A 30-day practice plan

You have learned the cards, the spreads and the ethics. Now it is time to practice. Momentum comes from repetition, not from exhausting the deck in one sitting. Here is a 30-day plan, about ten minutes a day, that brings the whole course together.

Week 1: The Major Arcana

• Day 1. Draw one card: “What matters most to notice today?” Write one line.
• Day 2. Look at the Fool and the World side by side. Write what changed between them.
• Day 3. Daily card, plus: read its full card page on this site.
• Day 4. Lay out cards I to VII and tell their story in seven sentences.
• Day 5. Lay out cards VIII to XIV and do the same.
• Day 6. Lay out cards XV to XXI and do the same.
• Day 7. Reread the week. Which Major did you feel most?

Week 2: The Minor Arcana

• Day 8. Sort the Minors by suit. One word for each pile.
• Day 9. Lay out the four Aces. What kind of beginning is each?
• Day 10. Lay out the four Fives. What kind of trouble is each?
• Day 11. Lay out the four Tens. What kind of ending is each?
• Day 12. Arrange the 16 courts in a grid, suits by ranks.
• Day 13. Draw one court. Read it as a person, as you and as advice.
• Day 14. Reread the week. Which suit do you understand best, and least?

Week 3: Spreads

• Day 15. Challenge and advice: two cards on something small.
• Day 16. Past, present, future on a real situation.
• Day 17. Draw two cards and write “Together, they say…”
• Day 18. The five-card cross on a question with several layers.
• Day 19. Daily card, plus your first impression before looking anything up.
• Day 20. A seven days spread for the coming week.
• Day 21. Reread the week. Which spread felt most natural?

Week 4: Your own practice

• Day 22. Decide how you will handle reversals, and write it down.
• Day 23. A Celtic Cross, slowly. Count suits and Majors first.
• Day 24. Give one card its own journal page.
• Day 25. Daily card, then one affirmation from its card page.
• Day 26. Rewrite three closed questions as open ones, then draw for one of them.
• Day 27. Offer a short reading to a friend, with consent.
• Day 28. Daily card, and check last week’s seven days spread against what happened.
• Day 29. Pick the card you still find hardest and spend ten minutes with its picture.
• Day 30. Reread the whole month. Write a short letter to yourself about what you learned.

If you miss a day

Simply continue where you are. This is not a test. Some days you will have five minutes, some days thirty. The plan is a path, not a rulebook. If a day’s task does not fit your life, swap it for a daily card.

After day 30

Keep the daily card. It is the habit that keeps everything alive. Many readers have been drawing a card every morning for years.

Try this

Today’s exercise: Copy the 30-day plan into your notebook and tick off day one today. Keep it short. Two or three lines in your notebook are enough, and there are no wrong answers. If you like, come back to the page tomorrow and add one more line about anything you noticed in the meantime. Small, regular notes like these are how the cards slowly become familiar.

Quick recap

• Ten minutes a day for 30 days.
• Week 1 Majors, week 2 Minors, week 3 spreads, week 4 your own practice.
• If you miss a day, just continue.
• Keep the daily card going after day 30.

Keep going

When you have done the exercise, press “Mark as done” and continue with the next lesson, Your certificate and where to go next. There is no hurry. If a lesson needs a second day, give it one.

To go deeper, read the “Quickstart” in my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot. The free Mini-Grimoire has printable journal pages you can use for the 30 days.

Need a refresher? Go back to Reading for others or see the whole course.

Go deeper: The Novice's Guide to Tarot: Quickstart

Mark as done