It takes years of learning to become a skilled tarot reader, but everyone needs to start somewhere. Therefore, offering a tarot reading to a friend whom you trust is a good way of beginning. Firstly, you will have to decide which set of tarot cards to use, the full deck of 78 cards, the minor deck of Arcana cards which has 22 cards or the major Arcana deck, which has 56 cards. Once that has been decided upon, you will need to gain a basic understanding of the meaning ascribed to each card. Using a chart to help you will be best to begin with. Bear in mind that court cards tend to relate to people, human situations and personalities. The suits of tarot cards offer more esoteric meanings. For example, swords tend to represent thoughts and deeds while wands represent creativity, sexuality or energy. At the reading, ask a question, then draw one or more cards. Turn them face up after they've been selected and then, referring to the usual interpretations of these cards, come up with an answer to the question as intuitively as you can.