In episode 12 of Living Tarot, I talk about how to approach your tarot practice in daily life. There is a lot of information out there in internetland about how to effectively create your own tarot reading practice. That much information can lead to overwhelm, anxiety and avoidance. My goal in this episode is to give you some clear and concise ways to start incorporating your tarot reading into daily life.

I give some pointers about daily card pools and how to ask effective questions that won’t traumatize you.
I also talked a little bit about goal-oriented spreads for your day or your week and how you can use the Tarot to help you more effectively achieve those goals.
I speak to the importance of using Tarot as a tool in daily life when so many of us are feeling especially anxious and overwhelmed.
Finally I talk about My 7-week Tarot course Practical Tarot for everyday intuitives that is open for enrollment right now and teaches tarot for real life situations. This intuitive tarot course is all about integrating your tarot practice into your everyday life as a practical tool for decision making, managing anxiety, and empowering you to move forward towards your goals with confidence.

Connect with Sheila:

To book a tarot reading, virtual tarot party, or distance Reiki session with Sheila click here – https://www.starsagespirit.com/services/

To read more about Sheila’s offerings click here – https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=18090641

Or on Instagram www.instagram.com/starsagespirit

Check out this episode!

Transcript:

Sheila M 0:05

Welcome to Living Tarot. I’m your host Sheila Masterson. I’m a tarot reader and teacher, an energy healer and medium and creator of Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives. Each week on this podcast, I’ll share my own experience of embracing and growing intuition and interview guests about how they heard the call of intuition, embraced the adventure, and embodied the tarot along the way. Join us and learn how you can stop second guessing. Empower yourself through intuition and live intentionally with the Tarot.

Welcome back to Living Tarot. This week, I’m excited to talk about a topic that’s pretty important, whether you are a brand new reader or somebody who considers herself to be more established. I’m really interested to see what comes from this episode for all of you because we’re talking today about building a sustainable self Tarot practice and what that looks like.

So, there’s a couple things at play when we talk about building this practice. So if you are brand new to Tarot, and you’re just learning to read for yourself, wonderful, I welcome you. If you are a reader who has tons of years of experience, you may still find something here. We can be our own worst enemy sometimes. I speak from, from a lot of personal experience of being my own worst enemy with my readings. But hopefully you will also get something out of this episode. It’s really meant for everyone.

So, to get started, I really wanted to talk about this today because I think it’s important For us to establish routines now more than ever, in the era of COVID, and having a lot of anxiety and intense feelings that we’re processing, there’s never a better time to be keeping track of your readings. And I will tell you, I can be very sporadic about keeping track of what cards I’m drawing and what day and what questions I’m asking. And so the number one thing I will recommend is having a place where you can write down the things that come up in your readings, especially if you’re doing like a longer term study of what’s coming up for you. It can be so incredibly powerful to actually be capturing that information. Like any good habit building a sustainable self tarot practice really means finding an easy way to incorporate into your daily life. And so when we’re trying to build good habits, it’s really important to have repetition. So one of my deepest beliefs about Tarot is that it does not always have to happen in this big beautiful ceremony where you burn incense and, and meditate and do all kinds of stuff. That’s lovely if you have the time for it. But my wheelhouse is really making Tarot sustainable, and a piece of your real everyday life. And I fully recognize that for many of us right now, we do not have tons of time to do those things. Maybe you have children at home with you. Maybe you have a partner who is in your space more than usual. Maybe you’re in a house with a lot of family and it’s just a little complicated to find your own time and if that is the case, I am sending you so much love and grace because I know it can be so challenging. But what’s really important is finding just the small moments where things might be messy, there might be background noise, there might be something else going on. But you are still giving yourself the opportunity to step aside and just pull a card and see what’s going on. It doesn’t always have to be super elaborate. So I want to give you that permission. It’s a wonderful way to connect to get very spiritual to meditate to really drop in. But it can also be something that is like a quick daily check in that doesn’t require a whole lot of ceremony, or things to be perfect or for you to be emotionally neutral.

So I do really want to talk about that. One of the most popular ways to start is to just pull a daily card, and I think this is a fabulous way to get started. It’s a really good way. It’s something I do every day. And it’s a really good way to stay consistent and also to see what’s coming up for you on a particular day. There are some specifics about this that I think are important to address though. One of the things that I see happen a lot for people, especially when they are newer readers is pulling a card with a question like, “what will I experienced today?” Or “what can I expect today”, something like that. And I really encourage you to not ask questions in that way for a couple of reasons. When we are coming from a trauma-informed approach, it is important that we not ask questions that are going to set us up for failure. And suppose for example, that you asked your deck “What am I going to experience today?” and pulled the 10 of Swords, or pulled the tower card? You’re kind of going to be walking around for the rest of your day, waiting for the other shoe to drop or like waiting for something scary to happen. Or waiting to feel past trauma come up. And that can even do more damage than the actual thing happening without you knowing it’s going to happen because it brings up extra anxiety, this feeling of dread. And so what I would suggest, kindly, instead of saying, “What I experienced today?” is shifting the question just slightly to something like “What energy Do I need to embody today?” Or the question I asked most days is what? “What energy Do I need to embody to feel successful today?” And I’ve been very intentional about structuring that question in that exact way, because it’s not consistent across the board. What makes me feel successful on Monday might make me feel lazy on Thursday. And so, each day I got that opportunity just for a minute to check in. with myself and really see what card I could embody to feel successful that day. So that’s a really lovely way to check in with yourself and to really see what’s coming up.

