2027 Forecast

Structure, not memorization

How to read tarot cards

How to read tarot cards without learning 78 of them: the 56 minor arcana are four suits crossed with ten numbers and four court ranks — 18 things to learn, and the grid produces the rest. Only the 22 majors are genuinely individual. Most beginners quit because they start by memorizing, which is the slowest possible route.

How to Read Tarot Cards: The Structure, Not the Memorization

The arithmetic of learning it

18 things instead of 56

4 suits — what area of life the card is about
10 numbers — where in a cycle it sits
4 court ranks — how the energy is being carried
22 majors, the only ones worth memorizing

Four suits times ten numbers is forty cards, plus sixteen courts. Learn the suit and learn the number, and the Five of Cups becomes readable without ever having seen it.

What there is to learn: card by card, or by the structure of the deck
Items to learn: 78 cards one by one, or 40 by structureminor cards one by onesuits, numbers, ranksmajorsCard by card56 minor cards22 majorsBy structure410422 majorsDeck structure: 22 major and 56 minor arcanaastrohot.com

Learning by structure leaves 40 items instead of 78: four suits, ten numbers and four court ranks stand in for all 56 minor cards, and only the 22 majors still need learning one by one.

Step one — the four suits

Wands Fire · Action, ambition and creative drive Cups Water · Feeling, relationship and intuition Swords Air · Thought, conflict and truth Pentacles Earth · Money, work and the body

Step two — what the numbers mean

Ace A beginning, a gift or raw potential in the suit — the seed of what the suit is about.
Two A choice, a balance or a partnership: two forces meeting.
Three Growth and first results — collaboration, expression, something taking shape.
Four Stability and structure, sometimes turning into stagnation or rest.
Five Disruption, conflict or loss — the stable four is shaken.
Six Recovery and harmony after the trouble of the five; giving and receiving.
Seven Assessment and challenge — standing your ground, weighing options, testing faith.
Eight Movement and mastery: effort pays off, or change speeds up.
Nine Near completion — the suit at its most intense, for better or worse.
Ten Completion and the end of a cycle, with the next Ace implied.
Page A learner or a message: curiosity, first steps, news in the suit's area.
Knight Action and pursuit, often to an extreme — the suit's energy on the move.
Queen Inner mastery: the suit's qualities held with maturity and care.
King Outer mastery and authority: the suit's qualities directed at the world.

Put a number and a suit together and the card reads itself: the Five of Pentacles is disruption in money and health, the Six of Cups is harmony in feeling, the Knight of Swords is thought charging ahead. Check against the card pages afterward, not before.

Step three — the major arcana in three rows

The 22 majors are the ones worth learning individually, and they are easier as a story. Set the Fool aside as the traveler, and lay the other 21 in three rows of seven — a teaching arrangement many modern tarot writers use.

Step four — read the spread as a whole

Before reading any card on its own, look at the spread from a distance. Count the majors: several in a small spread point to big themes or forces outside your control; none suggests the matter is in your hands. Look for the dominant suit: mostly Cups is about feelings, mostly Pentacles about money or the body. Notice repeated numbers: three Fives say conflict is the theme, whatever the suits.

Then read the cards in order as a sentence, letting each position change the meaning. The Tower in a past position is a shock that is over; in the outcome position it is a warning. Where two cards seem to contradict each other, the tension is usually the message.

Reversed cards

If you use reversals, decide how before you shuffle. The common readings are the opposite of the upright meaning, the same energy blocked or delayed, or the energy turned inward. Pick one and apply it consistently; switching between them to avoid an unwelcome answer defeats the purpose.

Asking a question the cards can answer

Open questions work better than predictions. "What do I need to understand about this job?" gives the cards something to describe; "Will I get the job?" invites a yes or no and little else. Write the question down before shuffling so it cannot quietly change to fit the cards.

A month of practice

Draw one card each morning, write down what you think it means before looking it up, and note in the evening what the day actually brought. After a month you will have met a third of the deck in your own words — the card of the day is built for exactly this. Move to three-card spreads when single cards feel familiar, and leave the Celtic Cross until you can read a three-card spread without the book.

Then draw before you are ready

Reading is a skill of association, and it does not develop from a book. Draw three cards, say out loud what the suit and number suggest, then look up the meaning and notice where you were close.

Start with a three-card spread: it forces you to separate what has happened from what is happening from what you are doing about it, which is most of the value of the layout regardless of the cards.

Reversals are optional at the start. They are a convention rather than a rule, and plenty of experienced readers ignore them entirely.

Draw three cards →   All 78 cards →

Cite this page

AstroHot. “How to Read Tarot Cards: The Structure, Not the Memorization.” Accessed October 29, 2026. https://astrohot.com/tarot/how-to-read/

For Wikipedia {{cite web |title=How to Read Tarot Cards: The Structure, Not the Memorization |url=https://astrohot.com/tarot/how-to-read/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-29}}