years depending on pace and learning style. It is much easier these days with all the resources available that were not here even back when I learnt in 2020.

  • I have seven criteria for this:

    1. You know all 78 card meanings off by heart. This means you do NOT struggle with court cards or check the book whatsoever etc.

    2. You know how to use a good variety of spreads and techniques in a clear, concise and insightful manner.

    3. You are mentally and financially stable such that you will not become compromised in your practice.

    4. You have a thorough code of ethics well thought through.

    5. You are confident in your ability to read cards for yourself - you don’t need to hire other readers to do it for you.

    6. You have given some free readings to others and received honest but positive feedback about your accuracy and delivery.

    7. You are confident, resilient and professional in dealing regularly with members of the public.

    If you satisfy 5 or more of these criteria, you can probably start charging a few quid. If you satisfy all of them, you can start calling yourself a professional and charging entry level rates, so to speak. What to charge is heavily dependent on your circumstances - see FAQ answer.

  • It’s a personal decision.

    I’ve both given free readings and charged.

    I prefer keeping rates nominal or non-existent whenever possible.

    Also, sometimes giving a free reading can be taken as disrespectful if some people involved are heavily embedded within a commercial culture.

    For example, you might attend a New Age fair/event as someone giving readings and be required to take fees. Standing on principles can be seen as arrogant or pretentious by the ignorant.

  • This question refers to an argument made by some professional tarot readers that one should always charge for tarot readings because of purported arguments like

    1. People only value what they pay for

    2. Tarot is real effort like any other job

    3. Tarot divination may be spiritual but it’s still mental effort as well as a lot of study etc. and this should be compensated.

    None of these arguments hold much water, if any.

    1. You don’t need to charge money to make people value your readings. Just have self-respect and make sure people are serious. Don’t believe me? You need to get out more.

    2. This is irrelevant to the idea that one ought not to read tarot freely for others. Have you heard of volunteer work? Apprently not. Well it’s basically where you do work that you could be paid for but you don’t charge money. Crazy, I know.

    3. That statement is subjective and intellectually honest because it minimizes the free-sharing nature of many spiritual communities in favour of a capitalist inspired form of spirituality where everything is commodified. Some of us don’t want to commodify everything.

  • Online marketplaces such as Etsy, Ebay, etc. Psychic chatlines/hotlines. Social media. Metaphysical shops.

    All methods require advertising and buidling a reputation over time.

  • I don’t generally recommend working for tarot/psychic chatlines/hotlines.

    The reason is that they are full of scammers, pay below minimum wage, consider you a self-employed contractor despite still basically hiring you and in general engage are not trustworthy.

    If you don’t believe me, go and see for yourself the amount of scammers on any psychic/tarot directory claiming tarot is from Egypt or whatever other nonsense.

  • Whatever pays the bills in your area, keeping in mind that you are self-employed even on psychic chatlines.

    Online rates can be far more expensive than in-person rates. So if you actually want to help people rather than the top 10% of earners then for God’s sake do not charge £350 an hour.

    Writing December 2025, an in-person reading in Manchester is often in the range of ÂŁ50-75 an hour. That is not cheap but it is also normally between 200-400% cheaper than online prices. Not an exaggeration.

    Personally, when I have charged a listed price, it was ÂŁ20 for 1 question. This was raised to ÂŁ27 per question due to inflation. My 1 question readings last 10-30 minutes, or an average of 20 minutes.

    You might think that ÂŁ27 for potentially 10 minutes is not worthwhile and I agree. The point is to encourage people to pay only when they really need insight.

  • Like anything, you want someone recommended by word of mouth or plentiful good reviews who also has decent experience, a code of ethics and reasonable prices. That is the ideal, anyway.

Learning Tarot Divination

  • No.

    Do not be taken in by the sensationally marketed idea that these things (especially Hermetic qabalah) will transform your tarot readings from intermediate to master.

    This is simply rhetoric spouted by teachers of “magick” and the so-called Western Esoteric Tradition.

    What these people really want to do is gain a lot of social media followers and a big group of initiates who trained under them so that they can bolster their ego. They usually teach black magic as well such as manifestating/doing magic to get love, money and other material desires.

    Make no mistake. Magic for personal gain is not the Right Hand Path (RHP). The RHP is the renunciation of the lower self’s desires to the Will of the Divine Self. When this is achieved, you do not need to perform magic for personal gain.

    Let me repeat that so that it sinks in. When you give up the lower self to the Divine Self, you will no longer need (or desire) to do magic to manifest material things for yourself (your physical needs etc.)

