ways to use the tarot (beyond readings)

Today on CARD TALK, I’ll cover:
-what it means to use tarot beyond readings
-why having techniques beyond readings is great
-a bunch of things you can do with your tarot cards

RESOURCES TO EXPLORE:
Tarot & creativity:
The Creative Tarot by Jesse Crispin
Lessons from the Empress by Cassandra Snow & Siri Plouff
The Shuffle newsletter from Chelsey Pippin Mizzi
Story Arcana by Caroline Donahue
Priestess’ Prompts and monthly creative prompts at devils & fools from 3am.tarot

Tarot & activity:
The Tarot Coloring Book by Theresa Reed
Major Arcana Meditations by Kim Krans

Tarot & spirituality:
Ancestral Tarot by Nancy Hendrickson
The Contemplative Tarot by Brittany Muller
The Psychic Art of Tarot by Mat Auryn

Tarot & astrology/numerology:
Tarot and Astrology by Corrine Kenner
Tarot by the Moon by Victoria Constantino
Tarot Correspondences by T. Susan Chang
36 Secrets by T. Susan Chang
Tarot and the Archetypal Journey by Sallie Nichols
The Witch’s Book of Numbers by Bee Scolnick

Want even more books? Check out a wide assortment of my favorites at the 3am.tarot Bookshop!

For more on Meg, check out 3amtarot.com, and order your copy of Finding the Fool through Bookshop.org or your favorite local bookstore.

Find episode transcripts and more over on the CARD TALK website.

Love what you’re hearing? Support the pod with a one-time donation or recurring subscription, and get the chance to submit topics for future episodes! 

Chapters

• 0:12 Exploring Creative Ways to Use Tarot
• 7:59 Creative and Practical Uses of Tarot

Transcript

Meg: 0:12

My name is Meg Jones Wall and you're listening to Card Talk, a mini podcast for tarot basics and evergreen insights. I'm glad you're here. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about different ways that you can use your tarot cards. Now, I really wanted to do an episode like this early on in card talk, because I think it can be really easy for us to feel like the only ways that we can connect with or explore tarot is through tarot readings. Now, I do want to acknowledge that there are absolutely folks out there who see the tarot itself as a sacred object, and so please know that I mean absolutely no disrespect when I call tarot a tool, but that's really how I see it. I see tarot as a tool, and that means that, just like I said in my previous episode about tarot beliefs, tarot can be whatever you want it to be. It can serve whatever function you need it to serve, and that includes the ways that you work with it. That means that you don't just have to use it for readings if that's in line with your tarot beliefs. Now I'm going to be real with you. The main way that I personally use my cards in a physical way is for tarot readings, and when I talk about tarot readings specifically, I really am referring to pulling cards for divination or asking the cards a question and then believing that whatever cards come out whether they fall out during shuffling or we draw them intentionally are providing answers or truth. I pull cards for divination, but also for reflection, awareness and decision-making, and I think, in general, when people think about tarot or think about using tarot, this is often really what they're thinking about is readings, but if you're not interested in anything that could be considered divination, which is to say, if you don't want to use your cards for divination, you don't have to Again, there are lots of ways that you can use your cards that have nothing to do with divination. I think that this is especially helpful to keep in mind, because even if you start reading and you're reading for a long time, you end up building a multi-year relationship with the cards.

Meg: 2:19

There are probably going to be days where you're just not in the mood to read tarot. Now, if you're in the early stages and you're just in that place where you want to be pulling cards all the time, that might sound completely bonkers, but I think it's really real. There's always going to be a point where your interest in tarot or your ability to connect with the cards might ebb and flow, and that's okay. I'm going to do an entire episode talking about the ways that your relationship with the cards might change over time. But I think that it's really helpful to have in your back pocket ways that you can utilize the cards and connect with the cards in ways that are still helpful and supportive and inspiring or encouraging. It's okay if you're not in the mood to pull cards, you can still work with the tarot. Trust that I work with the tarot every day, but I don't read tarot every day. So if you're in a place where you don't necessarily have a question or want to pull cards, but you still want to engage with your cards in a meaningful way, I'm going to offer you just a few examples of ways that you can engage with the tarot.

