KnowTarot

Learn tarot in 14 lessons

A short course from first principles to reading a full spread, about 100 minutes in all. Each lesson ends with something to try and a quick quiz; pass it to tick the lesson off. Your progress is kept in this browser, and follows you between devices when you are signed in.

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Start: How tarot works →

Unit 1 · Foundations

What a tarot deck is, how to look at a card, and what to do when one falls upside down.

  1. How tarot worksThe 78 cards, how the deck is built, and what a reading can and cannot do.6 min
  2. Reading a card from its pictureStart with what you see: figures, direction, colour, number. The meaning follows.7 min
  3. Upright and reversedWhat an upside-down card can mean, four ways to read it, and when to leave reversals out.6 min

Unit 2 · The Major Arcana

The 22 trumps read as one story, the Fool's journey, in three stages.

  1. The Fool's journey: setting out (0–7)From The Fool to The Chariot: the self meets the world and learns its first powers.8 min
  2. The Fool's journey: turning inward (8–14)From Strength to Temperance: inner work, fate, sacrifice and the endings that make room.8 min
  3. The Fool's journey: through the dark to the world (15–21)From The Devil to The World: shadow, upheaval, hope and completion.8 min

Unit 3 · The Minor Arcana

56 cards learned as a system: four suits, ten numbers, four court ranks.

  1. The four suitsWands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles: their elements, fields and shadows.7 min
  2. Ace to Ten: the numbersEach number is a stage: seed, choice, growth, stability, challenge, and on to completion.8 min
  3. The court cardsPages, Knights, Queens and Kings as people, as approaches, and as stages of mastery.7 min
  4. Following a suit: Wands and CupsAce to Ten as one story in fire and in water.8 min
  5. Following a suit: Swords and PentaclesAce to Ten as one story in air and in earth.8 min

Unit 4 · Reading a spread

Positions, the reading as a whole, and doing your own readings well.

  1. Positions: one card, many meaningsWhy the same card reads differently in the Past, the Advice or the Outcome.7 min
  2. The reading as a wholePatterns across the table: majors, suits, numbers, reversals and cards that speak to each other.8 min
  3. Your own practiceAsking good questions, keeping a journal, and looking back to learn what rings true.7 min

Already know the basics? Keep the cards fresh with the daily flashcards and quizzes.