What is Intuitive Tarot Reading?
Tarot has been a spiritual practice since around 1781 (it was an “accidental” development, but who are we to judge). While there are many traditional ways of reading cards depending on your practice and belief system, I follow an intuitive reading format. But what is “intuitive tarot”? Great question, I’m so glad you asked.
In my practice, I take a mathematical and energetic approach to reading cards (Oracle and Tarot). Mathematically, the likelihood of specific cards falling out in a specific order that relate directly to your current life situations is at best, unlikely. But that’s where the energetic part comes in.
The 1st Law of Thermodynamics (stay with me, this will make sense) states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed - only converted from one form of energy to another. This is to be believed in a “closed energetic system.” Did you know that our universe is a closed energetic system? (Take that to Tuesday Night Trivia!) As such, while energy can not be created or destroyed, it is constantly changing forms. For example, lighting a match, changes the energetic form to create fire, and produce heat that was not there before. The same amount of energy exists, it is now simply in a different form, heat. From there we can believe that thoughts are little energy pockets, simply changing form within our consciousness. In that case, is it so much of a stretch to believe that when a person passes on, some echo of their consciousness remains, or moves into a collective consciousness? I don’t think it’s too difficult to imagine that being the case at all.
In my reading practice, I rely heavily on this collective consciousness to inform my messages to those in front of me. If we combine the tool (the cards), with the energetic influence of the collective consciousness (or Universe as some believe it to be called) we can get some pretty specific messages for those for whom we read. As an extension of that tool, my intuition is simply a hallway from which messages get delivered from the collective consciousness to my clients. It’s my job to collect, interpret, and share those messages but I do so without taking the time to judge or inspect the purpose or meaning of those messages. I just have to deliver them.
Intuitive Tarot readings follow a less structured process than a reading with questions or a predetermined spread. Frankly, I don’t use a lot of pre-created spreads because I can’t remember all the questions that go with the positions for each layout - that’s not my strength.
Instead, I do a three pull format:
Your Current Situation - the first pull is to get a feel for the situation at hand - how you’re feeling, what you’re experiencing, and often with what you’re struggling at this point in time.
It may have to do with one of 5 areas: Emotions, Career/Finances, Family/Self Worth, Mindset, or Passions. Typically from this first pull I can get a solid idea of where you’re standing and where we need to focus the messages for the remainder of the reading. If I’m doing an in-person reading, I’ll ask a few questions for clarity and I’ll explain the cards as they came out as well as how their meanings work together to create a full picture here.
This is often where I tend to see a few tears. This is normal. It is sometimes unsettling for a relative stranger to be able to accurately pinpoint the things you’re experiencing. For your own piece of mind, no, you’re not wearing these experiences on your sleeve and, no, I’m not judging you. I’m just the message deliverer, remember?
Where You’re Headed - the second pull gives us an idea of your direction. If nothing were to change from this moment forward, what can you expect? This pull also gives you some more action-oriented information to help you decide what you do next.
This one tends to trip people up sometimes. So, I’ll reiterate: the “where you’re headed” portion of the reading stands true if everything remains exactly as it is at the time the reading was pulled. You have the power to push it forward or change your trajectory depending on your next decisions? If you like the outlook, great, keep going. If you don’t like it, take active steps to change your track.
What Do You Need to Know… Now - the third pull is the “hey, if you listen to nothing else, here’s what you need to know, now” message for your reading. I call this the message from the Universe. It’s the easiest way for the collective consciousness to share its wisdom with you.
From a perspective of the reading, this is usually more geared to you on a personal level, despite the flavor of the reading. It’ll typically include some confirmation and some guidance. I think it’s a really great wrap up to complete the reading experience.
From my perspective, I don’t want to know a lot about you before hand unless you have a specific focus for your reading (i.e. I’d like to hear about my career trajectory, etc.). If I know too much it’ll disrupt the messages I’m getting on a clair-cognizant level. So, general questions, great - we’ll figure out the rest as we talk. As messages come through (typically in a clairvoyant way - known as “clear knowing”) I get to say them out loud. So, if “purple unicorn” comes through, though it may not make sense to me, I’m saying purple unicorn because it might make sense to you.
Intuitive Tarot readings are a great way to get some confirmation and general guidance if you’re working on a shift or even a general peek into what’s coming down the pike.
