For Beginners

Birth, Commencement, Beginning, Origin, Source (S.L. MacGregor Mathers, The Tarot: A Short Treatise on Reading Cards)

Articles written by Michele Jackson, unless otherwise noted.

Advice for Beginners - This article, by Lee A. Bursten, has great advice on choosing how to get started with Tarot including deck recommendations, books and other resources.
A Cyber Fool's Journey: Using the Internet to Learn the Tarot - this article lists and describes Internet Tarot Resources. An great starting point and reference.
Tarot-l History FAQ Sheet - an easy-to-understand, accurate tarot history (no allusions to Atlantis here!)
Selected Resources for New Students of Tarot is a comprehensive Tarot resource written by James W. Revak of Villa Revak. It lists books, Internet resources and various other information to help you get started.
Reading for Others - A Guide for the Interested Beginner by Jason Carr - this article has tips on how to do a reading.
Information on reversals - an excerpt from Mary K. Greer's forthcoming book The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals (Llewellyn, 2001)
Tarot and Elemental Dignities - this site has articles on several reading techniques, including elemental dignities, an alternative to reversals
AComprehensive Beginner's Course is available from Joan Bunning. There are several Tarot Correspondence Courses available
Some recommended books for beginners are listed elsewhere on my page.
A list of ways to read reversals has been compiled by Nina-Lee Braden

Some sources for Tarot decks and books include:

Crazy Egor's carries the complete line of US Games decks and has GIFs of many of the decks they carry.
Powell's Books - this online book store has a good selection of reasonably priced, remainders and used books. Check them frequently as their stock is always changing.
You can get a free catalog with over 200 decks shown from U.S. Games Systems (800)544-2637 M-F 9:00 - 5:00 EST
Llewellyn also publishes Tarot decks and has an on-line catalog.
Another catalog source for Tarot decks and books is Samuel Weiser - (800)423-7087 Their selection is not nearly as wide as U.S. Games Systems, but they carry some good titles.

Comparative Tarot is an email list that contrasts and compares different deck and discusses tarot in general. Very friendly and open to beginners.
Tarot-l is another mailing list which discusses tarot, emphasizing tarot history.
All Things Tarot is another tarot discussion list.

On-line services. All of the major on-line services have a Tarot section where discussions take place daily. You will find the atmosphere much more supportive and forgiving than that of alt.tarot because the services are moderated. Most have a host or hostess who monitors the traffic and tries to keep disagreements from turning into flame wars. Each service also has file libraries where you can download Tarot information, pictures from decks and Tarot software. They are an excellent networking source for those who live far from other readers.