Meg: 3:20

One way that a lot of people use the tarot is for prayer or for devotion. You can use the cards themselves as devotional inspiration or use them to communicate with and have a conversation with deities, ancestors, planets, spirits or just a broader kind of spirit energy that you want to engage with. You can ask the cards questions and interpret any answers that come up as being answers directly from whatever you're speaking to. But you can also just pull a card intentionally to show whatever you're speaking with, how you're feeling or what you're looking for or what you want in that particular moment, and you can spend some time using that card as an anchor for your prayer and your communication with that energy. You can use the tarot for creative inspiration, and this is a really popular way to work with the cards. Whether or not you also have any kind of inspirited relationship with the tarot, or use the tarot for prayer or spiritual connection, creative inspiration is a fantastic use for the cards.

Meg: 4:19

Now, there's a lot of different ways to do this and there are spreads out there, including some that I've written, as well as some others that I'm going to stick in the show notes for you, cause there are some amazing creators out there creating resources just around this topic alone, but I think that there are a lot of ways that you can actually intentionally choose the cards that you want to help you explore anything from characters to plot points, to conflicts, to the world that your characters live in. You can pull or choose cards for major plot points or conflicts that are happening in your story arc, and you can also pull cards or just brainstorm about what might need to happen in order for the characters to make it from point A to point B. You can also just do tarot readings for your characters and ask your muses or Mercury or whatever else you want to speak to, or just use to reflect with yourself what the character might need to hear in that moment or what they might need to do. You can also write a song for a card. You can write a poem for a card. You could even write a dance or a kind of movement for a card.

Meg: 5:22

There's a lot of ways to do creative inspiration around the tarot and again I'm gonna put some ideas in the show notes for you, because there's so much more to touch on. You can use the tarot for meditation, and one way to do this might be imagine going into the card itself, stepping into the card, stepping into the scene that you're seeing, exploring its energy, letting yourself imagine what it might feel like to really embody or live within that specific card, or to embody a specific archetype. Similarly, you can also use tarot for movement considering what a particular card might look like or feel like if it was manifested as a physical action, or in other words, how a card might be embodied or experienced in the tangible world. So, for example, what would dancing like the Empress look like? What would walking with the Hermit feel like? What might it mean to move in an ace of wands kind of way?

Meg: 6:18

Tarot is a fantastic conversation starter. You can pull or select a card from the deck with some friends and talk about what you see, how it makes you feel, or even start to tell a story that the card might inspire from your own life. Sometimes these do turn into collaborative readings, which are super fun and just a really cool way to engage with people you care about and I'm also going to do a full episode on collaborative readings in a little bit. But as a conversation starter, this can both serve as a way to deepen the connections that you have with folks, but it can also turn into a kind of study session. You can talk about what you see in the card together, share interpretations or favorite correspondences and just really explore the deeper meaning of that card as a group or with another person. It's a really lovely way to create some intimacy and it can also really help you understand a specific card a lot better than you might have before. Similarly to how we can use tarot for creative inspiration, you also might like using it for life inspiration like fashion or food or activities.

Meg: 7:19

You can pull a tarot card that inspires your outfit of the day or your menu for that evening, or even your weekend activities, something you might want to do with a friend or a partner or a group of people. Pay attention in these instances specifically to things like color and texture and energy and vibe. You can also use this to make a playlist. I love making playlists for specific cards, specific elements, specific numbers or specific archetypes. It's a really great way to connect with the energy of that card and if it's an archetype that you really want to build a deeper relationship with, having a playlist that you can put on when you want to think about that energy can be a great way to really step into the vibe of that figure.

Meg: 7:59

Tarot makes a really wonderful addition to your altar. You can use a card as a focal point or a central idea for an altar in your home, or you can set up a digital altar and pick a card that you like, or even a bunch of different versions of the same card to fill out your altar. You can choose an archetype that you want to work with or understand better, or even embody for a particular project or goal, or you can just choose any card that kind of aligns with what you're working towards, your ambition or your dream or the way that you want support. Now I want to be clear, and again we will talk about this in a future episode. A lot of correspondences exist for tarot, but you can also just trust your gut and add other things, anything you like, to the altar that feels correct for you. You do not have to get stuck in the endless rabbit hole that is tarot correspondences if you don't want to. If you want to, there sure are a lot out there to explore, but don't feel penned in by those existing correspondences. Remember, too, when thinking about altars and prayer and connection with spirits or deities, that the cards themselves can serve as offerings of vulnerability or connection or anything you want them to be.

