Tarot reading for creative freedom and more
Dear light-bearer,
Tarot, oracle cards and divination as a whole has become a core part of my creative and business practices — supporting me in making decisions, understanding patterns that are holding me back, and offering structure while allowing me to embrace chaos and randomness.
Here I am sharing some resources to get started reading for yourself or to deepen your ongoing practice, drawn from people I have been learning from. This guide will focus on the Tarot, but you can play with divination lots of ways — with a deck of playing cards, try Bibliomancy, oracle decks, or make your own!
Obtaining a Tarot deck
Although the Smith-Waite deck is seen as a 'standard' and is often the source deck in whose tradition majority of Tarot decks published follow, it is not necessary to start with this deck unless you feel drawn to it. Lots of decks line up with this deck pretty closely, and several others take the ideas and run their own way with it. I find that using a deck whose images speak to me matters more than any other criteria. You can look up a deck on Youtube and usually find a video of someone doing a flipthrough of the whole deck. I try to source decks from indie artists and BIPOC creators as much as possible (a list).
- Where to buy decks
- Your local bookstore
- Crystal and occult shops, who often have used decks on hand. Some options in Canada:
- A short list of decks I recommend checking out as a starting point
- Black Seed Tarot
- Queer Tarot
- Modern Witch Tarot
- Gentle Tarot
- Fifth Spirit Tarot
- Cat Tarot
- Rainbow Tarot
What to do once you get the deck
Tarot cards, like crystals and other spiritual/magic-al objects pick up and hold energies. It's important to practice energetic hygiene with your decks, and cleanse and charge them once you get them before you begin to use them.
My practice is to use an energy cleansing spray to wipe down the outside of the deck and then leave the cards to cleanse under the light of the sun or the moon. There are lots of ways to cleanse a deck from sounds to intention to smoke cleansing or running each card over a candle flame. Cyrée Jarelle Johnson has a great guide here:
Cyree Jarelle Johnson
Store your cards wrapped in a scarf or fabric pouch/in a metal or wooden box, and keep it in a safe private space.
How to read the cards
Looking up card meanings online usually offers a limited read of the card, while being a good starting point. My recommendation is to play with intuitive methods to read the cards as you get started. Some of these are:
- Describe the imagery you see and feel into what comes up
- Close your eyes and imagine the card in your mind's eye and see what comes up
Cyrée Jarelle Johnson offers their Modern Phrasal approach, which very simply, is keywords and phrases for every card that you can incorporate into your meaning making
Cyree Jarelle Johnson
Building a Tarot practice
Although I resisted this at first, I've conceded that it is actually a very good idea to read one card a day as you begin practicing with the Tarot. It is a good idea to build a ritual around your daily practice, that might look like
- Sitting at the table/altar with your deck
- Lighting a candle or other ways you might set your space
- Taking some deep breaths to drop into a calm meditative state
- Shuffle your cards
- Set an intention asking your guides/ancestors/intuition/unconscious/spirit to support you in answering a specific question/a spread, or offer daily guidance
- Use your preferred method to shuffle and draw your cards (some common ones are: shuffle till you feel the urge to stop and cut the deck with your left hand, overhand shuffle till the cards pop, spread out the cards and draw cards you feel magnetized to)
- Once you have read the cards, thank your spirit/guides and close the reading
It is super helpful to keep a journal of card draws. I use pen and paper sometimes, and of late track my reads on logseq.
Learn more
I learn from:
Ep. 36: Robert M. Place + the Alchemical Tarot
Cartomancy
That's all for now but I plan to expand this guide over time. Got questions/things you'd like me to add here? Let me know!