How to Choose from the Multiple Meanings of the Cards

I am working with a traditional Rider-Waite deck, though this can apply to other various decks. There are so many different meanings for each card from different sources; one book may not have the same meaning as the other. How did you go about choosing which meanings to use for each card and why do you think they are the best?

That's true, all cards have many different meanings, layers and nuances. They also might differ from deck to deck. In fact some people only use their intuition!
I personally like to read about tarot a lot, so I retain bits of information from many sources along the way.
But I still have a main source to which I always go back when I need some clarification. This source still proposes quite a few different meanings for each card and it's up to the reader to decide which one would apply to a particular reading. That's not easy at first! But tarot has a richness it wouldn't have if everyone sticked with one meaning per card!

In case you'd wonder, I use an app called Galaxy Tarot (I believe it's only offered on Android though!) as my main source.

Welcome to Aeclectic Tarot, vrye

You've asked a good question, and I'm going to move your topic to the forum where people discuss these things , which is the "Talking Tarot" forum

I think that once you learn to access your intuition the book meanings start to fade into the background and you just intuitively know what the card is trying to tell you.

I think it becomes easier to discern "which meaning" is most fitting if you have more than one or two cards in a reading. I've also done a lot of reading over the past many years on card meanings - some sources definitely conflict with others and after time you will feel out which ones fit with your beliefs and methods.

Rely mainly on your intuition, and what the cards seem to be saying in your particular circumstances. It doesn't hurt to look up what others have said about the cards but ultimately look for your own meanings.

The "book meanings" are basically training wheels that you have to weigh and sift through your own experience to see what rises to the top. Separating the gold from the dross is a lifetime proposition that is basically a moving target, requiring you to master your ambitions to some extent or you will wind up with a head full of chaotic fragments. For example, I started with the Thoth deck and the Book of Thoth a very long time ago, and those meanings - long since thoroughly internalized to the extent that they can be - color most of the interpretations I make today. Saying "just follow your intuition" is all well and good, but if your intuition has no frame of reference other than what you see in the images, and you have absolutely no grounding in the history and literature of tarot, it would seem to be an anemic kind of inspiration. Some people are natural intuitives; most aren't. "Just winging it" seems like a fast track to frustration to me.

Very good question!
I agree that intuition is key-sometimes I read a meaning and am just like 'Yeah thats it.'It can be difficult when reading for yourself though as its easy to go for the happier meanings if its something you really want to happen,or if you're worried to see all doom and gloom when things aren't that bad.

Welcome to the forum, vrye.

I usually go with my first impression of a card in a reading, whatever first comes to mind, which I believe is different from intuition. In knowing the question and the focus of a reading, there are some card meanings that will simply make more sense than others, and will come to mind first.

Also, as long as I am drawing more than one card for a reading, I can rely on the cards as a whole for interpreting meanings. Cards have ways of telling stories and interacting with each other (imagery, symbolism, numbers, elements, etc.), and understanding those connections make it easier to figure out which meanings are more appropriate.

That's why it's so important to journal your readings. It's a learning process until you find how each card speaks to YOU. Over time, it will become easier.

And right now? You have to keep in mind the question, the spread you chose, the spread position, and the whole context of the reading. There's a pattern. A single cups card surrounded by eleven wands and swords has a different weight than in a balanced or predominantly cups reading. If there are more cards than one, you always interpret the whole picture. (Deborah Lipp's Tarot Interactions gives good advice on how to do that).

And in the whole picture, one aspect of the card you're looking at makes sense more than others. You may also find that like in Lenormand, the one card unfolds more than one aspect, depending on which "interaction" with other cards or which part of the question you look at.

It's an intuitive thing. I look at the card and the picture and forget the book meanings, and I wait until everything takes shape in my mind.

IMO, this process of ideas taking shape is like a creative process, like painting, and it's for me the main fun of tarot. First you see nothing, and then you see something...