Tarot Reading Archives - Energetic Tarot

Tarot Journaling: Where to start with your Tarot Journaling journey

Oct 21, 2021 | Journaling, Learn Tarot

Tarot journaling is on the rise and I’m not mad about it. It’s one of the few things in my life that I feel completely passionate about. Tarot is like a game of pass the parcel, every time I come back to it there’s a new layer to peel back and so much more depth and meaning to uncover.

You will probably start reading Tarot for yourself at the beginning of your journey, in order to get some practice in, but many people simply use this time as a means to an end. They want to hurry through and learn enough so they can read for others, but that means they miss the true nourishment of the Tarot.

Why use Tarot journaling?

I use Tarot journaling at least once a week, I could just give myself a reading and let that be it, but combining Tarot with journaling means that I spend more time actually thinking about the messages I’m receiving and breaking down my thoughts and feelings about what I’m reading on the cards.

If I just lay out the 10 cards in my Celtic Cross spread and worked through the reading verbally, talking to myself as if I was my own client, I will 100% forget everything as soon as I walk away. In order for things to sink in I have to write them down, so that’s how it all began for me, because of my terrible memory.

Not only does Tarot journaling help your reading to sink in a little deeper, but it also gives you space to really delve into the thoughts and feelings that come up for you. If I look at a card and feel resistance to the messages it’s giving me, I can use my journal to delve into those feelings more. Look at where those feelings may be coming from, why they may be arising when I look at that particular card. Doing this also allows me more flexibility to understand my own reactions and how those reactions are reflected in other cards in the spread. If I feel that resistance and figure out that it’s coming from a deeply rooted belief, is that belief reflected in the subconscious card? How can that subconscious card help me unpack this understanding further?

How to structure your Tarot journal

You don’t have to get fancy with it, you could use a cheap spiral notebook you got in a sale, or you can splash out and grab yourself something a bit more extravagant. I use my Magic of i Vegan Leather journal purely because I feel like choosing a journal I absolutely love applies a bit more magic to the practice.

When it comes to making notes about the reading, I like to keep things pretty straightforward. Once I’ve picked my 10 cards for my reading and I’ve set an intention for it, I make a note of what cards are in which positions.

Tarot Journaling - Magic of i journal — *Magic of i Vegan Leather Journal – Black*

Tarot Journaling Structure — *My personal Tarot journal structure*

From there I have two different approaches depending on how I feel. The first is to create headings for each card saying what position it is in and what the card is. Then I breakdown the messages I got from it and explore the things that come up underneath each heading.

Or, a more free flowing approach is sometimes necessary, especially when I want to just get everything down on the page with no limitations. For this, I first look at the reading as a whole and write a paragraph of my first initial thoughts. Then I go through card by card, always keeping in mind the cards around the one I’m focusing on, to make sure I use all the information that is being offered to me. I keep going card by card and then at the end I like to sum up and set myself some actionable tasks and goals based on everything I’ve uncovered.

How often should you do some Tarot journaling?

I try and do this every Sunday to help set me up for the week, but I don’t always do a full 10-card reading, I try and tap into my intuition to see how many cards I need for that week. I try and stick with 7-10 just so that I’ve got enough information to really get stuck in.

It’s worth noting though that there will be periods where I don’t feel like I need to do this for a few weeks. I never force myself to journal, I do it when I feel like it needs to be done or when I’m feeling like I need a bit more direction from the universe. Tarot journaling, like any kind of wellbeing and self-care ritual, should never become a chore. If you don’t feel like doing it, don’t do it! Nobody is judging you for skipping a session, you’re not losing out or missing any messages. Listen to your gut and trust that it will tell you when it needs some Tarot journaling time.

If you’re looking to get started with the world of Tarot and want an in-depth way to learn the basic meanings of the cards so you can get started, make sure to check out my self-led Tarot For Beginners online course. I take you through all 78 cards so that you can build a strong foundational knowledge on which to grow and develop your Tarot skills.

