Tarot and Intuition

If you've been spending time in meditation, getting sound baths, experimenting with crystals, and still aren't feeling much growth in your intuitive capabilities, you might consider learning Tarot.

Tarot reading is a centuries old practice that is believed to have originated in 15th century Italy as the card game 'Tarocchi' played primarily by the upper class. It would be a few hundred more years before the cards would start to be used for divinatory purposes in the 18th century by Freemasons and occultists. And by the time the 20th century rolled around, we had a plethora of experts and books being published on Tarot practice...much of which is still followed to this day.

Commonly considered a pagan or alternative faith practice, Tarot (like Reiki) isn't affiliated with any religion, but has genuine practical application in modern life. It may surprise you to learn that the practice has been adapted for use in psychology by Jungian psychologists, as well as tarot scholars who developed their own decks to use in their practice. Tarot has evolved from the image of a fortune telling craft used by Romanian travelers to an effective tool for personal empowerment that helps develop intuition and self confidence.

If you think you'd like to explore the art of Tarot for self-development, there are a few ways you can start:

Watch - there are many people out there you can find with a simple search on social media who read Tarot and record their sessions for later viewing. Spend some time watching a few different practitioners and pay attention to how their various approaches resonate.

Read - the sheer amount of books written on this subject will surely overwhelm you, so you might want to spend some time on Goodreads checking out the reviews to find one you're drawn to. Here's one I really like.

Practice - observation and research will only take you so far. At some point you've got to crack a deck and start flipping. "Action creates clarity" is a phrase that truly applies to learning Tarot.

Learning and practicing Tarot has helped me explore my thoughts, generate ideas and learn to trust my instincts - something we could all be a little better at. I don't read for compensation, but I do sometimes pull cards to help me determine the best course of action to take with a client's treatment, or if I have a particularly difficult decision to make and I want to take my ego out of the equation. I also enjoy reading Tarot in social situations as my Italian ancestors did when friends would come to visit. They'd put on the coffee, gather around the kitchen table and pull out the cards to see what the energies might be up to.

And hey, a little foresight always helps too.