Her'e a question all readers have at one point or another: "How do I learn to read?"

The easiest (and personally best) answer to give is to say, "Use the Little White Book", which is the answer I gave.  I wonder now, in retrospect, if it was the right answer to give.  I gave it because that's how I started my tarot journey, with very little idea of how anything works, much less my own intuition.  I still have my first LWB, wrapped up in home-made laminating and travelling around wherever I go in the same velveteen bag their companion deck travels in.

But what now about those who can't start like I started, those who don't have the advantage of having afternoons and weekends and weeks off from school, like I did (yes, I know, I should have focused on my school-work, but the cards were much more fun)?  How do people like this learn the cards?

The question of "How?" was tonight asked by a doctor friend in New York City who works in public health with HIV/AIDS.  I gave her the LWB answer, but I doubt she has enough free time on her hands to actually sit and work through the little pamphlet, folding and refolding it, while she works with her patients.  For her, it's easy enough to track down the American Tarot Association and find a tutor/mentor through them.  In South Africa, how does one do that?  Here in Cape Town we haven't got anything even nearly like the ATA, though we do have the Cape Town Tarot Association, but most of us have other jobs and or hobbies that very often pull us away from our tarot.  In regards to mentoring and tutoring, there are very few members of the CTTA who have that amount of free time to sit and work with someone, and in this tiny little group even fewer who have the actual skill to guide anyone in the cards.  I know I tried it once, and it wasn't a flop, but it didn't work out half as well as we'd both hoped it would, mainly because she already had a tarot basis to work with and the material we used was so very different from what she'd already started doing on her own.  Some teachers also tend to charge more than some students can afford, while the majority of teachers seem to float around the City more than in the suburbs.  Maybe I have this wrong, but it's been my experience.

If only we could pull ourselves together and start working together as tarot card readers and not only tarot enthusiasts; tarot helpers and mentors instead of tarot "oh-I'll-do-it-myself"s.  We need to grow up when it comes to things like this.  Am I wrong, or not completely correct?

Right, ranting aside, something I found useful when it comes to tarot books is tagging.  No, not tagging online.  I mean actual sticky-tape-and-paper tags, or filing tags.  I did it originally with a copy of the "Tarot Bible" and now did it again, and slightly more completely, with the companion book for the Grail Tarot.  I tagged the Major Arcana Chapter on its own, then tagged out the suits, and then sub-tagged all the court and pip cards. This way, while I work with the book, it's easier to find the correct card instead of struggling with pages sticking together for some reason or another.  I also tagged out the "Working with the Cards" and "Spreads" pages to make it easier.

The sad thing is, it's such a nicely set out book, I didn't want to bend the spine.  However, it IS a working book, so you WILL bend the spine as you work with your cards and get to know them, and the constant back and forth through the book may even eventually loosen a few pages.  If you happen to buy a "how-to" book, but don't want to bend the spine, you might just as well throw it in the rubbish for all the real good it will do you.  Or, be a bit more practical and take it back for a refund and stick to the LWB.  Whatever.

Anyway, this cat's off to bed.  Have fun and sleep tight, guys and gals!