SunChariot
Yes of course there are some confusing times when you start. You can probably say that of any skill you learn of course. We all have lots of questions in the beginning and sometimes you read something ambiguous and are not sure know to understand it, much less how to put it into practice or even if you should or not.
To make things more complicated, there are many many ways to do anything in Tarot. Most are not really right or wrong. There is no absolute right way to do anything, but what feels right and works well for you is something you should keep doing. I don't think there are two readers who read in exactly the same way. It is, in large part, an individual path, and you have to find your own way in some sense...to feel your way to what works best for you and is right for you.
I would say also the best person to read for in the beginning is yourself. You are usually a pretty good judge of how accurate the answers are. And it lets you perfect your technique a bit, before you branch out to reading for others, to drop techiques that are not working well and to try out new ones and get the kinks out that might work better.
My idea, and this is personal, is that it is best to read for strangers when you start reading for others than friends. As how much of a challenge is that to divine things about people you already know a lot about. Some of that could creep in. Once you can read for strangers and you see how accurate that is, it's very confidence building and that spreads to all the readings you do.
The last question, about whether the same card in different decks have the same meanings, is no to a greater of lesser degree depending on how you read and what type of reader you are.
But, the least I can say is that, each deck created by each reader has some of their personalities and personal philosophies embedded in the meanings. That changes the meanings to a greater or lesser degree, but there is always some change.
Sometimes, the meanings can be the same but with slight variations, sometimes they can be totally different. My Celtic Wisdom Tarot, for example, while it is a true Tarot, has totally renamed all the Major Arcana cards (eg "The Fool" is called "The Soul", "The World/The Universe" is called "The Perfecter" with everythign else changed in between) and the Suits are all different too. There are almost no common meanings between the deck and a regular one.
As well, and just to confuse things, not all readers use the book meanings. I read in a way that I don't use them much and the way I read the same card in the same deck never has the same meaning twice, never mind the same card in different decks...
Bar
To make things more complicated, there are many many ways to do anything in Tarot. Most are not really right or wrong. There is no absolute right way to do anything, but what feels right and works well for you is something you should keep doing. I don't think there are two readers who read in exactly the same way. It is, in large part, an individual path, and you have to find your own way in some sense...to feel your way to what works best for you and is right for you.
I would say also the best person to read for in the beginning is yourself. You are usually a pretty good judge of how accurate the answers are. And it lets you perfect your technique a bit, before you branch out to reading for others, to drop techiques that are not working well and to try out new ones and get the kinks out that might work better.
My idea, and this is personal, is that it is best to read for strangers when you start reading for others than friends. As how much of a challenge is that to divine things about people you already know a lot about. Some of that could creep in. Once you can read for strangers and you see how accurate that is, it's very confidence building and that spreads to all the readings you do.
The last question, about whether the same card in different decks have the same meanings, is no to a greater of lesser degree depending on how you read and what type of reader you are.
But, the least I can say is that, each deck created by each reader has some of their personalities and personal philosophies embedded in the meanings. That changes the meanings to a greater or lesser degree, but there is always some change.
Sometimes, the meanings can be the same but with slight variations, sometimes they can be totally different. My Celtic Wisdom Tarot, for example, while it is a true Tarot, has totally renamed all the Major Arcana cards (eg "The Fool" is called "The Soul", "The World/The Universe" is called "The Perfecter" with everythign else changed in between) and the Suits are all different too. There are almost no common meanings between the deck and a regular one.
As well, and just to confuse things, not all readers use the book meanings. I read in a way that I don't use them much and the way I read the same card in the same deck never has the same meaning twice, never mind the same card in different decks...
Bar