Meg: 9:09

Tarot is a great addition for ritual or spell work. If you were someone that does any kind of magical work, tarot can really serve as an anchor point for your spell and can also help you focus your energy in a particular direction or in a particular way. You can use tarot very much in tandem with other modalities, things like runes or Oracle cards. You can also use tarot for a companion piece to astrology or numerology, and I'll have more on that for you in the show notes as well. I love using tarot for character creation, specifically for RPG games. This is sort of a subset of the creative inspiration piece, but if you play anything like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder or even video games like Baldur's Gate 3, tarot can really serve as a fun inspiration point for creating a character that you might want to play.

Meg: 9:59

Tarot can also be really useful for getting to know yourself or checking in with yourself. Now, this can be more like a reading, but it really is about connecting with your cards specifically and directly, asking the cards themselves how they see you, how you see yourself, what you're feeling in that moment or what you might be missing. Now, if you want to, I write a lot of spreads in this particular vein, so check out my Instagram or my website for more, because I write so many spreads. That kind of live in this world. Tarot can also be incredibly helpful for finding the language to describe a thing or an experience If you're finding yourself struggling for words or you just are not sure about something. Knowing the language of tarot or beginning to just explore the images contained within the cards can be really helpful. You can flip through the deck and find a card or two, or even several, that resonate with what you're trying to say or embody something that you want, reflect something that you're feeling, or maybe even give some clarity around what you're afraid of. Sometimes using that card as a jumping off place can help you find the words that you need or the clarity that you're craving to really understand something that's bubbling up within you and just doesn't have the right words for it yet.

Meg: 11:18

I am also a huge fan of using tarot for journaling, and you will hear me if you're engaging with my work on any regular basis. You know by now that I ask a lot of questions. Asking yourself questions or just using a specific card to reflect on can really give you some space for some really juicy journaling. You can use the cards to explore a particular topic emotion, desire, fear, hope, path, part of your history, relationship, decision or literally anything else you like. You can pull a card at random and just journal about what you find, or you can choose a specific card that you know might be supportive or helpful to you in this moment. You also don't have to write things down when you're journaling. I just want to be so clear about that. You can type or you can record voice memos or even just record a video of yourself. You can doodle whatever makes sense for you and it's going to help you. Focus is great. I often just talk to myself.

Meg: 12:15

The last thing I want to offer as a way of engaging with your cards that's not just straight up reading is studying the tarot. Now, this can look any number of ways, and I think that anytime you were in deep devotion with a thing, you are studying it to some extent, but this can be really literal. You can choose a card and go super deep on it. Do some research, look up different versions of that card in different decks, explore its history and its correspondences, read about how other people interpret and understand it, read about how other people might struggle with it. Studying a specific card can be a really cool way to engage with the tarot on a deeper level and also expand your own understanding of what that card might represent for you in readings down the line or just in general. Now, these are just a few suggestions of ways that you can engage with the tarot outside of readings, but truly, the more you expand your own understanding of the language of tarot and your personal relationship with tarot, the more uses you are going to find for these cards.

Meg: 13:16

I think it can be a really fun part of the process to explore different ways that tarot might show up in your world or slip into your daily life, so I definitely encourage you to experiment and try using tarot in different ways. You might be surprised by the different practices that you end up developing just from being willing to play around with your cards. As always, I like to end with a little tip or trick that you can use in your practice right now, and so for today's episode, I want to just say if you've only ever used your cards for tarot readings, my tip for you is to try literally anything else. Commit to pulling a few cards and cooking a meal inspired by them, or create a character based on a card or two, or find some cards that sum up your current emotions or fears. Pull out some other cards that represent what you dream about or what you're currently hoping for or working towards, or journal through a card for a few minutes, consider what it might feel like to embody a specific card, or pick an archetype or two that you really vibe with and consider what you yourself have in common with that archetype.

Meg: 14:20

Sky's the limit here. But pick an idea or two and really engage with it. I would also encourage you to journal about the experience after you do it, see what it brings up for you and pay attention to how it feels to work with your cards in a way that's a little bit outside of your usual habits or patterns. All right, friends, that is all I have for you today, but but, as always, thank you so much for listening to card talk and I will be back with more soon. Card talk is committed to staying ad free for everyone, which is possible thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. To pledge your monthly support or make a one-time donation, click the link in the show notes you. You can also find episode transcripts, more about me and additional tarot resources through my website, 3amtarotcom. See you next time.