HoroscopoDiario
Why did you pick up your very first tarot deck? What were you hoping to accomplish when you began your journey with the cards? Where did you expect that journey to take you? We all have our origin stories along these lines. For myself I was 10 or 11 when I sensed a deep calling toward the cards. I don’t remember it clearly enough to say anything other than that; I just knew they were calling and that I very much wanted to explore that.
But, what I do distinctly recall are some of my expectations at the start, one being this very grandiose idea that if I could just get my hands on a deck of tarot cards, I could know anything. Of course, my conception of “anything” was somewhat limited and my curiosities were not exactly sophisticated. I desired to know what my peers were thinking. I looked forward to getting a sneak peak at summer plans. I was anxious to know who my real friends were and who were the phonies.
Sadly, tarot didn’t help me with any of those things. But, funny enough, looking back on those beginner thoughts, I do recognize that even though it sounded lofty at the time, tarot does hold the potential to tell us anything. It’s just that the way in which it points tends to be inward, where the best answers, unbeknownst to myself at the time, actually lie.
Aside from this, I also realize that tarot has influenced so many other things in my life, and maybe yours too. I consulted with Tim and together we came up with a list of our own unexpected consequences of working with this tool. You know, the stuff the LWB doesn’t tell you! We’ve narrowed it down to 5 which we’ve highlighted below. This list is far from conclusive, of course, but we do hope you’ll resonate with some of what we’ve listed and also be empowered to identify your own!
With persistent study, Tarot helps us to form connections and associations between a wide range of ideas and concepts. We learn to categorize information by element, planet, zodiacal sign, number, etc., and as we progress in our study, we are inadvertently training our ability to recognize patterns. The whole knowledge base of Tarot can be organized and graphed according to the pattern of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, which has been described by many prominent occultists as a filing system for esoteric information. As we work with the cards and form associations between them, we are then effectively mapping the Tree of Life within our psyche.
This not only helps us to file and organize information more efficiently, but it also serves to harmonize the different aspects of our mind, and thereby levels of our being, to form a unified whole. Since Tarot makes use of both our rational and intuitive faculties, and we are constantly building upon our knowledge base and referencing concepts, ideas, and insights back against one other, we are also working beneath the surface to synchronize our left and right brains so the two can work together more effectively. This unification of the mind also helps us to discern – and follow – synchronicities, which may lead us to important new experiences or pieces of knowledge and information.
One outward manifestation of an enhance in pattern recognition, is an emphasis on synchronicities or other magickal experiences in daily life. I found the more I worked with tarot, the more I started to notice things lining up in little and big ways throughout the day. Maybe it was as simple as a repeating number, or a song that kept finding its way to my ears, or a symbol that continued to appear. And beyond those more mundane instances, some truly miraculous events also began to take place.
Now, was it that the phenomena was truly increasing, or was it simply my capacity to witness or notice it? That’s up for debate, but the impact to daily life was notable.
My conception of tarot when I first began working with it was that it was the cards that held the power. I believed that there was something inherent in its design which could, independent of the user, provide answers to whatever was being asked. It is now that I realize that while everything has a power source, the truer way to approach tarot is as a tool that has the ability to unlock latent abilities within ourselves.
In this way, the cards can actually bring psychic gifts to the surface. They can enhance everyday instinct and intuition. They have the ability to fine tune our inner faculties i.e. our ability to see with our inner eye and hear with our inner ear.
In fact, over time, you may even find that you don’t even really need the cards when doing this work. Or, they can become secondary to the insights that seem to spontaneously form from “nowhere”.
And on top of that, not only do gifts unfold, but our trust in them grows in tandem. When I first started working with the cards in a meaningful way, I really over thought everything that came to me. Was it going to be right? Did it make sense? Is it my brain jumping to conclusions or is there something to this? Over time, I just stopped caring about that. In other words, so what if I was wrong? Who cares where the information is technically coming from. I don’t actually know the inner mechanics of what is going on, and that’s okay. It really requires a leap of faith. And, as far as working with the invisible and mysterious, that is a principle that will serve you well and which tarot can help you cultivate.
Unfortunately, it’s not just uplifting experiences and inner development that results from the continued use of this tool. As we know, tarot and intuitive/spiritual work will lead many right to the source of it all, falling under the old axiom; “know thyself”. But, there are lots of parts within each of us that, let’s face it, we’d rather not face at all. If your experience is anything like mine though, the more I worked with tarot, the less I could ignore the things I was putting off. In addition, the more apparent my cycles and patterns became.
At one very poignant point in my journey I had to admit to myself, until I was able to make some serious life changes, I would probably grow stagnant in my spiritual development. I knew my practice with tarot had a ceiling, but that ceiling was flexible and would grow as tall as I was willing to go. Unfortunately my comfort zone was not necessarily expanding at the same rate.
The thing is, when you’re engaging in a practice that is about truth and self inquiry, it becomes more and more difficult to observe the lies in your life and continue to live them. Fortunately, with the aid of tarot, you can also make available to yourself a reservoir of strength and resilience that you didn’t even know were there. When I chose to end my marriage and change my entire life, I knew I would be undoing years of fear and denial. Tarot made this both impossible to avoid and also bearable to live through,
Facing ourselves, whatever that looks like, isn’t usually easy. Tarot is not a judge, but it is a mirror. It will show you exactly what you need to see, and then it’s up to you to decide what to do with that information. For this reason, I would plot this point down in another category of thought along the lines of “the true dangers of working with tarot”. Perhaps another post for another day!
And for that very reason, the one stated above, life inevitably changes. Now, if you are already living a life fully in alignment with your truest essence, then maybe those changes won’t be so bold on the outside. And also, regardless of whether you work with tarot or not, life is going to change. So maybe, at least in my experience, I found more profound and rapid change which I believe my work with the cards helped me both catapult and navigate.
Ultimately, tarot is a self-development tool that has the potential to lead to all sorts of possibilities, including an increase in awareness, which I believe underpins much of the magick surrounding it. It’s not ultimately valuable because it can tell us what will happen in our lives, but because it can make one intimately aware of what’s going on within. And a knowledge of the within, will also come with the knowledge of how one got to where they are and what the most skillful steps forward should be.
We hope this list has expanded your conception of what tarot can do, and has inspired you to consider some of the unexpected ways it has influenced you and your life.
Until next time,
Julia & Tim
