Trending
Personalized for you
Reference Guides
Did you know?
Welcome to iFate's free tarot readings. If you're a beginner or an experienced tarot reader, these readings provide free insight and fascinating perspectives on life, work, dating & romance or any question or situation you can think of.
If you're new to reading tarot, think of this one page as a crash course or a bootcamp to help you get started learning tarot quickly.
To start, select a tarot spread from the choices above. Each spread provides you with different approach to your specific question — and each spread has its own strengths and weaknesses.
We recommend that tarot beginners start with an easy tarot spread that uses a smaller number of cards. The simple "Past, Present and Future" tarot spread is a great place to start your tarot journey if you're just beginning. As you grow more confident with the tarot, you can work your way up to advanced tarot card spreads like the well-known "Celtic Cross" tarot card reading which uses 10 cards.
Also remember that tarot readings about future events point to one possible outcome. Don't think of these outcomes as permanent or etched in stone. If for example, you reading paints a negative picture about dating or a current relationship — ask the cards for advice on how to avoid that outcome.
For Tarot beginners, it may be helpful to use iFate's Tarot Flashcards page, which makes learning tarot fast and easy. Tarot Flashcards use a "spaced repetition" technology to reinforce learning, and flatten the tarot learning curve.
Tarot Flashcards are also useful if you're learning to read physical Tarot cards, or you're in training to work as a professional psychic. Having an instant recall of each tarot card meaning can make your readings more fluid and natural feeling.
Because asking questions about love and dating are a major category of web-based Tarot readings, here are a few pointers to keep in mind when asking questions about soulmates, relationships or life-partners:
First and foremost, remember that tarot does not manifest anything with respect to dating, relationships or anything else. Tarot may be a wonderful tool for relationship insights, but not for actually "making things happen" in the dating department.
With that being said, tarot can offer excellent insight on how to proceed in a relationship — or when hunting for your soulmate. Tarot can also help you explore what it is that you are looking for in a romantic relationship.
Second, be prepared for the tarot cards to reveal some hard truths about your love-life. When performing love tarot readings, the cards are often brutally, sometimes painfully honest about dating, relationships and even long-term life partners. You can think of them as a loving but sometimes too-honest dating coach.
When the cards seem to "pull no punches" and "say it like it is", don't be tempted to ask the same thing over and over again until you achieve the tarot answers you want. Instead, try different angles of approach.
It can be disheartening when tarot readings point to a potential negative outcome in a relationship or fling. In these cases, instead of repeating the same question again, it's often better to ask about things that you can do to potentially avoid those negative dating or relationship outcomes. That sour reading is just one possible path. The trick is to positively and contructively get off that path, and make positive changes in your relationship or dating strategy.
If you feel like the cards are simply being too confusing or offering mixed-messages when asking love advice, remember there are many different love tarot spreads. Each different tarot spread can offer its own perspectives on dating and romance.
Three final tips asking the tarot cards about relationships:
Another major category of tarot readings is the "Yes or No Tarot question". Remember that every tarot card can be assigned a "yes or no" answer. But truth be told, tarot is not a "heads or tails" thing.
Tarot lives in the world of the "gray area". It's up to the interpreter to read meaning into the cards — and that meaning is often much more subtle than a yes or no answer.
That being said, if you want to do yes or no readings with tarot, each card on iFate has been assigned a yes or no value which is visible within the readings.
Alternatively, there's an easy to use "Yes or No Tarot" application which is perfect for simple "yes or no" questions.
For many readers, the 10 card spread is where tarot gets truly interesting. The degree of complexity and deeper insight possible with 10 card spreads (and higher) is far greater than can be achieved with a simple three card spread.
With that being said, spreads with a higher number of cards are recommended for experienced readers as they can be confusing or seem contradictory to beginners.
iFate features a number of free 10 card spreads including:
Online tarot readings are no different from physical tarot readings. They offer insight, spiritual guidance and sometimes brilliantly insightful answers to your most important questions.
Before asking your question, it helps to relax and to think of the many dimensions within your current situation: Who are the players involved? What are the forces involved? How is this issue affecting your life?
When you are finally ready to consult the tarot cards, clear your mind and move on to shuffle the deck. When shuffling the deck you may see a card drop from the deck. This is normal. If it happens, try to remember the card that drops as it may have some significance later. Some tarot card experts pay special attention to events like this, others do not.
