Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Epigraph
A Cautionary Note
Dedication
Foreword
Preface: Reading and Writing
How to Use This Book
The Benefits of Tarot Journaling
Significant Decisions
Chapter 1 - What Covers You

Atmosphere and Influences

Location, Location, Location
Sacred Space
Ritual and Routine
Starting Points
Shortcuts and Abbreviations
Reversed Cards
Checklists
Fill in the Blanks

Chapter 2 - What Crasses You

Journaling Obstacles and Stumbling Blocks

Fear of Commitment
Writer’s Block
Performance Anxiety
Time Management
Procrastination
Bad Cards
Negativity
 Critical Opinions
Get Guidance
Twenty-Two Tips for Tired Journals

Chapter 3 - What Crowns You

Personal Privacy and the Ethics of Keeping a Tarot Journal

Writing About Readings
Reading About Others
Private Matters
Share with Care
A Legal Brief
Final Arrangements

Chapter 4 - What Grounds You

How to Use a Tarot Journal as a Foundation for Your Work

with the Cards
Card Interpretations
Cluster
Card Descriptions
One Card a Day
Correspondences
Symbolic Touches
Spreads and Layouts
Character Sketches
Go Inside the Cards
A Guide to Guided Meditation
The Meditation
Journaling Prompts
Focused Meditation
Dialogues
Lists
Timed Writing
Creative Writing
Artistic Pursuits
Sweet Dreams
Chapter 5 - What Lies Behind You

How to Rewrite History in the Pages of Your Journal

History in the Making
Study the Fool’s Journey
Your Own Fool’s Journey
Personal Stories
Sadder but Wiser
The Person You Used to Be
Rewrite History

Chapter 6 - What Lies Before You

How to Use Your Tarot Journal to Design Your Future

Seal the Deal
Make Plans
Brainstorm
Back to the Future
Special Requests
Spell It Out

Chapter 7 - Your Self

Who Do You Think You Are?

Worlds of Experience
Your Spiritual Self
Your Emotional Self
Your Intellectual Self
Your Physical Self
Birth Cards and Year Cards
Facets of the Jewel
Role Play
Masks of Personality

Chapter 8 - Your House

 Journaling about Family and Friends
The Royal Family
Forget Me Not

Chapter 9 - Your Hopes and Fears

Plumbing the Depths and Climbing New Heights

Hope Springs Eternal
Fear Factors

Chapter 10 - What Will Come

Foretelling the Future

Fortunetelling and the Tarot
Types of Psychic Ability
Guidelines for Psychic Development
Documenting Your Success
APPENDIX I - Writing Prompts
APPENDIX II - Minor Arcana Correspondences
APPENDIX III - How to Conduct a Tarot Card Reading
APPENDIX IV - Tarot Card Keywords
APPENDIX V - Forms and Templates
 About the Author
Corrine Kenner specializes in bringing metaphysical subjects down to earth.
Her work on the tarot is widely published, and her tarot classes and
workshops are perennial favorites among students in the Midwest.
Corrine is a certified tarot master, and she has studied tarot under the
auspices of the Tarot School of New York, the Wanless Tarot Institute, and
Builders of the Adytum. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy
from California State University, Long Beach.
Corrine has lived in Brazil, Los Angeles, and the Twin Cities of
Minnesota. She now lives in the Midwest with her husband, Dan Horon,
and her daughters, Katherine, Emily, and Julia. In her everyday life, she is
the vice president and communications director of Cadgraphics
Incorporated, a software company that specializes in fire alarm and security
systems.
Corrine is the author of Llewellyn’s Tall Dark Stranger, a guide to using
tarot cards for romance, as well as Crystals for Beginners. She wrote The
Epicurean Tarot, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc., and she was the
creator of Llewellyn’s Tarot Calendar. A former newspaper reporter and
magazine editor, Corrine was also the editor of Llewellyn’s popular
Astrological Calendar, Daily Planetary Guide, and Sun Sign Book, as well
as an anthology of supernatural accounts called Strange But True.
Tarot Journaling: Using the Celtic Cross to Unveil Your Hidden Story © 2006 by Corrine Kenner. All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including
Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

FIRST EDITION
First Printing, 2006

Book design and editing by Rebecca Zins

Cover design by Lisa Novak
Tarot cards on page 90 from Universal Tarot by
Roberto De Angelis; used by permission of Lo Scarabeo

Llewellyn is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kenner, Corrine, 1964-.
Tarot journaling: using the Celtic cross to unveil your hidden story / Corrine Kenner.—
1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN-13: 978-0-7387-0643-6 ISBN-10: 0-7387-0643-4
1. Tarot. 2. Diaries—Authorship—Miscellanea. I. Title.

