Tarot Tip Tuesdays - More Ways To Use Your Tarot Cards Beyond Readings

Whether you are new to Tarot and in the throes of building a connection with your Tarot cards or an advanced Tarot reader diligently honing your Tarot reading skills, I am putting out a Tarot tip a week to help you to consistently make Tarot a part of your everyday life.

Last week, when I wrangled an international community of Tarot bloggers for the harvest festival of Lammas, I tasked them to write about their inspirations from the Queen of a Pentacles.  I surprised myself by using my Tarot cards to come up with recipes for a 3-course dinner.  I wished I had more time to unleash the domestic goddess in me on a daily basis, but as I juggled work, business, teaching Tarot and Numerology and kickboxing, I would cook for the family only ever so often.  However when I set my intention to channel the Queen of Pentacles last week with a virtual dinner party, Tarot became my tool used to guide the creation of these recipes.  My Tarot-inspired recipes can be found here.

And while on this note, my friends Joanne Sprott and Karen Sealey came up with a nifty idea to develop a contributory cookbook inspired by Tarot cards!  Now, who is up to join us in this fabulous project?

Aside from dreaming up delectable recipes, today, my Tarot Tips for this Tuesday are meant to help you think of more creative ways to use Tarot beyond the usual Tarot readings that you did. 

1) Meditation:

Tarot is one of the best tools for meditation.  I often pick a card at random and use it for meditation by centering my thoughts on how the images within the cards could relate to my life at that moment, to a specific circumstance or even an intention.  Brigit Esselmont from Biddy Tarot wrote a fantastic article about Tarot Meditation which should be made a basic practice for any Tarot practitioner.

2) Writing:

I learnt about this from a friend Arwen Lynch of Tarot By Arwen. She runs a course for writers and teaches them to use their Tarot cards for inspiration as they write their books. 

3) Poetry:   

 Writing poetry can be so therapeutic.  It comes easily for some experienced writers and career poets.  However, for people like me, who often need that extra dose of inspiration, Tarot can be a very useful tool to draw on your deepest emotion to create the theme, and the lines for your poetry.  I wrote a poem completely through the guidance of my Tarot cards earlier this year.  Check it out here.

4) Ritual Work:

Some of my friends swear by using Tarot for ritual work.  My friend Bonnie Cehovet wrote a book called a Tarot, Rituals and You, where she explains how rituals can be used to manifest the life that one desires. Within the book, she advises on the different ways to use Tarot in rituals for example, to honour the moon cycles or to do shadow work.

5) Tarot Deck Creation:

When I put the question out there asking what else could Tarot be used for, my friend Joanne Sprott said she used it for Tarot deck creation. What  a fabulous idea!  The images in a Tarot cards often carry inspirational messages to kick one's creativity into action.  In fact,  closely linked to this point is the fact that some a Tarotists used Tarot to create exquisite paintings.  Examples are Cathy McClelland and An-Magrith Erlandsen

See how versatile Tarot can be? You could create recipes,write poetry, write a book, and meditate with it.  What else have you used Tarot for beyond Tarot readings?

May your Tarot cards provide you with a full deck of possibilities throughout your day.

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About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and an intuitive reader by accident who deploys the combined modalities of a Tarot, Numerology and Astrology overlaid with her Clairvoyant and Clairsentient skills to deliver her readings with authenticity. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also a reader for the Free Tarot Network and mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot

Tarot Tip Tuesdays - Drawing More Insights Without A Book About Tarot Card Meanings

Whether you are new to Tarot and in the throes of building a connection with your Tarot cards or an advanced Tarot reader diligently honing your Tarot reading skills, I am putting out a Tarot tip a week to help you to consistently make Tarot a part of your everyday life.

So here goes your Tarot Tip for this Tuesday:

I am not advocating that you throw out all your Tarot books.  I am sure these books provide you with aIot of information beneficial to your Tarot reading practice.  However, I caution against memorizing these meanings by rote and often encourage my protégés to intuitively connect with the the rich imagery within the Tarot cards to develop their own interpretation.  

One of my favorite practice in cultivating Tarot card meanings is by meditating to each card.  Here is what I have been doing since I had started my Tarot studies.  

I would begin my practice of Tarot meditation by grounding myself first.  I believe I had covered the topic of grounding in last Tuesday's Tarot Tip, so do refer to that post if you are unfamiliar with grounding.

Next, if I had a pressing issue, or if I just wanted a general advice on how I should manage my day at work perhaps, I would craft a focused question to which I will pick 1 card.  Let us assume that I have picked the 8 of Swords from the Radiant Rider Waite Tarot deck to the question, "What would I need to do to deal with an unreasonable colleague at work?"

Now I will close my eyes, maintain a steady breath to the count of 7 for about 7 times and imagine that I am walking through a dirt road towards a huge gate up at the end of that road.  Throughout the journey, I will take note of all my senses, feeling the warmth of the air against my skin, the roughness of the dirt road under my bare feet and the grey skies.  When I am about to reach the gate, I open my eyes to look at the card image and note that I am actually at the doorway to the 8 of Swords card that had grown bigger as I walked towards it allowing me to come through into the card.  As I enter the card, I take note of everything that I see around me. 

I see a woman, tied up and blindfolded, whilst being surrounded by 8 swords that looks like they are loosely planted into the ground around her, acting like a prison.  The first word or phrase I write in my journal is "imprisonment".  She stands alone, seemingly helpless and unable to escape. The second word or phrase I write in my journal is "lonely and helpless".  I want to help her so I tell her that the swords are loosely planted not all the way around her.  There are some gaps in between and she has the ability to walk away from the swords that are mostly behind her,  by moving forward. The third word or phrase  I write in my journal is "able to release self".  I spot a castle in the distance behind her and reckoned that could probably be her home. So again I tell her that if she could just step forward and remove the bindings from herself, she can easily reach home.  The fourth word or phrase I write in my journal is "reachable goal".  I am thinking that if she lives in that castle, why is she dressed in tattered clothes?  I look around her, and acknowledge the rough terrain and the grey skies. However, there are no enemies in sight. There is nothing in her way that could possibly harm her.  Perhaps she had been stuck in this situation for quite awhile, refusing to budge. So the fifth word or phrase I write in my journal is "a period of tension and conflict within self ". I note that one of her foot is touching some water while the other foot is stepping on dry ground.  So the sixth word or phrase I write in my journal is "need to be emotionally balanced".

I assess the 6 phrases in my journal that describe what I see in the 8 of  Swords card.  This allows me to piece together an interpretation of the card to my pressing issue of dealing with that colleague.  The advice from the card is that I am allowing my opinions of my colleague, driven purely by my negative perceptions to come in the way of my ability to work with her to achieve a goal.  So the advice that the card can offer me is that I will need to balance my head and heart, and resolve to remove these perceptions while looking at our work relationship from a different angle that could help and not hinder my ability to attain my goals.  The longer I put myself in this situation, second-guessing her every move, the harder it is for me to "go home".

Regular meditation using a Tarot card  will help you connect with your Tarot deck very quickly.  In time, you will be able to hone your intuition enough to connect the card images to any question without referring to a book of a Tarot card meanings.  In fact, as you advance through your Tarot journey, you will find that through the practice of meditation and visualization using Tarot cards, you can not only connect with your inner self to uncover solutions to your issues, but you can also use this very same technique of embodying the power of the rich Tarot imagery to  clear blockages along your path and manifest your goals.

May your Tarot cards provide you with a full deck of possibilities throughout your day.

About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a Tarot consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also a reader for the Free Tarot Network and mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.como
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot.