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:

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:

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.