beginner

hi! practitioner here. i suggest you start with the "why" and the "who". why was it used? who used it? start with the history of it. i know, wikipedia isn't the best source for research, but it's a good start. write down questions as they come. "who named the stars?" "who is Arthur Edward Waite?" etc. once you are familiar with it's "who's" and "why's", you can start going deeper.

it's easy to go down a rabbit hole with these kind of topics, so stick to one thing! for astrology, i would start with your birth chart. once you have that, you can pick it apart. what is your rising? what does is do? how is your 10th house effecting you. once again, write down all your question. it will give you good research topics.
for tarot, i would not recommend memorizing the cards. you will learn it much easier by doing. grab a deck, or make one. it's as easy as writing on papers their names and starting with that if you don't want to buy one. i would start with the major arcana. it's less cards and tells a pretty complete story you can understand quickly! start pulling cards daily. i'll do a 3 card pull every evening or morning, if i can wake up to my alarm lol. i use: "what to focus on today/tomorrow?" "what to look out for today/tomorrow?" and "message is should hear today/tomorrow". by seeing the same cards over and over and looking up their meaning, you will memorize them!

watch videos on youtube, read articles. the internet can take you a long way. one important thing is: use your own logic. if something doesn't sound right (it's racist, too nice or too negative) it's probably needs further investigating!

hope this helps! don't be afraid to ask me, or any other practitioner! :)

Study the history behind why any form of divination is used. As far as I know, tarot used to be a simple card game, before it became a tool for divination. Astrology, on the other hand, has always existed in human history as a tool for prediction and analysis.

‘Western’ astrology in particular has Egyptian, Greek, and Mesopotamian origins. Indian astrology has very similar roots, but uses a different technique for calculating the zodiac (AKA zodiac signs, signs, zoidions).

Indian astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, which is based on the constellations, also called lunar mansions. This zodiac system has the same sign names and symbols as the tropical zodiac, but is calculated differently.

‘Western’ astrology used the tropical zodiac, which is based on the 12 divisions of the ecliptic plane, AKA areas of the sky from a human’s perspective on Earth.

There’s also Chinese astrology, which is actually also based on numerology. Chinese astrology also has 12 ‘signs’, which are earthly branches. There’s one earthly branch for an hour range, as well as a day, month and year. Above those earthly branches, which are symbolized by different animals, are heavenly stems. Heavenly stems are the Yin and Yang polarities of each of the five elements of the Wu Xing philosophy. Yin is receiving or inward, Yang is giving or outward. So, there are 10 heavenly stems. There is one heavenly stem for each hour range, day, month and year.

I recommend learning from the astrologers Chris Brennan, Joey Yap, and Benebell Wen.

Here are helpful links to astrology, too: 

https://www.astrology-x-files.com/houses/

https://www.zodiac-x-files.com/signs/