Your mind - be it conscious or subconscious - is a swirl of instinctual reactions that can be registered as an electrical field. (Hence why when you fall into a coma, doctors may consider you "brain dead" at a certain point because your brain is literally not producing the electrical currents that it typically would if you were in a consciously active state.)
In other words:
Your perceptions of the world around you - be them true or not - are based on instinctual reactions to external stimuli, and the active state of your mind, in turn, produces an electrical field that can be identified with a tool called an EEG (electroencephalography).
This is science. We can test it, we can experiment on it, we can analyze it.
So when people talk about changing their reality, or "manifesting," what they mean is that when they commit to changing their perception of reality it will, in turn, create massive, tangible changes in the physical world.
How does that work?
How can a different mindset change our physical reality?
Well, let's use an example: let's say you break both of your legs in a horrific accident.
And let's say one version of you (version #1) experiences those broken legs as the worst case scenario. For every physical therapy session, every waking moment, every chance to interact with your conscious reality, your brain is perceiving negativity.
Now let's say that another version of you (version #2) experiences those broken legs as just another experience in life, and for every moment you're living with these now broken legs, you're interacting with your reality in a positive way.
Version #1 may treat the hospital staff with disdain because, woe is version #1, where version #2 may treat the same staff with kindness because, hey, your broken legs ain't their fault.
Where version #1 ripples out negativity and, thus, receives it back in kind, version #2 radiates kindness, thus, receiving that back in kind.
So, what does this have to do with your brain's electrical currents and, moreover, tarot cards?
Tarot cards are just one way to see what your electrical field is emanating out into reality.
Some readers will tell you that when you use tarot cards you're interacting with a higher power, and that may be true. But for the sake of this post, let's not worry about the validity, or not, of all that.
Instead, I want you to take a second to see tarot cards as I do: not as a practice in spiritual communication (although, to be fair, I've done f*cked around and found out many a time in that regard as well - but that's a discussion for a different post), but as a practice in subconscious psychological evaluation.
Think of tarot cards like a Rorschach test.
It's not about accuracy or correctness, it's about perception, intuition, and derived meaning.
Use them to explore how your mind translates each message, rather than looking for them to be entirely accurate to your circumstances.
In this way, you can alleviate the need for "proof" that the cards are doing their spiritual connectivity thing, and instead enjoy them for the exploration into your human experience for which they can be quite useful.
[NOTE: Obviously tarot reading is not a replacement for traditional therapy, especially when said therapy is greatly need.]
In the thick of my darkest depressions, sometimes therapy wasn't helpful. It wasn't hurtful, but it wasn't the spiritual connection I needed to make sense and find peace in my life.
Church wasn't either. And still isn't. And that's ok. It's not for everyone.
But I do believe a connection to our spiritual core is vital to living a peaceful, meaningful life, especially when you're grappling with feelings of worthlessness, meaninglessness, and hopelessness. I can see the negative impact it's had on my mental health when I'm detached from my spiritual center, and I can see the grace it provides when I'm aligned with it.
Nowadays, I live and breathe for my spiritual guidance system. And, at times, I utilize tarot cards to conduct self-therapy sessions so I can perceive things and accept messages that I may not otherwise have been able to receive.
The trick is detachment.
Detachment from an answer I want, and acceptance that the answer I receive is the one I need and/or the truth.
Detachment from outcomes I want, and acceptance that outcomes of any kind are part of life.
Detachment from control, and acceptance that surrender is the only way I'll be able to receive the truth of my reality.
Think of your energy like butter: when it's cold it holds its form quite well; when it's warm it melts and covers a space.
I've found that spiritual energy is similar.
When I'm in a state of attachment, my energy is "cold," or closed off. This means that my electrical field is remaining close to my physical body and isn't open to receiving anything beyond my perceptions. I can tell because as I start pulling cards either nothing makes sense or it's all painting a picture of what I perceive a situation to be.
But when I'm energetically and emotionally detached, my energy is "warm" or open to receiving - and potentially communicating - with any message that comes through. I can tell I'm energetically available because the messages either feel exceptionally insightful, or aren't anything I'd previously perceived.
