How to Read Spanish Tarot Cards

Knowing how to read tarot in Spanish allows you to include more people in your readings.

A form of divination in antiquity, tarot cards provide you with an amusing way to foretell the future, or at the least impress friends and guests. Spanish tarot cards do not differ from standard tarot cards except for the fact that they are in Spanish. This makes reading them difficult only due to the language barrier, however, the meanings of the cards are the same. Knowing how to read Spanish tarot cards not only gives you a more cultural approach to the divination tool, but it may also teach you some Spanish.

Things You'll Need

• Spanish language tarot card deck
• English to Spanish dictionary

Instructions

1. 

   Shuffling tarot cards isn't any different from shuffling poker cards.

   Shuffle the deck of tarot cards thoroughly. The method you use to shuffle doesn't matter, as many people have varying ways of shuffling their tarot cards. This includes shuffling them like a deck of playing cards or merely spreading them out (with the art side facing down) and then mixing them up randomly.

2. Choose the kind of spread you want to read. Spread types include the Celtic Cross, the Trinity and the Tree of Life among many others. If you're a beginner, choose the Trinity spread, as it only needs three cards. This symbolizes the past, the present and the future.

3. Pull one card from the top of the deck, after it has been thoroughly shuffled. Place the card, face-up, on your table or other surface for reading tarot.

4. Read the Spanish words on the card, if it is a card from the Major Arcana. Major Arcana cards are the only cards in the deck with full art and wording. The rest of the cards, the Minor Arcana, feature suits and numerals. For example, the Ace of Cups from the Minor Arcana, is the same in any language.

5. Refer to your English to Spanish dictionary. Words on Major Arcana cards are real words, so it should be easy to find the word on the card. For example, the card titled "The Fool," which is also the card numbered with a zero, is "hacerse el tonto" in Spanish. This literally translates to "the ascending foolishness, or stupidity."

6. Flip the remaining two cards for your three-card spread. Study the images and wording before referring to your English to Spanish dictionary. If you're already fluent in Spanish, you will not need the dictionary except as a general guide on the tarot card meanings, which are the same in any language.

Tips & Warnings

• In the days of Madam Lenormand, a famous French tarot reader, people used ordinary playing card decks for divination. However, these condensed decks didn't include any Major Arcana cards. Learning how to read the Minor Arcana with ordinary poker cards isn't very difficult. Simply correlate each suit with the tarot deck to the suits in the poker deck. For example, hearts are cups, spades are swords, diamonds are coins and clubs are wands.

References

• Aeclectic: Tarot Meanings