The more I delve into metaphysics and spirituality, the less interested I am in having someone tell me my future. I also don’t simply look to my tarot cards for insights into my future. Rather, I look to them for messages to guide me on my path today and insights into how I can stay healthy emotionally. In other words, I’m a proponent of tarot card healing.
Take yesterday. I did my daily tarot card pull, where I shuffle my Modern Witch tarot deck and pick a card. I typically meditate with the card to see if I get any messages. Then I analyze the card to see what comes up for me, and write in my journal what I think the card is trying to tell me. Sometimes over the course of the day I will discover that the meaning I came up with in the morning is not the meaning after all. In fact, I often revisit the card at the end of the day to see if I have a different perspective on it and its meaning. Other times, I will notice that over the course of a few days the same card repeats itself, or cards with similar themes all come in the same period of time.
An example of tarot card healing
Yesterday I picked the Judgment card.
I thought about some of the meanings that are normally attributed to the judgment card: an outcome, a major turning point, consequences, karma. I wasn’t quite sure how any of those possibilities fit into my life. Right now, I’m continuing to recover from a Whipple surgery that removed my pancreas, part of my stomach, my gallbladder and my spleen. I’m nine months out from surgery, and I’ve been told my recovery will take about a year. So I’m not expecting any outcome right now. But I stayed open and went about my day.
Later in the day, I found myself becoming annoyed with a person I used to be friends with. Turns out she was on social media talking about something that I didn’t feel was authentic, given what I know about her. I was so annoyed that I mentioned to a mutual friend that former friend was fraud. We then got into this discussion about why I felt that way, and lo and behold, it hit me that I was judging this person — and my card of the day was the Judgment card.
It was then that I thought about my tarot card pull and I knew that the Judgment card had been a warning to me, advising me to watch out for the impulse to stand in judgment of someone else. Once I understood the message, I knew I had to take action. Psychic ability grows and strengthens every time we trust it and take action.
How I heeded the message of the tarot card
So for the rest of that day I thought about my annoyance and my judgment of this former friend. I knew that if I was so annoyed there must be some healing that I need to do. I was being triggered by this former friend’s actions. I knew I had some inner work to do to get to the bottom of my feelings and work through them. And I’ve been sitting with my feelings and judgments ever since.
That’s an example of tarot card healing, and how the cards can bring healing into your life. They can point out areas of your life that you may benefit from focusing on, or they can warn you to take your energy or focus away from the things that do not really matter.
There are even some psychotherapists that use tarot cards in their work with patients. For example, the Trauma and Anxiety Center in Maryville, Tennessee uses tarot cards to help patients discover what their subconscious minds are trying to tell them.
According to the Center: “a woman might be struggling with her choices within a relationship, so she blindly picks a card to symbolize her relationship. She chooses The Sun, a card that symbolizes opportunity/optimism and pictures a glowing child riding a horse amidst a shining sun. When asked what this card means to her, she states that the card seems really happy—which is exactly how she feels on the surface within the relationship. Yet she and her partner have differing views on whether or not to have children, and that the child on the horse represents that conflict. For her, exploring the card and the symbols might in turn provide deeper insight into how to proceed with her relationship.”
One way to promote tarot card healing is to ask the right types of questions before picking a card or laying out a tarot spread. You might ask, “what do I need to know to bring healing into my life?” Other questions include:
What am I overlooking in my life right now?
What do I need to work on to bring about healing into my life?
Why does X trigger me so?
What part of my shadow side do I now need to embrace?
Tarot doesn’t just have to be a fortune-telling tool — though it can be a very good one. It can also help you to work through feelings and discover opportunities for healing.