This is exactly the kind of thing I'm speaking of.  One could get wound up in different decks and what all the meanings are for each deck, so I must kind of side with Vig here.  Aside from that, I think another key point in what is to be learnt of tarot is the psychic development the reader brings to it.  So I'll go ahead and mention a daily exercise based off the pick 3.  Pick 3 cards each morning.  Do NOT look up their corresponding meaning.  Record them in a journal that you'll keep for a month. meditate on what you feel for each card and let it work on your subconscious throughout the day.  What do your instincts tell you? Go through your day. On a day calendar, like the kind you keep on a wall and separate from the journal, record the kind of day you had and in your journal, you can record how you felt each card was incorporated.  When I first read this exercise, the only point I wasn't quite right on with was NOT looking up the meanings of the cards at the end of each day.  Perhaps my "must be proven right or wrong" instinct showing.  Now that I've done it, I kinda wish I hadn't, so.. learn from that if it's valid to you.  You'll never find two readers who read the same with any given deck. You shouldn't. Go ahead and trust yourself.  Listen to what is being said.  And record it! Develop your own sense for the tarot and what it holds for you, as a reader.

On the other hand, say you feel more comfortable going off of tradition.  That which has previously been laid out before you. I'm not here to tell you which path is better, I trust you to find it out should it need finding. Nor am I here to judge you based on the path you choose. :p Or say you just want to compare how you see things with what has already been seen and recorded.  I would still strongly urge you to record one month just off of instinct.  Then do one month where you do look up the corresponding given meanings and record it in your journal after your own personal thoughts. See what comes out in the wash.

~~~~~~~~~~~The above is a repost of a daily exercise for tarot, but would serve as a skeleton framework to many forms of divination if you want to tweak it.  If you'd like to add more exercises to help us all keep our divining skills sharp, please totally do.  Gogo Constantine and Hazelsnake.  Post your exercise ideas here!

At the coffee moot I ended up giving one of the members some basic instruction in tarot.  I sent him home with instructions to do a Storytelling spread.  This is the spread I tend to start people on, because a) it's less intimidating if it's not "real" and b) it takes advantage of skills we already have.  It makes for a fun, relaxed daily exercise.

Shuffle your deck until happy and ask the cards to tell you a story.  Lay out three cards (you aren't limited to three by any means, but that's a good number to start with) left to right.  Do NOT reach for a book to interpret the cards.  Just look at the images.  What you're going to do is read them like the panels of a cartoon strip; let the images tell the story.  Look at what direction the characters are facing, what they are looking at.  Are there themes in the symbols?  Do the actions logically lead into each other?  Or is there a disconnect and does that add anything to the narrative?

The idea here is to play and have fun as you familiarize yourself with the imagery of the deck AND give your intuition a chance to flex its mental muscles.

If you're among the lucky, you'll select a deck that comes with a veritable paper-back novel written about the cards, techniques, spreads, and more. (Some of us find decks that come with a small book that only lists the meaning of the cards.) If you can do it, it's always worth your while to read through the entire book (not thoroughly but to at least flip through it) before you look at any of the cards, and then stash your book with your Christmas decorations so it won't be close at hand. I haven't yet managed to do that, but I have taught many people with this method, and they are starting to read better than I do (and I have two years on them!)

Okay, let's be realistic here. When I tore into my deck I set the book aside and went through the cards, oohing and ahhing and even drooling over some of the pretty pictures. The further I got through the deck, though, the more I realized how overwhelming this was. But the pictures were so pretty! And I wanted sooooo badly to read them that I found myself shuffling and pulling out cards. Within minutes I was frustrated, and at the end of the hour I was about ready to toss the cards. (I admit, I'm a child of the 'instant gratification' generation.) I consulted the book. Josephine Ellershaw warned about this on the very first page. Here, I'll share them with you because she puts it much better than I do.

"I know it's very tempting to jump in, lay out some cards, and check their meanings in the book - please don't! ...The urge to dive in and 'have a go' is one of the main reasons people become frustrated or overwhelmed with the cards and failed to learn the cards. There needs to be a level of understanding, a foundation upon which to build your knowledge; one needs to learn the tools of the trade before engaging them. If you were learning to be a surgeon, you wouldn't expect to perform surgery in your first lesson!"

