As promised in an earlier post, I thought I would share a bit about my background in tarot.

Like many people, I became curious about tarot, along with other esoteric stuff, in my teens. I think I found my first deck in a junk shop back in the 1980s. It came with a very slim booklet listing so-called “meanings” of what are called the “Major Arcana,” the picture or trump cards. I did quite a few readings for friends and family, writing the results in a journal. I actually still have the journal, and it’s quite interesting reading it now.

I remember buying a book about the famous tarot deck created by A.E. Waite, often known as the “Rider-Waite” deck. I bought the Rider-Waite deck a little later. Like many people interested in tarot, I bought several different decks as well. My problem was always that I had difficulty memorizing someone else’s predefined “meanings” for the cards. That restricted me to consulting the books when I did readings. Those “meanings” didn’t always make sense to me when I looked at the images on the cards themselves, either. My frustration eventually led to me gradually drifting away from tarot.

Fast forward to 2007. I once again became interested in tarot, after digging out my old cards and books. This time, however, I found a tarot website with an online discussion forum. I started from scratch, trying to learn the card meanings again. Again, I had problems. Fortunately, I stumbled across a little e-book that had been recently written by Enrique Enriquez called Looking at the Marseilles Tarot. It talked about how memorizing someone else’s “meanings” could be counter-productive; its central theme was using the images on the cards themselves and the relationships between them. That was the key that would unlock the mysteries of the tarot for me. I found the language a bit academic and difficult to understand at times, but I knew that I had found what I was looking for, so I contacted Enrique to ask him for a little help. What followed was a wonderful journey of discovery. He taught me, bit by bit, how he read tarot. More than that, he encouraged me to adapt his methods to develop my own reading style.

What emerged was my “no-nonsense” approach to reading tarot cards. In a very short space of time, I was doing readings for others; readings that were getting a great reaction. I also discovered that I could give effective readings via e-mail. Soon, I set up a website to offer my services. At the time, I was also working as a teacher. As I was not using tarot as my sole means of support, I had a “pay what you will” policy that worked well at the time. A couple of years ago, however, I was laid-off from my job, and since then I’ve been a full-time stay-at-home Dad. I also took a hiatus from tarot reading.

My daughter is now quite independent, and so I recently started looking for my next challenge. I also felt it was about time to contribute financially to the family again. Finding the Fiverr platform was the final piece in the puzzle. And so, Tarot Readings by Graham was born.

Do you read tarot? Have you ever tried? Whether or not you’ve been successful, please share your tarot story in the comments section below.