This is the simplest, yet best, tarot game I’ve tried. I learned it in 1982 from David Quigley, creator of “Alchemical Hypnotherapy”.
It’s a great dinner party game that can be played by people who know nothing about tarot in that they are asked to free-associate about the images and symbols on the cards. A knowledgeable tarotist can act as guide and add insights and possibilities, but the ideal is to encourage each player to talk about what they see in the cards and in the other players. (Some shorter “ice-breaker” variations are described in the Comments.)
The Deal: Using a tarot deck that has scenes depicted on all the cards, shuffle and deal out as many tarot cards to each person as there are people playing the game (best when played by 3 to 6 people).
Sorting the Cards: Examine your cards in light of the other players. Decide on a card from your hand that fits or is needed by each person playing, including yourself (you can also decide/change this as you go along).
Begin Play—Giving a Card: The person to the left of the dealer starts by giving one card to any other player. The person giving the card must explain why they are giving it to the receiver (the more information the better as this is what the game is about).
Receiving a Card: The receiver then tells why it was appropriate to get that card. (Optional: other players then add their comments, but they should always be respectful of what the receiver sees for him or herself. Each person is the final arbiter of his or her own cards.)
Subsequent Turns: The receiver becomes the giver by giving a card to any one of the other players, explaining why, etc. Continue until all cards have been given away except for the card kept by each person for him or herself. You cannot give away a card you received from someone else—put the cards you received to the side!
The Last Round: Each person explains why they kept the card they did and how it relates to the other cards received. Others may add their insights.
Other Options: You can also play by having the first person give out all of his or her cards except the one kept for oneself—with the usual discussion of each. Then the 2nd person hands out all their cards, etc. Usually, in this case, the final card (the one reserved for the self) is not shown or discussed until the end of all the give-away rounds. Each person, in turn, then relates his or her self-card to all the other cards received in play—thus, giving a final summary of their own set of cards.
Added: Be sure to read the Comments where readers have offered several other ways to play this and similar games. And, please share your own.
Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me
Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog 
9 comments
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October 2, 2008 at 9:04 pm
James Ricklef
Hi Mary,
I would like to add that I have played this game at parties with people who know absolutely nothing about the Tarot, and it’s still fun and effective!
Tarot Rummy is a great game for getting to know other people, for exploring your relationships with other people in a group who you already know, and for discovering new insights into the cards themselves.
Thanks for sharing this game here and thanks for telling me about it many years ago and letting me share it with other people through the years via my own website. (See: http://www.jamesricklef.com/Games.html)
Bright Blessings,
James Ricklef
October 3, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Suna
This game sounds like great fun, and I hope to use it with my tarot friends in the next week or two. Thank you for sharing!
October 4, 2008 at 9:12 am
Shana Diamond
Excellent post! I’ve always known the tarot originally began as a game, and I’ve always been interested in tarot games. This game looks like a lot of fun and I’ll definitely give it a try.
October 4, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Jozefa Seaqueen
Hi Mary,
Thank you for sharing this Tarot game.
It would be a great tool for learning and having fun.
Lucky are those individuals who read your blog. I love it!
A fan,
Madame ‘Jozefa’ Seaqueen
October 4, 2008 at 7:40 pm
La Vonne Parker
Hi Mary,
I have been playing this game for years at my study groups, women’s circles, and parties. Everyone loves it and always ask for more. It is a great ice breaker. I don’t really know where I learned it. I guess I found it on a website.
I have modified it for larger groups by giving each person 3 cards. Each person decides which of the three cards to keep, gives one to the person on the left and one to the person on the right. The play is basically the same as you explained above. It always has awesome results!
Those who participate in these activities are usually blown away when they realize they are reading cards without a book and that tarot has way more uses than they thought.
La Vonne
October 6, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Richard Davis McLeod
Most Biographies of Pamela Colman Smith, dismiss the last half of her life as a dismal failure. . . .
Note by Mary Greer: This long comment also appears in the comments section of my post “Pamela Colman Smith on Reading the Cards“, where it more properly belongs. It’s an interesting comment with lots of valuable material. To read it please go to the comments here. mkg
October 6, 2008 at 2:10 pm
HiC
Thanks for posting this. The past couple of months, I’ve been trying something out that is very similar. Only what I have done is play the actual game of Rummy with Tarot cards. The point of the game is to be the first to not have any cards in your hand. So, the game is played per the regular rules of rummy (simply using the Major arcana as a fifth suit). Whoever “wins” (i.e. has no cards left in their hand) becomes the reader, and the rest of the people receive readings based on the cards that they are still left holding. This has been really good for class situations where people are timid or hesitant to do a reading as the playing of the game leading up to the reading helps to break the ice and let people get to know each other better and feel more comfortable with each other.
Obviously, this is something that could be done with other games as well, but rummy is just the one that I’ve been trying it out with.
Well, just thought I’d share. 8)
Nice to see you at BATS last week-end, Mary. 8)
HiC
October 6, 2008 at 3:01 pm
mkg
I want to thank everyone for sending in their variations on the theme. All of them are wonderful and will give you plenty of options to use in different situations.
At the beginning of a course I sometimes do a much simplified variation. I mix a bunch of different decks in a big “fish pond” and ask each participant to to “go fishing” for two cards. One they will keep for themselves and the other is for the person to their left. Then we go around the circle and each person introduces themselves and talks about their cards: 1) the card received, 2) their own card, and 3) the card given to the next person. (The first person to speak will receive a card from the last person at the end of the exercise.) In addition to seeing how people react to their three cards, everyone gets an introduction to several different decks of cards. The teacher/leader can suggest a theme for the cards drawn, like “what can you learn from this class?” You can then revisit the cards at the end of the course.
August 7, 2010 at 11:41 am
Tarot can be fun « James Ricklef's Tarot Blog
[…] other game I’ve played often is called “Tarot Rummy,” which I heard about from Mary Greer. This one works better in smaller groups, say about four to ten, and although it’s fun too, […]