When a person first learns to read tarot cards, it is not crucial to memorise the card meanings right away. What is important is to be open to the messages that come to you, free to accept the messages regardless of whether they are positive or negative. If the artwork on a card seems confusing, the accompanying text description should give you a pretty good hint as to what the card means. With practice, a reader comes to know the tarot deck by heart, like second nature. Of course, there are many decks by many artists, and each varies in structure both on the individual card level and as to the way the deck is organized as a whole.
Even without any experience reading tarot cards, reading your own cards is fairly easy. Tarot reading is similar to other forms of divination, such as dream interpretation: something people may do without even realizing they are doing a form of divination. The most important thing about reading is what the imagery means to you. Typically, a reader asks a question and lays out the appropriate spread, a set of cards arranged in a particular pattern, which answers the query with symbolic art designed to trigger certain thoughts and feelings.
