Q&A: How can I wean myself off of my tarot books?

When you are reading for yourself, it is hard to “get out of the way” and do an intuitive reading. So, my wife and I teach two methods of using the cards. One uses the “book meanings” and one uses intuitive meanings.

My answer to your question is not to worry about “weaning” yourself off the books. There’s nothing wrong with using reference materials. Eventually, you will have memorized the meanings and for most readings you won’t need them. But occasionally, for reading for yourself, or for people who are close to you, you may want to use a book.

When my wife and I do a reading for ourselves we do a very structured reading and decide to just read the meanings out of a certain book verbatim. Sometimes we use a different system such as the Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling System that almost forces you to read the book.

Also, by continually using books, you are constantly exposing yourself to new information – and that’s a good thing. For example, yesterday in our “advanced” Tarot Class, we were studying plant symbolism. Since most only bring their “usual” reference, I handed out books to each of the students and told them to look up cards and symbols as we talked about the various cards. They had a ball and learned so much that we are expanding that exercise for the next class.

Here’s another point about using a book – even with a client. Sometimes, they will say, “Oh, you just know that about me.” If the meaning I used was a “book meaning” – I just get the book and have them read it aloud. Or, if it is an Internet reading, I just quote the material and provide the reference and page number.

You are doing fine. Keep using the books. At some point for some readings, you won’t use them – but using reference materials is a good habit to keep.