How to Read the Rider Waite Tarot Cards

The Magician

The Rider-Waite deck is the most well-known Tarot deck. It is the preferred starter deck for beginning Tarot readers, in particular because of the attractive pictures and the depth of symbolic meaning to each card. Most modern Tarot decks owe their origins to the Rider-Waite deck. The deck was created in 1909 and uses archaic and traditional symbols to depict virtues, vices and elemental forces. Experienced and novice readers choose the Rider-Waite deck for the simple, elegant use of imagery and meaning.

Instructions

1. Study the meanings of the Major and Minor Arcana. Be familiar with the terms associated with Tarot cards in general, and Rider-Waite cards in particular. The Rider-Waite deck contains 22 cards of the Major Arcana, including The Hangman, The Tower and The Magician, and 56 cards of the Minor Arcana, including the suits of Pentacles, Cups, Wands and Swords. Choose a signifier from the deck, one card within it that will represent yourself.

2. Key your Rider-Waite Tarot Cards. Reading the cards for divination purposes requires a certain affinity for the cards. Keying the deck to attune them to your personal energies will help you throw more accurate readings and help your interpretations. The cards should always be stored in a secure, dry place when not in use. For the first week that you own the cards, sleep with them under your pillow and allow no one else to handle them. You may also consider meditating on the individual cards as you practice your divination skills.

3. Pay particular note to the meanings of the cards. While simple enough for a child to read, the inverted meanings are different from the upright meanings. The Lovers, for example, are an excellent key card for a beginning divinist. In the Rider-Waite deck, The Lovers represent the impetus from childhood to adulthood, the need to grow beyond one's self and to define one's self as a unique individual.

4. Learn the themes of the Minor Arcana. Many laymen focus on the Major Arcana as the basis for Tarot, but the Minor Arcana serves a purpose as well. The Ace of Wands, for example, represents optimism and invention when right side up, but when inverted symbolizes pessimism and stymied desire. The Rider-Waite deck utilizes many old symbols and meanings throughout, including the Minor Arcana. The Wands represent creativity and will, an the Pentacles represent the material body and the material possessions. The Cups represent emotions such as love, sadness and more that are felt by the heart. The Swords represent nobility and military reasoning. Interpreting the depth of each card requires understanding their basic theme.

5. Understand that the Major Arcana represent past symbols. Modern interpretations of Major Arcana can throw off a reading. Specific examples include the Death card. Death does not mean a literal death, but the end of something, whether it's an event, an idea or a relationship. The Tower, which by the picture appears to be destruction, merely represents change--sometimes abrupt and powerful change--but change nonetheless.

6. Practice readings for yourself. The best way to read the Rider-Waite Tarot deck is to simply practice it. Work with the cards. Use the enclosed guidebook to help you understand the meanings, but as time goes on, these cards will take on meanings of their own for you. You will begin to see the patterns emerging. When you are comfortable with reading and interpreting the cards for yourself, you are ready to read for others.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember that most Tarot readings are snapshots of precise moments and cannot be held accountable for accuracy.

Resources

• Grandpasgeneral: Tarot Spreads
• Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners
• The Original Rider Waite Tarot Pack