Articles
Tarot articles
Guides for beginners and practising readers: how to lay out the cards and ask questions, what an arcanum, a significator and the card of the day are, and how to look after your deck. Every article is sourced and fact-checked.
How to lay out tarot cards: a step-by-step guide for beginners
A spread is a layout in which each place has its own meaning: “the past”, “the obstacle”, “advice”. A card is read together with its position. Below is the whole path from question to interpretation: seven steps, three simple…
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Tarot card of the day: what it is and how to read it
The card of the day is a one-card spread drawn in the morning to set the tone for the day: what to pay attention to, what to avoid, where to look for opportunities. It is the simplest spread and the best way to learn the meanings…
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How to ask tarot cards questions the right way
A spread answers exactly the question you asked. A vague question gets a vague answer; a yes-or-no question gets a short answer with no explanation. Below are the rules for phrasing and ready-made examples: how to turn “What will…
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Questions to ask tarot: 60 ready-made examples
Below are 60 questions you can ask the tarot cards, grouped by topic: love, an ex, work, money, the future and yourself. Use a ready-made wording or adapt it to your situation. If you want to understand why some questions work…
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Tarot questions about relationships: what to ask the cards
A good relationship question is about the connection between two people and what you can do, not only about your partner’s feelings. Below are questions for different situations — dating someone new, a relationship with a man, a…
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Tarot questions about money and work
A good money question doesn’t ask “how much will I have” but “what should I do”: the cards don’t name amounts or dates, but they help you see what is in the way and where the opportunity lies. Below are sample questions about…
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Reversed tarot cards: what they mean and how to read them
A reversed card is one that lands in a spread with its image upside down. It has its own, reversed meaning: usually the energy of the upright card weakened, delayed or distorted. Arthur Waite already gave reversed meanings in his…
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How many cards are in a tarot deck?
A standard tarot deck has 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. That is how the Rider–Waite deck is built, and so are most modern decks, including the author’s deck on our site. Below is what the 78 cards are made up of…
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What is an arcanum? A simple explanation
An arcanum is a tarot card. The word comes from the Latin arcanum, “secret,” which is why the cards are called arcana, as if each one holds a hidden meaning. A deck has 78 arcana: 22 Major and 56 Minor. In numerology and the…
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Significator in tarot: what it is and how to choose it
A significator is the card that represents the querent (the person asking) or the main subject of the question in a reading. It is chosen before the reading, placed face up, and the other cards are read in relation to it. The…
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Querent: who it is in tarot, in simple terms
The querent is the person who asks the question in a reading: the one the spread is laid out for. If you read for yourself, you are the querent. The word comes from the Latin quaerere, “to ask, to seek.” Horary astrology has long…
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Blank card in tarot: what the white card means
The white, or blank, card is an extra card without an image that is sometimes included in the box with a deck. It is not one of the classic 78 cards: Waite’s book describes 22 Major and 56 Minor Arcana, and there is no blank card…
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Can you read tarot for yourself?
Yes, you can. No classic tarot manual forbids reading for yourself. In his description of the Celtic Cross, Waite openly allows for a reading about oneself: if the reader wants to learn something about themselves, they take as…
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Can tarot cards be wrong?
The cards themselves are never wrong and never lie: they simply fall in a random order. What can be wrong is the interpretation: the question, the reading and the person’s expectations. There is no scientific evidence that tarot…
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How to shuffle tarot cards before a reading
Shuffling mixes the deck so that the order of the cards is random. Tarot cards are larger than playing cards, so they are shuffled more carefully. Below are four methods, a tip on getting reversed cards, and what Waite wrote…
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How to pick tarot cards the right way
Drawing a card means taking it from the deck after shuffling and placing it in a position of the spread. There is no single strict rule: there are several common methods and one essential condition — choose your method in advance…
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How to cleanse tarot cards
Cleansing a deck is a fortune-telling tradition: the belief is that after heavy readings or other people’s hands, the cards “build up” energy and need to be “reset”. There is no evidence for this, and the classic manuals, Waite’s…
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How to charge tarot cards
To “charge” a deck, according to fortune-telling tradition, means to fill it with your own energy so that readings are more accurate. There is no scientific evidence for this, and you won’t find such a rite in the classic…
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How to activate new tarot cards
“Activating” a deck is a tradition among tarot readers: a ritual of getting acquainted with new cards before the first reading. The classic manuals have no such rite: Waite’s The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, for example, describes…
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