There are three main purposes for tarot cards: straight divination, spell work, with specially designed spell work decks and working the tree of life. Almost any deck of tarot cards can be used for divination, but only updated decks can serve spell work and working the tree of life.
Even though there are lots of books out there that give you the meaning of every card, one of the best and most personal ways to develop meanings for the cards is to actually study the cards themselves. The cards were developed with symbols and pictures that represent the concept being expressed.
Anyone can learn the art of reading tarot cards, it’s not difficult. Like any art or science, it just takes practice and a strong desire to learn. The easiest way to start learning the tarot is to get the Esoteric School Tarot Home Study course, which will teach you just about everything, including the art of reading tarot cards, Tarot Spreads, meanings for tarot cards and two real tarot card spreads.
If you are just starting to read tarot cards or have never done any work with the tarot, we suggest you start with the Waite-Rider deck, typically acknowledged as the easiest deck to work with for beginner magicians. The people who created the modern tarot, all of whom were members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, designed the Waite-Rider, Morgan-Greer and Thoth decks. Arthur Edward Waite created the Waite-Rider deck (Rider was the name of the publisher) and Pamela Smith, also of the Golden Dawn, did the artwork for the cards.
Because your tarot cards are magical tools just like the wand, athame, chalice and plate, they must be keyed. Keying is the means of personalizing magical tools for your own use. In this case, through keying, the cards are not only tied to your own personal energies, but are also tied to the Universe at large. This means that when you throw a tarot spread with a keyed deck, the cards not only represent elements, people and concepts in the Universe, but they are tied to them. Keying is what allows tarot spells to work. Because the cards are actually linked to physical things in the Universe, when you change or rearrange the tarot cards, you also change or rearrange things in the physical Universe.
In the progression of magical studies, the study of tarot cards comes almost at the end. This is because you need the plate, athame and sun candles to key your tarot cards. Before you can key your cards you need to have studied and practiced with these other tools. While it’s possible to throw tarot spreads with unkeyed tarot cards, the results will be less accurate than with keyed cards.