In this chapter, Mary explains the value of tarot journaling. She suggests you start by doing readings on yourself and keeping track of them. Make notes for what you see in the cards and a few on what’s going on in your life then. If you do daily draws, you should jot down a few notes for what happened in your day. Then, weeks, even months, later, go back through the journal. See if you notice anything different. Watch for repeat cards and when they show up. I haven’t been doing this but will certainly start now.

Then, she gives examples of readings that make great journaling exercises. First up, the Three-Card Spread.

The three-card spread is a standard spread that is super handy in its endless uses. I don’t know a single tarot reader who hasn’t used a three-card spread at one time or another. That’s because “every question can be examined from three aspects. Every action, for example, usually involves three choices: your current position, a new possibility or opposite action, and the integration of these two in a new way.”

Three cards also means you can look at past/present/future of a situation—past experiences, present emotions, and future expectations. You can also break things down by one of my favorite ways by using body/mind/spirit—urges and habits, thinkings and reasonings, and ideals and goals.

It’s funny that I was taught this spread years ago and never realized that it was probably learned through this book.

Anyway, she then goes through suggestions for color coding your notes and how to shuffle or select cards. I tend to use whatever working pen I can actually find for my notes and I like to shuffle my cards rather than selecting my card by how it feels. I take the top 3 and the bottom card. I use the bottom card as an overall look at what’s going on with the 3 cards (or an underlying reason behind what’s going on with the 3 cards). You should do whatever feels right for you and comes naturally.

I tend to do a body/mind/spirit (b/m/s) spread for my daily draws, but I haven’t been very good at writing them down. I’ll have to start doing that. For learning purposes, whatever style spread you use for daily draws, I’d suggest keeping to that same spread for a few weeks. That way you can see changes easier and see how some cards will repeat themselves.

Here’s a sample reading from cards I pulled today for my cat, Ruki using the Paulina Tarot:

When you interpret the cards, notice your initial responses, colors, numbers, the figures in the cards, environment of the card, and symbols. Describe any emotional reactions you have to the cards too. Also notice the direction the figures in the cards face, do they face each other or away? Jot them all down in your journal.

All I notice in Ruki’s reading is that cat in the Queen of Wands sticking it’s tongue at me. Ruki! Heh. And the big cat in Strength has a heart on its hind leg and is being petted. How cute! The Fool looks so playful. I’ll skip going into more detail, but if you feel like chiming in on anything you see, please feel free!

Next, focus on the card for body, which in this example is Queen of Wands. This card represents the state of your physical body and the environment around you, or Ruki in this case. What you are currently feeling and habits can also show up here.  I see that tongue and sleepy eyes. So she’s feeling playful yet sleepy at the same time. Typical.

Then focus on the card for mind, which is this example is Strength. This card represents what you are thinking and the way you rationalize things. It’s your state of mind. Ruki mindset is happy now because she gets the attention she needs. What can I say? I pamper her.

Lastly, focus on the spirit card, which in this example is The Fool. This card represents your ideals and goals. If it’s negative, it will show what’s blocking you. The Fool looks playful to me. I notice the fish bones on the ground too. I see this as her wanting to play and snack and yeah, these are typically her goals.

After a few weeks pass, go back and review all your daily readings. Jot down anything you notice, repetitive cards, lack of certain cards or suits, and any other new insights. As you continue to do this, you will develop a deeper understanding of the cards.

That’s that for this post.

Next up, more exercises for tarot journaling.

Previous posts:

• Working my way through Mary K. Greer’s Tarot for Your Self
• Tarot for Your Self: Introduction and Roses
• Tarot for Your Self: Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with the Cards, Part 1
• Tarot for Your Self: Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with the Cards, Part 2

Rituals are used to establish rapport with your deck. They are great for helping you relax and get into the right mindset to read the cards. Some people shuffle their cards a special way, or go through the deck turning all upside down cards upright again. It’s the repetition that calms.

Rituals can also include where and how you store your cards (pretty bags or intricately designed boxes for example) and even what time you tend to read (twilight with the sun setting for example).

You should purify your cards regularly to clear off any unwanted energies. Some use incense over their cards,  while others imagine a white light surrounding their cards as their cleansing technique. I like to occasionally reorder my deck, then shuffle it over and over. There are a lot of ways to purify them, so experiment to see what works for you.

Next, she provides a grounding exercise and explains how grounding keeps you balanced with a clear channel. The gist is to breathe slowly concentrating on sending your cares and tensions through the soles of your feet and into the ground. Then, pull revitalized energy back up through your feet and into the rest of your body. The ground, ie Mother Earth, cleanses the energy.