Here's the deal with tarot. It is NOT black and white. The meanings in the book are NOT the only meanings that will work for a card. In fact, the meanings listed in the book are usually the meanings derived by their creator, or some other person who wrote the guide. What if that person was an Evangelical Christian? They would view the Hierophant as a priest or a bishop, and regard it as a positive card, because maybe their priest helped them through difficult times as a youth. A Pagan, on the other hand, might view the undeniably Catholic-looking person on the card (what with that tall hat thingie, sorry I don't know the technical term, and his robes) as a Catholic priest like the one who presided over the church his or her parents forced him to go to as a teenager, and would thus regard the card in a negative light.

Ultimately, the thing I want you to take away from this post is that tarot is subjective, and you should rely on your own thoughts and feelings to tell you what a card means because they're going to be with you forever - there are no tarot police to say you have to use any set definition. In fact, I can't make you use yourself versus the book. But - doing it yourself will make it a lot easier, faster, and more fun. *gets off soap box* On to the exercises!

I'm going to tilt these exercises so that they are more designed for a beginner. I'll even haul out a deck I'm not familiar with and do the exercises along with you.

First exercise - shuffle your deck. (No, really. It took me weeks to figure out how to shuffle the over-large deck with my small, feminine hands.) Learning the shape and size of the cards will help you familiarize yourself with this tool, and not make it so awkward when you're looking for a specific card as you learn the meanings. Taking a few minutes a day to shuffle your cards, even if you're not reading with them, is a good way to help you focus on the cards and get centered. Focus on your breathing - the rhythmic shuffling, cutting, and shuffling again is extremely calming and helps the brain enter a receptive state. It's also a really good idea to set aside some time just to shuffle your cards extensively before you read with them. I find it is very meditative for me and allows me to get into my 'zone' for readings, especially when I have a candle and some incense lit. (On a practical note, the more you shuffle, the more awesome it is when you see a series of cards come up together, like all four aces or cards in sequence.)

There are several ways you can shuffle your deck, depending on your skill with your hands and how anal you are about the condition of your cards. I don't have any technical terms for these, so feel free to call them anything.

Method 1 - this is the long or 'hot dog' way. This is a method that involves splitting the deck, turning both halves on their sides so that the short ends are parallel, and slowly releasing the cards between your thumbs so they stack upon each other. You can either force them by bending the cards with your hand (which may result in bent cards unless you know how to bridge or shuffle them upside down), or simply let them fall by gently releasing your thumbs. This method will give you reversed cards.

Method 2 - this is how I shuffle my cards, this is the short or 'hamburger' way. I have a really hard time shuffling the long way (the aforementioned method). I leave the cards upright so their long sides are parallel, and let them fall from my hands. When I first started, I 'forced' the cards by bending them so they would shuffle faster. I don't do that as much now, just because I want to make my cards last longer. (Plus I got tired of flipping them upside down to and shuffling them the opposite way to counteract the initial shuffle-induced-bend.)

Method 3 - this is a very easy way to shuffle cards and is nice to start off with for a new deck because the cards are so slippery, they do the work for you. Simply gather your deck in one hand, palm upright, cards facing down, with your other hand slightly below it. Tilt the hand with the deck in it so they slip into the other hand. Let them fall in chunks. This method takes some time to perfect, but is a great way to shake up the cards a bit when you use it in conjuction with another method. (I use this and method 2 inter-changably.)

(left to right)

I've been working on something called a Daily Draw for the last week or so. (You can read these in my blog.) This is a variation of the exercise Scyn posted in the first post of this thread. I prefer to do my cards at the end of the day, rather than the beginning, when I learn from a deck - just because it allows the deck to tell me about things I already know about, in it's own way.

Also, when I was first learning about tarot, two years ago, I did something similar. Instead of doing a draw every night, I would shuffle my cards and ask them to tell me about a situation I was already familiar with, in it's own way, to get to know how it talks. This is something I like to do with people who are new to Tarot and a little unsure of what it's all about. I simply ask the person I'm with to think of a situation they are familiar with and to ask the cards to tell them about the situation. For example, a friend of mine asked 'what happened to me in x grade?' and, with the cards, I guessed that she had questioned her sexuality. I drew three cards, I know one was the Chariot, and I believe another was the Hermit, I don't remember the last one. But I walked her through how the Chariot meant she felt pulled in two different directions, largely out of control; how the Hermit meant she did a lot of inner reflection; and of course the third card which I don't remember.