BF1879.T2K47 2006
133.3’2424—dc22
2005044540

Llewellyn Worldwide does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility
concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public.
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 Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of
success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can.
—DOUGLAS PAGELS
 A Cautionary Note
Keeping a tarot journal can be therapeutic, but it isn’t therapy. This book
was written as a means to help you learn more about yourself, learn more
about tarot cards, and have fun. It was not designed to replace the services
of a licensed physician or counselor. If you find that the suggestions make
you feel uncontrollably weepy, giggly, angry, or outspoken, you may want
to seek professional help—or start over with a new journal.
The author and the publisher assume no responsibility for any adverse
consequences that may result from the use of this guide, including but not
limited to writer’s cramp, bad handwriting, or a compulsion to buy blank
books, tarot decks, and pens.
 Dedication
To my old Artist’s Way group in St. Paul: Karen Failes, Lynn Johnson,
Kim Labuz, Linda Nicosia, and especially Mary Lynch.
To my tarot friends from the Readers Studio in New York: Wald and
Ruth Ann Amberstone, Kim Arnold, Chris Asselin, Joanna Powell Colbert,
Jeffrey Elliott, Mark McElroy, Elinor Greenberg, Carolyn Guss, Debbie
Lake, Rachel Nguyen, Kevin Quigley, Gina Thies, James Wells, Diane
Wilkes, and especially my roommate, Cheryl Sigler.
To the people who encouraged me and helped teach me how to write:
Sister Mary Margaret, my seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher; Sam
Johnson, my high school journalism instructor; and Catherine Gaugh, my
editor at The Orange County Register.
And of course, to my husband, Dan Horon; my parents, Wayne and
Carolyn Kenner; and my daughters, Katherine, Emily, and Julia.
 Foreword
Tarot and psychotherapy are becoming more alike every day. Although
most of us start tarot because we want to learn the art of divination, after
learning the basics many of us turn to the cards in order to learn more about
ourselves. Tarot journaling is an outgrowth of that desire. It allows us to use
our fascination with the cards as a vehicle for moving beyond our own
surface identity into deeper and more hidden parts of our personality.
As a psychotherapist, I often suggest that my clients keep a therapy
journal as a way of keeping them involved in the therapy process between
sessions. I encourage them to keep track of their dreams, write about their
reactions to their therapy sessions, and jot down any new thoughts and
observations that they would like to discuss. Eventually it becomes an
emotional autobiography that chronicles their deepest and most personal
reactions to their everyday life.
One of the interesting facts about these journals is that many of my
clients who successfully keep therapy journals had previously seen
themselves as writing failures. Some even had writing phobias that
interfered with them turning in papers in college. I could identify with these
problems because I had experienced similar difficulties during college
myself.
Despite my later success in keeping dream and tarot journals, I initially
made a number of failed attempts at keeping a diary. When faced with a
blank page and the mission of saying something important about my life on
a daily basis, I could not do it. I found it too difficult to access my feelings
and get beyond keeping a superficial record of my daily activities. I also
was inhibited by my fear that if I wrote truthfully, my parents, roommate, or
boyfriend of the time would peek.
As I tried to understand what had changed for my clients and myself that
allowed us to keep dream and therapy journals successfully, I realized that
the nature of these journals frees us from three things that often get in the
way: one, we no longer had to decide what to write about; two, the assigned
theme helps us organize our thoughts; and three, we know that the quality
of our writing will not be judged—we can jot down a few ideas, write
endless run-on sentences, and it does not matter.
 Tarot journals share exactly the same virtues. The tarot journal revolves
around tarot cards: what they mean, what they look like, our reactions to
them, and exercises involving them. This saves us from looking at a blank
page and wondering what to write about. In addition, we know from the
beginning that the journal is for ourselves and, as Corrine makes abundantly
clear in this book, we are free to do anything that we wish with it. We can
write in it every day or only occasionally. It can be decorated or plain.
There is no right way or wrong way of doing it. What this means is that
tarot journals, in addition to teaching the tarot enthusiast more about tarot,
allow many of us to experience for the first time the pleasures of journaling.
This new freedom to write can be a heady experience. I went from
keeping no journals in high school and college to, at last count, keeping five
different types of tarot journals. I began my tarot studies by placing a card
in the middle of a blank journal page and writing all my associations to it.
Next, as I progressed, I began a journal in which I recorded every reading
that I did and which books I used as references. As I grew more confident
about my reading skill, I convinced my husband that he should join me in
choosing a card a day for each of us, and I recorded my observations about
how the card related to what happened to us during the day. Now, whenever
I read an interesting book on tarot or begin a new tarot course, I keep a
journal at my side to jot down new information, my reactions, and a record
of tarot exercises. (Mary Greer and Tom Little’s book on court cards,
Understanding the Tarot Court, inspired my most recent journal of this
kind.)
There is another important way that tarot journaling resembles
psychotherapy. It helps us access parts of ourselves that may be outside our
everyday consciousness. The late Milton H. Erickson, MD, who was
arguably the most effective and innovative hypnotherapist of all time, often
said that we already have all the tools that we will ever need inside us;
hypnosis just helps us access them. From this point of view, the tarot deck
is an illustrated compilation of potential tools. All seventy-eight tarot cards
represent aspects of the self that exist inside each of us as potential
behaviors, talents, and attitudes. Tarot journaling gives us a way to access
them and integrate them into our conscious sense of who we are.
This is very similar to what I believe about dreams. As a Gestalt
therapist, I believe that all the characters that populate our dreams, no
matter how admirable or repugnant, represent parts of us. If we want to get
to know our real self better, we have to acknowledge and get to know them.
Doing so helps us expand and deepen our sense of who we really are and
makes us more integrated and three-dimensional.
Many of us first encounter these other part-selves in dreams. Sometimes
they are the monsters that we are fleeing from in nightmares—what Carl
Gustav Jung, the great Swiss analyst, called our “shadow” side. Other times
they are more benign figures that are based on people we know from
everyday life. Whether good, bad, or neutral, on a deeper level they are
symbols that represent parts of us. However, it is hard to capture and
examine our dreams. By the time we awaken, important details are already
lost.
Unlike dreams, tarot has the virtue of being a mirror that we can hold in
our hands and look at whenever we want. All we have to do in order to
study one of our part-selves is to remove that card from our deck and put it
down in front of us. If we wish to, we can use our mind’s unconscious
responses to the symbols in the card to consciously evoke in ourselves the
qualities of that card. The card, in that case, becomes a picture of an
intention.
Let me give you an example. Imagine that you are trying to decide what
type of tarot journal to keep. You draw a card from your deck for guidance
and get the Eight of Cups from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. As you
contemplate the card, you decide that you will let the number of the card
direct you to the corresponding chapter in this book, chapter 8: “Your
House,” and you decide to choose your journal from one of the types
described in that chapter. The card’s suit, cups, which represents the
element of water, suggests to you that you should take an imaginative and
emotional approach to your journal.
You gaze at the red-cloaked figure in the Eight of Cups, who appears to
be setting out alone to search for his or her heart’s desire, and you allow this
image to work on your unconscious mind and activate something within
you. The Eight of Cups then becomes a picture of your intention to go on
your own journey and find within this tarot journal something deeply
meaningful and fulfilling for yourself, something new that you don’t
already have. As you look at the card and think of the theme of family and
friends, you might ask yourself: Where am I going? What kind of home did
I come from? What type of friends am I seeking? What am I willing to
leave behind? If you choose to, you could further deepen the card’s
association with your new journal by making a copy of the card and
attaching it to the journal’s cover or first page. You now have invoked its
spirit as your guide.
The ease with which tarot can be used to help us move out of our
everyday consciousness into something more profound is contributing to
the phenomenal growth of tarot today. When we combine the magic of tarot
with the introspective nature of keeping a journal, we find ourselves with a
powerful tool for personal growth. Whenever we begin a tarot journal, we
are knowingly or unknowingly committing to studying and evolving
ourselves.

ELINOR GREENBERG, ph.d., is a licensed psychologist and

certified professional tarot reader who has been practicing
psychotherapy for over thirty years. Dr. Greenberg is psychology
consultant to The Tarot School, the holder of a Second Degree
from The Tarot School, and is currently working on and writing
about how to integrate tarot with psychotherapy. Her article
“Tarot Counseling” will appear in Llewellyn’s Tarot Reader 2007.
 Preface: Reading and Writing

I remember the moment when psychologist

Jane Alexander Stewart and I laid down the
twenty-two oversized cards of the Major Arcana of the
tarot, saying to those who had assembled with us,
“These are the stations of the journey.” Suddenly,
we were both in sacred space and in story . . .
—DEENA METZGER,
Writing for Your Life

