Congrats, you have your first (or third? twelfth?) tarot deck (maybe The Cosmo Tarot???)! But, um, now what? While you can gaze at the different cards, touch them, shuffle them, talk to them, dream about them, you can also learn how to properly read tarot cards. Tarot can help you predict your future, understand yourself better, and give your friends insightful readings. Odds are, your tarot deck came with a booklet sharing the meanings of the cards and maybe instructions for a simple tarot spread or two. But maybe those short synopses about the cards aren’t quite enough and you want to dive deeper! Or maybe you want to get into the history of tarot or learn more about alternate ways to read the cards. Or maybe you’ve been doing daily one-card pulls and three-card spreads for yourself a while and you’re ready to level up to more complex spreads—like a Celtic cross spread. Or maybe you want to learn to use tarot for a specific purpose, whether that’s incorporating it into your self-care practice or developing a tarot side gig to earn some extra ca$h. Whatever aspect of tarot you’re interested in learning about, there’s probs a tarot book for that. And you might want to pick up more than one. See, there are dozens of different approaches to tarot out there—just ask five tarot readers if you should read your own cards and you’ll probably get five very different answers! Let’s dive in! 1 for total beginners How to Read Tarot: A Modern Guide Jessica Wiggan’s How to Read Tarot is a simple, straightforward introduction to the practice. Based in New Orleans, Jessica is the owner of the apothecary BehatiLife, from which she runs the Sacred Circle Tarot School. 2 for self-care Tarot for Change: Using the Cards for Self-Care, Acceptance, and Growth $10 at Amazon Out on October 26, 2021, Tarot for Change is the first book by Jessica Dore—who has a fan base of more than 130K followers on Twitter, thanks to her daily card pulls and insightful tarot readings. Instead of using tarot for fortune-telling or divination, this book includes guidance on using tarot for growth and self-care, intended for both beginners and pros who want to take a new approach. 3 for Instagram-savvy readers Running Press Adult Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future Written by Brigit Esselmont, founder of the platform Biddy Tarot, Everyday Tarot is a modern guide to learning tarot, with chapters on using the cards for work, self-discovery, and relationships. Once you’ve read it cover to cover, head to the Biddy Tarot website or Instagram for countless tarot spreads you can recreate at home. 4 for practical ppl Harpercollins How to Deal: Tarot for Everyday Life Sami Main’s How to Deal: Tarot for Everyday Life focuses on using tarot for self-reflection and practical decision-making in your day-to-day activities, from navigating friend drama to asking out your crush. Also, that cover? Gorgeous. 5 for personal growth Adams Media Tarot for Self-Care: How to Use Tarot to Manifest Your Best Self Minerva Siegel’s Tarot for Self-Care offers tarot spreads and card analysis specifically designed to encourage self check-ins. She presents tarot as a meaningful ritual that helps encourage personal growth. 6 for writers Hardie Grant Neo Tarot: A Fresh Approach to Self-Care, Healing & Empowerment Along with explaining the meanings of the cards, Jerico Mandybur’s Neo Tarot offers journaling prompts, self-care exercises, and even affirmations. Jerico, who also hosts the spirituality podcast Beyond Belief, shares further tarot tips and spreads on their Instagram. 7 for skeptics HarperOne Modern Tarot: Connecting With Your Higher Self Through the Wisdom of the Cards Michelle Tea’s Modern Tarot is skeptic-friendly, focusing on using tarot to aid in self-reflection rather than to predict the future. Expect pop culture references, a sense of humor, and a lot of fun. 8 for tarot completists Taschen Tarot: The Library of Esoterica Part of the Library of Esoterica collection, Tarot explores the fascinating 600-year history of reading the cards, complete with gorgeous drawings and illustrations. Contributors include Jessica Hundley, Marcella Kroll, and Johannes Fiebig. 9 for comprehensive info Adams Media The Only Tarot Book You’ll Ever Need: A Modern Guide to the Cards, Spreads, and Secrets of Tarot This tarot guidebook by Skye Alexander and Mary Shannon has a little bit of everything, from spreads to interpretations to a discussion of tarot ethics. 