Reading from the Faery Wicca Tarot Deck – in my backyard!

Are you interested in learning to read the tarot and/or other oracles for yourself, friends, and/or clients?  Contact me for Austin-area talks, workshops, and more!  Out of the area?  Let’s learn by SKYPE.

Reading the tarot is a balance of learning about the cards, combined with intuition.  For that reason, I’m a big fan of several exercises you can do for yourself to gain skills quickly. It can take years of study if you rely on memorization alone to master the tarot.  Instead–dive right in! You will learn a lot more, much more quickly, if you do as many readings as you can.

• You can create a tarot journal, where you record your thoughts on each card (not all at once!), readings you do for yourself, and later results.
• Daily Readings – You can do a 1 card reading for yourself either the night before, or in the morning. (Depends on whether you’re an early bird or a night owl…).  Record your impressions in your tarot journal.
• Tarot Meditation – Going in order, choose one card each day to meditate with.  Get a sense of the card’s energy.

There’s so many fun things you can do–brainstorming on numerology, color associations, astrology, and more!

Recommended Websites:

• http://www.tarot-heritage.com – This blogger discusses historical decks like the Tarot de Marseilles.
• http://www.biddytarot.com – Has great descriptions of each card for Rider-Waite/Smith style decks.
• Aeclectic Tarot – After almost 20 years of existence, Aeclectic Tarot still provides a wonderful forum for discussion, questions, and deck reviews.

Recommended Books:

• The Complete Book of Tarot Spreads – Evelin Burger & Johannes Fiebig
• Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for Personal Transformation, 2nd Edn. – Mary Greer
• Tarot: A New Handbook for the Apprentice – Eileen Connolly

Recommended Decks:

Decks are really a personal choice.  For a beginner, however, it can be easier to begin by working with a deck that’s based on the Rider-Waite Smith (RWS) deck developed by members of the Golden Dawn circa 1906.  There’s also a wonderful tradition of European Tarot decks, which have less definition in the pips (numbers 1-10 of each suit).

• Universal Waite – This deck has a more interesting use of color than the original, woodcut style of the RWS.
• Morgan-Greer – This deck has a bit of a darker aspect and brings all of the people/scenes into a tighter focus than the RWS.  It’s a great deck if you are or you are reading for a man.
• The Steampunk Tarot – Lovely artistry with traditional card names, but not the most traditional imagery. Fun for anyone who enjoys sci-fi, Victorian, or punk influences in the arts. Really muted, as if it’s an old stereoscope photograph.