Alright, let me tell you how I put together my own tarot list. It wasn’t anything super complicated, just something I needed for myself, you know? Got tired of hauling out the books or searching online every single time I wanted a quick meaning check.
So, I started super simple. Just grabbed a basic notebook, one of those cheap spiral ones. And a pen. Didn’t even think about using the computer at first. I figured handwriting it would help me remember things better. First step was just listing out the Major Arcana. Straight down the page: The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, and so on. Just getting the names down felt like progress.
Then came the slightly harder part – the meanings. I wasn’t trying to write an essay for each card. I just wanted the core idea, maybe a few keywords. I flipped through a couple of guides I had lying around. Didn’t stick to just one source. Kind of picked and chose the bits that made the most sense to me, the stuff that usually popped up in readings.
Getting the Keywords Down
This took a little time. For each card, I’d jot down maybe three to five words. Like for The Fool, I put stuff like ‘beginnings’, ‘faith’, ‘spontaneity’, ‘potential risk’. Kept it really short and punchy. Did this for all the Majors first.
Organizing the Minors
The Minor Arcana felt like a bigger job. Four suits, numbers Ace through Ten, plus the court cards. Seemed messy. So, I decided to tackle it suit by suit.
- Wands first: Listed Ace of Wands to King of Wands. Wrote down my quick keywords for each. Focused on stuff like ‘action’, ‘passion’, ‘creativity’ for this suit.
- Cups next: Same process. Ace to King. Keywords leaned towards ’emotions’, ‘relationships’, ‘intuition’.
- Swords followed: Ace to King again. This was about ‘thoughts’, ‘conflict’, ‘truth’, ‘challenges’.
- Pentacles last: Ace to King. Keywords here were things like ‘material world’, ‘work’, ‘security’, ‘nature’.
I made sure to clearly mark the start of each suit. Just wrote ‘WANDS’ in big letters, then listed the cards underneath. Same for Cups, Swords, Pentacles.
Making it Usable
After writing everything out, the notebook pages were pretty full. It was okay, but flipping back and forth wasn’t ideal. So, later on, I actually typed it all up. Just used a basic word processor. No fancy formatting, just kept the structure I had in the notebook.
Having it typed meant I could print it. I printed out a couple of copies. One I keep folded in my main tarot deck box. Another I pinned up near my desk for super quick glances. It’s rough, probably has mistakes, but it’s my list. It reflects the meanings I connect with most.
And that’s basically it. Took a bit of time, mostly gathering the keywords I liked, but totally worth it. Made my own quick reference guide, exactly how I needed it. Simple, practical, gets the job done.
