how to consult tarot for self-care, for tarot newbies

(Adapted from my piece for Polyster Zine)

The way I practice and see self-care goes beyond the mainstream picture of giving yourself little treats from time to time.

Self-care for me looks like a daily practice of listening to yourself and what you need.

Tarot is such an helpful tool to deepen your self-care practice because it allows you to hear your inner wisdom and subconscious more clearly, helping you come up with a plan of action that is more flexible and aligned in responding to your needs and feelings.

If you are tarot newbie, here are a few steps you can take to make tarot part of your self-care routine.

STEP 1 - READ INTUITIVELY

There are many ways to read tarot, but today I’ll show you how to read tarot intuitively, as a self-reflective tool rather than a way to predict the future. I’m going to talk through my way to connect with the cards but I encourage you to build your own practice in how you access your intuition when reading tarot.

It might sound strange but you don’t actually need to know how to read tarot to use it for your self-care. Reading intuitively means that you will be interacting with what you see on the illustrations, which doesn’t require previous knowledge.

After you have let your insights come up, you can of course look up the general meaning of the card through online resources.

STEP 2 - SET UP THE SPACE

To start with you want to set up the space for your practice. By setting up the space in a way that makes you feel calm and comfortable, you are sending a message to yourself that you are dedicating this time reflect and hear your needs and how to respond to them more clearly.

Set up the space by choosing a spot that makes you feel relaxed. You can also light up a candle, and/or bring an object like a crystal that you love.

Now, take a moment to fully arrive in this space. For example, take a few deep breaths, name a few things you can see around you, or do an activity that makes you feel more present and grounded in the moment.

step 3 - CREATE A POWERFUL QUESTION 

Once you are feeling more focused and grounded, let’s nail down your question to the cards.

You don’t want to rush this because phrasing the question in a powerful way really makes a difference. You want to create a question that centres your agency, rather than ask the tarot for what you are supposed to be doing in a specific situation.

For example, you could ask “what can I do” or “how can I..” and avoid using “shoulds”.

This will generate a question that recognises your power to change what you are going through instead of putting that responsibility on the cards. 

You can ask a broad and simple question like “How can I deepen my self-care”? or you can look at specific challenges. For example, let’s say that you are struggling to hold boundaries with a friend and it’s affecting your wellbeing.

You could ask

“How can I better honour my boundaries when interacting with my friend?” 

To answer the question, you can pull one or more cards. I suggest between 1-3 cards as this will already give you lots to work with.

STEP 4 - SHUFFLE WITH INTENTION

You now have a powerful question you love…it’s time to shuffle!

You want to make sure that you are keeping the question focused in your mind.

Don’t worry about how you are shuffling, be led by your feelings in terms of how you want to interact with the deck.

You can even just split the deck lots of piles of cards, and then put them back together while you keep thinking about the question. 

STEP 5 - PICK A CARD

It’s time to choose your card! This is an intuitive practice, so trust the card that is calling you.

If a card is calling your attention, pick it up! You can also pass your hand over the cards and choose the one where you feel energy coming from.

STEP 6 - CONNECT WITH THE CARD

One way you can connect with the card you picked is simply by looking at the images and starting with describing what you see.

As an example, let’s say I picked up the Ten of Swords. Looking at this specific card as I write this, I see a person laying down and being weighed down by the swords are probably making them feel a lot of pain and distress. At the same time, they are managing to stay with this pain. I can see that the surrounding environment seems bleak and stressful, perhaps anxiety-inducing. These are the first things that come up for me.

What are the first things you are noticing in the cards you picked?

Write down what you are observing, what the card is making you feel and how you are perceiving the illustrations.

Now refer back to your question. How does this information help answer your question?

Let’s say that you chose “how can I deepen my self-care”.

If I look at the Ten of Swords, I would feel that the card is suggesting to take a closer look at the things that are making me feel pain, the things that are making me feel heavy and anxious, and see what I can do about them.

And if you want to go deeper, at this point you can refer to resources that explain the general meaning of the card and research and symbols that have caught your attention.

If you are feeling confused about the answer, you can also draw an additional card, perhaps to ask for an action that you could take.

STEP 7 - TAKE ACTION

You can now start thinking about what actions you might want to take in response to the insights from the reading!

Sometimes there is a lot of information coming up from a reading though, and you might want to take some time to process it.

It’s okay if you need a few days, and it’s up to you when you take action based on what comes up in the reading!

Take some pictures of the cards so that you can refer back to them later, and write down a few keywords so that you will have that reference whenever you decide to make a plan.

STEP 8 - HAVE FUN WITH IT!

You can also use these tips to do a much shorter practice on a daily basis (for example by condensing these steps into 3-5 minutes).

I hope you have found this intuitive approach helpful and that you’ll have fun exploring what the cards are communicating to you!