#tarotexercises

INTRODUCTION

These are my personal tarot-crystal associations. Starting in the top left corner with Starseed (The Fool) and ending with the extra 23rd Major Arcana card, Akashic Records. This is the Starchild Tarot by Danielle Noel. It’s one of my favorite decks and charging the Major Arcana cards with these high vibration crystals made for one crazy reading afterwards!

ASSOCIATIONS

CLEANSING

MY APPROACH I turn all of the cards upright and meditate with them. If I have time, I'll wave them over some pine or sandalwood incense and store a crystal (clear quartz, smoky quartz or black tourmaline) on them. 

I will also make a crystal grid that has stones meant for cleansing the aura and put the deck in the center of the grid. 

SORTING & SHUFFLING Order the deck starting with the Major Arcana and then moving the Minor Arcana. If you’re into astrology, you’ll want to order the different suits accordingly: fire, earth, air, water a.k.a. Wands, Pentacles, Swords, Cups. Then, shuffle the deck until only your energy is in it. 

If you don’t feel like ordering your cards so meticulously, you can also simply turn them right-side up and shuffle them again. In my experience, this secondary method works after a light reading, something not too intense or emotional. 

MEDITATION Hold the deck in both hands and clear your mind. Focus on your breathing first and then expand your awareness to the source energy all around you. Imagine a white light surrounding your deck, cleansing and infusing it with this energy. 

TAPPING Some practitioners of the Tarot simply tap the deck once or a few times, to shake off any excess or negative energy. It literally knocks the energy out of the deck. 

MOON BATH Leave your cards out in the full moon’s light overnight. The divine feminine energy of the Moon will cleanse and protect your deck. It will release all energy. You can even create and perform a ritual that is specifically meant for cleansing. This can incorporate aspects of other methods. 

SMUDGING & INCENSE Use sage or rosemary or a different cleansing incense and let the smoke envelope your deck and any crystals that you use in tarot. The smoke will cleanse your deck, along with a strong intention. 

SALT BURIAL Salt has traditionally been used to ward off negative energies and you can use it to cleanse your deck of any other person’s energy as well. Use this after an especially intense emotional reading. Wrap your deck in plastic or put it in a plastic bag and bury it in salt. It must be submerged in an airtight container as salt gathers moisture from the air and can damage your cards. To ensure it is completely cleansed, keep the cards buried for at least a few days if not a week.

FRESH AIR After a rain shower or in the sunlight, place your cards outside in a safe spot and allow the deck to refresh itself.

PENDULUMS Hold a pendulum over the deck and allow it to circle or swing over the deck. Once it stops moving, your deck is cleansed! Pendulums either send the negative energies away, absorbs it or transmutes it into light. This can be a more intense method of cleansing your cards, like a catharsis, and you should wait a few hours before using the cards in a reading again. 

REIKI I don’t know much about Reiki, but you can use your healing abilities to send light energy to the cards. Generally, the Reiki practitioner will leave their hands hovering above the deck, with the cards spread out underneath. It re-aligns the energy of the cards. 

CHARGING

MY APPROACH

To charge, I put some moldavite, herkimer diamond, Satyaloka clear azeztulite quartz, or a crystal that correlates with the type of reading I want to do. Sometimes, I'll make a crystal grid with my deck in the center. 

SUN BATH

Use clear quartz and the sun to charge your deck, by placing the crystal on the cards and leaving them in a nice sunny spot for the day. You should use this technique in the morning to maximize the effect of the Sun’s energy. Clear quartz increases the positive energy that the sun sends and allows your deck to absorb the energy more easily. It is a gentler way to charge the deck than my personal approach. Charging your deck in the sun allows room for more positive and encouraging readings!

ELEMENTAL CLEARING/CHARGING

One method that both clears and charges your deck at the same time is an elemental ritual made up of the other clearing/charging methods listed above. 