10 for artists North Atlantic Books Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth Benebell Wen’s Holistic Tarot explains how to use tarot to tap into your subconscious creativity and intuition—it’s designed for tarot pros as well as beginners, so it’ll be useful throughout your tarot journey. 11 for queer readings Weiser Books Queering the Tarot Cassandra Snow’s Queering the Tarot deconstructs the archetypes of the cards, offering alternative and more inclusive interpretations of their meanings. 12 for journalers The Tarot: Sacred Divination Journal by Tatianna Tarot If you’re someone who processes your thoughts/feelings by writing them down, Tatianna Tarot’s guided journal helps you keep track of your tarot readings and the messages you receive from them, encouraging you to develop your intuition and document your journey. 13 for anyone who loves a motto Hardie Grant Daily Oracle: Seek Answers From Your Higher Self Designed to work like a tarot deck, Jerico Mandybur’s Daily Oracle contains a sentence or two of advice on every page. Flip it open at random every morning or when you’re looking for guidance. 14 for experimenters Llewellyn Publications Mary K. Greer’s 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card Remember how I said there are dozens of different approaches to reading tarot? Here, tarot reader Mary K. Greer explains 21 of them—so you can try them all out and find the one that works best for you. (Okay, you don’t have to choose just one. 15 for rootworkers Destiny Books The Hoodoo Tarot: 78-Card Deck and Book for Rootworkers Tayannah Lee McQuillar drew from Hoodoo traditions to create this tarot deck and guidebook designed especially for rootworkers. Along with sharing the meanings of the cards, the in-depth guidebook includes a history of Hoodoo and why she paired tarot with traditional forms of divination used by rootworkers. 16 for audiobook lovers The Fool’s Journey & the 56 Movements of Minor Explorations Andrea Furtick, creator of the Afro Goddess Tarot Arcanas, guides you through the 79 different energies in the tarot divination system (one for each of the 78 cards plus one for the author) in this audiobook. 17 for right-swipers Brand: Sterling Tarot for Love & Relationships If you’re dating someone, you probably have a lottt of questions, from Do they like me back? to What is her birth time??? to Did he see me just accidentally Like that 77-week-old pic on Instagram??????????? Well, the tarot can help you out with all those Qs. Probably. 18 for real-life connections Houghton Mifflin Harcourt True Heart Intuitive Tarot, Guidebook and Deck In her True Heart Intuitive Tarot guidebook, actress and tarot reader Rachel True (you know her from ’90s classics like The Craft, Half Baked, and Nowhere) combines memoir with tarot-reading instruction, showing how her tarot practice has influenced her own life and career. 19 for history lovers U.S. Games Systems Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story While this book won’t tell you how to read tarot, it will teach you about one of the most important figures in history. Pamela Colman Smith was the Jamaican British artist behind the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the most popular tarot deck in the world. You know those iconic tarot images like Death, The Sun, and The Tower? Yeah, she designed those back in the early 1900s. However, Colman Smith’s contribution to tarot history was and still is often downplayed or erased. 20 for relationship advice Schiffer Publishing Tarot Coupling: Resources & Resolutions for Relationship Readings Tarot pro Gina G. Thies gives guidance on using tarot for love—everything from choosing better partners to reflecting on the current stage of your relationship to getting advice on relationship issues. 21 for the Rider-Waite-Smith deck Dover Publications The Pictorial Key to the Tarot If you have the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, it probably comes with a teeny booklet explaining each of the cards’ meanings in a few words. Well, this book goes much more in depth! 