All the ways and how to tarot

Getting a little bored of your tarot journey or practise? No worries, I’ve been experimenting and I’ve found a plethora of new and exciting ways to use tarot on the daily

Tarot for divining the future

Probably the most classic form of tarot reading. Set up by grounding, centring, and cleansing your sacred space and put up your methods of protection. Energetically cleanse and shuffle your deck. Do the above anytime you interact with your deck. When you’re ready ask the deck a question and ask it to guide you to an answer. Be careful not to read what you want to see and don’t get caught in the trap of one no, the Tower, I’m done for’ don’t knee jerk read your cards instead sit with them and allow the nuance and subtlety to come through. A classic 3 card spread of past, present future is great for this.

Tarot for introspection

This is a different way of reading altogether. Set up as previously explained and instead of asking for an answer which relates to your future ask for something internal. For instance “When and where will I find love?” Would become “What can I do now to be ready for love when it enters my life” I prefer these questions and mainly use these in all my spread designs because to me they feel so much more empowering. I don’t like waiting around for the cards to come true, I prefer an action I can take now to manifest my destiny myself.

Talking to spirits and spirit guides

Set up as you usually do. When you’re ready ask “If there are spirits or guides who would like to give me a message please make yourself known by revealing a court card of your choosing.” Lay the cards out like a tree with this first card being the roots. You can ask who the spirit guide is, laying down a card for each answer, ask how/if they are related to you and go intuitively from there. Didn’t receive a court card? That’s okay it means your spirit guides are close but they don’t have a message for you right now but you can try each day.

Tarot spells 

I love using tarot in my spells. This is my favourite method of spell work. I set up for tarot as outlined above and then set up for a spell: Cleanse my sacred space, draw the quarters/elements in and invite deity. Then I go through my deck. Sometimes I know the card I need: heavy gym sesh: where’s that strength card?! Business meeting: get me the queen of swords. But sometimes I’ll allow my choice to be intuitive. I centre the spell around the card and usually keep it simple, incense and a visualisation meditation of my intended goal/wish coming to fruition. Afterwards I carry the card around with me until the spell has done its job.

Shadow work

I stumbled upon shadow work at a very low point in my life and I am so glad I did as it really healed old wounds. The shadow self is anything you hide from others and even sometimes what you hide from yourself. Shadow work isn’t a dark art it’s a practise of self acceptance. Set up and either ask about your shadow self or if you have a good idea of where to begin select a card that relates to shadow. It could be past trauma, difficult memories, insecurities, denial/anger issues, difficult relationships anything you dislike about yourself and life. Shadow work is about learning to accept these things over time. Meditate with your card for a few minutes and then journal all the emotions you felt in that time. Go where the discomfort is. Draw/find more cards as you need to. Frame a question around the card(s) or use a spread and draw a new card for each question. Sit with these for as long as you can and really deep dive into the emotions. Cry, scream, throw stuff (maybe not your iPhone, though) or even dance or sing. Any action you can to move this pain and discomfort from your body. The first time is the hardest but afterwards it feels good. In short it’s self healing.

The daily draw

Using tarot daily can be tricky, there’s the risk of repeat questions and even worse repeat or conflicting/confusing answers and of course tarot losing its Magickal shine if we over-interact with it. To keep it feeling electric I like to save the big spreads and questions for sabbats, esbats and special occasions and stick to a daily draw. This is a small practise of setting up and I then ask something along the lines of; “Whats good/healing/vital/needed for me today?” And draw one card. I then meditate with this card for 5 minutes. It’s a nice quick practise that keeps our hand in but also doesn’t allow for that wave to take us when we may not have the time or energy every single day.

Daily journaling with tarot 

Similar to shadow work except not quite as deep I like to take my daily draw and journal about it. This can be whatever is on the horizon for the day: plans I have coming up, dreams I have had, goals for the day. I find my intuition flows best if I’m writing because I’m not editing in my head as I go and then afterwards I have something tangible I can remember and look back on and overtime I can see how my daily draws build a story.

Positive affirmations with tarot

I love affirmations and so do the self development community. They have taken affirmations and ran with them to the point that they exist in the regular zeitgeist all on their own. To me they are magick at its purest form. It’s the theory that what we tell ourselves comes true and most of us naturally beat ourselves up. Therefore we fail not because we tried and it didn’t work but because we didn’t even try. Positive affirmations convince us the dream IS possible and we can slowly work towards it every single day. 

How to use tarot and positive affirmations. Set up as usual and spend a few moments meditating. Think about an area of your life you’d like to change. Riffle through the deck with this in mind and select a card that aligns with that. In my example I’d like to change my relationship with money and help my career as an artist level up. Spend some time writing down how you feel now and how you’d like to feel in a few weeks/months. Look at the physical words you’ve used for how you want to feel. I bet they are positive and the ones you’re currently using? Either negative or neutral. Even if they are neutral (fine/okay/don’t mind) that’s still not good as this causes us to stagnate. Finally create one sentence that sums up how you want to feel when you look at this card and keep the words positive for example “I don’t want to be stuck in my dead end job anymore” = negative, “I want to feel okay about my job” = Neutral. “I am getting closer to my career goals everyday” is positive and allows us to relax, focus and reset our minds to work towards this outcome. With that example in mind I created the following positive affirmation: “With an abundance of time and resources I am achieving my goals.” Look at your card (I chose the ace of pentacles because, duh) and activate it by repeating your affirmation 3 times. Then for one full lunar cycle Keep this card by your bedside and say it 3 times in the morning and 3 times at night.

Well, lovelies. That about covers it. Tarot is the bomb and can be used in spells, shadow work, journaling and many more handy ways. Will you try any of these methods? Do you have a special way you like to interact with tarot? Let me know on instagram 😘✌️

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