7 Aug 2026
Yes or No Tarot: The Question It Is Worst At
The most requested reading in tarot, done honestly. How the leans are decided, why 48 of the 78 cards say yes, and what to ask instead.
Tarot Guides & Reading Notes
Tarot writing from Memento Arcana: card studies, spread guides, learning notes, and the occasional argument about how tarot should be read.
New here? Start with these
7 Aug 2026
What Questions to Ask Tarot (and What Not To)
The question decides the reading. How to turn a vague worry into something the cards can answer, and the four question types that produce useless readings.
7 Aug 2026
What Is a Tarot Birth Card? The Maths, Shown
Add your birth date up and reduce it, and you land on one or more Major Arcana. Here is the arithmetic in full, why people get different numbers of cards, and how old the idea is.
7 Aug 2026
Tarot When You Cannot Decide
Most stuck decisions are not close calls. They are decisions where something has not been named. Here is a spread built to find it rather than to pick for you.
7 Aug 2026
Tarot vs Oracle Cards: What's the Difference?
Tarot has a fixed 78-card structure that every guide is written for. Oracle decks have no rules at all. Which one you want depends on what you are trying to do.
7 Aug 2026
Can Tarot Tell You When? The Honest Answer
There is a traditional method for reading timing from the cards. Here it is in full, along with why it is the least reliable thing tarot is asked to do.
7 Aug 2026
What the Numbers Mean in Tarot, Ace to Ten
Forty numbered cards look like forty things to memorise. They are ten numbers crossed with four elements, and once you see that you can construct any of them.
7 Aug 2026
Tarot for Self-Worth (and When to Put the Cards Down)
A spread can surface a belief about your own worth and name where it came from. It is a reflective tool, not treatment, and knowing the difference matters here more than anywhere.
7 Aug 2026
Tarot for Moving House: The Question Under the Question
A deck cannot tell you whether the survey will be clean. It is good at telling you why you want to go, which is worth knowing before you commit to a mortgage.
7 Aug 2026
Tarot for a Career Change: What It Can and Cannot Tell You
A deck cannot tell you whether the job is right. It is unusually good at telling you whether you are leaving toward something or running from something.
7 Aug 2026
Which Tarot Card Rules Your Star Sign?
Every zodiac sign carries one Major Arcana card, plus three numbered cards and a court card. Here is the full map, where it comes from, and how old it actually is.
7 Aug 2026
Tarot and the Moon Phases: A Practice That Sticks
New moon and full moon readings give a practice a rhythm and a built-in review point. Here is how to run the pair, and what the moon is actually doing for you.
7 Aug 2026
Tarot After a Breakup: What to Ask, and What Not To
The questions people bring to a deck after a breakup are mostly ones tarot cannot answer. Here are the ones it can, and the point at which to put the cards down.
7 Aug 2026
Reading Tarot for Other People (Without Doing Harm)
The technical part is the easy part. Here are the boundaries that matter, what to say when a reading turns heavy, and what changes when money is involved.
7 Aug 2026
Major vs Minor Arcana: What's the Difference?
The 22 majors are the themes you do not choose. The 56 minors are daily life. What each half does, and what it means when one dominates a reading.
7 Aug 2026
Is Tarot Dangerous? An Honest Look at the Risks
Not in the way people fear, but there are three real risks worth naming, and none are supernatural. What the evidence says, and where care matters.
7 Aug 2026
How to Store and Care for Tarot Cards
What actually wears a deck out, what to keep it in, and which of the traditional rules are about protection rather than superstition.
7 Aug 2026
How to Shuffle Tarot Cards (Four Methods)
Four ways to shuffle a tarot deck without wrecking the cards, how to introduce reversals, and why the method matters less than your consistency.
7 Aug 2026
How to Read Tarot Court Cards (The Hardest Sixteen)
Court cards are difficult for one specific reason: the card will not tell you whether it means another person, you, or something you could do. Here is how to decide.
7 Aug 2026
How to Read Tarot Card Combinations
Two cards together mean more than two cards apart. A four-step method: dominant card, elements, the tension between them, then back to your question.
7 Aug 2026
Reversed Tarot Cards: How to Read Them Without Panicking
A reversed card is not a curse. Four ways to read reversals (blocked, internal, out of balance, or emphasis) and why sticking to one system matters.
7 Aug 2026
How to Learn Tarot Card Meanings Without Memorising
Seventy-eight cards is a lot to memorise and you do not have to. The structure that turns most of the deck into logic, and the habit that does the rest.
7 Aug 2026
How to Learn All 78 Tarot Cards (Without Cramming)
Reading every card page in a weekend does not work. Here is what does: structure first, spaced repetition, and one card a day in real context.
7 Aug 2026
How to Keep a Tarot Journal (and Actually Use It)
Two lines a day beats a page a week. What to record, why the evening line matters more than the morning one, and what a year of entries actually shows you.
7 Aug 2026
How to Cleanse Tarot Cards: 7 Methods That Work
Seven ways to cleanse a tarot deck: smoke, moonlight, salt, sound, breath, a reset shuffle, or nothing. What each is for, and when a deck needs it.
7 Aug 2026
How to Choose Your First Tarot Deck: A Practical Guide
What actually matters when buying a first tarot deck (illustrated pips, card size, the artwork you can stand looking at) and the advice you can safely ignore.
7 Aug 2026
The Deck Everyone Pictures, and the Woman Who Drew It
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is 1909, and the artist was paid a flat fee and credited by her initials. Here is where the cards you know actually came from.
7 Aug 2026
Do Tarot Cards Have to Be Gifted? No. Here's Why
The rule that you must be given your first tarot deck is a modern invention with no historical basis. Where it came from, and why it stops people starting.
7 Aug 2026
9 Tarot Mistakes Beginners Make (and How to Fix Them)
Nine habits that quietly stall beginners: re-asking, reading the keyword instead of the picture, and reaching for a ten-card spread far too early.
7 Aug 2026
Can You Read Tarot for Yourself? An Honest Answer
Yes, but it is the easiest form of tarot to do badly. The four traps of reading for yourself, and the habits that keep a self-reading honest.
7 Aug 2026
Can Tarot Predict the Future? An Honest Answer
No, and the reasons are more interesting than the answer. What tarot is actually doing when a reading lands, and where the ethical line sits.