my journey with the tarot…
I am new to the practice of tarot. I have not ‘learnt’ tarot - my journey has been one of organic unravelling as I confronted conditioned narratives and constructed a new relationship with practices I had previously ‘believed’ were bad.
The tarot has always been a mystical curiosity of mine. When I was a little girl, I saw movies with gypsy women in decorative wagons, reading the cards or gazing into glass balls foretelling events, sensing danger, making sense of the world around them.
I had a fascination & intrigue for these wild women & their storytelling ways.
And I also felt wrong. Wrong that magic was “bad, evil and not to be played with.’ Bad because I was brought up in the church, and anything that was not mainstream church dogma I felt was unacceptable & inappropriate…
Tarot has long been associated with the occult. With mystiques, witches, mediums and psychics. All this, the church quite literally deemed as evil, as these practices and rituals did not align with the church agenda of control and compliance of the people to their one, all knowing god.
As such, tarot and many mystical practices have been represented in in modern movies and by religion as evil, devilish & dark, and people who practice these things have been painted in religious circles, as dangerous.
I still have never had my tarot read to this day, but I plan to. I started off in my late teens practicing with angel oracle cards and fairy cards. To me, they felt more innocuous and less ‘witchy’. I loved tuning into my energy and asking the cards questions. I did this for many years, and still do occasionally.
As I have confronted many of my indoctrinated beliefs around non religious spirituality, what feels true for me is that working with the tarot, cyclical living and ancient ritual practices are not only acceptable to me, but in fact, feel much more natural and aligned as a space for me to experience spirit and divinity, than organised religion ever felt.
The tarot, in my experience is an enquiry tool, a way of storytelling and attributing meaning to life. It’s like a conversation between you and your higher self. Through the symbology and meanings of the tarot, I find the cards become an instrument to access the universal wisdoms and ancient knowledge of the human experience
I now find it to be a wonderfully helpful tool to prompt self enquiry, and drop into awareness. For me, it feels like a cathartic meditation practice, a way I can sit in space with my feelings and ask my guides and higher spirit for direction, guidance and inspiration.
Using the cards does not have to be formulated - I work intuitively, sometimes pulling one, after asking a question, or pulling a past, present future spread. Sometimes I am general and sometimes more specific. I pull as many as I feel, also taking note of any cards that ‘jump out’ or fall out when asking…
I use corresponding tarot guidebooks for reference on the card meanings, however the world of tarot truly opened up for me when I was guided to the ‘between the worlds’ podcast hosted by @oracleofla’s Amanda Yates Garcia, and produced by @carolynpennypackerriggs, Carolyn Penny Packer Riggs. A friend in New York sent me a link to the podcast one day via instagram, and from there, my interest of tarot exploded.
Amanda and Carolyn are two incredibly talented and inspiring women who in their podcast have opened up a wonderfully rich dialogue around all aspects of the tarot. Their magical, explorative episodes delve deep into the origins, stories and symbology of the cards. I found the language used to describe and unpack the card meanings really just ‘clicked’ for me. I love pulling a card and then listening to the corresponding podcast ep. Carolyn and Amanda are a joy to listen to, and the podcast resonated in a way that made me feel less hesitant of exploring tarot. You can check out the podcast here. I highly recommend it. As I explored the idea of working with tarot, I was able to meet my previous fears with compassion and love, and deconstruct them. Coming back to my truth has revealed the potency and beauty that tarot enquiry offers me, as I integrate it into my spiritual practice.
I believe tarot is a lifelong journey of discovery and now offer a range of tarot decks here at Elemental Remedy. I am excited about learning more, deepening my practice, and working with this self enquiry modality into the future.
Do you work with the tarot, and if so, what’s your favourite practice or deck? Let me know in the comments…
Love, Jessica Xx