Sadly, most tarot classes start students with memorizing card meanings. An intimidating introduction to the art and beauty of tarot! And establishing the idea of a “right” meaning encourages people to rely on cheat sheets or the book. At worst, it can serve as gatekeeping that turns away those whose brains don’t work a certain way. On the other hand, totally intuitive approaches often produce vague, mushy readings. And reliance solely on intuition fails to ground card interpretations in the symbolism of the tarot. The resulting readings float untethered, soul-crushingly released from the rich and many-layered lineage of tarot history, like a helium balloon fleeing the hand of a child. The best readings enchant and enthrall while standing strong in tarot tradition. Tarot symbols–not meanings–provide the stick around which the cotton candy story swirls. If you want to be an amazing tarot reader, don’t memorize tarot card meanings.
Instead, first, learn to FIND the meaning in images, not to IMPOSE meaning on images.
Then, when you can do this with elegance and ease, delve into systems of symbolic correspondence to unleash the full power of your tarot readings.
What Are Systems of Correspondence?
Card correspondences are symbols that are assigned to each card. These symbols provide the context and themes of the tale that unfolds. They are the generations of elders who smile their encouragement as you confidently speak the unique story of each spread.
Learning the symbolic systems of correspondence does indeed involve memorization. But it’s almost never the first thing a reader learns. Rather, it crystallizes slowly out of repetition and familiarity. You grow into this knowledge, but it also grows with you at your own pace. Furthermore, they are systems, so there is a “why” behind them and a logic that guides them. Rather than a random slush fund of facts, they are a puzzle to solve. They are magic and fun.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, let’s take a look at what doesn’t work for beginning tarot students.
Problems with Memorizing Tarot Card Meanings

- Memorizing tarot card meanings is hard to do and can be intimidating for many.
- Not everyone has a learning style that benefits from memorizing tarot card meanings.
- It locks the cards down into the specific meanings you learned, and how many meanings did you memorize, anyway?
- As a new reader, you’ll be scared to deviate from what you learned. As a result, you won’t develop the confidence you need to read intuitively.
- There are different styles and lineages of tarot symbolism, and the meanings you learned won’t apply to all tarot traditions. So you’ll just have to start again if you’d like to work with a variety of decks.
- You’ll find yourself in an interpretive rut, tending to read all decks the same way. As a result, you’ll fail to honor the artistic and symbolic uniqueness of each one.
- When you memorize tarot card meanings, you learn from the start to see each card as a discrete entity, an image that stands alone. Even as you grow, you’ll find it difficult to meld one card into the other in search of the story.
However, also be wary of reading totally intuitively

This might sound surprising, but it’s just as bad to swing too far the other way. To “say what you think” might be good training for a psychic reader, but for tarot it doesn’t work. Instead, it produces mushy readings with no substance or coherence. Worse, following whatever strikes your fancy could lead to judgmental readings. You don’t want to exert your own opinions on the cards or the person you’re reading for!
If you consistently get clear, accurate, and relevant information from your gut response to the cards, you’re a natural intuitive. (Everyone is, but some have more talent than others.) And so you’ll think you’ve hit on the best technique for you. Unfortunately, being a tarot reader doesn’t work quite like that.
First, talent needs to be practiced and developed. If you’re randomly getting some hits, you won’t have a clear sense of what works. And you won’t have cultivated the techniques that produce successful readings every time. Worst of all, unskilled but gifted readers might find that they can only read sometimes. They’ll approach readings with trepidation, because they won’t know when Spirit will move them. And if their energy is off from sickness or a bad day, they won’t be able to read at all.
But the primary reason against learning tarot completely intuitively is that, as you learn to trust your intuition, you’re teaching yourself not to trust the cards. New readers almost always get strong intuitive hits. But when they say, “I can’t find it in the card, but I know it’s right,” they’re selecting their psychic powers and rejecting their tarot reading skill! Even for gifted psychics, it’s best to learn tarot as a separate skill from your innate intuitive talents.
How a Skilled Tarot Reader Works

Skilled tarot readers have built a broad but focused set of interpretations for every card. The best readers find freshness in each reading, staying within the locus of the card. Rather than considering each card to have a handful of meanings, consider each to be an equation. An equation that always produces a specific shape. That card, in any given reading, depends from one point–of all the possible points–in the form that results from that equation.
Or, you could say it’s like every card is a root, but no two leaves, stems, or blossoms—the specific details of the interpretations—are precisely the same. But they will be the same plant. Crocuses will never crown dandelion stems.
By examining these details, an experienced reader sees what’s relevant and unique in the cards before them. They see the story in the cards. They note which cards are working together, which represent challenges and opportunities, and where this current course of action is headed.
An expert reader integrates their knowledge and experience with creativity and intuition. They are guided by energetic connections to the querent and/or Spirit to speak directly to the details of the querent’s unique situation. They do not resort to vague, universal, or emotional language. Rather, they ground and personalize the reading with precise descriptions of the querent’s situation and practical guidance for how the querent can achieve their goals.
The best readers use the unique symbols and scenic details of the cards to conjure metaphors that are surprisingly relevant and accurate for the querent.
If You Want to Be a True Reader, This Is the Best Way To Learn Tarot
- Look for the story – the background of the current situation, the immediate problem, the goal, the obstacles, and the likely climax—what must be resolved for the querent to reach their goal.
- Identify the character and the actions they take. Actions are the most important part of a tarot reading. They are clear, specific, and provide recognizable descriptions of what’s past, as well as actionable steps for the future. More than how a person feels, thinks, or even speaks, it is action that reveals our true nature and deepest desire. (Learn more in my Quick Start Tarot Kit.)
- Grasp the details in the artwork like the precious things they are. They will lead you through the thicket of the spread to the culmination of the story.
- Seek out similarities and differences. The former outline coherence and direction. The latter are irreconcilable differences or dichotomies striving for integration.
- Practice connecting with the cards through meditation (here, here, and a short class here) and other spiritual practices (such as this). Also, learn healthy ways to connect with your client and with Spirit (for example, this).
- And last, layer on correspondences. For instance, the assignment of the qualities of the elements to the suits serves not only to categorize the topics of the spread, but also provides descriptors for flair and feeling. (The articles on the elements here, here, and here will get you started.)
The Most Important Reason Not to Memorize Tarot Card Meanings

If you become a truly accomplished reader, you will pull from a variety of esoteric correspondences, which could include card titles, astrology, color, alchemy, qabalah, numerology, mythology, and the history of the image. There are many correspondences to memorize! But these correspondences are not meanings.
Don’t get me wrong–if you start by memorizing meanings you will be able to give serviceable readings that answer questions and provide advice. But at the same time, you will be lulled into an acquiescence of the correctness of these forced limitations. Limitations that hobble the symbolic power of the cards. My advice is to break those chains by choosing not to memorize tarot card meanings!
Simply, memorized meanings limit the function of the card in the spread. They draw a chalk outline. But symbolic correspondences open a vast array of potential for the card. This potential nourishes your intuition, flowing into cascading connections that spill into a clear and detailed story.
If you seek understanding in the observable details (the card image) and the hidden symbols (the assigned correspondences) of the card, an overflowing abundance of related and interacting symbols will vie for your attention and lead you by the hand down the only possible path to each question’s most important answer.
Do THIS Instead of Memorizing Tarot Card Meanings
If you want to be an accomplished tarot reader, don’t memorize tarot card meanings. Instead, learn to let the details in the card illustrations lead you along the line of the story. Then, when you’re ready, memorize symbolic correspondences to bring your readings into three-dimensional reality.