If you have ever had a tarot card reading—or if you have ever read the
cards for somebody else—you know the power and the drama of the cards.
Think back to your time at the tarot reader’s table. As the reader shuffled
the deck, you might have caught a glimpse of a recognizable image or two:
the Lovers, perhaps, or the Wheel of Fortune. Each glance heightened the
suspense, and hinted at the tales and the truths that were about to unfold.
As the reading began, each facet of your life came sharply into focus.
Your past, present, and future were laid out in front of you. Your foundation
was displayed at your feet; your highest ideals were poised directly
overhead. Your self-image, your public image, and your hopes and fears
were all there to be revealed. Did you embrace the outcome or seek a new
course for the future?
People read tarot cards for a variety of reasons. Some are captivated by
the illustrations. Some are fascinated by the myths and legends associated
with each card. Some want to relive the past, while others want to enjoy and
experience the present more fully. And everyone wants to prepare for the
future.
Those are the same reasons that millions of people turn to diaries and
journals.
Tarot cards and journals are magical tools that can help us spark our
creativity. Both can help us develop our intuition and express our visions,
hopes, and dreams. Both focus on the patterns of everyday experiences and
one’s place in a larger universe. Both are primarily instruments of the
present moment, with a degree of reflection and prediction thrown in for
good measure. Both can help us integrate our experiences and provide wide
avenues for reflection, introspection, and self-development.
In fact, the issues that most people bring to a tarot reading are the same
issues they bring to their journals: concerns about the past, qualms about the
present, and questions about the future. They struggle with the desire to
please themselves versus their need to please others. They hope for the
future—and fear the unknown.
Ultimately, people who read tarot cards and people who keep journals are
both participating in a creative process. They are engaged in acts of
creation, of storytelling. They are actively weaving the fabric of their lives,
spinning yarns, putting their own stories into context, and weaving together
the past, present, and future. All told, they are on a quest for self-discovery.
The tarot is a natural partner in that quest. Tarot cards provide a ready-
made framework for analysis and contemplation. The structure of the deck
is holistic. The symbols on each card reflect the ancient myths and legends
that shape our perceptions of the world, as well as the dramas of everyday
existence. And because the tarot is firmly rooted in Western culture and
tradition—including mythology, astrology, numerology, and the Bible—the
cards are accessible to anyone familiar with modern life.
When you combine the use of the tarot with a journal, you create a
powerful vehicle for growth and change. Adding tarot cards to a journaling
routine can help you see yourself clearly, recognize obstacles, overcome
barriers, express your concerns, and make the most of your gifts and talents.
The tarot is an ideal tool for exploring your inner world, and the tarot
journal is an ideal vehicle to house your record of your travels.
By incorporating tarot cards in your journal, you can have a predesigned
template for contemplating your existence. Through the cards, you can
explore both the larger themes of the human experience and the variations
of your everyday life.
If you come to this book as a journaler, I hope you will be inspired to
find a deck of tarot cards and start adding them to your journaling practice.
Even if you don’t think of yourself as a tarot reader, the cards will help you
bridge the communication gap between your conscious and unconscious
minds, and provide a rich source of ideas and inspiration for your journals.
The cards will guide you into extensive, deep, rich, and meaningful
journeys—and more rewarding journaling.
 If you come to this book as a tarot card reader, I hope you will be
inspired to start a journal to complement your work with the cards. A tarot
journal will help you personalize the cards, master the structure and
symbolism of the deck, develop a rapport with the archetypes of the tarot,
and access your intuition. By combining tarot and journaling, you can make
the cards work better for you.
In either case, I have no doubt that you will immediately feel at home
with the concepts and suggestions you are about to discover—and that you
can create a tarot journal that will become a powerful tool for reflection,
growth, and change.
Whether you want to access your higher self, discover ancient wisdom,
or develop your intuition, a tarot journal will help you map your journey
along both the inner and outer pathways of your existence.
Enjoy the trip—and don’t forget to write!

Corrine Kenner
 How to Use This Book
In 1910, a metaphysician named Arthur Edward Waite published
instructions for a tarot spread he called “An Ancient Celtic Method of
Divination.” It was an ingenious spread—quick, versatile, and so easy to
use that even beginning tarot readers could get specific answers to their
questions.
Since then, the Celtic Cross has become a perennial favorite among tarot
readers. The spread is so popular, in fact, that most can even overlook one
minor detail: Waite’s “Ancient Celtic Method” isn’t ancient, and it isn’t
Celtic, either. (In fact, Waite’s secret society, the Order of the Golden
Dawn, developed the spread for new members of the group just a few years
before he introduced it to the general public.)
Nevertheless, for the last hundred years, the Celtic Cross has become a
mainstay of tarot readers, who like the fact that they can use it to explore
any subject or concern. Time after time, the Celtic Cross will offer a clear,
concise overview of practically any situation.
 The Celtic Cross
The Celtic Cross is an eleven-card spread. Each card represents a separate
facet of a single issue. The first card, the significator, represents the subject
of the reading. The second card illustrates the situation. The third card,
which crosses the first two, describes any conflicts or opposing influences.
Additional cards in the spread depict the foundation of the issue, the recent
past, the highest ideals, the near future, self-image, public image, hopes and
fears, and the most likely outcome of the current situation.
The Celtic Cross spread is easy to memorize. After you lay the
significator at the center of the spread—because it is, of course, the central
focus of the reading—you can use this mnemonic chant to help you
remember where the rest of the cards go:

1. This covers you.

2. This crosses you.
3. This crowns you.
4. This grounds you.
5. This is behind you.
6. This is before you.
7. This is your self.
8. This is your house.
9. These are your hopes and fears.
10. This is what will come; this is the most likely outcome of
your current path.

The card positions aren’t arbitrary, and they didn’t come about by
coincidence. In fact, the Celtic Cross spread works so well because it is
designed to reflect the way we think and the way we see the world.
Naturally, we all see the world from our own point of view—which
seems, to each one of us, to be a central vantage point. We look back at our
pasts and forward to our futures. We find a foot-hold in whatever
foundation we have developed and we look up for guidance from our
highest ideals. We picture ourselves in our own minds—and then we see
other people reflect our words and actions back to us. Finally, before we
dare to consider the most likely outcome of our current existence, we pause
to contemplate our fondest hopes and our deepest, darkest fears.

THE LAYOUT FOR THE CELTIC CROSS SPREAD.

In the years since its introduction, the Celtic Cross has served as the
framework for countless tarot readings. The Celtic Cross also serves as the
framework for this book. Each chapter of Tarot Journaling is based on the
information the Celtic Cross spread is designed to impart. This book is an
example of the fact that, like a journal, a written record can bring a tarot
reading to life.
You don’t need to know the ins and outs of the Celtic Cross to use this
book. You don’t need to be a master of the tarot or a long-time, experienced
journaler. You just need a few basic supplies and a willingness to explore
your life with the tarot as your guide.
If you are ready to start shuffling and let the cards fall where they may,
gather your cards, your journal, and a pen, and you can get started.
 The Basics: A Tarot Tutorial!
While you don’t need to be a tarot expert to use this book—or to create a
tarot journal—your work will be easier if you understand the basic structure
and symbolism of the tarot deck.
The tarot is a deck of seventy-eight cards divided into two sections: the
Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana has four suits.
Each suit has ten numbered cards and four court cards, much like a standard
deck of playing cards.
While that might seem like a lot to comprehend, it’s actually an elegant
design. Each component fits neatly inside the one that comes before it, like
a set of Russian nesting dolls. Individually, each section of the deck seems
complete in and of itself—until you open it and find there’s another whole
world tucked neatly inside.
What’s more, the structure and the symbolism of the tarot deck is
grounded in the real world. Because it reflects our shared experience as
human beings, it’s easier to understand than you might think.
 The Major Arcana: Cosmic Forces
The Major Arcana, which is Latin for “greater secrets,” is made up of
twenty-two cards. The greater secrets are the big mysteries of life—like
how we live, learn, fall in love, and find our true calling. For the most part,
Major Arcana cards represent powerful cosmic forces that are usually
outside our control.
The Major Arcana cards use a series of images to depict our journey
through life, starting with the card of the Fool—a naive, innocent traveler
about to embark on a journey of adventure and excitement. The Major
Arcana cards also depict archetypal images that you will probably
recognize immediately, such as the Lovers, the Hermit, Death, and the
Devil.
Each one of those Major Arcana cards represents a universal concept,
such as freedom, wisdom, patience, and optimism. Many of them also
depict ancient gods and goddesses, who once served as role models for
ordinary mortals. In today’s more scientific parlance, each one of the Major
Arcana cards represents an archetype.
Archetypes are universal expressions of the human condition. All
cultures and civilizations, no matter where they sit in time or space, share
similar archetypes—like the wandering fool, the powerful magician, and the
mysterious, wise woman. Not coincidentally, those are the first three cards
of the Major Arcana.
Each card of the Major Arcana depicts one stage in human development.
All together, the Major Arcana cards combine to portray an allegorical view
of our journey through life. The journey is sometimes called the Fool’s
journey, in honor of the Fool card who leads the parade. The rest of the
Major Arcana consists of the Magician, the High Priestess, the Empress, the
Emperor, the Hierophant, the Lovers, the Chariot, Strength, the Hermit, the
Wheel of Fortune, Justice, the Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, the Devil,
the Tower, the Star, the Moon, the Sun, Judgement, and the World.
The Major Arcana cards are usually easy to tell from the rest of the deck,
because they are typically numbered with Roman numerals : I, II, III, and
so on.
 Set the Major Arcana cards aside and you will find that the second half of
the tarot deck is equally fascinating. It consists of the fifty-six cards of the
Minor Arcana.
 The Everyday Cards of the Minor Arcana
The term Minor Arcana stands for the “lesser secrets” of the tarot. While
the Major Arcana cards depict cosmic forces, Minor Arcana cards illustrate
ordinary people and events. The Minor Arcana cards are no less important
than their Major Arcana counterparts, but they do focus more on the
activities of everyday life: going to work or taking time to play. Minor
Arcana cards tend to depict average people doing commonplace things like
dancing, napping, eating, and shopping.
The structure of the Minor Arcana will probably seem familiar to you if
you have ever played card games like poker, rummy, or bridge. Just as a
deck of playing cards is divided into the four suits of clubs, hearts, spades,
and diamonds, the Minor Arcana is divided into the four suits of wands,
cups, swords, and pentacles. Wands correspond to clubs; cups correspond to
hearts; swords correspond to spades; and pentacles correspond to diamonds.
 The Four Suits of the Minor Arcana
In tarot, each suit is more than just a way to divide the deck into
manageable groups. In fact, each suit of the Minor Arcana is symbolic,
because each one represents a separate realm of existence.

