Want to Read Tarot? A Four-Week Plan for Beginners

You do not need to know every card before you begin. A deck, its guidebook and a few honest notes are enough for a first practice. This four-week route gives the 78 cards a manageable order: Major Arcana, numbered suit cards, courts, then small readings.

Think of four weeks as a first tour, not a deadline for confidence or a promise of mastery. You can value tarot as a spiritual practice while learning its imagery and traditions. Take longer whenever you need to; looking up a meaning is part of learning, not a failed reading.

Get ready: one deck and one place for notes

This plan uses a standard 78-card Rider–Waite–Smith-style deck: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana includes 40 cards from Ace to Ten and 16 courts. The Metropolitan Museum’s account of tarot’s structure provides historical context for the four suits, courts, Fool and trumps.

A deck with illustrated numbered cards gives you scenes to describe. Other systems are worthwhile too, but their images, ordering and court names can differ. Use your own deck’s guide rather than assuming every online meaning fits it. If you are choosing, read how to pick a tarot deck; you do not need to buy several packs.

For the study weeks, select the listed cards deliberately. A random daily draw can repeat cards and will not ensure you meet the whole deck. Keep unfamiliar cards in a small review pile. An optional short session might be ten or fifteen minutes, but there is no required duration: split a day’s group if it feels rushed.

Use the same four-part study routine

1. 1. LookDescribe something actually pictured: a gesture, object, colour or contrast.
2. 2. RespondWrite three words or a question the image brings to mind. You can leave a card unfamiliar.
3. 3. CompareCheck the guidebook. Keep its traditional meaning separate from your first association.
4. 4. RecordNote one possible application and one thing the card cannot establish about your situation.

Week 1: meet all 22 Major Arcana

Lay the Major Arcana in your deck’s order. The schedule below uses Rider–Waite–Smith order, with Strength before The Hermit and Justice after Wheel of Fortune. The Fool is numbered 0; in this order, The World is XXI.

1. Day 1The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess.
2. Day 2The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
3. Day 3The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength.
4. Day 4The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice.
5. Day 5The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance.
6. Day 6The Devil, The Tower, The Star.
7. Day 7The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World.

The first six days introduce three cards each; the last introduces four, covering all 22. Use the study routine on one card in detail and make a brief observation about the others. If you want equal time with every card, stretch the schedule rather than race through it.

At the end of the week, lay the cards out as a possible journey. The Fool’s Journey is a storytelling approach, not the one compulsory meaning of the sequence. Try describing a beginning, a challenge and a change using three scenes. Difficult titles such as Death or The Tower are not forecasts of literal harm.

Week 2: work through the 40 numbered suit cards

Set the courts aside. Sort Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles from Ace to Ten, then use this seven-day route. It introduces six new cards on each of the first six days and four on the last.

1. Day 1Wands: Ace to Six.
2. Day 2Wands: Seven to Ten; Cups: Ace and Two.
3. Day 3Cups: Three to Eight.
4. Day 4Cups: Nine and Ten; Swords: Ace to Four.
5. Day 5Swords: Five to Ten.
6. Day 6Pentacles: Ace to Six.
7. Day 7Pentacles: Seven to Ten; review the four suit groups.

As a starting lens, explore Wands through energy and initiative, Cups through feelings and connection, Swords through thought and conflict, and Pentacles through resources and everyday work. These are broad traditional themes, not restrictions on what a card can bring to mind.

Compare a rank across suits: how does a scene of conflict differ from a scene of emotional disappointment? Let the pictures complicate a simple number keyword. By the weekend, you should have introduced each card if you followed every group; remembering all their meanings is not the test.

Week 3: get to know the courts without guessing secret people

On Days 1 to 4, study one suit’s Page, Knight, Queen and King each day: Wands, Cups, Swords, then Pentacles. That introduces all 16 courts. On Day 5 compare the four Pages; on Day 6 compare the Knights; on Day 7 compare the Queens and Kings.

These are learning prompts, not exhaustive definitions. Courts can be read as a role, an attitude, an aspect of yourself or a person when appropriate. They do not identify someone by gender, age, skin colour or a hidden motive. For more detail, use the court-card guide.

Week 4: bring the cards into a small reading

Bring the full deck together. Decide on the question and positions before drawing; shuffle in a comfortable way and deal one card to each position. The shuffling guide offers practical options.

For a first three-card reading, use “What has shaped this?”, “What needs attention now?” and “What approach could I try?” This keeps the familiar past–present–advice idea without treating a future card as an inevitable event.

1. 1BackgroundWhat has shaped this?
2. 2Present focusWhat needs attention?
3. 3Next approachWhat could I try?

1. Day 1Choose one open question and draw one card. Write a short interpretation using your guidebook.
2. Day 2Assign the three positions above, shuffle and draw three cards. Write one sentence for each position.
3. Day 3Revisit that row without drawing again. Notice where position changed how you read a card.
4. Day 4Try a new three-card reading on another low-stakes question. Finish with one action or fact to check.
5. Day 5Compare your notes with the guidebook. Keep one useful insight and one uncertainty; do not force a fit.
6. Day 6If you wish, practise with a willing friend. Agree on a low-stakes question and let them decline any interpretation.
7. Day 7Complete a three-card reading for yourself and review the month. Choose what you would like to study next.

Guidebook use is welcome. You can start with upright cards and add reversals later, or follow a clear reversal method from the beginning. For alternative positions once this row feels familiar, explore how to choose a tarot spread.

What to keep at the end of the month

Save a few readings, including ones that felt awkward. For each, record the date, question, cards and positions, interpretation, and a possible next step. Later add what did not fit as well as what felt meaningful. A spiritual insight can matter to you without proving a prediction.

• Can I find my way around the deck? Recognise Major Arcana, numbered suit cards and courts, even when you still need the book.
• Can I explain my interpretation? Connect an actual image and a chosen meaning to the question and position.
• Can I leave room for uncertainty? Distinguish a possible reading from a fact about someone’s feelings or a future event.
• Can I finish with my own judgement intact? Choose a manageable action or information to check, rather than hand a decision to the cards.

If you missed days, continue with the next unstudied group; no restart is needed. Repeat any week, shorten a session or set the deck aside. Do not use the schedule as a test of spiritual worth, psychic ability or readiness to charge for readings. For health, legal or financial decisions, a reading does not replace the relevant information or qualified support.