I’ve been getting into tarot cards lately, but all those little symbols and fancy words made my head spin. So I thought – why not make a cheat sheet that actually makes sense?
Frustrations with Learning Tarot
Every guide I found used weird poetic language like “the Fool’s journey represents divine intervention through cosmic alignment”. Come on! I just wanted clear meanings without the mystical fluff. My coffee table was covered in sticky notes and books – total mess.
Starting the PDF Project
Last Tuesday, I grabbed my Rider-Waite deck and spread all 78 cards on the living room floor. Went card by card writing what each actually meant in regular words.
- Made categories: Broke into Major Arcana, Minor Arcana with clear sections
- Simplified meanings: For “The Tower” card – wrote “Unexpected change, walls crumbling” instead of long metaphors
- Added keywords: Put big bold words like CAREER or LOVE over relevant cards
Design Nightmares
Tried using fancy design apps first and wasted three hours. Finally opened simple word processor. Made clean layout:
- Left side – card image
- Right side – bullet points of meanings
- Colored borders for different suits
Printed test page and spilled coffee on it immediately. Classic me.
The Finished Guide
After two weekends of tweaking, I ended up with a neat 12-page PDF. Best part? Realized how much I actually learned by forcing myself to explain simply. Shared it with my sister who texted: “Finally get why the Death card isn’t literally about dying!” Mission accomplished.
