Can You Read Cards Intuitively? How to Use Your Sixth Sense for Card Readings
Can you read cards intuitively without knowing their meanings? Tarot cards? Lenormand cards? Oracle cards? You might be surprised to hear me say yes!
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While decks systems like Tarot and Lenormand have set intended meanings for each individual card, they can still be read by intuition. By developing and trusting your intuition, you can enhance your readings and connect more deeply with the energies and messages of the tarot. Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to read intuitively.
When looking at a tarot deck, you should be able to connect to the artwork in a way that it leads you to the meaning. Good decks for learning are chock full of symbolism, such as The Fool card featuring a white rose to symbolize innocence and purity.
If you understand some of this general symbolism, you can get a feel for the meaning. Also examining The Fool, you can see that (s)he looks straight ahead, one foot over a cliff, seeming completely unaware that something bad could happen. Just carefree and naive. Innocent.
You will come across very simplistic decks, so if you’re new to reading, I suggest steering away from them (with the exception of adding them to your deck collection that you will inevitably have).
Decks that are just meant to be cute, but don’t really feature any details will not help you learn tarot, nor read the cards intuitively. Of course these kinds of decks are great once you’ve been reading for a while and don’t need the symbols anymore.
You can also use the Tarot by Comparison™ method, by matching up like cards from multiple decks and comparing their artwork for common themes.
With Lenormand, what you see is what you get, so it’s very easy to learn these card meanings intuitively. All you need is a simple understanding of what things represent. For example, when you see a Key you think “lock / unlock” and Book represents “learning / information”. You can associate more terms to those basic meanings too, right? Like maybe for book/learning you also think studying, researching, projects, or even a secret (diary for example).
Well, since Lenormand is read in pairs, if you combine Key + Book, you may get hidden information or secrets kept (since the key coming first in the reading sets the tone and the book lets you know what happens to the key = lock the information in). Or if read backward, Book + Key, you may get “secrets revealed” (since the book coming first in the reading sets the tone and the key lets you know what happens to the book = information gets unlocked).
Oracle cards are a little more simple to read intuitively since their meaning is printed directly on the card and you can just expand on that word or phrase.
Most decks feature purely decorative artwork and don’t necessarily equate to the meaning, but again, oracle cards are printed with their meanings, so you don’t really need the help of the artwork anyway.
So, this is a resounding yes! You don’t ever need to crack open the companion book for oracle cards as you can come to the conclusions from the prompts. The author does expand on the cards, giving you their intended meaning, but this does not mean that that is what the card has to mean to you. That’s what makes Oracle cards so fun, right?
So, as you can see, as long as you understand basic symbolism (and have the right deck of cards), you can easily read cards without knowing their meanings. Just listen to your gut! When a spread comes up, hear your inner voice telling you what the cards mean, and hear spirit telling you what the message is!
My hope is that this article instills confidence in you as a reader, especially if you’re a brand new baby tarotist (or lenormandist or oraclist). Everyone has it in them to become a great card reader; trust yourself!
Happy reading, and may your intuition guide you always!
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