Each Tarot deck is different. Each deck has a different energy. And each deck talks differently. And of course each user is also different and the way the communication between the reader and the cards works will be different between them all.
I must confess I have an app to help me translate my cards. I use Galaxy Tarot by Galaxy Tone Software on my android tablet, free in the google play store (Currently, subject to change). Sadly I have not found found an app I am happy with for Apple products. The app can do readings, but I do not really trust it, mostly personal preference in how I do my readings. I use it as a tool for layouts and translating cards. I use my physical cards to do my readings. And there is nothing wrong with not being able to look at the card and figure out what it means. And just because the card seems dark and negative, like say the major arcane card Death. Just because death has a negative contention, does not mean death, sorrow or otherwise. It could just mean the end of a phase, a cycle, or project. And just because a card is bright and colorful doesn’t mean it’s a good card. Each deck’s illustration is different from the next. Where my card may look beautiful and cheery, yours may look drab and grim.
I received my first tarot deck, on Samhien some time around my 13th birthday. And to be honest, the cards did not talk to me right away. Or perhaps it just took me a while to learn how these cards talk to me.
To be truthful, I tried to read my cards a number of times before giving up. The time was not right. Though on occasion I would pull out my cards and try again. It was not until my 16th birthday actually, that I can recall, figuring out how my cards spoke to me and how to understand them. I still rely on a book and other devices to translate what my cards are telling me, but I have learned which cards speak to me.
I actually came to understand my Tarot cards from doing readings on other people. Believe it or not, it clicked while doing a reading in the presence of my best friend while doing a reading for her boyfriend, just for giggles, at a sleep over around the time of my 16th birthday.
My cards speak to me through my hands unless they are speaking loudly. Then I feel an almost tingly effect, and I can just look at the cards and tell which one is talking.
Now I have learned that in order to do a reading, I actually need to focus and concentrate on the reading in order to do it correctly. Otherwise I default into a past, present, and future reading. As I have discovered when I did a reading two years ago for a fellow witch, Wryn. She had asked me for the Celtic Cross reading. I’ll illuminate more on that later.
We were doing the reading in the presence of our friend, whom is no longer among us, who had asked if I would be willing to do a reading for her as well. I of course enjoy using my cards but seldom do, and thus was quite eager to do this reading.
My mistake though was doing the reading and allowing them to distract me as I explained how the cards spoke to me, as they had never seen or heard of how I read my cards.
My cards were spread out in two rows before me so each card has about a quarter inch sticking out before the next card begins to cover it, and I guide my hands over the cards by about two inches, and I feel for the cards that speak.
I feel the cards speaking in the very center of my palm, and the more intensely they speak, the more intense the tingle and further up it can and will travel. I have had an almost painful tingle that traveled all the way up my arm to my elbow, similar to a pins and needles feeling you get when your foot falls asleep, but warmer and not as painful. That happened because I ignored the card first passing through. It was telling me not to miss it again. And I always get a feeling of confirmation from the deck when I finally touch the card and pick it up.
But I was almost half way through the deck when multiple cards started talking to me at once as I was also carrying on a conversation with Wryn and Tiffany. Upon this discovery, I recognized my need to focus and my concern for wither or not I was picking up the right cards. Returning my focus to the Celtic cross spread, the multiple cards stopped talking to me. But when I stopped and shifted my focus to my conversation they started talking again. I separated the cards speaking and returned to my celtic cross reading, still going over the cards that had been speaking to discover they were still speaking, but in more a whisper. As if saying, we need to speak to you but it can wait, it is not the relevant moment.
Upon Finishing the Celtic cross, it was discovered, that I had 3 cards set to the side of my talkers. Upon turning them over it was discovered, I had done both readings at the same time. I had done the Celtic Cross spread Wryn had requested, and the past, present, future spread that Tiffany needed. And poor Tiffany was exhausted to discover she had yet again received the same reading. Tiffany had gone and seen 2 tarot readers and myself on readings previously and each time got the same cards, give or take one. Her future card always remained the same, something that frustrated her greatly because she didn’t understand, but her past and present cards would vary to different aspects of her life, but she always had cards repeated between these 4 readings she had now received, telling us, she was missing what the cards were telling her, or that she wasn’t allowed or supposed to know more.
And that is important, the future is not written in stone. The future is written in water. And a choices we make today will ripple out and change things. And if you are not supposed to know something, you will not know it. You will not learn more. A lesson it would seem, that dear Tiffany could not seem to learn as she continued to get the same results over and over again through 7 readings in 2 weeks.
Now, this is just me sharing my experience and how the cards and I communicate. If you would like to read more on the spreads that I mentioned or the cards, feel free to take a read through Tarot Cards and Spreads.