Lesson 12: Cartomancy
Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the Pleasure of Tarot course.
You can start off by giving yourself a big pat on the back, because statistics show that only 1 in 10 people who start out will get this far!
I hope you have found this simple introduction to reading Tarot cards helpful and fun, and you've got enough of a taste to want to learn more.
Embracing the art and joy of Tarot will enable you to reflect on your own life events, as well as using the cards to help others. I believe that once you begin working with the cards you will never want to let go of them!
Whether you are just looking to read the cards for your own pleasure and with friends, or you wish to develop an income from your readings, this lesson will give you some basic guidelines for performing readings.
Cartomancy - the art of reading the cards
In the previous two lessons you learned a few different spreads - you can continue to study and add further spreads if you wish, making your reading technique unique to you.
We also touched on the way you can choose to work with the querant (the person you are reading for) ... there are no hard and fast rules here - you can find your own way of asking the querant to shuffle and pick their cards.
Here are a few examples which you are free to use or modify to suit your own preferences:
A) Give the cards to the querant and ask them to shuffle them (remember you may use parts of the deck or the whole deck, as we covered in the lessons about spreads).
Let them shuffle the cards for as long as they wish, and then ask them to cut the deck into 3 sections, placing them on the table in front of you.
Ask them to pick one of the 3 sections, remove the 2 they don't want and fan the cards from the querants chosen pack on the table in front of you.
Finally, ask them to pick the number of cards you require for their first spread.
You can repeat this process for each spread you wish to use for the session.
B) Use the same technique as A) but this time just fan the entire deck when they have finished shuffling.
C) Again use the same technique as A) and when the querant has chosen one of the 3 packs, just start pulling the cards from the top of that pack, rather than fanning them and asking the querant to pick the cards.
D) Just make up your own way of selecting the cards - whatever you think is most appropriate. There is no right or wrong way to do this.
Of course before you even get to this stage, you need to find a way to
relax your querant and prepare them for the reading ahead.