Liz Worth ~ Tarot

When you’re scheduled to do a tarot reading for someone, what should you do in advance to get ready for it?

Do you have to spend hours in deep meditation?

Should you be clearing your workspace, or clearing your deck?

Setting out crystals or other tools?

You can do all of the above, if you feel it’s necessary.

You can also do none of the above – especially if you don’t feel it adds anything to your process. (That’s right: You can read tarot without any big, fancy rituals involved.)

So what do I do to prepare for a tarot reading?

I like to take advice I received from one of my teachers, Rebecca Gordon: Go out and live your life.

What does that mean?

Go outside. Go about your day.

Watch for any signs, patterns, or themes that might speak to the flavour of the moment.

Tune into the energy of the day: What kind of mood are people in? What’s the pace of the world around you?

This may or may not have anything to do with your reading, or with your...

Reading tarot, whether for yourself or others, can stir up a lot of insecurities.

It’s normal to feel nervous when you’re reading for someone, especially if you’re still learning. But even experienced readers aren’t immune to a case of the nerves every now and then.

We’re all human, after all. And while reading tarot does get easier with time and experience, it’s still a skill that requires a lot of effort, concentration, and focus.

It also requires readers go out on a limb to offer messages, insights, and interpretations that might feel disparate, unexpected, or unclear at times. Even when a reader feels in flow with their cards, you don’t necessarily know why certain messages are important, or how they connect to a querent’s life.

But your job is to deliver what you’re seeing in the cards, no matter how little you know about the context of someone else’s situation.

That alone can be uncomfortable at times, especially when...

Occultist Éliphas Lévi (1810 – 1875) wrote that tarot is “the most perfect tool” to understand life.

He believed that "an imprisoned person with no other book than the Tarot, if he knew how to use it, could in a few years acquire universal knowledge."

But whose knowledge would we be acquiring?

Human history is ever-changing, and tarot changes with it.

Tarot dates back to the 1400s, when it humbly began as a card game. It wasn’t until 1909 that the Rider-Waite-Smith deck made its debut.

This was the deck that popularized tarot into what we know it as today. Many of the decks that have been published since, along with the meanings that we associate with each card, have been inspired by the RWS.

But 1909 wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things.

And yet despite its youth in comparison to other systems like astrology, tarot’s potential never ceases to amaze me. The cards work. I still have moments where I find the...

One of my best pieces of advice for tarot readers who want to read cards for other people is this:

Listen to your querents.

Like, really listen.

Listen to what is they want to know.

Listen to what they’re worried about.

Listen to what they have to teach you.

As tarot readers, we aim to step into the role of teacher, guide, or mentor. We want to be the ones leading querents to clarity and insight.

But our querents are our teachers, too.

No matter our experience level with tarot, people bring all kinds of questions to tarot readings – questions that you might have never imagined you’d have to answer.

And you can soon realize that as much as people are similar, we are also all on different paths. Eventually, you will have querents whose life experiences are vastly different from your own.

These moments can be challenging, and exciting, for us as tarot readers. They are challenging because they push us to stretch our own language and interpretations of our tarot decks. You are...

Are you taking a lot of cues and tarot lessons from social media?

If so, you’re not alone: Tarot’s popularity continues to explode online.

It used to be very hard to find like-minded fans of all things esoteric. Now, all you have to do is hop online and gain instant access to tarot readers from all around the world. 

There are so many tarot accounts to check out. And a lot of them post similar content:

• Tarotscopes or readings for each zodiac sign;
• Collective readings for the energy of the day or week;
• "Pick a card" readings where you might choose from a selection of photos and then read the corresponding message.

 These can all be fun ways to engage with tarot online.

And they have certainly helped some tarot readers build their social media followings.

But throughout the last year, I noticed some questions coming up in my tarot classes that I hadn’t heard before:

"How do I read tarot for each zodiac sign?"

"Does it matter if I don’t know a lot about...

