Don't memorise the meaning yet. Look at the picture

Pick up a tarot card and your first thought may be: what does this one mean?

This lesson won't answer that yet. Close the meanings book and look at the picture in your hand. Is there a person? Are they standing or sitting, and which way are they looking? What are they holding? Is there something small you didn't notice at all a moment ago?

We'll start with these. It's fine if you can't name the symbols.

Keep what you see apart from what you think of

Try it with the Rider-Waite Two of Swords. The figure sits on a bench, blindfolded, arms crossed holding two swords, with water behind. These are things you could point out to someone else.

"She doesn't want to face reality" is different. That's an explanation you've added to the picture.

That explanation isn't necessarily wrong. But if you stop there too early, you may not look any further: she's holding two swords. Does keeping that pose take effort? Is the water behind her calm? Is sitting still something she can't help, or has she decided not to move for now?

I split the page into two columns. On the left, "I see". On the right, "I think of". On the left, describe the picture as if to someone who has never seen this card. On the right, be freer: write unease, hesitation, even "like me last week, not wanting to answer that email".

Your associations can be very personal. Just don't treat them as a meaning everyone has to accept.

Give the card a question

Now suppose you ask: "There are two courses I want to sign up for. How do I compare them?"

With the same Two of Swords, simply saying "you're avoiding something" is taking a shortcut. Maybe you're just missing information. Do the class times clash? How does each teacher teach? What do you want to do with what you learn?

Putting the picture back into this question, we could try reading it as: holding on to both sides without having decided where to look. Finding out what information you're missing may be more useful than going on wondering which is better.

Note that this is still one reading. Drawing this card doesn't mean you have to pick a particular course. A reading should be able to show which detail in the picture led to which understanding.

Try another card, and don't rush to look it up

Draw a card you don't know well. This time, only do the following:

1. Write three details you can really see. Don't start with conclusions like "success", "failure" or "love".
2. Pick one detail and write down a situation from life it makes you think of.
3. Ask a small question, such as "Where am I most likely to get stuck studying this week?" Try answering it with this card in two sentences.
4. Only then open the book. Find one thing that matches and one thing that doesn't.

Hold on to the differences. Maybe you missed something, maybe the book uses another approach, or maybe this deck simply draws it differently. Next time you meet this card, take out today's notes.

You don't have to write a lot each time. I'd rather see "I thought this person was relaxed, then noticed their hands never come down" than a whole page of neatly copied keywords you don't know how to use.

What this lesson borrows, and what it keeps

In the "Function" section of Read Like the Devil, Camelia Elias talks about reading from the actions and objects on a card and the shifts between cards. Liz Dean's The Ultimate Guide to Tarot Spreads offers other ways in through the details of the image. The two authors don't take exactly the same approach, and there's no need to force them into one correct method.

The exercise here is: describe first, then associate, and finally go back to the question. The Two of Swords and course example was written for this lesson. Use it to practise explaining your own reading. You don't need to imitate any teacher's voice.

Next time, we'll swap the same card for one from another deck. When Death no longer rides a horse but becomes a vacuum cleaner, will you still read the same thing?

Next lesson: why is this Death card a vacuum cleaner?