To interpret tarot cards, connect a suitable card meaning with your question, the card’s assigned position and the cards around it. Then check which parts of your explanation come from the image, a reference or your own associations.
If you can look up individual meanings but struggle to join them, this guide is for you. You will practise explaining a relationship between two cards—including a pair that seems contradictory—without treating a possible interpretation as a fact about your life.
Give each interpretation a context
Keep three things in view: your question, the position’s role and the circumstances you actually know. A position is the prompt assigned to a card, such as “What could support my approach?”
A keyword alone does not answer that prompt. “Retreat”, for example, might invite you to consider whether stepping back would help. In a different exercise, with a position asking about a challenge, it might prompt a question about withdrawing too much. The role changes what you are considering.
Reading cards in relation to the question, positions and surrounding cards is an approach described in MJS Tarot’s guide to making connections. It gives you a way to explain your reasoning rather than simply collecting meanings.
Keep known circumstances separate. If you are waiting for a reply, the reply remains outstanding however you interpret the cards. An interpretation can suggest something to consider; it cannot confirm that someone has answered.
Separate what you see from what you associate with it
Before joining cards, identify the source of each statement you make.
| Layer | What you record | Useful wording |
|---|---|---|
| Observation | An object, pose or action visible in your deck | “The image shows…” |
| Reference or tradition | A meaning given by a named source | “This guide associates it with…” |
| Personal application | A tentative connection to your question | “For this situation, I could consider…” |
These layers can work together, but they establish different things. A guidebook confirms what its author says about a card. It does not verify a prediction. Your association may help you reflect without establishing what the artist intended.
Look at the whole scene before assigning meaning to a detail. What surrounds an object? How is it being used? Beth Maiden’s introduction to tarot symbolism discusses symbols in context and the differences deck creators can introduce. Avoid assuming that every occurrence of a colour or object has one universal meaning.
Start with your deck’s guidebook where available. You can also consult the InnerSigns card reference, checking how the description relates to the deck you are using. If your image lacks a detail mentioned by another source, do not describe it as visible. If nothing in the artwork connects clearly with your question, you can work with a relevant reference meaning without inventing a visual clue.
Connect two cards without inventing a fixed formula
Take two cards whose positions are already assigned. Keep those prompts beside the cards while you explore a connection.
Try one of these approaches:
- Shared theme: Is there an idea in both cards that helps answer the question?
- Contrast: Do the cards invite different considerations, such as stepping back and taking action?
- Relationship between roles: Could what you notice in a support position help you approach an action position?
Comparing keywords, symbols and the relationship between images also appears in Biddy Tarot’s guide to card combinations. Treat these as ways to explore a reading, not equations with guaranteed results.
Now write one tentative sentence that includes both roles: “For support, I could consider ___; for my next action, that might mean ___.” Adapt the sentence to your actual positions rather than changing the positions to suit it.
A card lying to the left of another does not, by itself, make the pair a timeline. Likewise, a matching colour or suit does not establish that an event will happen. If you cannot explain a connection through the question and roles, keep the observations separate for now.
Hypothetical worked example: pause and movement in one reading
This is an invented scenario with selected sample cards, not a real draw or prediction. It is a study you could arrange with a physical deck; the two positions below are created for this example.
An organiser is preparing a small community event. They have a draft checklist, but information is scattered across several messages. Venue confirmation is pending. No urgent decision is needed in the next few minutes.
Their question is: “How could I approach the final preparations for the event?”
Position 1: What could support my approach?
Sample card: Four of Swords, upright.
What the source describes: A. E. Waite describes a knight’s effigy lying on a tomb in a prayerful pose. His listed associations include retreat, solitude and repose. The figure is an effigy; describing it as a person sleeping or recovering from illness would add something the text does not establish. See Waite’s Four of Swords entry.
Possible application: In the support position, retreat could suggest stepping back briefly to review the scattered information. This application comes from the source’s theme combined with the organiser’s known circumstances. The card itself does not depict event planning. Compare this application with the InnerSigns Four of Swords meaning.
Position 2: What action could I consider next?
Sample card: Eight of Wands, upright.
What the source describes: Waite describes wands in flight over open country and includes activity and swiftness among the card’s associations. These are meanings within his tarot interpretation, not evidence that a particular message is arriving. See Waite’s Eight of Wands entry.
Possible application: In the action position, activity could prompt a clear communication that moves the preparations forward. Given the scattered messages, one possibility is to send a consolidated task update after checking the list. You can also explore the InnerSigns Eight of Wands meaning.
Explain the connection—and an alternative
At first, retreat and activity may sound incompatible. Their different roles allow one possible relationship: a brief pause to organise the facts could support a more purposeful next action.
The organiser might gather the messages, update the checklist and send one summary that marks venue confirmation as pending. The sequence fits these assigned roles and circumstances; it is not a fixed meaning for this pair.
Another application is possible. Solitude could prompt reviewing the checklist alone, while activity could suggest completing one already-confirmed task. To choose between these applications, the organiser should consider what is actually needed: clearer shared information or progress on a task they can already do. They can also decline both interpretations.
As a separate thought exercise, imagine the Four of Swords assigned to “What could hinder my approach?” Retreat might then prompt checking whether stepping back was becoming avoidance. That is a change of position for study, not a reason to relabel the original reading after seeing the card.
Neither version establishes that the venue will reply soon or that the event will succeed. Nothing here reveals another person’s motives, diagnoses exhaustion or predicts death from the tomb imagery.
A completed reading note
- Question: How could I approach the final preparations?
- Roles and cards: Support—Four of Swords; next action—Eight of Wands. Both upright.
- Source basis: Waite’s effigy and retreat/repose associations; flying wands and activity/swiftness associations.
- Possible connection: Pause to organise the information, then communicate clearly.
- Alternative: Review alone, then complete an already-confirmed task.
- Unknown: Whether the venue will confirm.
- Chosen action: Check the messages and send one factual task update, keeping the venue marked pending.
The useful result is an explained possibility and a practical action. The unknown remains unknown.
When the cards still do not fit
First, check whether each interpretation answers its own position and the main question. A meaning can be familiar yet irrelevant to what you asked.
Next, distinguish a contrast you can explain from a connection you are forcing. Different roles sometimes make apparently opposing themes useful, as in the example. They do not oblige you to reconcile every pair.
Return to one suitable, deck-appropriate reference. You can compare traditions when studying, but adding unrelated meanings until you find a preferred answer makes the reasoning harder to examine.
Write “unclear” when necessary. Ask what outside information would help: a reply, a date, a conversation or a checked detail. Obtain that information directly. Drawing again does not verify an external fact, and your first impression does not have to become your final interpretation.
Practise explaining one connection
Use a pair from a reading you already have. Record each position and one relevant source-based theme for each card. Then write:
“One possible connection is ___ because ___. It may not fit if ___.”
Complete the final blank with a specific limitation: perhaps the suggested action is already done, or the interpretation depends on information you do not have. If the pair belongs to a larger spread, return to the remaining cards before treating your note as an account of the whole reading.
For a fresh practice reading, try the three-card reading, with Past, Present and Next step positions. It draws random upright cards and supplies card meanings and position prompts; you make the connections. Keep any notes separately, because refreshing loses the reading.