The New Year can be one of the busiest times for tarot readings.

Everyone wants to know what’s coming up in the months ahead:

“Will this be the year I find love?”

“Will my business be more profitable?”

“Will I move or change jobs?”

Overall, these are pretty common questions that people bring to tarot readers all year round – regardless of the calendar date.

Which is why I started to encourage a more intentional approach to New Year’s readings. When querents ask things like, “Will I move?” Or, “Will I leave my job?” I’m curious to know:

“What do you want to do?”

Even though the energy of a new year feels so fresh and exciting, I’ve learned that life is a lot more exciting if you’re going out there and making things happen, rather than waiting to see what pops up.

A new calendar year is a great time to feel like you’ve got a blank canvas to work with.

You can...

I can’t believe how fast the year has gone.

Where did the month go?

Where did 2021 go?

Time is always in motion.

And even though 2022 feels like it’s sneaking up on me quite quickly this year, I’ve actually been thinking ahead to the New Year for some time now.

I think a lot of us need a reset right about now. Personally, I always look forward to the New Year as a time for fresh intentions. Even though it’s just a change in date, it still feels like the beginning of a new chapter. Or a blank page in a fresh notebook.

These are some of the reasons why December and January are such popular times of year for tarot readings. We get curious about what’s around the corner, and how we can make the most of the year to come.

Here are some of my favourite tarot questions for this time of year. Let me know if you think you might give any of these (or all of them) a try:

• What aspect of myself will I get to celebrate this year?
• In what ways can I grow this...

“I’ve seen some tarot readers online talking about things they do to prepare for a reading. Should I be doing certain rituals before I read my cards?”

I love receiving questions like this.

Maybe you’ve wondered about this in your own tarot practice.

Or maybe you already have some kind of ritual or routine you engage in before you begin a tarot reading.

Tarot rituals can look like all kinds of things: From shuffling techniques to meditation, to saying a prayer, to setting up crystals.

One of the reasons I appreciate these types of questions is that they push us to get clear about our why in tarot.

Why do you think you need a ritual to begin a reading?

Why do you want one? (Or, why don’t you?)

What do you do believe the ritual accomplishes?

If you’ve read my book The Power of Tarot, you’ll know that I don’t subscribe to a lot of rituals or accessories when it comes to my tarot practice.

I have a couple of reasons for being a no-frills...

What do you when you lose a tarot card from a favourite deck?

I personally haven’t lost a card (yet).

But I also take steps to prevent cards from straying when I’m out doing readings at parties, events, or shops:

• I’m the only one who shuffles my deck. I used to let clients shuffle, but stopped after seeing some querents handle my cards too roughly.
  
  
• At the end of an event, I close my day by counting my cards before I put them back in their pouch. That way I know I’m leaving with a full deck.
  
  
• I’m careful about outdoor events. I used to read tarot in a park in the summer, for anyone was passing by. It was fun, but the wind can carry a card away very Bringing some stones or other small objects as paper weights helps keep your cards in place.

But if something happens and a card gets lost?

Here are some options:

First, make sure the card is truly lost. I am a clumsy shuffler and have had cards end up under the couch, slide under my laptop, or flip well...

Sometimes reading tarot can feel frustrating.

You might get cards that don’t seem to fit the question, or see something you didn’t expect to come up.

And readings can also feel like they’re just not hitting the right points to feel productive.

When I got my first tarot reading in the late `90s, I was amazed at how helpful it was.

And I held onto a lot of the information I received that day. It became important to me, and
gave me hope for the future.

Which is what I set out to do when I started reading tarot for others.

I do this work to help other people, first and foremost.

And I’m sure you do, too.

Over the years, I’ve seen what tarot can do for people: I’ve had clients who’ve made huge life changes, grown more confident, and gotten clearer about who they are and where they’re going.

But not every tarot reading goes that way.

Sometimes you might not always feel a reading went as deep, or was as productive as you’d hoped.

There are some...