How do you practice?

I usually go to a coffee shop or cafe. Take a deck or two and one or two books. I shuffle the deck draw one base card and cross it with another card and try to figure out what I would be telling someone else (assuming that they didn't actually tell me the question). The I look up the interpretations in the books and see if anything matches in the way of card combinations elc. You could also do this with a three card or if you are brave the formidable celtic cross! It's all practice!

GypsyHeart said:

How do you practice readings before you are ready to do exchanges? If you read for yourself, do you read about smallish things? I mean, I only have so many situations that I would use the cards for and I wouldn't read for the same question over and over.

I really need practice but am not quite ready to read here "in public" <gasp!>

Click to expand...

Hi,
I'm also new

I practice by doing a daily draw of two cards (almost every day), and a longer reading at the end of every week, on the question "What do I need to know for next week?" (I use the Celtic Cross for that one.)
Sometimes I do three-card draws for small things, like "What will the party tomorrow evening be like?"
And since I like writing fiction I also use cards drawn at random to make up little stories - that is a very good exercise, and fun. And you can do it whenever you like even if you don't have anything particular you want to ask the cards.

I don't read for others yet - except for one good friend who lets me come to her house and play with her cards At first that was a bit scary, because she is _really_ good, and I feel like I don't know anything at all in comparison. But she likes me to do a spontaneous reading with her every now and then, where I just pull some cards for her and tell her what I see. It's good learning for us both, because we focus on different things and read in completely different ways.

And one thing I learnt from her, a thing that others also have said, don't be afraid to handle your cards a lot... shuffling an old, dirty and worn deck feels really comfortable... To me, it feels more "real" than a new deck, and makes me feel like a "real" Tarot reader who knows what she's doing (not just any newbie with a brand new deck here, oh no! I hold an OLD deck, see? )
It's very good for the self-confidence, really.

I have a couple of decks, most of them I got for the art or for reference (I like to compare cards), and those I keep in really nice condition. I'm very fussy about that. But the three decks I have chosen as main "reading/learning decks", well, that's a different matter, they need to be just a bit messed up so they feel right.

I think I will join a reading circle here, but not quite yet.

When I started, I practised by doing readings for myself. In fact it was a full 6-8 months before I ventured out to read for someone else. And I would have happily gone the rest of my life without ever reading for others if not for a member here at AT who encouraged me to try.

That being said there are an infinite number of questions you can ask about yourself and your life. You don't have to limit yourself to asking about the future. First you can ask about the past, present or future. Readings about the past are usually useful and revealing. You can ask why things happened as they did, what someone was feeling when they acted as they did, why they acted as they did....You can do reading about your present to uncover any unconscious motives that lead you to act in certain ways. You can ask "Why am I acting this way when I know it is not in my best interest?" Or "What unconscious motivators are at work here...?" kind of things. Yes of course you can ask about the future.

But usually my favourite questions are the spiritual ones. Like "What is my life purpose during this lifetime?" "What resources do I need to take advantage of to best fulfill it?" "What am I meant to be learning from this situation I am in now?" "What does my soul need to feel fulfilled now?" "How can I create more of that in my life?"....

There are an endless number of questions you can ask. For me, once I got started exploring my spiritual purpose, each question sparks more questions.
Maybe your experience will be similar.

Babs

I was really nervous about reading for other people...I still am! My Tarot mentor strongly urged me to practice doing it even if I'm nervous, and he advised me to ask people to pay me at least a small amount or offer something in exchange for the service I was providing by doing the reading so that it would be taken more seriously. I wasn't comfortable asking my friends to pay me for readings, especially when I'm so new at it...so what I decided to do was offer to give Tarot readings as holiday gifts! I told my friends I was planning to do this, and that I would love it if they wanted to do it as a gift exchange (I give you a reading, you give me a present) but if they couldn't afford that I would still do their reading because it was enough of a gift for me to get the practice. I got so many responses that I'm still scheduling people's readings and probably will still be doing them clear into the springtime, but I'm so excited to be getting the practice! Some of the people I've already done readings for have actually sent me gifts in exchange, too, and I'm really glad I decided to make that a suggestion instead of an expectation.

My mentor also works at a local new age shop, and he's got me scheduled to do a "student day" later this month where I'll be able to offer readings to customers at a discounted rate and get some practice reading for people I don't know well!

I practice reading by doing readings based on present situations, which i am involved in. it's great practice.

I practice by doing readings on the mystery books I read.
I look at the title and nothing else, do a 5 card draw and read them as a story.
I type them up in Word, scan the cards and add them, when the book is finished I come back and look at the reading and grade myself.

AJ, I love that idea. Thank you. I'll give it a try.

My fear of reading for others in the beginning was my fear of being wrong. But you're not always going to be right. It's okay if you're not. And even when you're right, your sitters will often tell you you're wrong. Just dive in there and read. You'll get better with time, but more importantly, you'll get more comfortable doing it and then you won't be able to stop.

Reading in the Exchange forum here is a good way to get started. Don't worry about whether you're doing it "right". Do it your way and justdo it. More importantly, do it for people in person every chance you get. And make chances to do it by asking people if they want readings or just sitting somewhere playing with your cards.

For now, I prefer to read alone in my room when nobody disturbs me (that makes it mostly at night: around 23:00 and 02:00 - and yes, I don't really sleep much), and I prefer to practice in reading for myself (try new spreads usually, or just go for general stuff, relations with different people, although sometimes I also ask deep questions - when I know I can concentrate well enough to do a good spread, either that, or the cards just won't read), or for others (especially a friend of mine, who constantly asks me to read to her, but when I do, and I answer she always says that it's like all the online readings she's done, bla bla bla (she's the kind of person in major denial), especially in the one card game, which has helped me a lot these past months (in getting an idea out of a complex significance). Anyway, I don't think I'll be ready to read IN FRONT OF someone for a while, I am still learning the cards: I am making myself some sort of a cards' profile thing, in which I include all the information I have from books, net, etc. This is very helpful for me, because during that I also get to meditate on the image, while I read through the "theory".

Sonki

I know this is an ancient thread, but...

I'm curious whether anyone has had any success with freetarot.us. I joined the ATA just to work with their program, but I've not heard anything from my supposed mentor and no help from the leadership there.