Wands. The fiery suit of wands represents the realm of spiritual

existence. Wands cards usually picture freshly cut branches from
leafy trees, symbolic of the fire and burning passions of our
spiritual life, our inspirations, and our primal drives—our quest
for fire. Wands symbolize the fire and passion of spirit. One way
to remember that is by picturing each wand as a flaming torch
that can be used for light and heat—or, in other words,
enlightenment and inspiration. (In some tarot decks, wands are
called rods, batons, staves, or staffs.)
Cups. The watery suit of cups corresponds to the world of
emotion. The cups cards, which usually depict drinking, toasting,
and celebration, are centered on our relationships and
commitments to other people. Cups, like their playing-card
counterparts, the hearts, symbolize the richness and satisfaction of
emotional life. Remember that cups hold water and wine—the
essence of life—and cups can be used to toast our friends and
family. (In some tarot decks, cups are called chalices.)

Swords. The airy suit of swords depicts the heady issues of

thought and the intellect. The suit also symbolizes communication
—because we can use words like weapons, both to defend our
own ideas and to attack those with whom we disagree. (In some
tarot decks, swords are called blades.)

Pentacles. The earthy pentacles cards symbolize the tangible

realities of physical life. In the tarot, pentacles usually look like
coins, and they represent the things we can touch, the things we
can feel, and the things we treasure, both material and spiritual.
(In some tarot decks, pentacles are called coins or discs.)

Numbered cards. There are ten numbered cards in each suit. Each
card represents one step in a series of events, from beginning to
end. Aces represent beginnings; tens represent conclusions.

Aces: new beginnings 2: duality and balance 3:

blending and growth 4: solid foundations 5: upsetting
the balance 6: re-establishing the balance 7: new
awareness 8: re-evaluation 9: near completion
10: completion, prepare to begin again Pages: lessons,
news, messages Knights: adventures, protection
Queens: safeguard, nurture Kings: organization, defense
 The Court Cards
The only structural difference between a deck of playing cards and the
tarot’s Minor Arcana is the addition of a few extra court cards. In addition
to Jacks, which are called Knights in tarot, each suit of the Minor Arcana
includes a King, Queen, and a Page. Occasionally, court cards carry other
titles, such as Knave, Prince, and Princess. In most tarot decks, however,
the four figures constitute a complete royal family: father, mother, son, and
daughter.
Court cards have a wide range of functions. They can represent other
people, or they can reflect aspects of your own personality. In a tarot
reading, even cards that obviously refer to other people in your life actually
relate to how you see yourself, and how you project your own likes,
dislikes, and personality traits onto other people. For the most part, court
cards tend to illustrate what you secretly think and feel about yourself, by
helping you recognize and identify traits that you like and dislike in others.
 Choosing a Tarot Deck
In order to keep a tarot journal and try the exercises in this guide, you will
need a deck of tarot cards—ideally, a traditional tarot deck with seventy-
eight cards.
The deck that serves as the de facto standard is Arthur Edward Waite’s
Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. That’s the same deck that Waite was writing about
when he first introduced the Celtic Cross spread.
Waite designed the deck in 1909, and he hired artist Pamela Colman
Smith to execute his designs. She took the groundbreaking step of adding a
scenic illustration to every single card. Previously, only Major Arcana cards
featured people and places; Minor Arcana cards generally consisted of a
repeated motif, such as six cups in a row, or seven swords.
Pamela Colman Smith’s innovation revolutionized the tarot. Suddenly,
tarot card readers could interpret images, rather than memorize the meaning
of each card or rely on their psychic impressions.
While the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is a perennial bestseller, it is not the
only deck on the market. In fact, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck has
engendered hundreds of derivative decks, such as the Universal Tarot and
the Gilded Tarot—both good choices for use with this book. Other decks
that lend themselves to use with a journal include James Wanless’s Voyager
Tarot, Anna Franklin and Paul Mason’s Sacred Circle Tarot, and the Robin
Wood Tarot.
If you are interested in myths, legends, classic stories, or the like, you
might want to choose a specialty deck that reflects your interests, such as
Anna-Marie Ferguson’s Legend: The Arthurian Tarot, David Sexton’s Tarot
of Oz, or D. J. Conway and Lisa Hunt’s Celtic Dragon Tarot. If you feel
especially creative, you could even adapt the exercises in this guide to work
with other types of divination decks, such as Anna Franklin and Paul
Mason’s Fairy Ring Oracle or Silver Ravenwolf and Nigel Jackson’s
Witches Runes. Ultimately, for the purposes of this book, you can use any
tarot or tarot-style deck you like.
Actually, forget about finding a deck that you merely like. You will have
the best results if you use a deck that you love.
 The deck you choose should fascinate you. You should be mesmerized by
the colors, the lines, the forms, and the style of each card. You should be
attracted to the characters pictured in the cards. You should like their faces,
their hairstyles, their body language, and their clothes. You should be
inspired by their landscape and intrigued by their architecture. You should
be able to recognize several of the artist’s symbols—meaningful touches
such as accessories, props, power animals, and astrological references. In
fact, you should be able to imagine yourself living in that world—because
on some level, you will be.
If you don’t already own a deck of tarot cards, you can find one at most
bookstores. When you go shopping for your deck, try to visit a store or a
website that has a wide range of sample cards on display. Make sure that
every card in the deck is fully illustrated; some decks, especially those that
are reproductions of ancient historical decks, use a simple repeating pattern
or motif for some cards, particularly in the Minor Arcana; those sorts of
designs usually are not as inspiring as individual illustrations.
Look for art that appeals to you, in color, symbolism, and design.
Examine the details of each image. Take time to shop around for an
alternate reality that you really like. You’re going to be spending a lot of
time there.
 Choosing Cards
For some of the suggestions in this book, you will work with one card at a
time. For others, you will try your hand at simple card layouts and spreads.
You can choose the cards you work with in several ways.