5 Things to think about when booking an online tarot reading

Jun 3, 2021 | Learn Tarot, Soul Purpose

It’s important to note if you want to start booking regular online tarot readings, that not all tarot readers are built the same. When it comes down to it, we are interpreters of the cards, we look at what’s in front of us and use our intuition to divine meaning and information. Some tarot readers do this to help you predict your future, but a lot of modern tarot readers use the cards as a tool for self-discovery, personal development and life guidance.

Making sure you know exactly what you need from your online tarot reading will really help you to avoid disappointment. If you’re looking for someone to tell you what lies in store for your love life, you won’t want to book a reading with a guidance reader like myself. Just like you wouldn’t want to book in with a fortune reader if you’re in need of some deep spiritual guidance and development, as it might end up being more of a distraction than a help.

Here are 5 questions I highly recommend asking both yourself and your potential reader before you go ahead and book that online tarot reading and some tips on how to determine whether a tarot reader is the right one for you and your needs.

5 questions to ask before booking your online tarot reading

Before you set off on your hunt for an online tarot reading, get clear about what it is you’re looking to receive. Ask yourself ‘What information will be of the most benefit to me at this moment‘
Decide whether you want to be told what is going to happen, or be given information that helps you find your own clarity
Ask your potential tarot reader what you get with your reading. Some may just give you a quick reading and then leave you to make your own notes. For my clients, I create a detailed PDF breaking down their reading so that if they want to book in again, we can review what happened in our last reading. This also helps you determine whether you are getting good value for money.
An important point, find out what kind of tarot reader they are. You can do this by researching them on their website, on social media and dropping them an email. Find out more about them, what their values are and what their personality is like. It’s such a better energy exchange if you can vibe with each other straight away.
Finally, ask yourself how you want to feel after your reading. Do you want to feel empowered, have a clearer head, feel a new motivation for life? Are you prepared to deal with difficult emotions if the cards choose to give it to you straight? (which more often than not, they will do!)

Booking regular online tarot readings

Some online tarot readers, like myself, will offer you the chance to book a regular reading, creating a sort of coach and client relationship. When it comes to booking follow up readings I get a lot of people asking how often they should be getting a reading and to be honest, it really depends on why you’re getting a reading.

I tend to read for people that are in the middle of a particularly challenging time in their life, they may have lost their job, moving house, starting their own business or just dealing with the other ups and downs we all have to face in life. These readings have a goal of helping the person through these periods and therefore a monthly reading is ideal. However, if you are looking for a one-off bit of guidance to help you make a decision or gain a quick flash of clarity so you can get moving again, then once every three months will do the trick.

It all comes down to what you feel like you need. I like to think of my tarot reading as a support service, it is here when you need it, like a crutch or a dose of good soul medicine.

Hopefully, you’ve now got a better idea of how to start finding that perfect online tarot reading and how to approach a reader you really love. If you’d like to book an online reading with me, you can have a look at all your options right here on my tarot reading booking page, or if you’d like to start reading tarot for yourself, why not check out my intensive tarot for beginners course?

The Hermit Card Meaning | Tarot Card Meanings

May 6, 2021 | Learn Tarot

When it comes to some of the wisest and most philosophical people in history, they all share a common thread and that is that they prioritised time where they could just sit and think. It’s something we very rarely do these days, just carve out some time to think about the world, our lives, who we are and what it all means. That’s the lesson that The Hermit brings to us, a reminder that sometimes we can get too caught up in the external world and we can lose ourselves or at least lose touch with our core essence.

Let’s dive into The Hermit a little more and see what meanings and guidance we can get from this card when it pops up in our spreads.

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Upright

In the upright position, The Hermit is a card of introspection, giving ourselves permission to spend time and energy just thinking about things. This time to ourselves can unlock the wisdom that we would never achieve from simply living our lives trying to get from one day to the next. The main upright meanings of The Hermit are:

Inner guidance
Isolation
Self-discovery
Understanding

When The Hermit appears in the upright position it is a sign that we are either in need of this alone time, or we have done that work and now we’re ready to allow our findings to guide us along our next path.

