14 lessons · about 2 hours

Learn tarot

A course that starts by telling you honestly what tarot does and does not do, then teaches the structure that turns 78 cards into something learnable. Written to be read in order, free the whole way through.

Start at lesson oneOr start the daily practice

Learn the 78 cards

A short spaced-repetition drill that shows you each card just before you would have forgotten it. Two minutes a day beats reading all 78 pages in a weekend, and it is free with no signup to try.

Start the drill

Track 1

Foundations

What tarot is, how a deck is structured, and how to do your first reading without getting lost.

  1. What Tarot Is (And What It Is Not)Before the cards: what a tarot reading actually does, what it cannot do, and why the honest version is more useful than the mystical one.6 min
  2. The Anatomy of a Tarot DeckSeventy-eight cards in two groups. The structure is simple, and understanding it turns memorisation into comprehension.7 min
  3. Your First Reading, Step by StepA complete first reading in six steps, including the two mistakes almost every beginner makes.8 min
  4. Reversals: Should You Use Them?What an upside-down card means, the four main approaches, and why plenty of experienced readers ignore them entirely.5 min

Track 2

The Major Arcana

The twenty-two trumps, the journey they describe, and how to read them when they dominate a spread.

  1. The Fool's JourneyThe twenty-two majors read as one continuous narrative: the single most efficient way to learn them.9 min
  2. When the Majors Take OverPremiumWhat it means when a spread comes up mostly trumps, and how to read a reading that is bigger than its question.6 min

Track 3

The Minor Arcana

Four suits, four elements, and the numerical logic that makes fifty-six cards learnable.

  1. The Four Suits and Their ElementsFire, water, air and earth: what each suit governs, and what suit dominance tells you before you read a single card.7 min
  2. The Numbers: Ace Through TenEach number carries a stage. Combine it with the suit element and you can read any of the forty pip cards from first principles.8 min
  3. Court Cards: The Hardest SixteenPremiumPages, Knights, Queens and Kings: people, aspects of yourself, or approaches to a situation. How to tell which.9 min

Track 4

Reading Spreads

Choosing a spread, reading position as context, and holding ten cards together without drowning.

  1. Choosing the Right SpreadMatch the spread to the question. Most bad readings are a good spread answering the wrong kind of question.5 min
  2. Reading Cards in CombinationPremiumThe skill that separates fluent readers from card-by-card ones: reading the relationships between cards, not just the cards.10 min

Track 5

Practice & Ethics

Reading for other people, reading for yourself, and the questions tarot should not be asked.

  1. Reading for Yourself Without Fooling YourselfSelf-reading is the hardest kind, because you know what you want the answer to be. Six practices that keep it honest.7 min
  2. The Ethics of Reading for Other PeopleWhat to do when the Tower comes up for a stranger, questions you should decline, and why "I saw it in the cards" is never an excuse.8 min
  3. Building a Daily PracticeNinety days of one card a day will teach you more than any book. Here is the version that actually survives contact with a normal week.6 min

Learn by doing, mostly

Reading about tarot has a low ceiling. Draw a card, look it up, write a line about it, and check back in the evening. Ninety days of that will take you further than this entire course read twice.

Draw today's cardBrowse all 78 meanings