Follow the numbers. You could work your way sequentially

through the deck. Start with the Fool, move on through the
remaining twenty-one cards of the Major Arcana, and then work
through the four suits of the Minor Arcana: wands, cups, swords,
and pentacles.
Play favorites. Alternately, you could start with cards you
especially like—or dislike. Start with all of the cards face up. Flip
through them quickly. Set your favorites aside, and then narrow
your choice down to the cards you need for the exercise.

Try your luck. On the other hand, you might like to take a ride on
the Wheel of Fortune and let the deck choose a card for you.
Clear your mind. Shuffle the deck and choose a card, either by
cutting the cards or dealing the top card from the deck.
Alternately, you could spread your deck face down across a
tabletop and move your hand or dangle a pendulum over the cards
until you feel drawn to the one you need.
No matter how you find your card—or your card finds you—don’t worry
that you might somehow get the “wrong” one. In tarot journaling, as in tarot
reading, you will always get the card you were meant to see.
 Order, Order!
When you read tarot cards, no one expects you to keep the deck in order. In
fact, you are expected to shuffle the cards thoroughly, stirring and mixing
and randomizing them until some are right-side up, some are upside down,
and some have even been dropped on the floor.
When you read this book, you don’t have to follow along in any
particular order, either: you can work through the exercises in any sequence
you like. You can start at page one and work your way through to the
appendices and the blurb on the back cover. If you like, you can flip
through the pages and pick an exercise at random—just as you can shuffle
the deck and pick a card at random. You can start with the suggestions that
interest you most, or you can choose an exercise based on a card that
interests you.
Most of the activities in this guide can be used with any card in the
traditional seventy-eight-card tarot deck. Most can be easily adapted to your
specific needs. Some might even lead you to create your own activities for
the cards—and truly make your tarot journal your own.
 The Benefits of Tarot Journaling
Journaling will help you live a better life. Believe it or not, the simple act of
keeping a journal has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, tension,
anxiety, and depression—and researchers have shown that people who keep
journals are better able to fight off opportunistic infections, so they get sick
less often. A research psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin,
James Pennebaker, found that regular journaling strengthens immune cells,
called T lymphocytes. Joshua M. Smyth, Ph.D., associate professor of
psychology at North Dakota State University, found that journaling
decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
When you keep a tarot journal, your mind, body, and spirit will benefit. A
tarot journal will help you sharpen your intuition, discover a new rapport
with ancient symbols, and expand your worldview. As you become more
familiar with the structure and symbolism of the tarot deck, you will
connect more deeply with the archetypes of the tarot. Before long, you will
see growth and progress, both in your tarot readings and in your everyday
life.
The benefits of tarot journaling are countless, but you might think of
them in general terms—as if they were laid out in the shape of the Celtic
Cross.
Your self. A tarot journal is private, sacred space in which you can ruminate
and ponder the big questions of your life and your existence. Your tarot
journal will help you organize your thoughts and become a clearer, more
logical thinker.

What covers you. Your tarot journal will help you understand the full scope
of your present situation. A journal, like a tarot reading, is a study of current
events and an instrument of the present moment. A journal is not an
autobiography or a memoir —although you can use a journal to reminisce
about your past. For the most part, a tarot journal will help you understand
your present situation and experience your life more fully.

What crosses you. Journaling is an effective way to watch for roadblocks

and spot obstacles in your path—including those that you put up yourself.
You can use your tarot journal to deal with issues that perplex you or people
who vex you. You can even use your tarot journal to explore and integrate
your dark side. In the privacy of your journal’s pages, you can acknowledge
your own inherent badness—your hateful thoughts, hurtful wishes, and
harmful desires. Like a willful, spoiled child, you can indulge your own
antisocial self, rage against those who would control and subdue you, and
lash out at situations that thwart your progress. Then you can find solutions.

Your foundation. The images and archetypes of the tarot don’t merely exist
on paper. They live in the realm of your conscious and unconscious mind,
with the power to shape your attitudes, your beliefs, and your actions.
Your tarot journal will become the foundation for your work with the
cards. Your own experiences with each card will personalize the tarot for
you in ways you can hardly imagine. New insights and ideas about the
cards will pop into your head, seemingly out of nowhere, and practically
write themselves on the page.
The groundwork you lay in your journal will be the basis for developing
your own interpretations of the cards—your personal symbol dictionary.
You can also use your tarot journal to spot correspondences and
meaningful coincidences in your daily life. You can even use your tarot
journal to record your dreams and free-form thoughts inspired by the cards,
but not directly about the cards.
In short, your tarot journal can be a living record of how the tarot
expresses itself in your daily life.

What crowns you. A tarot journal will help you tune in to your higher self
and live up to your highest ideals. If your subconscious mind is trying to
communicate with you, it can make contact on the pages of your journal. As
you make notes about your world, you will probably start to notice more
meaningful coincidences—more messages from the universe or a higher
power. Ultimately, your tarot journal can help make you a more spiritual
person.

Your past. Journaling is a widely recognized form of therapy. Your tarot

journal will help you understand your past, release painful memories, and
move on with your life. Your tarot journal will also help you tally your
accomplishments and celebrate your successes. You can even use your tarot
journal to explore alternate realities, to work through your regrets and
missed opportunities, and, in some cases, literally rewrite history.

Your future. Your tarot journal can help you create the future you want.
When you understand the connections between past and present events, you
will be better equipped to predict the outcome of your current path, change
course, and aim for the destination you truly want.
Your tarot journal will also help you manifest your destiny. When you
write about your hopes and dreams, they become real. You give them shape
and form and substance. You also prepare yourself, on some level, to accept
the future you want.

Your self-image. Your tarot journal can improve your self-image and boost
your self-esteem. Writing in your tarot journal will unblock your creative
drives and prime the pump for a well-spring of related endeavors. You will
be flooded with insights, inspirations, and creations.
Your tarot journal will also make you a better communicator. Just as
reading books expands your vocabulary—painlessly and without conscious
effort—the simple act of sitting down to write will help you hone your
writing skills.

Your house. Your tarot journal will help you see yourself clearly—and see
how others look at you. You can look at the world through a more objective
lens, and you can use that information to help you heal rifts and develop
happier, healthier relationships.
Your tarot journal can also help you become more interesting and
attractive. You may find yourself taking more chances and being more
active, just so you have something to write about in your journal—and talk
about with other people.
In an interesting twist, your tarot journal can even help you feel less self-
conscious. Writing about yourself can help you see yourself with less
attachment and become more of an observer, with a broader view of your
own life. Your tarot journal will help you see the big picture, so you won’t
need to take up a disproportionate space in the viewfinder.
Your hopes and fears. A tarot journal will help you articulate your hopes
and face your fears. In your journal, you will have the absolute freedom to
plumb the deepest depths and the highest heights of your existence, to
explore the worst-case scenarios and “what if’s,” and to find solutions
before you have problems.

