Levels of Certification

Practitioners are certified on seven levels, each defined by standards of knowledge and skill established by the Tarot Certification Board and guaranteed by a standardized testing procedure.

These are the current certification requirements. This is the official source for all ETCB certification requirements and these descriptions supersede any others you may have seen.

The following are brief descriptions only and do not fully describe the process or the information needed to obtain these ranks. Click the detail link for further information.

1. European Certified Apprentice Tarot Reader (ECATR)

• Knows the meanings of the 78 tarot cards in the upright position

• Is able to use spreads of one, two and three cards.

2. European Certified Tarot Reader (ECTR)

• Knows the meanings and uses of revesed cards or

• Can explain an alternate system that contains equivalent information

• Is able to use spreads of four, five, six and seven cards.

3. European Certified Professional Tarot Reader (ECPTR)

• Qualified as a CTR or ECTR

• Has written a personal Code of Ethics for doing tarot readings

• Is able to rephrase improper or impossible questions

• Is able to use spreads of eight or more cards

• Knows how to teach others how to read tarot cards

• Performed 25 or more professional readings

4. European Certified Tarot Consultant (ECTC)        

• Qualified as a CPTR or ECPTR

• Can explain in his or her own words what a tarot consultant does

• Has written a curriculum for teaching the Major Arcana or

• Has written a tarot meditation for each of the Major Arcana or

• Has written a tarot ritual for each of the Major Arcana or

• Has written a tarot spell for each of the Major Arcana or

• Has written a tarot poem for each of the Major Arcana

• Can attribute the seventy-eight tarot cards to another esoteric or occult paradigm and justify their particular attributions. 

5. European Certified Tarot Master (ECTM)

• Qualified as a CTC or ECTC

• Taught at least five other people how to read the tarot cards.

• Published in approved tarot publications.

  • a minimum of seven tarot deck reviews

  • a minimum of five articles on using the tarot

  • a minimum of three tarot book reviews.

7. European Certified Tarot Instructor (ECTI)

• Qualified as a CTM or ECTM

• Written a curriculum for teaching tarot to others

8.     Certified Tarot Grandmaster (ECTGM)

• Qualified as a CTI or ECTI

• Nationally or internationally recognized tarot expert, teacher, author or reader

• Maintains high ethical and professional standards.