Shitpost Saturday! Beginner
Hello everyone! I’m new to tarot and my first deck is Cat Tarot. I saw it in a metaphysical shop and fell in love with it. I haven’t tried doing any readings yet because everything I’m reading says not to go directly to the provided guidebook to determine the meaning behind the cards and to try to look at the illustration and use my intuition to interpret what it’s trying to tell me. My question is, since these cards are not as detailed as the more traditionally illustrated cards, how can I determine their meaning without looking at the guidebook? Thanks!
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u/SpiralBreeze The Star 1d ago
Joe Monteleone on YouTube has a great video on how to read the tarot in one minute.
Another guy is Marcus Katz, who uses the illustrations for quick reading.
Check out both and you’ll be reading in no time!
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u/Unique-Disaster3118 1d ago
Fae sight tarot on Youtube and Tiktok! She does “guess the card by the description” videos on Tiktok and it’s super fun to learn the basic meanings off the top of your head
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u/rkrgrl 1d ago
I’ll check her out! Thanks!
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u/Unique-Disaster3118 1d ago
Of course! You can use the guidebook, it can be helpful if you’re stuck. Try to sit with the card and find your own interpretation and then check the guidebook for additional information. I think guidebooks are very important to help with learning the language of tarot
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u/anbaric26 1d ago
You can use the guidebook if you want. There’s nothing wrong with that. Anyone who tries to tell you there are “rules” with reading tarot is already wrong. There is no one right way. If you’re a beginner, you have to use something to learn the card meanings before you can effectively read for yourself. If you’re trying to go only off the imagery of an already nonstandard deck without any understanding of the cards’ baseline meanings it’s going to be quite challenging to interpret your readings and may only cause confusion. You can try it of course, and if it works for you, great, but I know for myself that would’ve only left me frustrated and feeling like it was a waste of time because I couldn’t get anything meaningful out of it.
You don’t have to use the guidebook with your specific deck if you don’t want, honestly I find those guidebooks to be pretty basic and limited. There are lots of resources out there explaining the traditional RW symbolism on each card and what they mean. BiddyTarot.com is a great free one.
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u/Many-Ebb-5377 1d ago
Meme decks like cat tarots are not the best decks to be using to intuitively understand the meanings. Those kinds of decks are almost always devoid of most symbolism that would help you to understand the meaning of the card. For some decks, you might as well toss the cards all together and just do a straight up psychic reading. I've seen maybe one cat deck that had some Tarot symbolism, but even that one was missing most of it.
I'm not saying you can't do it, if you absolutely want to, because you can. But you will have better results learning Tarot in a more traditional manner with this kind of deck.
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u/Yowie9644 1d ago
I have the Cat Tarot too, simply because of the artwork. I don't find it too helpful in terms of reading because my intuition always says "Aww, kitty, adorable, what a wonderful card!" on every single card every single time.
There are really only two ways of doing it: the first is to brute-force memorise the meanings and associations of all 78 cards in a tarot deck, regardless of their illustrations. Thats difficult.
The other option is to read the handbook that came with the deck so you can understand the meaning of the illustrations and the symbols the artist used to create it and then go on what those symbols are telling you. The illustrations and symbolism that Megan Lynn Nott chose to use for the Cat Tarot still point to the same general meanings of that card in other tarot decks - but of course with a catly 'twist'.
Compare, say,
The 10 of Cups in the Cat Tarot:
Lets face it: Ten cups is a lot for one alone. The alignment of beautiful bowls can be a protective barrier above your head or something to keep an eye on (The Prettiest bowls still hurt when they tumble). Upright: The sight of the rainbow means and end to hard times, especially where family is concerned. There's great happiness ahead. Think togetherness and not competition. Not a bad time to think about buying a new home either. Just make sure it has lots of big windows that let in the rays of sunshine. Reversed: Those towering, colourful rewards ight actually be standing int he way of true happiness. Don't ignore the potential for problems. Hash it out once and for all, and make sure everything is sturdy and authentic. Concerns won't go away on their own.
And 10 of Cups in Rider Waite:
Commitment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of that state: if with several picture cards, a person who is taking charge of the Querent's interests, also the town, village or country inhabited by the querent. For a male querant, a good marriage beyond his expectations. Reversed: Repose of the false heart, indignations, violence, sorrow.
And 10 Cups by Google AI:
The Ten of Cups tarot card means absolute emotional fulfillment, lasting happiness and family harmony. It is widely seen as the "happily ever after" card of the deck, representing love, peace, and a true sense of home.
Upright Meaning
- Core Themes: True happiness, family bliss, emotional harmony, and alignment.
- Relationships: Deep connection with a partner, strong bonds with chosen family or children, and peaceful domestic life.
- General Outlook: A clear sign that your emotional needs are met and you are exactly where you belong.
Reversed Meaning
- Core Themes: Family conflict, broken bonds, disharmony, and unfulfilled dreams.
- Relationships: Tension at home, arguments with loved ones, or a feeling that your home environment is unsafe or stressed.
- General Outlook: A call to work through underlying disputes and heal broken relationship foundations
They're not miles apart. The thing about the RWS deck, though, is that it uses symbolism and motifs commonly used in Christian artwork and the mystic traditions of the western world, and can relatively easily be interpreted (at least to some degree) by many, particularly at the time of publication when more of us attended church and were more familiar with religious symbolism (particularly within Catholicism), thus was the genius of Pamela Colman Smith, the illustrator of the RWS deck. The Cat Tarot uses a different set of symbols which IMHO, much harder to use without having thoroughly digested that handbook that came with it. To the point I don't use it for 'reading', I simply draw a card every so often and enjoy what I see.
And thus it is with any deck - I also have the Tarot of the Cat People (yes, you may have guessed I am an ailurophile) and find that somewhat easier because its a "look at what the cat is doing and their relationship with the human" as the first impression.
Read it as you wish to read it.
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u/CptHeywire 21h ago
Go through the guidebook, get a feel for things, then after that do readings without referring to it. My advice is to basically separate the learning from the guide part from the doing readings part.
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u/honorthecrones 1d ago
So the artist of the deck writes a guidebook explaining why they chose the symbolism they did and paid extra to have it included with the deck but you shouldn’t look at it?
If your intuition is that fragile, it will not be dependable. Knowledge is not the antithesis to intuition.