#selfcareforthesoul: Tarot for Transformation
II - The High Priestess | Deck: The Fountain Tarot
I was maybe thirteen or fourteen when I was given my first deck of tarot cards by my best friend as a birthday present. The deck was the Aquarian Tarot, and it's one of the few artifacts of my childhood that's survived three major multi-state moves. When I first received the deck, I remember being totally fascinated. I devoured the little folded pamphlet that came with the cards and slept with the deck under my pillow. I memorized the one spread they taught (the Celtic Cross), debated over whether my Significator card was the Queen of Cups or the Queen of Swords (I *desperately* wanted to be a redhead, and the Queen of Cups card was closer to the hue I coveted than the Queen of Swords) and lovingly read and reread every card description. I smuggled home books on tarot and all things metaphysical from the library. Meditation, dream work, astrology, tarot...these things were not having the moment that they are now back in the 90s, and as a new teenager with braces, glasses, and a sheen of oil on my forehead that rivaled the Exxon Valdez spill, I was not about to be known as THAT kid. The Craft had *just* come out, but I was definitely feeling more like Neve Campbell at the beginning of the film than at the end.
Still so much ❤️in my heart for this movie!
Flash forward twenty plus years, I'm still practicing tarot regularly, but in a completely different way. Instead of trying to divine whether the boy I had a crush on liked me back (he didn't) or whether or not I'd get the part I wanted in the school play (I did), I use Tarot as a tool for guidance, reflection, and meditation...in an almost prayerful way. Usually each Sunday, always monthly, and on special occasions like the new or full moon or a birthday, I select a deck (my collection of decks has grown *significantly* over the years), grab my journal, meditate, then ask the cards about the coming week/month/year, etc.
Now that my tarot reading has come out of the closet, so to speak, I'm reading for friends, family, and clients on a regular basis. SO👏🏻 MANY👏🏻WOMEN, once they find out I read tarot, usually say the following two things to me:
1) I wish I knew how to do that! and
2) Will you read my cards?
And after a reading, it's not unusual to get the following feedback, which typically goes like "That was so helpful! I have so much to think about! I wish I could do that for myself! But I'm not psychic. And I can't imagine memorizing all those cards!" This is usually when I start myth-busting (here's an edited version of my speech):
1) My tarot knowledge is completely self-taught. I've read dozens of books, visited several fellow readers, followed fellow tarot enthusiasts on Instagram, devoured blog posts. But I've always known I wanted to read for others, not just myself. Starting a personal reflective practice with tarot doesn't require that level of expertise. A reading where you use notes or a guide can be incredibly powerful. Think of it like driving: some folks get in the car and just know how to get where they're going. Some folks need google maps. Either way, they both get where they need to go. YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT TAROT BEFORE YOU READ TAROT.
I - The Magician | Universal Waite Tarot
2) Being psychic or having psychic/clairvoyant abilities is not a prerequisite to reading tarot, because TAROT READINGS DON'T PREDICT THE FUTURE. In fact, I've had folks come in with questions like "will I get married?" or "when will I die?"...and that's not what tarot is for. Shifting to questions like "what do I need to do to prepare myself for a strong lasting relationship?" or "what do I need to know about my health and wellbeing?" work much better, because the future isn't fixed. Benebell Wen explains the purpose of tarot PERFECTLY in her book Holistic Tarot when she says:
“Tarot is a mirror. It reflects back who you are. It shows you your strengths and weaknesses. It makes you confront decisions you have made in the past, your attitude, both good and bad, and how these components have affected your life. It’s uncanny how, with tarot, just the right archetypes are always drawn to help you understand what you need to do to move forward.”
Tarot is all about the present, and the cards we pull empower us to really reflect on who we are and how we interact with the world. Anaïs Nin once wrote "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." Tarot helps us dialogue with ourselves in a new way, and probes us to ask questions and reflect in ways that we might not otherwise have due to the limitations of our own experiences. And this practice is open and available to anyone :)
I 💖 the Starchild Tarot.
So, instead of just having these myth-busting, tarot-empowering convos 1:1, I decided to make a dent in solving the problem. I've built a course that teaches the basics of reading tarot, empowering women to turn tarot into a personal reflective practice. 🍾The course launches April 15th 🍾, in honor of both the new moon (new moons are for manifesting, after all!) and of Mercury going direct 🙌🏻 (this retrograde has been ROUGH), and has been a labor of love. I'll make sure to share a link here and on Instagram once we go live! The course is a true Tarot 101, and covers:
✔️basic tarot terminology
✔️the origins and uses of tarot cards
✔️choosing a tarot deck that speaks to your soul
✔️setting up a daily practice or monthly ritual for reading your tarot
✔️how to ask rich questions to pair with powerful tarot spreads
✔️the meanings of the cards of the Major and Minor Arcana in the tarot
I've also included note-taking guides, videos, cheat-sheets, journal pages, sample tarot spreads, a glossary and a bibliography 💖
I am so excited! I've tried to keep the price of the course about as expensive as a deck of tarot cards, and I've been really careful to curate the content and distill down to *just* enough information to jumpstart your personal practice. I cannot wait to share it with you!!
Do you read tarot? What do you wish you had known when you started out? 👇🏻Let me know in the comments!! 👇🏻