Reversed

In the reversed position, The Hermit can symbolise a feeling of being lost, confused and out of touch with who we are and our personal core values. We have lost our way along our current path and we need to take a step back to really understand why that might have happened and how we can find our way back. The Hermit is a very active card, so it requires you to do the work in order to get the desired results. Some other reversed meanings for The Hermit are:

Loneliness
Isolation
Exclusion
Rejection
Outsider

Although all of those reversed meanings appear negative, it actually depends on how you look at them. If you are feeling any of these things and The Hermit appears in your spread, it may be an invitation to assess those feelings and see if they are truly factual, or a manifestation of our current mental state. For example, if you feel like an outsider, is being an outsider really a negative thing? If those around you make you feel like an outsider, maybe they’re the problem, not you. Try and see all angles of your current situation and use The Hermit to really assess those feelings, and explore where they come from and where they could possibly lead to.

The Hermit Tarot Meaning - Pinterest.png

Reading The Hermit in a spread

Like I mentioned above, The Hermit is a very active card, it requires a lot of participation on your end. Your personal and spiritual development is all down to you, even if you find teachers and influencers along the way, your journey is your own and how deep you go with it is a choice that only you can make.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways we can frame The Hermit when it comes up in our spreads and what kinds of benefits and nutrients we can gain from it.

As an invitation

The Hermit is a big invitation and one that we can’t be on the fence about, we either take it with both hands or we walk away from it. With The Hermit symbolising introspection, when it comes up in a spread framed as an invitation, we are being invited to look inwards rather than for external solutions.

For The Hermit, this invitation could be the following:

An invitation to look at your core values and how they were created. Were they based on someone else’s teachings? Do they still vibe with the person you are right now?
An invitation to remove yourself from the noise of society and allow more space in your daily thoughts for wandering and exploration.
An invitation to allow your inner wisdom to guide you forward along your personal development journey.

As sage advice

When we think about the type of advice we might get from The Hermit, I like to think of the card as a Buddhist monk, a philosopher or another figure that represents divine wisdom. The type of advice The Hermit offers is designed to make you think deeper and without too much influence or guidance from others. That way, your thoughts are 100% your own.

Some advice The Hermit may offer is:

Don’t allow your own beliefs and values to be led by others. Know your own mind and be confident within it.
Time alone doesn’t have to be lonely or isolating, those things are a state of mind that we have the power to shift and transform.
If you feel like you don’t belong, look at why you may feel that way. Are others actively making you feel that way, or is it a narrative you have subconsciously created for yourself as a form of protection?

As a lesson

The biggest lesson The Hermit teaches us is that in order to grow as an individual, we have to allow ourselves to dive fully into our own mind and trust our own thoughts. It’s a lesson in the benefits of self-discovery and self-exploration.

Some lessons that The Hermit may offer you are:

To learn how to create space for thinking about the bigger things in life and how we can use that wisdom in our daily lives.
To find out who we truly are and start to live as our authentic selves.
To learn that we are all individual and unique and to embrace that and run with it as it helps build our personal wisdom.
The lesson of not being led blindly by people you think know more than you. Think for yourself and never hand over your intellectual power to others.

As a redirection

The Hermit can be a big redirection as it often tells us that the answers are within when we were previously searching in our external world. We will always look in our external world for answers because it’s easier to comprehend, but the internal world can be the single most important vault for answers and clarity.

As a redirection, The Hermit could symbolise a need to:

Set some time aside to do some major inner work in order to find a way to move forward from here.
Entertain the idea that the issue may be your mindset and POV, rather than your actions or the actions of others.
Allow yourself to be led by your inner light, your personal core values and beliefs instead of being influenced by others

In summary…

The Hermit is one of my favourite cards because it symbolises the opportunity to do some serious spiritual work. Building our wisdom can be a turning point in our lives. People that ‘find’ spirituality often discover a complete u-turn in their way of thinking, which then bleeds into their actions and intentions. This card can be a beautiful catalyst for a brand new chapter in your life.