Your most likely outcome. Your tarot journal will be a trusted ally and
companion as you seek your fortune. You can use your tarot journal to
envision your most likely future, and then you can change course if it seems
that you are heading in the wrong direction.
 Significant Decisions
HOW TO CHOOSE A TAROT JOURNAL

The Diviner first selects a card to represent the

person or matter about which inquiry is made.
This card is called the Significator. Should he wish
to ascertain something in connexion with himself
he takes the one which corresponds to his personal
description.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)

When tarot readers begin a session, they often choose one card—the
significator—to represent the subject of the reading.
Choosing a significator is more of an art than a science. In most cases,
the significator looks like the person at the heart of the reading. You might
pick the Queen of Wands for a fiery redhead, for example, or use the
Hierophant for a distinguished teacher. Sometimes, tarot readers choose a
significator based on the question they plan to ask or the intent of the
reading. A man who is involved in a lawsuit might choose Justice as a
significator. The Empress card would probably lend itself to use with a
question about pregnancy. In any case, the significator sets the tone,
narrows the focus, and lays the groundwork for the rest of the reading.
It’s interesting to note that a tarot reader rarely deals the significator face
down off the top of the deck, like other cards in a tarot spread. In fact, in
almost every case, the reader chooses a significator by looking through the
cards, face up, before the reading even begins. Once the significator is on
the table, the rest of the cards can fall where they may.
 Your Journal, Your Self
When you decide to keep a tarot journal, the type of journal you choose can
be as important as the significator you select for a reading. Your journal, as
Waite might say, should correspond to your personal description.
In other words, your journal should reflect your personality, because it
will serve as a repository for your thoughts and feelings, and it will embody
your wants, needs, and desires. If you are an executive, you might want a
classic leatherbound journal. If you are an artist, you might need a
sketchbook to hold all of your creative ideas.
Your journal should also suit your lifestyle, and it should be constructed
in a way that will be physically comfortable for you to use.
The type of tarot journal you choose will help you focus your views,
collect your thoughts, and clarify your emotions. It will help you relive your
past, explore your present, and plan for your future. It will help you
document your work with the cards and chart your growth. Ultimately, the
type of tarot journal you choose will help you define yourself.
 Choosing a Journal
I’ve kept a journal for years. Several journals, in fact.
I didn’t say I’ve actually written in them. I’ve just kept them, on the
shelf, because for one reason or another they didn’t work out for me. Some
were too big and heavy to carry around. Others were “too good” for my
daily ramblings. Others I’m saving for something special. In the end, the
journal I use most is an electronic journal, stored on my laptop’s hard drive,
with some sections posted on my blog, and others incorporated into books
and articles.
You, too, may need to experiment until you find a journal that suits your
needs.
If you choose, you can go looking for a journal, comparison shopping
and visiting your favorite shops and stores. If you are more magically
inclined, you can wait for your journal to find you; simply meditate and cast
your intention out to the universe, so that you will be prepared to spot your
journal when it crosses your path. In either case, the first step in selecting a
journal is to think about the work you plan to do in it.
 Types of Journals
There are many types of tarot journals. Some serve a single purpose, like a
logbook. Others combine an eclectic mix of uses with a wide range of
entries.

Diary. Your tarot journal might be a traditional, diary-style journal—a

chronological log of daily or weekly events. In that case, your tarot deck
will serve mostly as a tool for creative inspiration—a storehouse for
reflections and ruminations about your everyday life, and a springboard to
help you write about the events of your day, your impressions, and your
insights.

Reading record. Your tarot journal might be a straightforward record of all

of the tarot readings you have conducted. Most records would include the
date, the questions you asked, and a diagram of the cards that turned up.
You could even snap an instant photo or digital picture of your spread, and
incorporate it into your journal.
If you are pressed for time during the reading, or if you uncover issues
that you would like to explore later, you can refer to your tarot journal to re-
create the spread for further analysis. If a reading confused you, your tarot
journal can help you review it later, for further consideration and reflection.
Then, as each situation unfolds, you can check your notes against the
outcome.
The reading records you keep in your journal can be as simple or as
elaborate as you like. Your records can even vary from reading to reading.
For some sessions, you might jot just a few notes. For others, you might
want to record every detail—especially the cards that seem most significant
in the spread, important pairs and combinations, and any flashes of insight
and intuition you might experience.
In the process, your record will also serve as an ersatz diary. As you look
through your notes about each reading, you can remember where you were,
whom you were with, the events that led up to the reading, and the events
that were on your mind.
Card interpretation handbook. If you are a student of the tarot, someone has
probably suggested that you make detailed notes about your own
interpretations of every card in the deck. Your tarot journal is the place to
start.
Some people begin by copying the information that comes with their
decks, usually in the form of a little white booklet. You could include
relevant quotes and commentary from other sources, such as books and
web-based discussion groups. Before long, the information you get from
other people will probably serve as a springboard for your own
interpretations of each card.
Workbook. You might want to use your tarot journal in conjunction with a
tarot workbook or home study course, such as Mary K. Greer’s Tarot for
Your Self, Joan Bunning’s Learning the Tarot, Teresa Michelsen’s Complete
Tarot Reader, or Wald and Ruth Ann Amberstone’s Tarot School
Correspondence Course. As you follow the format each author presents,
you can watch your understanding unfold and flower on the page.
Simply use your tarot journal like a school notebook. Keep a running
record of each exercise and assignment, along with the results you get when
you try them. Also, keep related notes about your thoughts, comments, and
experiences as you complete each course of study.
Your tarot journal is also a good place to write your own personal
reviews of books you have read relating to the tarot, or to make notes about
tarot classes and thought-provoking lectures and workshops you have
attended.

Multi-disciplinary studies. You might like to develop a journal that

combines your tarot pursuits with related complementary studies, such as
astrology, numerology, runes, I Ching, Kabbalah, dream interpretation, tea-
leaf reading, meditation, palmistry, or chakra balancing. Such esoteric
pursuits usually dovetail surprisingly well with the tarot. In many cases,
their subject matter springs from the same metaphysical pool, and it can be
fascinating to spot the similarities and differences between them.
By keeping a multi-disciplinary journal, you can learn more quickly,
become more flexible in your thinking, discover useful metaphors and
analogies, and document and track your overall development and growth.
Book of Shadows. When metaphysicians begin a formal study of the mystic
arts and sciences, they often begin to compile a Book of Shadows—a secret
book of magic, filled with handwritten records of spells, enchantments,
rituals, and divination. Your tarot-based Book of Shadows might also
include training techniques, guidelines, correspondences, and other
supernatural materials.

Writer’s notebook. If you are a poet, a short story writer, or a novelist, you
might want to use your tarot journal as a writer’s notebook. You can turn to
the cards for inspiration and for insight.
Tarot cards can suggest characters, conflict, crisis, and resolution. Do you
need to know more about your protagonist? Pull a card. Looking for a plot
twist? Try a past, present, and future reading. Need an alternate point of
view or a surprise ending? Shuffle the deck and let the cards fall where they
may.
You can also use your tarot journal like a standard writer’s notebook, and
include snippets of dialogue, overheard remarks, observations, and story
ideas to use in future writing projects. You could even use your tarot journal
simply to record auto-biographical stories about your life.

Special occasion journals. Nobody ever said a journal had to be perpetual.

You could create a short-term tarot journal to mark birthdays, anniversaries,
holidays, vacations, and other special events.

Artist’s journal. Sometimes we talk about the cards so much that we forget
that tarot is primarily a visual medium. In fact, Arthur Edward Waite
himself referred to the tarot as a “pictorial” language. While most decks
include titles and numbers on each card, words tend to be appended as an
afterthought.
If you are creatively inclined—or even if you simply want to feel creative
—you could begin an artist’s journal and fill it with pencil, pen, and
charcoal drawings, or paintings, or collage. Copy the images from your
favorite deck. Draw scenes from your own life that remind you of the cards.
Clip favorite photos from magazines and catalogs. Use your journal to hold
images that remind you of the tarot or images you would like to interpret in
light of the cards. Your artist’s journal might even serve as the basis for a
tarot deck of your own someday.
 The Three P’s
Keep these three things in mind as you choose your journal: portability,
price, and permanence.

Portability. If you plan to carry your journal in a backpack or a purse, so

you can write in coffee shops or on the train, you will probably want a
lightweight, portable journal. On the other hand, if you tend to picture
yourself writing in front of your fireplace with your dog curled at your feet,
a heavy, leather-bound tome would be a natural choice.

Price. The price of your journal may be a factor in your choice—but price
can be calculated as more than just the cost of a journal. Time is money, and
your thoughts and words have value, too. If you are merely starting to
experiment with journaling, you might use an inexpensive notebook. Be
aware, however, that your tarot journal may soon become one of your most
treasured possessions, and you might want to upgrade to a higher-quality
book.

Permanence. If you use a bargain-basement journal, the paper will probably

tear easily, turn yellow, and start to disintegrate within a few years. In fact, a
cheap journal might not even last long enough to wear out; most just fall
apart. If you want your journal to last for years, invest in a well-made book
with archival-quality paper, and store it in a clean, dry area at normal room
temperature. Even the best journals fare poorly if you lock them away in a
freezing garage, a damp basement, or a hot, dry attic.
 Form Follows Function
One of the characters in Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient kept
an unconventional journal. He filled a volume of Herodotus’ ancient Greek
Histories with drawings, maps, and photographs. He wrote notes in the
margins, and he tucked photographs and personal letters into its pages. In
the process, he transformed the classic work into a memoir of his own.
Your journal can be as traditional or nontraditional as you like. Your
journal might not even take the form of a book. You might outline your
thoughts on the back of grocery store receipts. You might sketch your ideas
on restaurant napkins, or scrawl notes on takeout menus.
You could also compose your thoughts on a yellow legal pad, collect
your thoughts in a dime-store notebook, or write in a blank book from the
stationery store. Or you could even travel to Italy or France and select a
handcrafted, leather-covered diary.
Your perfect journal might take any of the following forms:

Three-ring binders. Three-ring binders make ideal tarot journals,

because they are so versatile. You can add, delete, and rearrange
pages as needed. You can use tabbed dividers to categorize your
studies, and you can dedicate entire sections to Major Arcana
cards, Minor Arcana cards, court cards, symbolism, history,
mythology, or anything you like. You can add pocket pages to
store magazine articles and news stories. You can print
information you find on the Internet, punch your printouts with a
three-hole punch, and include them in your journal. You can even
take just a few sheets of notepaper with you wherever you go,
write whenever you like, and pop them into your binder when you
get home.

Spiral notebooks. If you are just beginning to journal, and you are
still experimenting with your own style of writing, a cheap starter
journal will involve the least amount of risk—at least in terms of
price—and you might feel freer to experiment with methods and
style. A spiral notebook is a good place to start.
Spiral notebooks are available almost anywhere you shop. You
can buy them at drug stores, grocery stores, discount stores, and
gas stations. Spiral notebooks are cheap, easy to carry, and easy to
store.
Unfortunately, spiral notebooks don’t last long. The wire
binding can bend and come loose, the pages can tear out, and the
paper tends to turn yellow and start to decay within just a few
years.

Composition books. Composition books—the notebooks with

sturdy, speckled covers—make wonderful starter journals. Like
other notebooks, composition books are inexpensive and readily
available. The covers are usually stiff cardboard, which double as
a firm writing surface. There is no wire binding to bend, work
loose, or poke you as you work. Because the pages are sewn
together, however, you can’t tear out any pages or the whole book
will fall apart. Composition books are generally not archival
quality, so if you want to make them last you will need to use
them gently and store them carefully.

Stenographer’s notebooks. Like spiral notebooks, stenographer’s

notebooks are handy. Stenographer’s notebooks are designed to
be used on the run, and they are easy to work with if you plan to
hold your journal on your lap as you write. They are sturdier than
spiral notebooks—and a little classier, because they don’t look
like school notebooks. Stenographer’s notebooks also are less
conspicuous if you want to write privately in public places, and if
you live with people who might be tempted to pry into a secret
diary. However, stenographer’s notebooks are not particularly
durable, and they are not archival material. Treat them gently if
you want them to last.

Memo pads and pocket notebooks. If you frequently write on the

go or if you typically conduct tarot readings away from home,
think about using a memo pad or pocket notebook for your
journal. You can later transfer and expand upon your work in a
larger, more permanent journal.

Blank books. Blank books come in a wide variety of prices,

styles, sizes, and designs. Some feature lined pages, while others
have blank pages. Some blank books have leather covers and ties,
zippers, or snap closures. The best blank books are made of
archival-quality paper and binding materials that will last for
generations.

Refillable journals. Some journals are actually refillable; they

consist of blank books that slide into attractive, long-lasting
covers. Once you have filled one book, you can file the pages
away and buy a refill for the cover.

Inspirational journals. Some blank journals are designed to

inspire thoughts and ruminations, with stirring quotes and
illustrations on each page. It may be interesting to note how a
seemingly random quote or image can reflect the symbolism and
the significance of the tarot card you write about.

Datebooks. While printed datebooks might remind you of the

diary you kept in junior high—with five lines allowed for each
day—today’s datebooks can make great journals. Some datebooks
feature a full page or two for every day of the year, and some
include illustrations and inspirational quotes. If you hope to write
every day, the format alone can be an incentive.
If you combine tarot with astrology, you might want to use an
astrological datebook like Llewellyn’s Daily Planetary Guide. By
keeping your journal in an astrological calendar, you will
automatically have a record of astrological phenomena, such as
the positions of planets in signs, whenever you conduct a tarot
reading or write in your journal.

Travel journals. In many ways, your travels into the tarot are like
journeys into the inner world of your imagination. You might
want to adapt a travel journal to use with your cards. A travel
journal could help you document your adventures as though you
were truly journeying to a new, exotic location—or rediscovering
a land you once knew.

Artist’s sketchpads. Lined paper serves as a guide to some writers.

If you are a free spirit, however, you might not want to color
inside the lines. Break the rules, and use an oversized artist’s
sketchbook for your journal. The format naturally lends itself not
only to sketching, drawing, and painting, but also to creative
writing. Unconstrained by arbitrary guidelines, your mind can
wander on the page and your stream of consciousness can flow
freely. You can even write sideways, at an angle, or in a spiral
shape, for an artistic effect. Sketchpads are especially good for a
type of entry called clustering, in which notes about one central
thought or idea branch out in several directions.

Scrapbooks. You might want to go even further than an artist’s

sketchpad and use a scrapbook for your journal. The pages are
huge, so you will have plenty of room to draw; construct
timelines; paste photos, newspaper, and magazine clippings; and
embellish your work with sketches, rubber stamps, side-bars, and
follow-up notes and comments. You can even use a scrapbook to
store found items that relate to the tarot: post-cards, ticket stubs,
letters, and other memorabilia.

Handmade journals. Many journal writers create their own

handmade journals. There is a fine, subtle art to choosing—or
making—the perfect paper, designing a cover, and binding one’s
handiwork. Handmade tarot journals can also be enhanced with
unusual features such as pockets, sleeves, and mats to hold cards.
If you are interested in making your own tarot journal, look for
a class in bookmaking or find instructions and supplies at a craft
store.