Here, let me walk you through an example. I've started by putting my cards in order and all upright so we start with a clean slate. While I'm at it, I'll drag out my favorite tarot-reading candle and some incense to set the mood. Now I'm going to ask my cards to tell me about how my current boyfriend and I met. After a few minutes of shuffling, I pulled three cards. They were all reversed, which is weird, so I turned them upright to at least see what the cards looked like and analyze their meanings.

The Three of Pentacles is a card I recently explored in my daily draw. In fact, it's the last one I did. I talked about how I thought this card was about slowly building strength; relying on others at first and gradually getting to a point where you can support yourself - or at least rely a lot less on others. In this instance, this card is about me recognizing that it's okay to trust myself. I had relied on the guidance and failed relationship attempts of others, and then, through their experience and through my own, I was starting to rely on myself, slowly but surely. I knew that there was a lot of potential to get dropped near the beginning, but I was willing to work through the tough parts to get to the reward.

The Seven of Cups features a man and a woman who appear to be traveling. The man consults a map while the woman points out a lofty destination. This card speaks mostly of setting goals; for to set a goal, you need to put some sort of thought into how you'll achieve it, which might make several mini-goals en route to the big goal. This card is about how I decided a few years ago that I wanted a boyfriend, a man who would be my best friend, someone I wouldn't have to hide from. I knew that dating or seeking out candidates was a small part of that goal. It was also about me deciding that there would have to be compromises and that I may not get exactly the details I was looking for, but in the end I would be happy.

The last card is the King of Cups. This man appears to be in an underwater setting; he is eye-to-eye with a seahorse as he carries a large, heavy goblet. Giant sea turtles hover near the bottom of the card. The King of Cups tends to be a romantic man, a caring and sensible, as one would guess from the suit of Cups aligning with the element of water. As soon as I saw this card, I knew it referred to my boyfriend. He carries a burden, but he is always looking up, and he carries it well; he is not afraid to look people in the eye. And he may be slow like a turtle in some aspects, but he's strong and willing to follow through like no one before.

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This method tends to be very easy for the people I've worked with, once I was able to demonstrate how the process works. Give it a try!

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Please message me if you have any questions, I'm happy to help.

I don't do Tarot much, palmistry is my expertise, but this is an interesting post. For card reading I use a regular deck, 52 cards...easy peasy milk and cheesy.

Vig- I tried that story-telling bit with my daughters cards, she likes the Thoth tarot. Someone left them at our house after a visit and when my daughter called to tell her she left her cards and we'dw mail them to her, she said, "Cleanse 'em, consecrate 'em and keep 'em." So she did. Mine don't have alot of imagery as I use a standard deck of playing cards. I suppose it's possible to create imagery in my mind, just seemed easier with pictures ;)

Anyway, it was groovy, and I think i'll be trying it with my cards, on a day when I feel creative LOL.

I'm gonna toss a question out there. Has anyone ever tried divination with Zener cards? Zener cards are meant for psychic testing. There are 25 cards, 5with a star, 5 with squiggly lines, 5 with...hang on...

Anywho- that's what they look like. One person sends, another receives. I would explain in greater detail but I won't, i'm not talking about Zener cards for psy tests, I want to know if anyone has ever used them for divination.

There is a film with Cate Blanchett in it called The Gift about a psychic who uses these cads wen she reads for people. The movie made me wonder, her ability is pretty stong, she gets impressions without needing the cards and i thought, at those times, the cards really seem more like a prop. As though a client might be more comfortable if there's something external there. Imagine seeing a psychic and they just sit with you, look at you and start telling you a bunch of "stuff." It would be a little odd to many. The cards being there comforts the client...does that make sense? She also lit a candle before each session, anyone else do that? Is there a point or is that another prop? How much is prop and how much not? Hope i'm making sense!

Another good exercise is to end your day with a reading about the lessons you're meant to take away from the day.  I usually lay out three cards, but one works too.  Not only does it touch on things that have already happened, which allows you to have some reference, but it's a nice way to get to know the cards without memorizing the little booklet.  :)