Using tarot to pinpoint your soulful selling points

Mar 22, 2021 | Learn Tarot, Soul Purpose

There are lots of ways you can use your trusty tarot deck to make better business decisions, or even figure out the finer details of your business as you start off on your entrepreneurial journey. Today, we’re going to be looking at how we can use our tarot cards to get really niche with our business’ soulful selling point!

Your unique selling point is the pinnacle of your business and it might take a while for you to really wrap your head around it. I’m in my second year of business and I’m still tweaking my USP and pivoting my marketing to match my new discoveries. When it comes to being a creative entrepreneur, our USP becomes our SSP, our soulful selling point. Being a creative entrepreneur means that our desires and drivers behind our business are almost always rooted in emotion and intuition and this needs to be reflected in our USP. This means our unique selling point becomes our soulful selling point, our offering to the world that speaks directly to the soul, not just the bank account.

What’s the difference between a USP and a soulful selling point?

When we talk about USPs, we’re looking at the thing that our business revolves around that sets us apart from competitors. We’re picking out a particular value or unique offering that only our business can provide. This is a very corporate way of looking at things and a lot of the time pushing your USP can give you the ick. It can feel too salesy or sterile, whereas focusing on your soulful selling point brings you down to a more humanised level.

As a creative entrepreneur, you’re not speaking to people from a place of need, nobody really needs a creative, artisan or decorative product. You should be talking to your audience from a place of emotion, speaking to the heart and connecting with them on the same level that art itself connects with us as humans. Nobody buying any form of art looks at it and thinks ‘I need this because it will help me do X, Y, Z’, they look at it and want to buy it because it connects with them on a deeper level. It makes them turn inwards and they want it in their life because of the way it makes them feel.

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“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.
”

— Paul Cezanne

Figuring out your soulful selling point

What we want to do now, is think about what emotion, feeling or belief we offer our audience. What is the unique connection only we can form with our audience? Remember, we’re coming directly from the heart and soul, we’re not thinking about what will necessarily make people buy from us, we’re trying to work out what will make people connect with us and our business.

To help you do just that, I’ve put together a five-card tarot spread that helps you delve a little deeper into your own connection with your business, and allows you to unpack that and find connections with your audience.

Let’s run through the spread together to find out how it all works:

Card 1) The Significator

Pick this card consciously. By that, I mean to go through your tarot deck and find a card that you feel represents your business offering the best. For example, if you’re someone that makes something with their hands that needs a lot of skill, then you may choose the Eight of Pentacles for this card. Or if you are a life coach, you may choose the Queen of Swords or The Empress to represent your services.

Card 2) The Why

From here, we’re going to be shuffling and choosing cards the normal way. Your second card will sit at the top of your main spread and it will represent your ‘why’, the reason that you yourself do the job you do. This might be common knowledge to you, you may know exactly why you started your business and why you want to offer the services you offer. If you don’t and this card has blindsided you a bit, don’t worry, you can unpack it in the final three cards.

Card 3) The personal connection

Card number three will back up card number two, in that it will give you a bit more information around the emotional connection you have with your business. It helps you delve deeper into your ‘why’ and unpack things a little more so you can get really niche. Your personal connection is very important because it’s the fire that motivates you and keeps you moving forward. If we lose that, it can be hard for us to know what action to take within our business.

Card 4) The customer’s connection

Card number four is all about what your customer’s connection is with your business. This should show you what your customers think and feel about what you offer. It’s important with this card to really analyse whether this matches up with the behaviour of your audience currently. If it doesn’t, you may need to make adjustments to your branding, marketing or services, to realign them with the connection you’re trying to create with your customers.

Card 5) Your soulful selling point

The final card is the outcome card of the spread, this card shows you what your soulful selling point is or should be. Link it with the other cards in the spread, try and see where it aligns and where it doesn’t. The areas where it doesn’t align is where you need to spend your time and energy, to help you get everything into place. All three of these bottom cards should flow and connect with each other, you should be able to see how your personal connection and that of your audience, connect to result in your soulful selling point.

