Tips, mostly from the amazing book "Tarot Tips" by Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone:
As the book says, "The trick is not to be stiff and formal, but rather be fluid and graceful in your interpretations." It's like dancing: There are formal steps to follow, but the real power comes in performing them smoothly. Even the tarot meanings that I'm sharing are just something I find helpful, something to reference. If your intuition is saying something else, or saying "but a detail on this deck actually feels ___ to me" -- go with that! Or if you're doing a reading for someone else and you're used to saying a card means a certain thing, and suddenly you're feeling called to say something else, that may be what the person needs to hear right now. It may even be helpful to consult the person you're doing the reading for (the querent) to ask them what they feel when they see a card, even if they know nothing about tarot.
Tarot makes no value judgments. There are only lessons to be learned. Each card contains a spectrum of meanings. Keep in mind that the querent knows that there are difficult situations in their life, and unpleasant cards are appropriate. But the querent should feel better about the situation when they leave. For example, The Tower is known as a "dark" card -- the card itself looks scary, people jumping from a burning castle. However, you can tell the querent that the destruction of old structures, while admittedly unpleasant, is the fastest route to liberation! Revel in the freedom. (There's also an explosive energy that could indicate great sex.)
Get the big picture:
1. Take inventory of the suits. How many cards are Wands, how many Cups, etc? This will give you a sense of the overall energy of the reading. A spread with majority Swords for example (relating to air) may indicate an emphasis on communication, education, or other mental activity.
2. Are any suits missing? Does that feel like it indicates a problem area, or something just irrelevant that won't be an issue? (I think of it like an empty house in astrology.)
3. How many Court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King) are there? Do other people play a large part in the story of the reading? Or is the querent looking at things from different perspectives?
4. How many Major Arcana cards are there? A majority of Major Arcana cards indicates a certain weight or importance to the reading, as Major Arcana relates to larger life events, including personal and spiritual evolution, rather than day-to-day events.
Tell the Story:
Place the querent in the landscape of each card. What are they doing there? Keep in mind that with the story you tell, it may not be linear. There may be flashbacks, occasionally subplots...
Go with the Flow:
Let the story carry you. You don't have to immediately see it from beginning to end. If something occurs to you later about an earlier card, absolutely come back to it. The skill here is very similar to conversational skill -- just relax and take it where it goes!
Look for Connections:
There are some tips on how to make connections. Ruth Ann Amberstone calls them "Secret Paths." The primary idea is to choose a card (whichever one you like) and find another in the deck that shares a visual, esoteric, interpretive, or intuitive connection with it. The second card will add information for clarifying the meaning.
The Visual Secret Path:
Look at the first card you chose. Notice all the details. What catches your attention? Perhaps it's a design element, a color, a piece of clothing. For example, if you chose the 8 of Cups in the Waite-Smith deck, you could pay attention to the crescent moon in the sky and connect it to the 2 of Swords, The High Priestess, and The Moon. One of those cards might have a deeper message to impart. Amberstone recommends doing this for all of the cards, figuring out how they all connect and making a chart.
The Esoteric Secret Path:
This one requires knowledge of esoteric attributions and correspondences. Be creative. Include connections like Hebrew letters, astrology, numerology, esoteric functions, etc.
The Interpretive Secret Path:
Think of the meaning of a card, and think of cards that suggest a similar theme. For example, Death has to do with transition, and so does the 8 of Cups, as does Judgment, or 10s.
The Intuitive Secret Path:
This one is the most personal. The connection is purely intuitive and can be made for any reason whatsoever. Practice drawing cards in your mind rather than physically. It may not seem as accurate or random, but Amberstone insists it works just fine.
The Reversal Secret Path:
When a Major Arcana card is reversed, take a look at its numerological partner (sum the digits). 21 The Empress -> 2+1=3 -> 3 The Empress. 20 Judgment -> 2+0=2 -> The High Priestess. Other than The Empress and The High Priestess (which correlate to The World + The Hanged Man, and Judgment + Justice respectively), the cards all have a 1-to-1 relationship.
| Major Arcana Card | Numerological Partner Card |
|---|---|
| 21. The World | 3. The Empress |
| 20. Judgment | 2. The High Priestess |
| 19. The Sun | 10. Wheel of Fortune |
| 18. The Moon | 9. The Hermit |
| 17. The Star | 18. Strength |
| 16. The Tower | 7. The Chariot |
| 15. The Devil | 6. The Lovers |
| 14. Temperance | 5. The Hierophant |
| 13. Death | 4. The Emperor |
| 12. The Hanged Man | 3. The Empress |
| 11. Justice | 2. The High Priestess |
| 10. Wheel of Fortune | 1. The Magician |
If you're ever wondering what the underlying influence is in a situation, or a subconscious motive or desire, look at the card on the bottom of the deck. It should give additional insight. Amberstone swears by it.
If a spread only contains reversed cards, Amberstone tends to ignore them and treat them as if they're all upright. In this case, they treat reversals so as to say: Notice me! They're drawing extra attention to themselves. That's another interpretation of reversals.
When you get a weird number of Major Arcana cards, the cards may actually be asking you for greater subtlety and self-inquiry. Look deeper. You want to look at each card for 4 possible levels of interpretations:
Amberstone believes you can read the cards as often as you like. Instead of thinking of each reading as separate, think of successive readings as a continuous process, each reading depending on the one before it. Sometimes though, the deck will get annoyed with you for pestering it and it'll (apparently) let you know when enough is enough. But there's no harm in consulting a deck to deepen your understanding; it doesn't negate the previous reading.
How to interpret seemingly opposing cards in a spread? Amberstone believes cards never really contradict. They just explain nuance. The trick is to understand the full range of meanings to see where it fits in the scheme of things.
The main things to keep in mind when integrating the cards:
Amberstone teaches this technique called The Voice in the Card. The idea is that you disregard everything you know about the card and intuitively use only its imagery to tell you your answer, usually through details. Her example was asking a student reader how long jury duty would take, and the reader drew the 10 of Pentacles. They first thought, oh god, Pentacles is slow (see the Timing header below), and 10 means 10 days minimum... but the reader then saw two small greyhounds and said "actually, it'll be two days." And alas, it was two days.
Timing is controversial. Saying exactly when something will happen is challenging. But there are a few possible ways to infer: