The simple daily self reflective tarot practice
For beginners wanting to develop strong intuition without learning all the meanings upfront
In this post I’d like to introduce a simple daily practice that I’ve found to be the easiest way to implement tarot for personal growth into every day life. I’ve been doing it for years and it never gets old.
This article is for you if you’ve never read for yourself, or are at the very start of your self-inquiry. I’m only going to talk about using tarot cards, leaving lenormand separate for now.
Whilst I discuss an evening practice in this post, you’ll very soon have the confidence to read for yourself anywhere from on your lap on the bus, to the beach, to on the back of a galloping hedgehog:
developing strong intuition when practiced over time
creating your own meanings
the difference between divining and reflection
simple, light and a fun way to connect with yourself
Start with taking a reflective note
At the end of your day, and I’m talking about after dinner / early evening but maybe not just before you get into bed in case your mind is churning, take a few moments of quiet time to reflect on your day.
Make a couple of notes, perhaps they’re just a few words, or even a light drawing. Anything is OK. The point is to get a few words down that are your ‘takeaways’ from your day. This is purely a practice to centre yourself and find some stillness out of what has likely been a busy day, allow your heart to speak and gather a few words.
Your deck
If you’re not already the proud owner of a tarot deck, my advice (as I’ve been asked several times) is to choose one based on the Rider Waite artwork. The simple reason is that many of the newer, modern decks can be abstract and have changed titles. This can be confusing when you’re holding the Knave of Rods which is only referred to as the Knight of Wands online, or you’re looking at a ‘disc’ and the traditional term is ‘pentacle’. However it’s personal preference.
I personally use True Black and Linescape Evolution Gold but learned with standard Rider Waite.
Shuffle
Now shuffle your tarot cards. Shuffling, by the way, can be any way that works for you. I have no rituals whatsoever. Some like to line up their crystals or put music on. Developing rituals is beyond the scope of this post. My only requirement is that no one disturbs me. Some earphones may be needed if you’ve got distracting noise in the background.
I riffle-shuffle, then cut the deck a few times, and sometimes start again before feeling ‘ready’. Other times I’ll drop the cards in a pile upside down on the sofa and scoot them around before putting them back together. Or I’ll just pull from a heap. Literally, whatever works. You will absolutely be unable to make a mistake or pick wrongly.
Now choose two cards. The first is going to represent the response to your question, ‘Where am I?’, and the second is going to respond to ‘Why?’.
I’ll break this down:
Card One: ‘Where am I?’ reflects on your day. It speaks to it all; your emotions, your feelings, urges, sensations, behaviour, what you wish for, hope for, resisting… the lot. This one card is going to provide you with an energy that will reflect the notes you made five minutes ago.
Card Two: ‘Why?’ reflects on the root cause of the energy behind your day.
Interpreting
Now, as I’m not teaching tarot per se, but instead leading you to develop a daily practice that supports your intuitive growth for self trust, I’m going to point you in the direction of two resources that are straight-forward for understanding meanings.
The first one is Biddy Tarot and the second is Labyrinthos. The latter is an app but they also have a comprehensive website. I’m not affiliated to either in any way; I purely think they’re great for at-a-glance keyword meanings that allow you to form the basis of your own meanings quicker than anything more comprehensive. And being online, they’re free.
Alternatively, grab a book of meanings that talks to you - the focus is on pulling several keywords together so that you can build on these and create your own.
Now, take your notes from earlier and look at the imagery of each of your cards in turn. What do you notice about them? Does anything stand out? Feel into your body. Kinaesthetic people tend to have sensations around their stomach (solar plexus) that can indicate feelings arising. Or you may feel something in your heart area, throat or head. If you notice this, what does this sensation feel like? If you could give it a colour, a shape and a texture, what would that be? Scan through your body, do you notice anything that wasn’t there before? If your heart could speak, what would it be saying to you?
All the above happens almost instantaneously. That is, before your mind activates and attempts to make logic out of what you’re seeing. It’s important to notice these subtle changes or whispers before your mind gets involved. Always go with your first feeling and not one you talk yourself out of. The ‘five second rule’ is a good one to apply here. Whatever you feel in the first five seconds has the most truth to it.
Reversals, jumpers and flingers
Many beginners are tempted to ‘correct’ a card that lands in reverse, and of course it’s entirely up to you how you feel the card needs to land. A card in reverse can simply indicate a lesser or more intense expression of the upright meaning, the opposite, or a combination of both. Feel which is right for you.
Some cards fling themselves out the deck. Some fall on the floor only for you to put them back… only to appear again.
For the purpose of remaining open to developing your own interpretations, consider leaving how your cards land, unless you have more than two in which case put the extras back. Readings that contain more than two cards are for a focus outside of this particular practice.
The bottom of the deck card
That said, the only other card you could take into consideration if you feel you absolutely have to have clarification, is the card on the bottom of the deck. I’ve found this helps to support and emphasize the focus of what is being brought into your awareness. But honestly, only venture here when you feel called to as this is about simplicity and eradicating overwhelm. There is no need to include this card at all because two is quite sufficient on a daily basis to form a connection and build a library of meanings specific to you.
Your own meanings
When learning meanings, it’s always helpful to have half a dozen keywords to springboard from. When I was first learning, literally decades ago, the internet didn’t even exist. Yikes… So my intuition, combined with books of the 70s and 80s were the only thing I had to hand.
However last year I did start to incorporate lenormand into my readings and that was a learning curve. I applied the exact formula I’m outlining here because delving into complex meanings can lead to overwhelm. Going down rabbit holes of intense meanings can drag you away from your own intuition because what you read can override your senses instead of supplement and come secondary.
Think of this practice as being like learning the alphabet. You can’t write words or sentences until you’ve learned the letters, how they form and what to do with them. As soon as you have, there will be no stopping you!
Your notes from earlier
So - let’s go back to your notes that you made earlier.
The key words from your day’s reflections will be interesting to compare now to the additional keywords you’re gathering. Consider getting a journal, diary or notebook to gather your daily readings in.
You don’t need to apply them in a 78 card order unless you want to, but instead develop a practice that is as fluid and present as you’re attempting to live your life. You can always go back in several months time to reorganise your meanings once you’ve likely pulled every card there is to pull.
Write your own keyword reflections of your day next to say 3-6 pre-determined meanings that you’ve got online or from a book. What do you notice that is similar? What is different? Is there a space, or void, where you can’t think at all and you feel blank, or fuzzy? If this is the case, can you draw a little illustration, or an emoji to describe your emotion or sense? If you’re drawn to a memory, note that down too.
Why develop your own meanings?
Because each deck and each card will speak to you individually. You will develop a language with your deck that only you know. And you can only really do this by reflecting on how your day has already gone, or post-experience.
Even now, I’ll get into conversations with fellow-readers and we’ll have different interpretations, perspectives and keywords for our cards. Some will overlap, but the solid knowing of your card meanings will develop from your one-to-one communication with them. You’ll see how they give perspective to certain events or feelings you’ve already experienced hours earlier, when it’s still fresh. You will have no way of making them fit either, since this is a reflective practice that guides awareness, not an assumptive predetermined outcome that reading in advance does.
Morning vs evening
When I’ve suggested this simple practice over the years to people, some can quickly change the time of day they reflect on to the morning. It’s tempting to pull cards to see how your day ahead will look. This is not reflection. This is divination. If you do it this way round, you will invite a predetermined outcome to your day. Attention goes where intention flows, and all that.
Say you pull the Tower card at 7.30am. Unless you know how the Tower speaks to you, you’ll be temped to go back to bed and write the day off. For example purposes only, the Tower for me indicates reaching another level of personal growth; often on a scale much smaller to a book meaning that can often elevate fear. Cards can even refer to your experience with someone else, and how that impacts you. Cards such as the Tower reflect on both internal and external changes that if not considered after your day, can lead you to looking for something to avoid, rather than embracing change that could be key to your personal development.
The morning after the night before…
…is a great time for further reflection on your notes and cards from the day before. What has now crept into awareness following a rested mind? Make a note of ‘shower thoughts’ that add another level to your perspective.
And when I say ‘journal’, I’m all too familiar with the trendy pressure journaling can create. So when I mention it, it is not to set a bench mark for 400 words. You could even get a blank journal, or one of those dot thingies, note a few isolated words and draw a mindmap or something. Take any kind of pressure or ‘should’ off the table. You’re simply aiming to create a go-to for your daily reflections.
A note on divination
If I want to use the cards for advance planning, I do. Quite often I’ll want to create an inquiry into how being alert within a situation will be to my highest good. I’m careful to use open questions that start with ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘where’ or ‘which’. After decades of reading for myself, I also know myself well enough to know when there is anxiety driving an inquiry and I remove myself from the temptation to get cards out until I’m feeling more balanced.
Creating perspective
It could be argued that divination is still used within the form of self inquiry even when used for personal development. When the question posed is seeking to understand the best way to behave in a certain situation, this is not reflective reading. This is because the solution or insight being sought is creating what could be viewed as pre-determining a solution, rather than creating post-contemplation.
There is nothing wrong or adverse with divination. I simply discuss this now because tarot tends to be avoided due to the misunderstanding of undesired foretold outcomes. It is crucial, when looking to seek guidance on an event or situation you’ve not yet experienced, to present your question in a way that gifts you a constructive response. This needs to lead you to guidance you can use for your highest good, rather than generate fear which is the opposite intention of positive intuitive development.
Even the word ‘guidance’ can be viewed as a solution found outside of you, which is the exact opposite of the intention of this article. When I use the word ‘guidance’, I refer to your inner guidance. The guidance derived from your higher self. Your inner knowing.
In summary
The very suggestion of reading for yourself at the end of your day will hopefully override concern you may have for predetermined outcomes, that often, pulling a less than cheerful, darker, card may present.
For which I’d like to add, there is no light without dark. A shadow cannot be cast without the sun. You cannot grow with purely euphoric experiences. The fear lives in the dark; in the not seeing. It’s where illusion resides.
So developing a self reflective practice, using and adding to meanings that you gain from your notes prior to choosing your cards, will lead you to the utmost of your fullest expression, connect you with a part of yourself that is likely being drowned out by the volume of your mind, and guide you through your life in a way that is always yours; no one can supersede it, or invalidate you without your permission.
By choosing two reflective cards at the end of each day, you will develop an inner voice that overrides all others, and this is the one that will serve you the highest.
PS
I don’t normally write a ‘PS but as an afterthought for this article, and just for fun, I pulled cards in reflection for this article. I got the Chariot, the Page of Cups and the Knight of Swords on the bottom of the deck.
As a quick illustrative interpretation for this article, I wrote it at speed as I’m a touch-typer (Chariot), that helps you connect with your intuition using my own intuition (Page of Cups) and I’m reflecting the energy of my own ‘Life Path’ card being the Knight of Swords by speaking my truth using fast-responses for the goal of helping you succeed!
