#mod drift

As promised, here’s my guide on using tarot cards! Keep in mind, a lot of this is my personal method that I use and have adapted to my way of reading, and there are little things that can differ from person to person!

First of all, tarot cards are a method of divination that are used to answer questions aside from those that require a yes/no answer. They can still be used for that, but the answer won’t be a straight yes or no. Tarot works in a similar way as pendulums do, but there’s more “chance” to it (I use those quotes loosely because in my point of view, there is very little chance involved in divination and tarot reading). What tarot is exactly is the interpretation of meanings of cards to answer a question. Different cards have different meanings, and the position of them affects this meaning (I.e. reversed or upright). I personally use the meanings that my tarot app gives me, or a booklet that came with my physical deck for meanings, but you can typically look up the meanings online and you’ll find several different sources that you can gather a meaning from. 

But my methodology for using them is as follows!

1. Think of your question, and shuffle!

Think of the question you want to ask! And I mean really concentrate. From my experience, it helps to have something to visualize from the question as you’re asking it. Focus on the question as you shuffle the cards. It doesn’t matter how you shuffle; bridge, dividing them into stacks, or just dumping them on the floor and moving them all around. 

2. Pick a card, any card!

Once you feel it’s satisfactory on how it’s shuffled, take your deck, and draw the amount of cards you need for your reading. Typically, these cards can be placed into what’s called a spread, which refers to the design of the cards. You can probably find a few of these on tumblr, or just on google. (One of my favorites is a celtic knot spread). They can be placed as just one, or in several different layouts, and each card answers a question within the question. I know, confusing. I personally draw my cards from the top of the deck, and use those for readings, but you can pick any card from the deck that feels right to use in the spread. 

3. Flip it over!

Take your card(s) and flip them over to see what they are. Again, you can look up the meanings if you need them online and gather your own meanings if you need to! If it’s a spread that has more than one card, look at the position of the card as well as its meaning to infer what it’s trying to tell you!

A couple additional tips I have, and personal preferences that you might find helpful are: 

-I prefer to keep my deck to myself, and if someone else does use it, I cleanse it with sage or sweetgrass. This is because of energy transference onto the deck, and if that residual energy interferes with my readings, they’ll be wrong. 

-Find a deck you like! If you don’t like dogs, don’t get a deck with dogs on it. Easy as that. If a deck doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t feel right. 

-Do what feels right. You’ll know when something feels wrong in a reading. If a deck doesn’t “sit right” in your hands when you use it, it might not be the one for you, and that’s okay! Additionally, if a card doesn’t feel like it fits the situation, that’s okay. Read it through, and consider it for a while. It probably has some relation to your question, otherwise you wouldn’t have drawn it. You can always ask the question again, and re-shuffle and re-draw the cards.

And that’s about it! I know this post got really long and ramble-y, but I’m very sleepy, and I ramble when I’m tired. Especially with topics I know a lot about. ^^;