    This is why it is sometimes said that “magicians become magicians” (and mystics become magicians!)

  • I can explain how to fix the issue once and for all (but you may not like the answer).

    Almost every time that someone is struggling with tarot Court Cards, it is because they have made a fundamental self-study error of trying to do too much at once.

    The solution then is to take some temporary steps backwards in your practice to build up solid foundations that will last.

    I know it’s not sexy but that’s my solution as someone who is a life-long auto-didact and aspiring polymath (and a tarot divination teacher, of course).

    With that in mind, here is a basic breakdown of the Court Cards by Rank & Suit. If they don’t make sense to you after this, its either because you don’t know the Suits well enough (so study the number/pip cards and the link between Suits and occult Elements) or you still have too high of expectations as regards what insight you should be getting from Court Cards in a reading.

    Just remember, one step at a time. Every Master was an beginner once (or apprentice, if you prefer!)

  • For a broad overview, you can read my article on foundational tarot skills.

    My tarot divination lessons on YouTube also cover some of these foundational skills in more depth.

  • Here’s the method that I used to be able to learn Rider Waite Smith tarot card meanings within 6 months.

    This method is like a self-apprenticeship; it will also teach you spreads and the practice of divinatory intepretation as you are doing the memorizing.

    Start by practicing with just the 22 Major Arcana. Then add in the 40 number/pip cards. Then add in the Court Cards.

    Here is a full description of the method, in detail.

Tarot Apprenticeship Teachings

  • Yes, I believe in magic (including thought power). And I also believe in karma. This means you can only manifest according to your circumstances. These circumstances may be somewhat self-created, sure. But since humans are ignorant of how the universe works (hence mystery schools to reveal it), most of this self-creation is filled with serious mistakes.

  • I used to be against them and a member of TABI as part of this position, but not anymore.

    I still believe that they are not worth doing in 95% of cases. But I would ask the querent to clarify the circumstance and intention rather than preasume it.

  • To be answered in a full article.

  • Emanationist cosmogony may be taken practically to imply that only certain sorts of artwork and symbols can positively assist a magician in attuning their higher self to the spiritual realms during magical practices. This naturally includes the artwork / symbolism on tarot cards. Thus, not all tarot decks are equally efficacious to the white magician who is practicing tarot divination. For example, the Thoth deck’s artwork is atrocious insofar as spiritual attunement, as multiple psychics from varying backgrounds have independently attested to.

  • I’m not “scaremongering” about anything. I’m warning about the dangers of psychic tarot readings through the example of the RWS Death card resulting in visions of physical death.

    It is entirely irrelevant that A.E Waite intended the RWS deck to be used for mystical and contemplative purposes rather than divination or that he made the Death and Tower and 10 of Swords and other scary cards allegorical.

    People use the RWS deck for divination. And some of those people are psychic. And psychics can pick up physical death when giving tarot readings. So they need to be warned about this in order to mitigate the harm that can be caused by such visions, whether to student or querent.

    When you fail to address this issue, you end up with people getting very upset in tarot classes or after giving a tarot reading in which physical death was a theme and this was picked up psychically.

  • Too many things to list in too harsh of a tone to wisely express.

  • Within the context of Right Hand Path occultism, tarot divination must hold 4 categories of potential danger: moral, psychological, physiological/psychic and soteriological (broad sense of the term). That’s not my opinion, it is a statement of philosophical coherence. Within Right Hand Path occultism, tarot divination is a magical art. And magic can be white or black depending on the motivation of the operator. And if the motivation is not entirely selfless, the operator will bolster their lower self in any magical act. And this will lead to the 4 sorts of dangers mentioned. Soteriological because binding karma is produced. Psychic/physiological because astral entities are attracted to the aura to create 'energy drainage’ or other actual issues in the body and mind at the biological level. Psychological (behavioural) because of possible addiction or anxiety produced from irresponsible practice. And moral if selfishness of a reader compounds to rationalize increasingly worse acts such as price gouging, weaponized empathy etc. for personal gain.

  • he Pro Bono Tarot Guild is a de-centralized network. There are no forums/group chats to participate in.

    You can join simply by making a commitment to pro bono tarot readings and then acting on it.

    Since most people who express interest do not commit, there is currently no invitation to join the Guild except that you gain automatic membership if you take my Tarot Apprenticeship programme.

    Once I have built a community, I will open the Guild to be, once again, a de-centralized tarot association aimed at affordable readings.