The Death card, for instance, is often used in movies and television shows to allude to literal death, but that's often not the case in real life.
Whatever you do, though, don't look into cards too literally. Alternatively, some people shuffle their tarot cards while thinking about they're question until one 'jumps' or falls out to answer them. There are certain spreads for love, career, family, and even full-life readings, wherein the position of each card within the spread contains its own significance (i.e., a certain position might indicate the current situation, another person's feelings toward you, what the likely outcome is, etc.). Most tarot card decks come with little instruction booklets that give the meaning of each card along with suggestions on how to read them. There are many ways of reading tarot cards. Tarot readers shuffle the cards and draw one or several, and are able to discern a message about the future through the resulting spread. Tarot reading itself is a means of divination, or fortune-telling, in which each card symbolizes a certain idea or theme. Tarot cards can be traced back to at least the late 14th century, but it's unknown where, exactly, they came from or who invented the practice.