Fire - pass your deck over a candle’s flame Earth - salt burial Air - smudging or incense Water - moon bath or sprinkle a little full moon water on the deck

DAILY DRAW

Shuffle and cut the deck however you please. Draw one card to represent the day or your present self. Meditate with the card and examine the imagery on the card. Without looking at the LWB or any tarot card meanings websites, stretch your mind and develop your own personal interpretation. Really challenge yourself when interpreting. Are there people in this card? What are they doing? How would you imagine their interaction? Is the person lonely/isolated? What’s going on in the setting? You can even research color meanings to round out your interpretation. 

SAME CARDS DIFFERENT DECKS

If you have two or more tarot decks, you can decide on a card you want to compare and then examine how the different artists/tarot deck creators portray the essence of the card. Are there similarities? Differences? I personally believe that each deck has a slightly nuanced interpretation that is unique to it, rather than simply one universal meaning for all 78 cards. This exercise really helps you connect with specific decks and develops your new or existing relationship with it.  

THE FOOL’S JOURNEY

The Major Arcana are not only Jungian archetypes, but also a parallel for the classic hero’s journey, a path to spiritual enlightenment. Journey with the Fool as s/he sets out into the world and write the story that unfolds.

OR

Examine your personal journey thus far and align the Major Arcana cards with major events that mark your life. (Optional: You can fill out the details of each event with Minor Arcana cards to delve deep into a trump’s meaning).

Meditate on each card to develop a personal connection with your deck.

TWO-CARD COMBOS

A good strategy for learning to interpret multiple cards in a spread, and their relationship to one another and the querent, is to pick two and practice. For this exercise, shuffle your cards, split them into two piles and flip the ones on top. Interpret the first card and then the second card separately. Then, tell the meanings between the two cards. What do they share or oppose in one another? How do the elements in the cards interact with each other? Tell the story.

SOUL MIRROR METHOD

This is a way to get to know yourself through the Major Arcana. Pick the card you resonate with the most, the one that is most appealing of the Major Arcana. Then pick the card that resonates the least with you, the least appealing. Lastly, pick the card that integrates both of them together and place it between the cards. Examine why you have chosen these cards.

This was intended for the Major Arcana, but the Minor Arcana can be used as well.

BAD CARDS, GOOD CARDS

Look through your deck and pull out all the cards that put you on edge. These are cards that you’d be nervous to draw in a reading. Stack them in a pile and then go through them one by one, thinking of how they might actually signal good energy for a reading. How can you reimagine their meaning?

Now, try the reverse. Pull out all the ‘good’ cards and meditate on how you can reinterpret them.

SPREAD LOCATION

Look at your favorite spread (or really any spread) and pick a card (any card). Place this card in each of the spread positions and interpret them accordingly.

REVERSAL READINGS

Randomly select a card from your deck and apply each reversal method reading to generate a variety of meanings for that card. (I will post different methods for reading reversals later this week). Synthesize your notes to form a concise interpretation of the reversed card.

Then, come up with three different scenarios that may relate to the reversed card and add these scenarios to your interpretation.

Meditate on the energy of your selected reversed card and identify real-life scenarios that occur throughout a week that relate to your meaning.  

SYMBOLISM THEMES

Lay out all your cards on a table or the floor and look for common denominators, repeated symbolism that the artist deemed important. For instance, I have the Starchild Tarot by Danielle Noel and she uses a lot of moon imagery. I looked up the meanings of different phases of the moon and started interpreting the cards based off of whether the moon was waxing or waning, full or new. 

MUSICAL TAROT

Pick a card, any card and think about its meaning. Think of a song that might best represent and interpret the card for you. If you are musically inclined, write your own musical interpretation of the card!

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE!

Many authors use tarot for inspiration and to overcome writers’ block. Shuffle and cut the deck. Draw a card. This is the beginning of your story. Start writing or telling your story out loud. Maybe pull some court cards for characters! Draw another card and continue the story. 

CREATE A CARD