Lastly, she provides an exercise for entering a card and you can also find this on the Aeclectic Tarot forum. We did this meditation in a class and reading the book, I’m only now realizing it came from here.

So, what about you? Do you have a ritual you do? What do you do to purify your cards? And what do you do for grounding?

Did your try the exercise for entering a card? How did it go? I posted about trying that with my year card back in December, but just realized I’ve yet to do that. Whoops.

Well, that’s that. Next up we’ll be moving on to Chapter 2: The Tarot Journal.

A tarot profile helps you gain insight into your own personal life journey.

I’ll admit, I’ve never seen so many personal profile cards calculated at once and I haven’t heard of a lot of these. It’s a bit daunting, but we’ll go through them one at a time. I’m hoping we come back to them in a later chapter, but if not, maybe we can come up with some exercises to explore the meanings behind these cards more too.

Personality & Soul Cards

The Personality Card “indicates [your] life purpose, aspirations, and lessons to be learned,” while the Soul Card “indicates [your] soul purpose and qualities that will assist [you]”

These cards/numbers are calculated using your birth date. You add all the numbers together, combining them down until they reach a number smaller than 22.

For example, if your birthday is October 14, 1947 it would look like this:

10
14
+1947
=1971

Then add each digit together: 1+9+7+1 = 18

This number is your Personality number, or The Moon in this case. If you add the 1 and 8 together, you get your Soul Number: 9, or The Hermit.

My Personality and Soul Cards are both The High Priestess. What I found interesting was that those of us with the same card for both are specifically working on our soul purpose in this lifetime.

Along with the Soul Card, we have four minor arcana cards that correspond to it, representing lessons and opportunities. It matches the number, so in my case I have the High Priestess, or a 2. My four minor arcana cards would be the 2 of pentacles, cups, wands, and swords. This is a new one to me. Interesting though. I’d never though about incorporating minor cards into profile cards before.

Hidden Factor Card

The Hidden Factor Card “indicates qualities [you] fear, reject, or don’t see that can become [your] greatest strengths. Mary lists a chart for finding out what these cards are. In my case, I get two, Justice and Judgment.

I have to think more about what these cards mean in this position. This is one of the ones I’d never heard of before. And I found this section a confusing one to read. I’d love to get your take on this, what did you think?

Your Year Card

This card changes every year. It represents the “tests, lessons, and experiences you will go through this year.”

In this case you add the month and date of your birth to the current year. So for the above example, you’d just swap out 1947 for and add away 2010, ending up with 9, or The Hermit.

My year card is an 11, Justice:

Your Zodiac Card

Each of the astrological signs is represented by a card. I’m a Scorpio so my card is Death:

Along with the Zodiac Card, Mary adds in another element called Your Zodiac Lessons and Opportunities Cards. These are minor cards that correspond to our sun signs. And each sun sign has three corresponding minor cards, which Mary lists on a chart. My cards are 5, 6, and 7 of cups:

What this means in terms of zodiac lessons and opportunities, I have no clue yet. Do any of you have any idea why it would be a zodiac lesson as opposed to a general lesson?

Your Destiny Card

Your Destiny Card is the minor arcana card that corresponds with your actual birth date. It’s pulled from one of your Zodiac Lessons and Opportunities cards. My card in this case would be the 6 of cups:

Persona Cards

Lastly, we have Persona Cards. These are calculated based on your sun, moon, and rising signs. If you don’t know yours, create a birth chart (it’s free!) to find out what they are.

My sun sign is Scorpio, so my Personal Potential Card is King of Cups.

My moon sign is Leo, so my Inner Teacher Card is King of Wands.

My rising sign is Aquarius, so my Mode of Expression in the World can be described by: King of Swords.

I’m apparently all about the kings. I have no idea what these mean at this point since this section is another new one to me.

Now that I’ve gone through the exercise, I need to spend some time with each card and think things over. If you feel overwhelmed by the number or profile cards, maybe start with the Personality and Soul Cards. If you are feeling ambitious, add in Your Year Card. Worry about the other cards another time. Spend some time with each of the few you choose and journal the first thoughts that come to your mind for each card. Don’t hold back and don’t be afraid to write any random thing down. You don’t know where that idea will lead you on your quest to read for your self.

So that’s that for this part of chapter 1. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted, and a bit overwhelmed. How did you do with selecting profile cards? If you posted them somewhere, please feel free to share in the comments by linking to them. Is there any part of this you’d like me to go over in detail? The only one I’m really confused about is the Hidden Factor/Teacher Card but I can look into that too if anyone else is curious.

Anyway, that’s that. I’m going to spend some time journaling on these myself and will be back with part 2 where we’ll talk about tarot rituals.

Have a happy day!

Okay, so it’s time for the first post of working my way through Mary K. Greer‘s Tarot for Your Self. Yay!

