This week I’m expanding a little bit on 10 Get To Know Your Tarot Reader questions. I had a live stream for this on Periscope recently and uploaded it to my IGTV if you’d like to see it.  I focus on being self-taught.
A Brief Note on Mentoring
Several tarot readers have been mentored and I have certainly mentored some readers. I like to do that. I like to share concepts and ideas and pass along what I know and learn from those I’m mentoring as well. I think it’s interesting to be in that mentor space.
As I think back on whether I was mentored or self-taught…I was self-taught.
The Present
When I was ten a family member of mine gave me a deck of tarot cards. I don’t think they had any knowledge of tarot cards. I certainly didn’t.  I remember feeling like I got the odd present and my siblings got the normal ones. I was thinking, “what do I do with these things?â€
It was a Rider Waite Smith deck. I kinda knew a little bit what they were but I didn’t really know a lot. I was ten.
I read the little white book that came with it. It was like an instruction book you’d get for a game. I read what it was supposed to be. What the cards were supposed to mean. I was trying to figure out what it all meant. And it was confusing. And I put them away.
The Frustration of Being Self-Taught
Then when I got home, I pulled them out and started playing with them. I wanted to figure out what they were and what they meant. I was trying to use them. I knew you needed to ask a question so I would ask my sister, my mom, my dad, to ask me a question and “I’m going to try and answer it for you.†And it sucked.
I kept trying to put it all together and understand how it worked. And then I put them away. In retrospect it was because I didn’t have any feedback on skill level or expertise. I wasn’t improving and I didn’t know what to do next. Google didn’t exist then. And the library was in town. And this was all too frustrating.
But then I’d get them out. Rinse and repeat for six or seven years. Then one day I went to the metaphysical section of Powell’s Books in Portland. And I got a bunch of Tarot books. You can find out more about those here.
The Opening Of The Key
One of those books, by Norma Cowie broke open the tarot for me. I felt like I went from primitive to amatuer. Then I got more into Papus, Waite, Crowley. I started to be exposed to and understand all of these systems and ideas and concepts and images and symbols. Then I started to better understand more about building my own systems.
Then I pracaticed those systems. I started to learn what worked. What didn’t work for me. And I kept what worked and tossed what didn’t.
And I kept reading. I can’t stop reading great tarot books that step outside of the mundane card meanings.  I’m currently (finally) reading Benebell Wen’s Holistic Tarot.
So I would definitely say I was self-taught.
On-Going Learning
Then fast forward, way into the future, I came across #TarotRap. This twitter experience is more like immersion. You hang out with other tarot readers and have a conversation that allows you to stretch and grow your tarot chops. This was kind of like group mentoring with a lot of self reflection. You get to interact with other tarot readers and learn from each other.
I still learn from other tarot readers as I watch them read or we share ideas when we’re taken with each other’s styles. Like Jason and Al. Learning tarot is being the perpetual student. You’re a student of Tarot, spirit, and life. You continue to train because you always want to be stronger than before.
Then exploring other practices, like mediumship, has helped my tarot practice become stronger. Not only because of the discipline, but also because of the layers it adds to my readings.
I read a lot, listened to practitioners podcasts, reached out to mediums to learn from them, and watched them on Periscope.  Now I’m continuing to try and learn how it works for me. So my self-education continues. I think I will always look for each lesson.
I’m continuing reaching out to other spiritualists who have different practices from my own expand my knowledge and experience. I read books other than tarot books so I’m inspired to inform and expand my practice in to topics that support my style. (The Harvard Business Revue is full of great articles that translate into spreads.) And I’m working to expose myself to knew tarot experiences in the coming year.