17 Aug 2026
What Questions to Ask Tarot (and What Not To)
The question decides the reading. How to turn a vague worry into something the cards can answer, and the four question types that produce useless readings.
Tarot Guides & Reading Notes
Tarot writing from Memento Arcana: card studies, spread guides, learning notes, and the occasional argument about how tarot should be read.
New here? Start with these
All (33)tarot basics (20)reading technique (17)learning (11)ethics (6)myths (4)caring for your deck (2)memento (2)astrology (1)
17 Aug 2026
What Is a Tarot Birth Card? The Maths, Shown
Add your birth date up and reduce it, and you land on one or more Major Arcana. Here is the arithmetic in full, why people get different numbers of cards, and how old the idea is.
17 Aug 2026
Tarot vs Oracle Cards: What's the Difference?
Tarot has a fixed 78-card structure that every guide is written for. Oracle decks have no rules at all. Which one you want depends on what you are trying to do.
17 Aug 2026
Which Tarot Card Rules Your Star Sign?
Every zodiac sign carries one Major Arcana card, plus three numbered cards and a court card. Here is the full map, where it comes from, and how old it actually is.
17 Aug 2026
Major vs Minor Arcana: What's the Difference?
The 22 majors are the themes you do not choose. The 56 minors are daily life. What each half does, and what it means when one dominates a reading.
17 Aug 2026
Is Tarot Dangerous? An Honest Look at the Risks
Not in the way people fear, but there are three real risks worth naming, and none are supernatural. What the evidence says, and where care matters.
17 Aug 2026
How to Store and Care for Tarot Cards
What actually wears a deck out, what to keep it in, and which of the traditional rules are about protection rather than superstition.
17 Aug 2026
How to Shuffle Tarot Cards (Four Methods)
Four ways to shuffle a tarot deck without wrecking the cards, how to introduce reversals, and why the method matters less than your consistency.
17 Aug 2026
Reversed Tarot Cards: How to Read Them Without Panicking
A reversed card is not a curse. Four ways to read reversals (blocked, internal, out of balance, or emphasis) and why sticking to one system matters.
17 Aug 2026
How to Learn Tarot Card Meanings Without Memorising
Seventy-eight cards is a lot to memorise and you do not have to. The structure that turns most of the deck into logic, and the habit that does the rest.
17 Aug 2026
How to Learn All 78 Tarot Cards (Without Cramming)
Reading every card page in a weekend does not work. Here is what does: structure first, spaced repetition, and one card a day in real context.
17 Aug 2026
How to Cleanse Tarot Cards: 7 Methods That Work
Seven ways to cleanse a tarot deck: smoke, moonlight, salt, sound, breath, a reset shuffle, or nothing. What each is for, and when a deck needs it.
17 Aug 2026
How to Choose Your First Tarot Deck: A Practical Guide
What actually matters when buying a first tarot deck (illustrated pips, card size, the artwork you can stand looking at) and the advice you can safely ignore.
17 Aug 2026
The Deck Everyone Pictures, and the Woman Who Drew It
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is 1909, and the artist was paid a flat fee and credited by her initials. Here is where the cards you know actually came from.
17 Aug 2026
Do Tarot Cards Have to Be Gifted? No. Here's Why
The rule that you must be given your first tarot deck is a modern invention with no historical basis. Where it came from, and why it stops people starting.