I first got into card slinging through a friend of mine when she brought along her oracle deck to a gathering. I was mesmerised by the accuracy of my reading and from then on, wanted my own deck.
Fast forward a few months, and I dove into my first oracle deck; The Wisdom of Avalon. I pulled for myself everyday, getting so excited to see my answers reflected in the cards. Sometimes the readings would get muddled, because I was trying so desperately to find the answer I wanted instead of listening to what the cards wanted to tell me.
I had my oracle deck for about a year before I realised I wanted to go deeper. I love oracle cards for their simplicity and the little nudge in the right direction they often give, but I wanted more. Tarot seemed like the logical next step.
I went to my local spiritual shop and felt around for which deck I was most attracted to. The Robin Wood deck found me and I was super excited to get started.
As with most beginners, I was overwhelmed at the amount of cards and the thought of memorising all their meanings. I fell straight into looking up every card on Biddy Tarot and copying down their meanings desperately hoping the knowledge would seep into my brain and I would retain it all. For about a year, reading was stressful as I was so focused on getting it right that I didn’t allow myself to see the patterns unfolding in the cards.
I decided that if I was going to fall in love with tarot, I would have to do it my way. I am obsessed with numbers (I am an accountant’s daughter after all!), and one of the big things I notice in my spreads are repeating numbers. So I researched all the numbers, writing down notes to refer back to. I also researched the suits, and why each suit is linked to an element. I then dove deep into the court cards, as well as animal and flower symbolism.
Reading spreads then became a fun detective game. Why do two of the cards have scales in them? Why are there five beams of light in this card and five stars in this card? What is the number five trying to tell me? Why do so many of the cards have blue in them?
It wasn’t until I was curious about the cards that I truly appreciated the magic of tarot. I started to see more patterns emerging in the symbolism and imagery, and this allowed me to open up to what tarot was trying to teach me.
Tarot is an amazing tool for our growth and deeper understanding of ourselves. To gain the most insight, tarot requires us to be open, curious and lean into our intuition to truly grasp the lessons hidden in the cards.
Next time you read your cards, I invite you to hold back from looking the meanings in your book or online. Instead, be patient and open with yourself while you read, and try to tune out that critical voice. Look at the different symbols, facial expressions and body language in the imagery, as these will hold the key to the messages your cards are communicating to you.