Here's my advice for anyone interested in using tarot cards for self-therapy:
- RELEASE ALL EXPECTATIONS FOR AN OUTCOMEGo into your self-therapy tarot readings with an open-mind to all outcomes. Release your emotional connection to whatever it is you want to conduct therapy for so that you're open to receiving answer beyond your perception. Allow yourself to witness a birds eye view of your experience, emotionally detached from whatever answers you may receive. Witness, don't beg.
- CREATE AN ATMOSPHEREWhen I commit to doing a reading for self-therapy, I make sure that I've set the mood. I honor my feelings, or the topic at hand, by taking it seriously. This means cleaning off a table from clutter and dust, lighting a candle, and taking time to meditate, pray, or otherwise set an intention for my experience. Especially when it comes to self-therapy readings, I'm very conscientious to go into it with love and respect for myself.
- SET AN INTENTION FOR COMMUNICATIONChoose what you want to communicate with. There's an unspoken but quite real debate in the tarot reading and mediumship communities at large: what or whom exactly are they communicating with? For that, I've done my own experimentation to come to the realization that I will never truly know. But I have learned this: when I've set intentions to communicate to specific energies (my higher self, God, archangels, passed on loved ones), my readings are filled with truth, peace, and beautiful insights; when I haven't set those intentions, chaos and fear rule the reading. This could be due to demonic energy, sure, OR it could be my own energy dictating a negative narrative. Always be intentional with who or what you're communicating with. And always choose something derived from love.
- STAY OPEN MINDEDWhen you're emotionally stable and ready to begin, accept that any card you receive is exactly what you're meant to receive in that moment. Even if it doesn't make sense. When we accept communication with energy at large, we need to trust that everything we get is meant for us, even if we don't understand it. Be patient, take your time letting your intuition tune into the message. It'll come.
- BE CURIOUS WITH YOUR INTUITIONReading tarot is about connecting to what comes to you intuitively. You can get the Tower card and intuit that it means the worst is behind you; you could also get it and intuit that the worst is yet to come. It isn't about perception of what you want the card to be, but about what your intuition tells you it means in that moment. Remain curious to all insights you feel your intuition provides you. Again, take what resonates, leave the rest.
- HONOR YOUR FEELINGS WHEN YOU NEED TO STOPSometimes, I start tarot therapy and realize I'm not in the f*cking mood for a message from the universe. So I honor that. I put the cards away and I cry it out, go rampage in nature, eat a brownie...whatever. Don't force spiritual practices if you aren't in the mood to receive it. Not because you'll insult the powers that be, but because you won't be conducive to receive sh*t to begin with.
When I do self-therapy with tarot cards, it goes one of two ways: 1) I go into it completely emotionally stable and receptive and I receive answers that bring me peace and insight, or 2) I attempt to do it while I'm emotionally needy and the answers don't come to me at all.
This is why I stress doing tarot readings when you're in a calm, detached, receptive energetic space. Anything outside of that will tamper with your reading and potentially leave you feeling more dysfunctional than when you started.
[NOTE: It should go without saying, but if you need serious medical attention or a licensed therapist to work through your issues, do not use tarot cards as a form of therapy replacement.]
Outside of self-therapy, I also use my cards to assess my passion projects and business pursuits...
Using tarot cards for creative (or passionpreneurial) guidance is a helluva lot more fun than using them for self-therapy! Mostly because self-therapy can be quite heavy where creative guidance is easily more interpretive and light-hearted.
Imagine having a brainstorming session with the universe at large. It's f*cking wild!
That said, I don't take any readings seriously unless it feels deada** aligned with my intuition.
For example: if I'm reading that the cards are saying give up on a passion project, but I know I'm supposed to be doing it, then it could be that my attachment to an answer, and my emotions around feeling overwhelmed or not good enough, could be guiding the answer - as opposed to when my energy is detached and I feel that universal honesty stealing the show.