I have also noticed when I track that reading on a regular basis, that I will see weeks where I am like working my way through a suit, where one day I pulled a page of wands, and then the 10 of wands, and then the nine of wands, and then the eight of wands, and I’m like, Is this some sort of joke? Or is this really happening? And it can be really interesting because over time, as you write these things down, you can start to see themes that are weaving through different periods of your life. And maybe you’re in a very creative time and you’re pulling a lot of cups cards, or maybe you’re in a time where you’re extremely focused on your career. And you are pulling a lot of wands and a lot of pentacles because you’re trying to marry up what you’re really passionate. About with that ability to make money and build structure. And so it can really enlighten you where your focus is, especially at a time like this when a lot of us are feeling a little bit unfocused. So it really builds on itself as you go. And it gives you the opportunity to reflect back on these patterns. And also to notice what cards you work with very easily, what comes very naturally, and what feels uncomfortable, which can also help open your mind a little bit about your attitude towards certain cards. Because we all have cards that we find challenging, and it’s not as simple as the “negative cards” in the Tarot. Some of us really struggle with the cups, we struggle to be in our emotions. We struggle to sit with that discomfort. Others of us are extremely emotional, very easy time connecting with emotion, but a really hard time maybe connected with reality and building a career and really establishing relationships, and a healthy way in which we aren’t overextending ourselves emotionally and so we might struggle more with Pentacles. So it can really show you where your strengths are where your weaknesses are and also with themes are coming up through your life as time goes by.

Hey there I wanted to let you know that my seven week Tarot course Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives is open for enrollment now. This course will help you stop anxiety in its tracks, effortlessly make decisions and read Tarot like a pro in no time. It’s time to learn Tarot for real life situations and you don’t have to do it alone. What would be possible if you could choose to prioritize developing your intuition as a tool for discernment, stronger relationships and effortless decision making. Practical Tarot Everyday Intuitives is a seven week Tarot course that helps you go from Tarot newbie to tarot reading whiz by using my tarot-informed decision-making method to tune in to intuition and move from indecisive procrastinator to confident decision maker. I know from personal experience that intuition is the key to learning Tarot quickly and providing accurate, actionable and empowering readings for real life situations. As I said, this is the last time I’m going to open the course for the rest of the year. It’s a great time to tune in. We’ll be working together on a weekly basis, both with prerecorded video courses, and live q&a session so you can bring all of the questions that come up from the weekly lessons to me directly, get your questions answered, and get some insights. If you would like to sign up. The link is in the show notes today. Or you can head over to starsagespirit.com/practicaltarot. I’d love to have you.

So that can be a really lovely way to get started. For some people, they might hear that and be like, Oh, nope, no a bitch. I don’t have time every day to pull a card, and I get it. I really do. I know things are really crazy right now. So another way to do this would be to give yourself a reading for the week. And if you know that things get really hectic is your week goes on if you’ve got kids in school, if you are homeschooling, and working full time, God bless. Seriously, I don’t know how you do it. I’m sending you so much love and grace. I’m not. I don’t know how you do it truly. And what I will say is that sometimes when we do have a more hectic daily life, this can be a good option. And so what I try to stay away from again is those questions about what will I experience and to focus instead on you know, where can I draw strength This week, you can still ask about like, what obstacles might come up. So I will ask sometimes what obstacles might I encounter this week, but I always give myself some information about how to overcome them as well. So if I said, what obstacles might I encounter this week? I would also say what resources do I have to overcome those obstacles or to work with those obstacles, or to learn from them? Because that really takes some of the dread out of things, and can offer you a little bit more detail about exactly what it is that’s going on. And that can be extremely helpful. You’re also giving yourself a reading again, when we talked in the episode about asking good questions. You’re also giving yourself a reading that’s empowering you and giving you the questions that you need to start to make better decisions for yourself through the week. And what happens is, when we do come up against that negative thing, so to speak or that obstacle, it’s less scary because we kind of knew it was coming. And also, we’re already aware of what the resources we have to call on are. So it kind of takes some of the fear out of things. So that can be a really wonderful way to handle things. And again, with a weekly reading, I would encourage you to take at least like five minutes just to take some quick notes on what came up.