The book begins with an introduction section and I thought it would be a good idea that we take a moment to touch upon that. I’ll start with chapter 1 tomorrow.

The major point of this book is to help you establish your own personal relationship with the tarot, as well as to work on developing an awareness of your intuition.

Mary goes on to explain how to use this book, i.e. it’s a workbook. There are exercises in it and you should do them all, in order. It doesn’t seem to be designed for flipping around, although I’m sure on re-reads you could do just that. So, as suggested, I’m going to work through this in chapter order, one exercise at a time.

And she doesn’t even wait for the first chapter to start up with the first exercise: Write down everything that enters your head about roses for a few minutes. Eh. I have to admit, I was on a bus commuting to the city when I read this. I didn’t have paper or a pen with me. Whoops. So the first thing I’ll point out with reading this, have something to write with! Whether you write in the book or on separate paper is up to you. But you need something to write with…and a tarot deck, of course! And like I mentioned in my initial post on Tarot Basics, I’ll be sticking with my Universal Waite Tarot Deck for these exercises.

Anyway, back to the rose exercise. I rambled a few things about it, first running through the various colors of roses and what they mean: red = passion, pink = love, yellow = friendship, white = purity. Then I shifted to random thoughts: petals, delicate, soft, thorns, pain, green, blossom, lush, pungent, inspiration, bud, and growth.

She also adds that you should look through your cards to see the way roses have been used in your deck. Then questions, do the thoughts you jotted down give you insights into why roses were used in certain cards? What do you think? See any of those roses differently now?

I’ll be posting about it as I go through it. I don’t know how often that will be since I have work and other stuff going on too. You know, life. But I will post my way through all of it and I’ll aim to post on a regular schedule…which I’ll figure out by my first post.

If you’d like to join in the discussions, posts will start up March 1. If you have a copy of the book and haven’t yet read it, maybe now is a good time to start! And if you already have read it, maybe now is a good time for a reread!

Hope to see you there.

Have a happy day all!

I’ll be using the Universal Waite deck, which I have to admit almost feels weird in my hands now. I’m so used to using the Paulina, Halloween, and Universal Fantasy tarot that it’s been a while for this deck. Funny how that happens, eh?

Anyway, I’m hoping to style this section so new and seasoned tarot readers will find something helpful in it. If I start to veer too basic or too complicated, please reel me back in! And, if you have any topics or questions you’d like to see covered, please let me know that too.

New posts will be added to the category, Tarot Basics. I already had two card meanings posted so I added them to that category too: The Fool and The Magician.

More posts coming soon…

This is a card about creation and transformation. He has all the tools (the symbols displayed on the table) he needs and by working with the powers of the universe, he can create what it is that he desires. He only needs to begin.

When this card appears in a reading, it is often a sign that the questioner needs to actively work to make things happen. And that he has the power within to do it. He has personal power…the tools needed, as well as the desire and drive to accomplish it.

On the flip side, the magician can be all things…good and bad. He can be an illusionist…a trickster. With the power to change things, one must consider the ramifications for good and bad as he moves forward.

The Symbols:

• Lemniscate (infinity symbol): This symbol hovers above the magician’s head to represent his connection to universal principles and his infinite spiritual potential

• Rose: Red roses represent desire and passion. That he is pointing a wand up to them shows that he is striving for what he desires.

• Lily: White lilies represent pure thought.

• Serpent-cincture: The serpent appearing to devour its own tail is a symbol of eternity.

• The Number One: This is a masculine number and it can represent a lot of things. Independence. Leadership. Authoritative. New beginnings. The start of a journey. New inspiration. Focusing on the self.

• Small Wand: The double terminated wand represents Divine Will

Please note that this post is a work in progress. I will be adding to it as I learn more about the card.

See something different? Feel free to post what you see in the card here.

The number 0 shows this as a card of endless possibilities. It is the start of something new. In a reading he can represent innocence, new beginnings, or even second chances. It’s time to begin again. Take the risk and go for it. Only, careful where you step. Pay attention.

On the negative side of things, it can also show up with someone is being naïve about something or taking unnecessary risk, as seen by him about to step off a cliff. This too is sign that the questioner needs to pay attention.

The Symbols:

• White Dog: He represents loyalty and is the Fool’s guide or companion here. He will become the white horse in later cards.

• Red Feather: The red feather in the cap represents passionate thought.

• White Rose: The white rose represents inspiration.

• Package: The package on his stick shows that he has everything he needs packed away.

• Snow Capped Mountains: These can represent heights of abstract thought.

Please note that this post is a work in progress. I will be adding to it as I learn more about the card.

See something different? Feel free to post what you see in the card here.