What is a tarot reading?
What to know when you're new to it

Tarot is a deck of 78 cards. In a reading, we put your question, where each card is placed and the pictures on the cards together, to see what angles on the matter you haven't noticed yet.

How many cards are in a tarot deck?

A standard tarot deck has 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. Major Arcana such as the Fool, the Lovers and Death are often used for bigger themes. The Minor Arcana are divided into four suits, Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles, which mostly correspond to everyday action, feelings, thoughts and practical circumstances.

I usually use the Rider-Waite tarot. Its images are clear, which makes it easy to explain while looking at the picture. How the 78 cards are divided has a fuller introduction.

What is being read in a reading?

The same card reads differently in "the present situation" and in "what you can do next". Whether you're asking about work or love changes its meaning too. So a reading looks at three things together: what you asked, where the card sits, and what's drawn on it.

What can you ask?

• Work: whether to change jobs, how to talk to your manager, how to compare the options you have.
• Love: something undefined, getting back together, where things are stuck between you.
• Yourself: why you've had no energy lately, where you want to go next.

Your question doesn't need to be elegant. Start with something that happened recently; read how to ask first. There's also a piece each for love and work: how to ask tarot about love and how to ask tarot about work.

What isn't it suited to?

For illness, medication or surgery, see a doctor; for legal problems, a lawyer. Investments and lottery numbers aren't for tarot either. I won't pry into the private lives of third people who aren't part of your question. If you're in a mental health crisis, please get professional help first. In Taiwan you can call the 1925 support line.

Can tarot predict the future?

I treat tarot as a way of sorting out a question. It can show you angles you hadn't thought of; people's choices and later changes also shape how things unfold. How I see accuracy is explained here.

How a first reading goes

1. We talk about what's been happening and settle what you most want to ask today.
2. I shuffle, you draw, and the cards go into the spread's positions.
3. I explain them one at a time. Ask whenever something isn't clear.
4. Finally we go over the main points, and one thing you could do first.

Common questions