There’s also really wonderful apps. If you’re a super busy person, you don’t like to take handwritten notes, or if you’d like to voice dictate notes. I’m trying to think off the top of my head. I know Labyrinthos is a really good one. It’s free and it will allow you to track your daily card pulls. And you can choose to manually enter the physical cards that you pulled rather than using like the digital because you can get digital readings on there as well. But off the top of my head, that’s one that I use sometimes to track things. And it’s very easy. You can download it on your phone, you don’t have to keep a notebook, but also a really good option for capturing that information.

So, one of my favorite options and something that I do a lot is a goal oriented card of the day towards whatever a weekly or daily goal might be. So bear with me while, I describe this one. This is one of my favorites. Because I’m a very goal oriented person. I’m kind of always focused I on the prize, and if you set goals for the week, or a goal for each day, you can draw a card for the week or the day to tell you how to achieve that goal. So this can be really, really helpful. And if you are like me, you might be struggling a little Bit with brain fog, and exhaustion with everything going on in the world right now. And so what can be extremely helpful is to have that extra direction where we are looking at something that will specifically help us achieve our goal.

So for example, if I wanted to make sure that I wrote three blog posts one day and I drew the four of swords, I would know that taking lots of breaks in between each blog post would help me get things done. Now my natural inclination is not to do that. I use the Pomodoro method. I set a timer for 25 minutes I kind of work through things and then give myself a break work through things and then give myself a break. But in general, I stay pretty focused on the task at hand and I don’t like to like get up and give myself a separate time. But if I pulled the four of swords, I would know it was really important to incorporate rest in between each blog that I write, so that I actually have the time to let my brain kind of reset and rethink things. And that would be very important for me, like I said, because it’s not my natural inclination. But if I pull that card at the beginning of the day, then I know that that is what’s coming up for me. And it allows me to be a little bit more gracious with myself, when maybe I’m in the middle of writing those blogs, and I feel exhausted. So that can be really helpful. And I like this approach because it’s very direct, and very actionable.

So you can also say, hey, my goal for the week is to write- I’m just going to stay with blog posts, 10 blog posts, how can I approach that? What should I do on what day and pull a card for each day of the week? And that will really show you you know, maybe one day you get the four of swords and you’re like, well, that’s not looking great for being focused and energized. And the next day you get like the eight of wands or something and You’re like, yep, that’s my day. That’s the day I’m gonna focus on doing that. But it can also show you things like, for example, I do this blog, and I do one on one client work. And maybe I have a day where I’m doing a lot of creative work. So if I pulled the queen of cups one day, I might say, okay, that’s a really good day for creative work. I’m going to focus on that. So I can really give you an action plan for the week. And especially if you are a person like me, who keeps a planner likes to write out goals for yourself and really be focused on everything. This can be a really helpful way to view your week, and a really productive real life tarot reading, where you’re incorporating what you’re doing in the reading with your real life.

Finally, probably the most important way to read for yourself and to build it into your life in a sustainable way is to read on Big stuff that you have going on. If you’re mulling something over if you’re really frustrated in a relationship, if you’re looking for your ideal job, but you’re not really sure where to look, read on it, really look into it for yourself design your own spread. Or if you don’t like to design your own spreads, look one up online. And there are so so so many Tarot spreads out there. And I’m a huge proponent of kind of designing intuitive spreads, especially when there’s something that you’re going through over and over. And I think some of us, especially those of us, who read on a regular basis for clients can kind of forget, because we spend so much time doing it. And we get so used to it and we might use it in some spots, but think it doesn’t translate over into other areas of our life and we get we have like some hang ups about it. I think those of us who read full time. But part of the reason why we learned this in the first place is so that we can really reflect and give ourselves the answers that we need in the moment and take an objective bird’s eye view and everything that’s going on. So what questions might you feel called to? What might give you the deepest insight into what you really need right now and what empowering questions can you ask about that? So I hope that’s given you a little bit to think about today.

And if you already know that you are interested in learning Tarot, my course Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives is opening up again, September 21 for my second run. I’m really excited. It is a seven week course where we take you from brand new beginner to tarot reading expert, using my Tarot-informed decision making process, you’ll learn how to interrupt anxiety in its tracks, and really get clear answers to big questions in your life. So if that is something that appeals to you, I would love to have you and that link to sign up for that waitlist is also in the show notes today. I hope that this episode has been helpful for you. And I look forward to speaking with all of you again next week.

Thank you so much for listening to Living Tarot. If you loved today’s episode, please leave us a review and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. This helps us reach even more budding intuitives. Feel free to share on Instagram and tag me @starsagespirit and let me know what you learned, what surprised you, and what you’d like to hear even more of. As always, if you want to hear more about my courses, or book a reading with me, or for full episodes show notes you can head over to starsagespirit.com