How to Read Tarot Without Memorizing the Cards

You can read tarot without memorizing the cards: look at the picture, say what you notice, then check a short meaning, and let repeated readings do the memorizing for you. Almost nobody learns all 78 cards from a list first. They learn them by reading, one spread at a time.

This guide shows a simple method for a complete beginner, what to learn first, and how a deck with the meanings printed on the cards removes most of the lookup. For the full basics, see our complete beginner guide.

Why memorizing first does not work

A tarot deck has 78 cards, and each has an upright and a reversed meaning. Trying to hold about 150 meanings in your head before you touch the cards is a heavy start, and it is the usual reason beginners stop. Meanings stick when you connect them to a real question and a real picture. A card you pulled for a question about work on Tuesday is much easier to remember than a line in a list.

A simple method: picture, feeling, meaning

1. Picture. Look at the card for a few seconds. Who is there, what are they doing, what is the mood? (On a Marseille-style deck the numbered cards show suit symbols, not scenes; there the number and the suit are your picture.)
2. Feeling. Say in one sentence what the picture suggests to you about your question, before you read anything.
3. Meaning. Check a short meaning for the card, upright or reversed, and see where it matches or adds something.

This order matters. Your first impression is what you are training. The written meaning is the check, not the answer. Over a few weeks the third step gets shorter, because you already know the card.

What to learn first

• The difference between upright and reversed. See our reversed cards guide.
• The four suits (Wands or Batons, Cups, Swords, Pentacles or Coins) and the one area of life each is usually linked with.
• The court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King) as kinds of people or ways of acting.
• The Major Arcana, one card at a time, as they come up in your readings.

You can leave the rest until it turns up. A good place to start is a daily one-card pull, which our tarot journaling guide explains.

Meanings on every card

The easiest way not to memorize

English Learning Tarot Deck — 78 Cards With Meanings on Every Card

A learning deck puts the lookup on the card itself. Comes with a full PDF learning guide by personal link, so you can start reading the day it arrives (no printed booklet).

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See the Learning Deck

A deck with the meaning on the card

The slow part for a beginner is putting the card down to open a book or a PDF. A learning deck removes that. The English Learning Tarot Deck prints the card name, a one-sentence core meaning, four upright keywords, four reversed keywords and a question for you on every one of the 78 cards. You read the picture, then glance at the card in your hand.

It is a learning aid, not a replacement for learning. If you rely on the printed words every time, the meanings will not move into memory, so try to say your own reading first. We explain the pros and cons in tarot decks with meanings on the cards.

Make the learning stick

• Pull one card a day and write one line about it.
• When a card keeps appearing, learn it properly. Repetition tells you what matters.
• Keep readings short while you learn. A three-card spread teaches more than a ten-card one.
• Do not worry if a meaning feels off. Your own notes are a legitimate source.

FAQ

Prefer to see your options first? Read our best tarot decks under $40 or how to choose tarot cards.