Tarot & Oracle Card Reading For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Whether you’re an experienced tarot or oracle card reader or just acquired your first deck, this Cheat Sheet is a quick guide to help you along your card-reading journey. Find tips for reading at events, help with what card symbols mean, and ways to avoid cold reading. And if you’ve wondered if a digital deck is just as good as a printed one, this Cheat Sheet covers that, too.

A crash course in reading tarot and oracle cards at events

So, you want to read tarot cards at parties? It’s a lot of fun (and it can even pay well). Here’s a compilation of tips to help you succeed.

The event reader checklist

Tarot and oracle card symbols to look out for

One of the great joys of reading with a new tarot or oracle deck is the way that all the little details in the cards reveal themselves to you as you spend more time with them. Here are a few symbol categories that many deck creators use to convey information about the cards’ meanings:

• Animals: Animals are more instinctual than people and spend less time second-guessing themselves. Instead, they act as their natures dictate. Animals are often used to convey the elemental qualities of the suits in a tarot deck; for example, you frequently see birds throughout the airy suit of swords.
  • Predators suggest an aggressive pursuit of your goals. They strike quickly, keeping their attention on their goals.
  • Playful or cute animals, especially in groups, are a reminder to enjoy life. They tend not to worry about what’s going on in others’ heads. They live in the moment with each other.
  • Domesticated animals like dogs and horses are helpful and loyal. They may indicate relying on your trusted network or helping someone in need.
  • Cats do whatever the hell they want. Period.
• Passageways: You often see key indicators in the background of cards showing where the characters can go from here. These can serve to make the images more liminal and transitory, suggesting a temporary stop along the way:
  • Doorways can go in a few different directions. Open doors or ones that a figure seems poised to enter may suggest opportunities the universe has placed before you that now require your efforts to benefit from. On the other hand, securely closed doors and gates can be a sign of strong boundaries and the need to enforce them.
  • Bridges and boats that allow figures to cross water may represent a strong recommendation for you to “get over” the difficult or emotionally tumultuous situation you find yourself in and move on.
  • Long winding roads in the background of a card naturally convey the idea of long journeys that will require your stamina.
  • Stairways, especially when you can’t see their tops, may suggest personal enlightenment and spiritual growth. You’re leaving a lower state behind in pursuit of higher things.
• Nature and weather: When the characters in a card are outdoors, pay attention to the natural world they inhabit. Not every tree or flower has some specific obscure meaning the artist has encoded. Instead, these elements tend to convey a sense of the general state the world is in for these characters. Blooming flowers may convey small joys you’ll receive; strong, impressive trees show strength and support; and bare branches may indicate lean times ahead.If the weather in a card is anything other than clear skies, the artist is likely conveying a sense of difficulty or hardship that the characters must contend with. Clouds or mists may obscure things; snow and driving winds wear you down; and rain can be cleansing or depressing.
• Artwork within the cards: Many background elements are simple set dressing that the artist used to convey the energy of the space. Sometimes, though, they sneak in smaller scenes or vignettes. People have spent many hours discussing the stained-glass windows and carved bed frames of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Trying to suggest lists of universal meanings for these images isn’t useful. Instead, think about how the figures in the card may react to the images. You may also want to note whether you see a high degree of contrast or discordance between the emotional energy of in-universe artwork and the characters in the card.
• Power dynamics: When two or more figures are present, be aware of how their posture, attitude, and positioning may convey special meaning. For example, the sixes from the Rider-Waite-Smith famously depict pairings where one person is higher than the other. Note whether they face toward or away from one another. Are their arms open, suggesting vulnerability and acceptance? Do they look at one another or, like the Rider-Waite-Smith Lovers card, does each character look at someone else?When you see multiple characters in a scene, ask yourself, “Which one am I? Who in my life is depicted by the other character? What does that suggest is between us?”

Reading digital tarot and oracle decks

How important is the medium of cardstock and ink to the tarot card reading process? In the modern age, are digital options just as good for readers to work with? Electronic options have been around for a long time. The original Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s had a tarot reading game titled Taboo: The Sixth Sense, which was followed up by other computer simulations purporting to tell your future, providing you with canned meanings and preset spreads.

As mobile devices have become more prevalent, helping people out in every area of their lives, why not divination? The biggest obstacle for digital programs is that creating a true random sort with a computer program is very challenging. Most apps that shuffle playing cards or seemingly random music tracks follow a preprogrammed algorithm. So, if you're concerned about having your app mirror the process of reading the tarot or oracle cards as closely as possible, follow these tips:

• Note whether an app mentions a true random sort in its description.
• Many apps offer a variety of ways to let you choose the card. In demo images, look for tarot and oracle card apps that offer a fan of facedown cards to choose from, allowing you to use your intuition to select cards for your reading.

Of course, if your approach to card reading is purely psychological and an intuitive response to the images, the fact that the app doesn’t use a true random sort doesn’t matter so much. You can allow the images that turn up for you to jump start your intuitive process.

App-based tarot and oracle decks are wonderful when you need some quick inspiration. Try out your phone app decks when you’re having a tough time choosing between two items on a menu; when you find yourself stuck responding to a text or email; or when you don’t know what birthday gift to get for your friend. Using your digital deck to make these small-stakes decisions will help you learn the nuances of many of the cards. These insights will help you when you’re reading for much weightier matters.

Avoiding cold reading

One of the greatest enemies of a serious, ethical tarot or oracle card reader is the “cold reader.” Cold reading is the unscrupulous (and often criminal) practice of using con artist techniques to make a person think you’re telling their fortune. If you’ve seen the film The Wizard of Oz, you may remember the lovable Professor Marvel giving Dorothy a fake reading to get her to return home. Most cold readers aren’t that benevolent.

Here’s the catch: Even ethical readers can unintentionally slip into cold reading practices. To a certain degree, people use these techniques in regular conversation all the time by responding to non-verbal cues from other people.

Being aware of these techniques can help you avoid them in your own tarot card readings. By being an ethical reader, you’ll be a good ambassador for the practice of card reading, and you’ll give more accurate and authentic readings to your querents.

Acknowledge their reactions

Con artists observe their targets’ nonverbal cues to guess what someone is thinking. If you make a statement and the querent scrunches their nose, that may indicate they believe you’re off base; if they widen their eyes, you may have said something quite true.

When this happens, verbally acknowledge what you notice. “From your reaction, it looks like my last statement resonated with you. Is that correct?”

Note the information they provided

Cold readers like to mention something the querent let slip as if they received psychic information. You'll often connect a card’s meaning to what the querent has already told you. To be ethical, you want to say that.

Also, be sure to note when you’re referring to information provided by the querent rather than by the cards. For example, “Earlier, you mentioned having concerns about _____, and I think that connects with the Four of Swords here because. . . .”

Avoid equivocating

Another technique cold readers use is talking out of both sides of their mouths to say something the querent will accept. For example, “I see you're generally responsible with money, but sometimes you're not as careful as you should be.” The goal is to get the person to say “yes” often, making them trust the cold reader more subconsciously.

Just stick to saying what you see in the cards. This approach results in better readings because making guesses about who you think the person is and what they want is based on your biases, and your biases are often incorrect. If you make a statement that's so general it's true of everyone, acknowledge that. For example, “You love your family, but they seem to be the greatest source of stress for you — and of course, that's true for just about everybody!”

Don’t be tempted to employ hocus pocus

Some readers suggest that mystifying querents with these techniques can help them more fully accept the truth of the reading. In fact, the reverse is true. If your querent ever suspects you were using smoke and mirrors during the reading to impress them, they won’t believe a word you said, and they’ll probably distrust all other readers, too.

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