22 for goal setters Red Feather Tarot Tracker: A Year-Long Journey If you’re someone who keeps a journal or tracks your progress toward a goal, you need Tarot Tracker—it includes a tarot calendar, a journal to keep track of daily readings, and instructions on tracking patterns throughout the year. 23 for a queer, feminist reading Metonymy Press She Is Sitting in the Night: Re-visioning Thea’s Tarot Oliver Pickle’s tarot guidebook is based on Thea’s Tarot, a feminist tarot deck from the ’80s—but can be used with any tarot deck as well. Released in 2015, She Is Sitting in the Night is described as “an aesthetically strong, accessible queer tarot book for feminists, queers, and tarot readers new and old.” 24 for people who love an aesthetic DK Tarot: Connect With Yourself, Develop Your Intuition, Live Mindfully Tina Gong’s tarot guidebook is notable for its gorgeous illustrations throughout. Each page on card meanings is accompanied by a full-color illustration—plus text on interpretations, reflections, and actions. 25 for Minor Arcana fans 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey Through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot A lot of tarot content focuses on the Major Arcana—cards like Death, Judgment, The Lovers, etc. This book goes deep into the Minor Arcana—aka the 36 tarot cards that fall into four suits (coins, swords, cups, and wands). 26 for fans of ~the classics~ Weiser Books Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness Rachel Pollack’s Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom was first published in 1980. Its practical, accessible advice inspired a whole generation of tarot readers. 27 for notetakers Lisa Sterle Modern Witch Tarot Journal Created to accompany the popular Modern Witch Tarot Deck by Lisa Sterle, the Modern Witch Tarot Journal gives you plenty of space to jot down notes, record your readings, and even review tarot decks. 28 for easy instructions BookSurge Publishing The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot Ever!! If you’re looking for something simple, Dusty White’s book breaks down tarot reading into quick, easy instructions. 29 for everything you ever wanted to know about reversals Llewellyn Publications The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals Many tarot readers interpret tarot cards drawn upside down differently from tarot cards drawn right side up. Why? How? Mary K. Greer goes deep into the topic in this guidebook. 30 for DIYers Zeitgeist Guided Tarot: A Beginner’s Guide to Card Meanings, Spreads, and Intuitive Exercises for Seamless Readings In Guided Tarot for Seamless Readings, tarot pro Stefanie Caponi instructs you on the meaning of the cards, offers plenty of tarot spreads, and even shows you how to design your own tarot deck. 31 for anyone who made it through 2020 Tarot for Troubled Times: Confront Your Shadow, Heal Your Self, Transform the World Troubled times? What are those? JK, JK, we are all too familiar right now. Tarot readers Shaheen Miro and Theresa Reed teamed up to create this guide to using tarot for healing and transformation. Sign me up, please. 32 for your new side gig How to Start a Tarot Business Online (and in the Muggle World) If you’re looking to make a little cash from your new tarot hobby, check out professional tarot reader Eunique Divination’s practical guide to the business side of tarot. 33 for Thoth readers Tarcherperigee The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols Although many of the books on this list are designed for readers of Rider-Waite-Smith-inspired decks, this book is intended to guide you through the Thoth Deck, designed by Aleister Crowley. 34 for witches Adams Media The Modern Witchcraft Book of Tarot: Your Complete Guide to Understanding the Tarot Okay, yes, tarot can be used for self-care, but what about magick? This book takes a witchy POV, looking into the history of tarot and witchcraft plus offering spreads and guidance. 35 for spreads, spreads, and more spreads Schiffer Publishing Classic Tarot Spreads So a three-card spread or Celtic cross just isn’t enough for you. Check out Sandor Konraad’s book on tarot spreads for many different options you can recreate with your favorite deck. 36 for astrology fans Weiser Books Archetypal Tarot: What Your Birth Card Reveals About Your Personality, Your Path, and Your Potential So you know your Sun, Moon, and Rising signs, but do you know your birth card? Yeah, you have one, and Mary K. Greer’s book helps you (a) find yours and (b) learn more about what it means. Also, you can find your crush’s, friend’s, mom’s, and dog’s too. If you want to. Lead image credit: Getty/atie Buckleitner