When you draw the tarot cards, carefully move across the cards and wait for a "pull" — or a feeling that a particular card is significant. The pull in an online reading is no different from the pull in a physical tarot reading. Like any other tarot reader, an online reader attempts to create a synergy between their higher mind and their physical actions.
Don't select a card until you feel that the card has some significance to you. As you practice using tarot cards, you will learn to get better at identifying this psychic pull from the cards. When you feel a psychic tug or a feeling over a specific card, choose that card and repeat the process When you have finished drawing all the tarot cards in your spread, you're ready for your reading.
While entire books have been written on the art of tarot divination and tarot reading techniques, the craft can be surprisingly simple to learn for beginners.
At the most basic level, there are two important things to pay attention to during your tarot reading: The first is the meaning of each position within your tarot spread, and the second is the meaning of each tarot card in that position.
DEFINITION: A tarot card spread is a specific arrangement of 2 or more tarot cards. In a spread, each position represents a different facet of the question being asked. The card filling the position should be interpreted only in the context of that position's meaning. Most tarot readers will also assign meaning cards which are adjacent or opposite to each card. These neighboring cards are often (but not necessarily) seen as relevant forces either supporting or opposing the position.
The meaning of each position in the spread tells you "how" the tarot card in that position is relevant to your question. (For example, in a "Past, Present, Future" tarot spread, the first position references the past events leading up to your current situation. The card in that position relates to those past events) Once you understand what the spread position means, it's time to interpret the meaning of its associated card.
When you are interpreting each tarot card, don't forget to consider to the "Arcana" of the card. Each card falls into two groups. Major Arcana cards tend to be very important and indicate major messages or themes within the reading. Minor Arcana cards tend to have more common meanings and often indicate more day-to-day themes, emotions and events. (This is not always true, but it is a good rule of thumb to begin with).
Also don't forget to take note of the suit of Minor Arcana tarot cards. There are four suits in a tarot deck. They are: The suit of cups, the suit of pentacles, the suit of swords and the suit of wands.
The suit of a tarot card can often give us a quick indication of what the card is referencing.
There are often many ways to interpret each card so it's important not to simply take the face value of each card, but instead to think about how each particular tarot card relates to the position in the tarot spread, and to the overall tarot question at hand.
Another dimension to the tarot reading comes from the relative astrological signs associated with each suit of the minor arcana.
When analyzing a minor arcana card as part of a tarot reading, don't forget to consider that the card may be referencing a particular zodiac sign, or a person of that zodiac sign. This is particularly true with court cards and other cards that depict people in their visual references.
Tarot cards can also be read in their "inverted" or "reversed" meaning. When tarot cards are reversed the meaning of the card is altered.
Are these reversed tarot card meanings bad? No. In fact, sometimes they make otherwise gloomy cards much "less bad". In other cases they may mean that the positive forces indicated by the card are being opposed or challenged somehow.
Beginners who begin learning how to interpret reversed tarot cards often make the mistake of 'flipping' the meaning to an opposing meaning. This is an overly simplistic (and usually wrong) approach. It's important to remember that inverted tarot cards do not usually have the exact opposite meaning of the traditional upright meaning. Instead, the meaning of inverted tarot cards should be interpreted as a failure, disruption, lessening or discontinuation of the upright meaning.
NOTE: The simplest way to think of inverted tarot cards is to think of their upright meaning either failing — or the upright meaning being blocked or subverted by an opposing force.
There is an ongoing debate among many tarot readers whether beginners should use inverted tarot meanings at all. If you are just learning to read tarot cards, it may be easier during your learning process to ignore the inverted meanings and read all tarot cards in their upright state. Once you have mastered the basic tarot meanings, you can always add the additional dimension of inverted cards at a later date
It's also important to look carefully at the visual imagery within a card. Many novice readers forget to look deeply at each picture and consider what is being said visually. Is there a reference within the picture that looks similar to anything in your life?
The gender of the card is also important: Does the card seem to reference a man or a woman? Does it reference a family? Are there animals in the tarot card? What time of day is referenced in the card? All of these visual elements should play a role in your tarot interpretation.
Also, keep in mind that many of the symbols in tarot cards have significance in astrology, numerology and many other disciplines. So the more you learn about related fields, the better your tarot card interpretation will become.
