A skeptical tarot reader?

You could also try a spread that uses mundane interpretations of the cards, and stay away from the esoteric for a little while.

The best spread for that IMO is the New Moon Spread - a thirteen card spread I use every New Moon.

The pip cards are always interpreted with mundane meanings, court cards always mean people with those traits and the "oh-geez" heads up cards are whe you get two or more trumps in one week - what that means is the events/people of the week in question are likely to have significant effect beyond the forecast (new moon) period. At the end of the period, you review the actual occurrences in relationship to the Significator card (position #13) to interpret the entire period and see how "dead on" it was.


..............3...........................4
..........2...................................5
......1...........................................6
..........................13.......................
.......9..........................................12
..........8..................................11....
..............7..........................10........

I'm basically a skeptic. Right now, I'm doing a bunch of readings for other people on the "firemaiden seeks...." thread. I just wrote a friend, in amazement, that all I have to do is do a couple of readings for other people, and then I am bowled over by the magic of the cards again. So- try reading for others, you may be surprised.

I agree with firemaiden. Reading for others in the exchange forum here has taught me a lot, and is a great way to renew the enchantment of the cards for me.

I go along for weeks sometimes, feeling very skeptical, and then it's as if all the elements fall into place. I have a reading for myself that blows me away with its synchronicity and insight. I think sometimes we just try to read for ourselves too much, then it gets old and stale. I mean, wouldn't it bore you to look in the mirror for hours and hours? Don't you prefer to see other people? After too much of that, it would be a relief to see the postman or the paperboy. It's the same with reading.

Also, I highly recommend much smaller spreads when you read for yourself--especially as frequently as a daily reading. One to three cards max on a daily basis. Try that, and see if you get more out of it. Sometimes less is more, especially with tarot. We've done threads here with one card readings that turned out to be pretty amazing.

All that said, I am still to some degree quite skeptical of reading the future using tarot. I think it's possible, but not as easy or as sure a thing as many would like to think. There are a lot of variables that affect the future. To a degree I believe some things are destined, but the details of our lives can vary a great deal, and many things affect those details. I like to read the "quality of the moment."

Welcome to AT!

Nevada

I still am, and I've been reading for over ten years.

That's part of who I am, I don't think it will ever change. That's okay, I think it makes me a better reader, because I have more objectivity that way - I'm not completely blown away by every little thing, therefore gullible or overly optimistic. This comes in handy especially when reading for myself.

I had to learn to suspend disbelief, at least for the duration of a reading. After you have a few successful readings, then a few more, you will begin to that automatically.

difficulty interpreting the cards...

When I first started to read, I had difficulty such as described. I was using an RW, but a friend suggested that I get a deck that was more personal to me. I switched to the Thoth deck, and my readings suddenly improved a lot, it was like turning on a light bulb.

When I picked up the Revelations deck and it was like turning on the sun. My readings have never seemed so clear to me.

Just another skeptic chiming in to tell you it's possible. After a while I've mostly stopped asking myself "How does it work?" and just accepted that it DOES work. I think you'll find that if you keep doing readings and suspending disbelief, as Psychebleu suggested, you'll discover that it's changed from this crazy thing you're doing to a really valuable part of your life.

At least that's how it happened for me