Tarot Lesson 2

 Uses of Tarot Decks

There are many uses for a Tarot (or Oracle) deck outside of the commonly thought of "hey tell me my future" uses. Here are the main ones -- 

Divination & Fortune Telling

Self-reflection & discovery

Playing Games

Spell work

Mediation & Inspiration

Story Telling

I'm going to talk about one aspect in particular, that of being a tool for self-reflection and self-development because that is the focus of my career as a reader, but I am open to discussing others if there is interest in later lessons.

However, in these early lessons while you are getting used to your deck and the art of reading, or even as you are reacquainting yourself with it, I want to work with the Tarot as a tool of self-work, delving into the shadow and aligning yourself with your own personal truths. Once you are at least somewhat comfortable with yourself and have worked through some of your own spiritual bullshit, then you will be ready to head out and read for others and deal with their spiritual bullshit.

This lesson pairs up very well with lesson 3, which is about selecting a deck for yourself, which you might want to do before you get too deep into this lesson as it contains some activities you can do with your cards, but I find that knowing what you are going to end up doing with the cards helps people to pick a deck. What I recommend is to go over this lesson casually, get the gist of it, and then do lesson 3. Once you have a deck picked out, you can come back to this one and try out the 2 methods of "getting to know your deck" and starting your self-reflection and development that I talk about.

Tarot as A Tool For Self-Development

Beginning with the Fool, the Major Arcana shows the archetypal Hero's Journey. Each of the 22 Major Arcana are important steps in our soul's development, whether they represent events, teachers, experiences, etc. The 54 Minor Arcana cards fill out the details of our lives.

The most important thing to remember about using Tarot is it shows our lives as they are now, not as they will be or as we want them to be. When seen through the lens of truth, Tarot doesn't fuck around. It tells you the story as it is, but it's on you to see it. It's on you to be able to lift the veil of the stories you tell yourself and see what the truth is.

The use of Tarot, as I talk about it, can be very personal, nearly always done for oneself or with a reader you trust.  There is no predicting the future, worrying about if your spouse is cheating or if you're ever going to get that promotion when using the Tarot in this manner. What you are looking for is WHY are you concerned about the future? What issues in you make you not trust your spouse or long for a new lover? How are you blocking that promotion from coming into being in your life? When you get into the Tarot in this mindset, you are not looking for answers so much as you are looking for guideposts to help you (or the person you're reading for) to make the changes you are searching for in your life. 

The answers that we get from using the deck in this manner are oftentimes vague and frustrating at least at first. What I have found is that this kind of work requires journaling exercises, making note of a card then coming back later to see how the archetypes associated with the cards have developed over your day, week, etc. There are a LOT of books, articles, classes available to help use the Tarot in this way. A Google search will turn up hundreds of results.

But you can start right now. Here are 2 methods that have worked well for me.

I will state this over and over, but when you start doing readings for yourself, you need a journal. You need to track what the cards mean to you in the moment you are reading them and leave space to come back later and review them. You need to see how the energy played out in your life so you can gauge your level of self-honesty. You need to see if you are just telling yourself stories you want to hear or if you are working with the energies as they are. And be gentle with yourself as you do this. It takes practice and time to develop self honesty. I did a blog about it as a pre-course to this, so check it out if you haven't already.

Blind choice – pick three cards from a face down deck while focusing on the issue/question you are looking for guidance on. Line them up in the order you picked them from left to right. Take a deep breath. You got this.  Starting on the left and moving to the right, turn over the cards one at a time. You don't want to be focused on the final card while you are interpreting the first one. 

The first card is the past – where you are coming from, what patterns you have learned that influence this issue, what you are carrying with you that has brought this into being. This is usually the easiest card to decipher. You already know this stuff for the most part. There might be some revelations about your past motivations but this is really about getting you attuned to what you are looking for, so most of the answers you find in this card will be obvious to you. This is the easy one. 

Next comes the present – where are you now, how is this issue affecting your life, what are you doing (or not doing) about it. This is a little tricky because it asks you to be honest, sometimes brutally honest, about where you are now and what you're doing and how you are handling the issue. It's going to talk about the situation you're in, the environment you're in, your state of mind and really try and ground you in present time honesty. This is where the no nonsense straight talk really starts. This is the card that will give you the best gauge of how adept you are at being honest with yourself.  

Then is what can be called the future card, but I like to think of it as the compass – what direction are you heading in, what actions are you on the verge of taking, do you want to change this card? This one is hard as fuck to work with because this is where we are most likely to try and lie to ourselves. This is where we try and hold onto the stories about being right or being justified in our victimhood or anger or joy or whatever. This is where we are going to insert our soulmate or tell ourselves that the promotion is as good as ours, and maybe that stuff is in here.

I don't want you to get all gloom and doom here. I'm not trying to create a vision of honesty equaling being cruel to ourselves (or other people). What I am trying to point out is that most of the time we want to tell ourselves the good stuff and not the bad stuff. Though I have seen it go the other way, with the person getting nothing but gloom and doom reading and refusing to see the good stuff because "honesty". 

What I am trying to get you to do is tell the story, see the cards, as they are. Good, bad, indifferent. It doesn't matter. It's all OK, even when it isn't. Even when it's something you don't want to hear like you aren't meant to be with Bob or your butt looks great today (because we shut down compliments and good omens just as much as bad ones!). 

Okay so I think you've got the idea with that one. Let's try something different.

Gut reactions – This can be a lot of fun, especially with a new deck or one that you don't use very often. It can also be a really good way to work with focused self development. I have found that I get some really great deep self-reflection done from this method, but it isn't a very good method of divination or reading for other people. This method tends to be deeply personal. 

Start by shuffling your deck and place it in the center of your workspace. Begin turning over cards slowly, making a face up “discard” pile. Keep going until you see a card that makes you FEEL something, it doesn't matter what. If you laugh, cry, feel a little sick, scared, uncomfortable, suddenly at peace, this is the card you are going to work with today (or for several days sometimes. It varies depending on your needs.) 

Do try not to overthink here. You don't want to rush too much, but you shouldn't spend more than about 10 to 15 seconds looking at any one card. This isn't the time when you get to ohh and ahh over the pretty artwork. And you might go through the whole deck a few times before you find the card that speaks to you. That is OK too, but if you get to the fifth or sixth pass, maybe you need a break.

It's okay to take a day or two off of doing daily readings or daily practice. We all need a break or get busy and forget. Just don't let one day off become a month, then a year, then the next thing you know you haven't touched a Tarot card in four years and you aren't even sure where they are anymore. 

Now that you've picked a card, and have stared at it for a good long minute, start journaling. Describe the card – what does it look like, what features draw your attention. Tell the story of what it makes you feel and start to follow those feelings to their source. You may write just a few sentences before you have what you are looking for, but other days you are going to write pages and pages and still not be done. If you find a card that takes up your attention for several days, that's fine. There are no set rules about how you work with your own soul development.

No matter what method you choose to use (one of these, something out of a book you like or make up one of your own), you are going to want to work in a journal, making a record of your thoughts, feelings, discoveries.  You are going to fill notebooks upon notebooks with your ramblings and notations and frustrations as you learn to work with the Tarot, but it will be worth it in the end. And you will find that back to school sales are suddenly your friends. 

You can check out my FAQ page over here, and I have a list of lessons as well. 

Have questions that weren't covered in this lesson? You can always ask me over on my Hermit Tarot Facebook page, either drop me a DM or post on the Ask Me Anything pinned post.