Tarot cards have changed dramatically over the years. Early decks like the early, hand-painted Visconti-Sforza Tarot had strikingly different artwork than many contemporary decks. The cards used by iFate Tarot feature the classic tarot early 20th century artwork of Pamela Coleman Smith. This artwork, previously published as part of the Rider Waite tarot deck, features some of the most famous and best known tarot card imagery ever made.
While there are many excellent decks available, including the Aquatic Tarot, Thoth Tarot, OSHO Tarot and many others, the classic 1909 artwork used here remains some of the most enlightened and subtle ever made. While iFate may add different tarot decks in the future, the classic Coleman Smith artwork has delivered trusted tarot readings to millions of fans worldwide.
Many beginner tarot readers make the mistake of looking for too-specific an answer. Others make the mistake of asking questions which are unsuited for the tarot.
Needless to say, if you ask: "What's the winning lottery number on Saturday" you're going to have a very difficult time interpreting the results. That kind of question is not what tarot is for. Skilled fortune tellers understand that tarot works by helping the reader understand a situation. Not by telling you what to do directly.
A more common mistake however is to ask a good question, but to frame it in a way that makes it difficult to interpret the tarot results. Tarot readings are excellent tools for providing insight and understanding to a question, and (at times) providing insight into the future of a situation. The more you practice with tarot, the better you will become at the latter.
In the interest of providing insight and understanding, it's best to 'ask' for insight and understanding. Specific questions often yield confusing answers. A good question might be "Help me understand and give me some insight into how events will resolve?"
Open-ended tarot questions play to the strengths of the tarot deck and leave your mind open to the endless possibilities that tarot opens the door to. Good topics for tarot questions include love and romance, career and fortune, and health and medical decisions. Don't just focus on the "answer". Focus instead on all the circumstances surrounding the question being asked.
Don't worry if your first few readings seem a little confusing. Performing accurate tarot readings, like all skills, takes years of practice to master. If you're a beginning reader, try simple 3 card spreads or even 1 card tarot and Yes No Tarot readings before you tackle the larger spreads like the Celtic Cross spread. Many readers don't tackle larger spreads until they have been reading tarot for many years.
Most of all, tarot cards are a tool for spiritual introspection. Tarot students should remember to respect the tarot. Just because you have learned to render a surprisingly accurate reading on demand, doesn't mean you should ask frivolous questions or ever misuse the deck.
The question of whether or not an online reading is a "real" reading is a subject of great debate. There are many who believe that the power of the tarot comes from the physical cards themselves. Our view is that the power of the tarot is, and has always been, you. You are the source of insight, wisdom and spiritual understanding. Tarot is a conduit, and powerful tool for personal introspection.
From that perspective, an online tarot reading is an authentic reading like any other. You are still contemplating the cards, waiting for a "pull", and adding your own creativity and insight into the results.
Sometimes tarot cards online can feel impersonal or too "digital". If this is the case for you, you may want to think of online tarot cards as a training resource. Many tarot students use online tarot card readings to get a general overview of how tarot cards work, and leave the actual "divination" to live tarot or physical readings.
For many professional tarot readers, their "first deck" was digital. And from there they moved over to physical tarot cards as a matter of personal preference.
Ultimately the choice is yours. Online tarot cards are capable of delivering deeply insightful readings full of depth and personality. How you use them is your decision. Whether you use digital tarot cards as a tarot teaching or training tool, or whether you perform a daily 3 card tarot spread to predict the outcome of daily situations — is up to you.
Tarot is an excellent tool for self discovery and for some, peering into the unknown or unknowable.
But Tarot is also very useful in certain other settings:
Dream Interpretation:
As we all know, there are multiple possible interpretations for every dream symbol. A dream about a cat, for example can have multiple interpretations. But which meaning applies to you and your specific situation, is often a question better suited to Tarot, and personal introspection.
A Decision Maker
Tarot cards make an excellent decision-maker. A simple way of using Tarot to make decisions is to draw two cards. If one card is reversed, and the other is upright, the option representing the first card is the choice of the Tarot. If both cards come out reversed, or both are upright — concentrate and draw another two cards until the positions dont' match.
If you enjoy iFate's tarot card readings online, be sure to try iFate's free Yes or No tarot readings which are perfect for quick yes or no questions.
Also be sure to stop in over at iFate's extremely popular I Ching readings which make understanding the I Ching easy for beginners, and iFate's Love I Ching readings for insight into love, dating and relationships.
NEW! Subscribe to iFate's Tarot Training on YouTube
GLog
Logout