Tarot As A Daily Practice
A Day in the Life
Every day, once a day, give yourself a present.
If you are reading this post, I am going to assume you want to explore the idea the Tarot before committing to a reading. Maybe you have your own deck and want to start down the path of self exploration without ever booking a reading with me. Or neither of these things is true and the idea of Tarot makes you highly suspicious. All of these ideas are welcome here, and in this article, I hope to offer up my form of daily meditation.
Meditating in its most common form is simply classified as several moments of stillness and focus on your breath. For someone like me, the idea of carving out any amount of time to just “be still” seems like a chore. I have always found the act of completing mundane, repetitive tasks to be meditative: like slicing citrus for cocktail garnish, or folding napkins after lunch service. When there suddenly were no more mundane tasks to complete, I tried to make traditional meditation for me, but kept meeting with resistance. Then I discovered the simplicity of the Single Card Pull.
One of the most helpful things in the early stages of orienting with the Tarot is a daily card pull. Not only is it a quick way to get some peace of mind, it also helps to familiarize yourself with the deck, one card at a time. A single card reading at the start of your day can be a fun ritual to allow yourself, that is also informative! It helped me find stillness before beginning my day, in a way that traditional meditation did not allow. It also helped me apply the cards directly to my life on a micro scale.
The beauty of the Single Card Pull is in its simplicity. Unlike other spreads of multiple cards that need to relate to each other AND you, there’s only one card to relate to, so you can decide whether to imbue it with tons of meaning or keep it casual.
My method of pulling one card a day is as follows. Take what resonates with you and leave the rest. Either way, always know that showing up for yourself first thing is a kind gesture to allow yourself each day. You deserve it.
Shuffle your deck. I usually start with three rounds of Bridge Style shuffling as I ask my question, then cut the deck once, and reassemble. If I’ve already lost you with shuffling technique, skip down to #2. For a Daily Single Pull, the question is usually something like “ What should I focus on today?”
This is the part where you can choose your own adventure: If you like to be casual about it, skip the shuffling and instead fan out your deck face down while you ask the question and pick one card out when it feels right. If you shuffled and cut the deck, pull the top card from your reassembled deck and place it face up in front of you. Look at the imagery. What do you see? What colors do you notice? What numbers? What natural elements does the card suggest for you?
Read the card. If your deck comes with a guidebook, read the meaning it provides. If you don’t have a guidebook handy, a quick google search can give you some ideas, or you can just focus on the images of the card and make your own meaning from them. Not everything in the Tarot (or spirituality) is meant to be taken literally, so always relate back to your question “What should I focus on today?”. If you pull The Lovers, for instance, don’t expect to walk outside and instantly fall in love with your soulmate. Maybe instead, be curious about and grateful for the joyful partnerships in your life, and enjoy.
That’s it! You did something only for you, and that is such a gift! Congrats, you did a meditation! You can totally stop here, or if you want to deepen your practice, start yourself a Tarot journal and log what card you pull each day for a month. See what patterns you notice at the end of your month, and think back on what the cards brought up for you each day.