Tarot reading is all about calming your energy, allowing it to expand beyond your own reality, and this is done best by detaching from perceived outcomes. Until you've mastered that, take everything as the learning moment it is.
It's very much like learning a new language: just because you have a grasp on the language, doesn't mean you can speak it fluently, doesn't mean you could translate it, doesn't mean you won't have a horrendous accent when you use it.
Tarot is about learning your own style and being able to recognize when your energy is in and out of contraction. Contracted energy means you're only reading from your perception. Expansive energy means you're intuition is open and connecting with energies outside of your own, be them of another person, of God, of universal dark matter, etc.
Here's how I typically pull cards for my passion or business projects:
- SWOT ANALYSISSWOT stands for: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. I typically use this method for my passionpreneur work when I need to see an overarching look at what is and isn't working in my, or my clients, business.
- NEW DIRECTIONS, UNSEEN OPTIONSWhen any creative project, be it business or otherwise, isn't working out, I whip out my cards to do a quick "unseen" spread. What am I not seeing as an option? Where could I be going instead? What paths am I not exploring that might open up my creative flow with more force?
- TO COLLABORATE OR NOT?Sometimes I ignore my instincts and humor the idea of working with someone who I know, in my gut, I shouldn't work with. Other times, I avoid a collaboration that I know I should pursue. In either case, I'll throw down some cards to see a higher perspective on if I should collaborate, why or why not, and a likely outcome in the immediate future if I do or don't.
- PURPOSE, PASSION, POWERI'm often curious what the purpose is behind a creative project or business that I'm pursuing. The same goes for the power it holds in my life and the lives of those I care about or will meet in the future. Is it something I'm doing from passion, or something I'm attached to out of necessity. Tarot readings on the work I create help me to understand the energetic reality behind what I'm doing, why I think I'm doing it, and the purpose it serves in the making of it.
When using tarot cards for business, I treat everything like a brainstorm.
It's the universes way to pitching ideas, redirecting my brain, or otherwise chiming in on how I could be doing things better or pursuing things differently.
Again - I can't stress this enough - your intuition is the keystone in translating what you should and shouldn't do with your work based off of the readings you get.
And it's entirely up to you to honestly say whether you've been emotionally receptive or contracted in receiving feedback. Remember: contracted energy means you're reading from your energetic input, where expanded energy means you could be picking up on anything (from a shared thought with a celebrity to the angelic insights of the divine....who knows!), which is why it's crucial that you learn to feel that detachment from an outcome.
Once you've decided you want to start using tarot cards for personal readings, it's time to decide which decks to get to serve your intuition.
A lot of people have the superstition that your first deck should be bought for you, or given to you, by someone else.
This is a cute notion, but also entirely unfounded.
If you feel pulled to work with tarot cards, then its time to go shopping...
Nowadays, everyone and their dog has a tarot deck for sale.
So how do you choose the right ones for your self-therapy or creative guidance needs?
From self-care to self-love, angel cards to devil decks, past life and archetypes to karma and spirit animals, there's a deck for every grain of weirdo in the jambalaya that is new-age spirituality.
And they all provide a fun layer of psychological adventure for you to explore: a) how you're currently perceiving your reality, b) how you approach messages that are laid out before you in a very synchronistic, albeit seemingly random, array, and c) how your mind naturally infers meaning behind so many different ideas, images, colors, numbers, etc.
My advice is to purchase a Rider-Waite deck (the granddaddy of tarot cards) and learn it front to back. When you can understand a Rider-Waite, you can sort out the meanings of most decks from there on out.
Then choose some playful decks. Decks that have imagery you feel drawn to, decks that have fun phrases, and decks that you can combine with other decks to create compound messages.
Tarot reading, on a spiritual level, is a way to give energy a means of communicating to you in a way you'll understand directly (be that energy angelic, or the higher self of another person, no one can say for certain...but *hint, hint* intention is an important aspect of choosing which energy you connect to). On a human level, it's a way for you to see what your intuition and subconscious perceive in any situation.
At the end of the day, Tarot can be a creative form of self-analysis if you learn how to expand your energy and be open to intuitive guidance.
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