Really spend some time on this, it may not be obvious at first and there may be a need to really dig into things and question what comes up. There’s a lot of subconscious work in this spread, so I’d highly recommend journalling while you give yourself this reading.

Exploring the Full Moon in Gemini & Lunar Eclipse

Nov 30, 2020 | Learn Tarot

Welcome to the Full Moon in Gemini this November 2020. Not only is it a Full Moon, but it’s also a lunar eclipse. If that means absolutely nothing to you, here’s a brief description of what a lunar eclipse is and what it means for us.

A lunar eclipse is when the light of a full moon is partially or fully obscured by the earth’s shadow. For those in North and South America, as well as parts of Asia and Australasia, will be able to see this shadow pass over the face of the moon. For the rest of us, we’ll be able to catch a small glimpse of this as a small shadow passes over the very top part of the Full Moon. Energy-wise, this time is often one to be aware of. It’s not a time for action as our thinking can be clouded or shadowed, so instead, it’s time for some powerful reflection or planning for the future.

As you’ll know, every month over on Instagram I film a little Full & New Moon tarot reading for you all. I wanted to share this month’s reading with you here, so you can refer back to the key messages and lessons whenever you need them.

Full Moon in Gemini Tarot Reading

*Featured deck: Pagan Otherworlds Tarot*

As to be expected there’s not a lot of action happening, all the wands cards are either in the past or the conscious positions, showing us that although we may be wondering what to do next, we shouldn’t act on those thoughts and ideas. Instead, we’re using them to inform our strategies and create plans of action for the next few weeks.

Grounding ourselves in the present

We’re coming out of this fiery, chaotic energy of the Five of Wands and moving straight into the Three of Swords. We’ve been through a lot in the past year and we’ve still got a long way to go. We’re starting to feel the impact of this in that Three of Swords, especially in the isolation of the Five of Coins which is preventing us from being able to heal fully and move forwards.

For us here in the UK, we’re just about to come out of lockdown 2.0 and we’ve had to deal with some pretty conflicting rules around what we can and can’t do. We’ve now been thrown a lifeline with this offer of relaxing the rules for Christmas, giving a lot of people hope that they can finally spend some quality time with their family. However, this new situation is a double-edged sword. We’ve been given the opportunity to make our own decision regarding mixing and how much freedom we let ourselves enjoy. There are pros and cons on both sides, so how do we find clarity in this confusing time?

The Page of Coins and the Three of Coins suggests that we try and find new ways to practice our annual traditions. They tell us that it might be a good idea to look at different ways we can experience this time of year and to be flexible and open to doing things in a new way. We have to ground ourselves in the present, look at the facts, the figures and then start to question what our own personal opinions are about this situation.

How do YOU feel about things?

The Queen of Swords is what we’re working towards, we need to reach a place where we can make plans and communicate our feelings with clarity and self-assurance. We need to be comfortable with our own feelings and opinions and be able to use them in order to make the decisions that need to be made.

With the Two of Swords pushing in from the external position, there may be a lot of conflicting views or opinions coming in from those closest to you that may confuse you or throw you off. Remember we’re working with a Full Moon in Gemini energy right now, so we have to be compassionate and open to hear ideas and opinions that may differ from our own. We need to hear both sides of an argument before we make that all-important final decision and allow the thoughts of others to inform our own.

If you can be open and honest about how you feel and view on the matter and be able to listen as much as you talk, then being able to make finalised plans will be much easier. The root of this reading is the Ten of Pentacles, so what we want is to be able to feel some semblance of normalcy, connectedness and stability and the way we achieve that is by channelling the Queen of Swords. We allow everyone to have their say and we make plans from a compassionate and emotionally intelligent place. This applies to all areas of your life, so it may be referring to making Christmas plans with your family, or it could be hinting at the path you need to take with your business throughout December.

Remember that you’re just planning and feeling things out right now. Don’t take action or finalise anything just yet. Make sure you know how you feel about things, as well as how others involved feel and make decisions as a group or a team. Two heads are much better than one after all!

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