I've always considered the Tarot to be an incredibly soulful and personal journey for every single person who starts down this path, but it can be hard to feel that personal journey when you're just reading out of a book and trying to force a puzzle piece to fit. I learned to read tarot very much like Hiccup (from How to Train Your Dragon) learned to ride Toothless, the 'instructions' lost to the wind and intuition being my only guide. As nerve-wracking as this can be, it's honestly how I'd recommend learning. Of course, we all want to do things 'right' and we want the reassurance that we're doing things 'right', but tarot has no right or wrong. Everyone has their own conversations with the cards. Some people don't read reversed cards (I'm some people), and some people read based off of the images in the card (I'm some people). No one's tarot reading style will be like anyone else's, and that's truly the beauty of tarot. It's a conversation, a fusion of intuition and guidance, and something that can't be outright replicated or copied from another person.
Recording these conversations, intuitive thoughts, and looking back to see where you maybe misread or need to slightly correct things is also something I incorporated. I methodically went back at the end of each day to see where my daily card fit, and sometimes (oftentimes) it fit in an entirely different way than I had first perceived. This reflection & journaling has built my Card Database, a wiki-like network of Card Pages detailing what they mean to me, memories I have with them, and what their symbolism represents in this context, along with Symbolism Pages that go deeper into the symbolism that I have slowly researched and defined for my own reading purposes. It is these pages that I plan to refine & share with Arcanites (members) that support me monthly. You won't require my Database to read the cards, in fact, I'd suggest you make your own. It's a long and lengthy process, but it's one you can look back on and marvel at.
Of course, studying books and learning "traditional" meanings has its place, but I do not think that the place is at the very start of this journey. Several cards do not relate to me their "traditional" meanings, and so I don't use them; but if that's the case for you (where the "traditional" meaning does not relate) and you aren't sure what the card is telling you, you might try and shoehorn in the "traditional" meaning into your life where it has no place being there- this won't help you. I firmly believe that you'll need at least one personal idea or keyword of what the card might mean before diving into learning or memorizing "traditional" keywords or meanings. After pulling a card spend some time alone with it before turning to the Book of Meanings (if you got one with your tarot deck), get to know it one on one. This will really aide your journey becoming far more personal and deeper.
Until next time,
♥ Mad