Artist’s portfolios. If your journal includes several unbound items,

such as individual sheets of paper, flyers, brochures, newspaper
tear sheets, magazine articles, Internet printouts, and sketches,
you might want to store your collection in an artist’s portfolio.
Portfolios are custom-made folders with flaps that tie closed,
designed specifically to hold and safeguard loose papers.

File folders. No one says that your journal needs to take the form
of a book—especially if you tend to write on the go, on loose-leaf
sheets of paper, on scratch pads, or on the backsides of envelopes.
You might want to keep your entries in file folders, categorized
by date or by subject. You can keep all of your files in a file
drawer or an archive box designed to store documents and photos.

Index cards. Tarot card readers might be logically drawn to

recording their observations on index cards, which are similar in
size and shape to tarot cards themselves. What’s more, a stack of
blank three-by-five-inch cards can be a lot less intimidating than a
series of blank pages. Index cards are an ideal way to free your
creative mind and generate many ideas in a short amount of time
—plus, you can fit a surprising amount of information on a single
card. Start by dedicating one index card to each tarot card. As you
branch out in your study of the tarot, use a new card for every
thought that comes to mind. Through grouping the cards by
subject, you will probably find that your ideas fall naturally into
categories.
 Electronic Journals
Some journalers insist that nothing can replace the feel of pen on paper. The
physical act of writing, many believe, inspires creativity, stimulates the free
flow of thoughts and ideas, triggers synaptic connections, and settles the
nerves. The fact that handwriting has become something of a lost art form
also lends charm to the concept of a handwritten journal.
On a practical level, however, electronic journals might prove to be a
better option for some people.
For one thing, more people are comfortable with computers than ever
before—and computers are accessible to everyone. Anyone who wants to
log on can usually find a computer at home, at school, at work, or at a
public terminal in a library or café.
As technology advances and becomes more affordable, an electronic
journal can offer all of the benefits of a traditional journal, integrated with
the convenience, portability, and accessibility of high-tech. Look for the
following options:

Journaling software. You can use standard word-processing

programs to keep a journal. You won’t need to decipher poor
handwriting, and you can cut and paste some selections for use in
other projects. But for just a few dollars, you can also invest in
software designed specifically for journaling. Like word-
processing programs, journaling software usually includes a spell
checker, thesaurus, and adjustable font and color schemes. Some
packages will allow you to add digital images and sound files to
your entries. Most journaling software also includes built-in
prompts and quotations to inspire your writing, as well as
automatic alarms for timed writing and automated help for
devising lists and timelines.
Journaling software also makes it easy to keep multiple
journals organized and cross-referenced by theme, topic, or
subject.Your entries will be automatically archived and indexed,
so you can search for entries by date, title, topic, or keyword. You
can even encrypt your entries and protect them with passwords.
Remember, however, that technology is constantly evolving.
The equipment and the programs you use today might not be
available tomorrow. Even storage media will change. If you want
to ensure that you will be able to read your journal in years to
come, print it out periodically on archival-quality paper, just in
case technology makes your computerized journal obsolete.

Blogs. Online journals—or web logs (blogs)—are open to anyone

with access to the Internet and experiences to share. Some artists
and writers, like Gaian Tarot creator Joanna Powell Colbert, use
blogs to document the evolution of their projects.
For the most part, blogs are easy to create. Some online
providers offer free blog hosting, while others charge about what
you would pay for a website or Internet access. Entries appear
chronologically, with automatic time and date stamps. Most blogs
make it possible to post photos, sound files, and links to websites
and related blogs.
Blogs are fun—but they aren’t private, and they’re not secure.
Even if you only share your blog address with family and friends,
anyone with web access can run a simple search and find your
blog.
Blogs also can be transitory. If you plan to keep your entries
forever, save them on your hard drive, archive them on storage
media, and print them out on archival paper.

E-mail journals. While letter writing may be outdated, more

people than ever are corresponding with each other via e-mail. E-
mail is quick, comfortable, and familiar. If you already spend a
portion of your day reading, writing, and checking e-mail, you
might want to use it as the format of your tarot journal.
The process of writing e-mail and writing in a journal is very
similar. In fact, a large number of journal entries are written in the
form of a letter. Like journal entries, e-mail exchanges are written
on the fly and in the present moment. Furthermore, most people
write e-mails without a great deal of concern for perfect grammar,
punctuation, and spelling—and most recipients don’t expect
award-winning prose, either. For the shy or self-conscious writer,
e-mail can be ideal.
If you start an e-mail journal, you can share your entries with a
trusted friend or family member. In that case, you will have an
automatic copy of each message in your folder of sent items. You
could also just mail your e-mail missives to yourself. You could
even create a new e-mail identity and establish a separate account
or folder for all of your journal entries. Each message will be filed
chronologically, and you can search your e-mail journal by date,
subject, message header, phrase, or keyword.
If you choose to keep an e-mail tarot journal, print it out
periodically just to ensure that your entries won’t be lost to a
computer glitch or a server crash.

Audio and video recordings. Some people find it easier to start

talking than to confront a blank page during the writing process.
Others like to experiment with audio and video equipment. If you
are a tech-minded person, an audio or video journal might be an
ideal way to record your experiences with the cards. In fact, you
might already have a head start on the process: many tarot readers
are used to verbalizing their impressions of the cards and tape-
recording their sessions with clients.
Today’s technology makes it easier than ever to create top-
quality recordings. As with all technology, however, bear in mind
that storage and playback could become an issue. Equipment
changes with time, players become obsolete and unavailable, and
some media degrades with age. If you want your data to last, keep
it stored in a dry, temperature-controlled area. Don’t expose it to
light, dust, dirt, or extremes of hot or cold. Also, be prepared to
copy your files onto new standard mediums as they develop.
 Multiple Partners
With so many attractive options available for your tarot journaling practice,
you might be reassured to know that you don’t have to choose just one.
While you can consolidate many types of entries in a single journal, you
might also decide you want to keep more than one journal.
You could keep one journal as a straightforward record of your readings.
You might want to keep a pocket-size journal with your deck to record bare-
bones notes about your readings. Later, you can expand on your thoughts
about those readings in a second, larger journal.
If you use more than one tarot deck, you might want to keep a separate
journal for each. You might also like to keep one journal for your study of
the twenty-two Major Arcana cards and separate journals for each of the
four suits. In that case, you could even color-code your journals: white or
black for the Major Arcana, red for the fiery wands, blue for the watery
cups, yellow for the airy swords, and green for the earthy pentacles. You
might like to focus on a single card at a time, such as your birth card (see
page 113 for one simple way to determine your birth card).
Ultimately, you can keep any type of journal or any number of journals
you like. You can switch styles, change techniques, begin a new journal, or
open a companion volume at any point. You are never under any obligation
to finish a journal that’s not working for you or tough it out with a
technique that falls flat. Feel free to experiment, to play, and to have fun. A
tarot journal is an excellent servant—but a bad master. Make sure your
journal knows who’s boss.
 Get Personal
You can personalize your journal with a few simple techniques.

Cover. You can customize your tarot journal by decorating the

cover with paint or collage. You can use images from the tarot
itself or photos of people and places you like. You can use
abstract or geometric designs. You might want to create a
mandala—a circular design, like a stained glass window or a
snowflake—that symbolizes spiritual wholeness.

Illuminate. You can illuminate your journal, like the medieval

monks illuminated the books they copied in their scriptoriums.
Even before you begin to write, you can draw or paint colorful
borders on the pages of your journal. Then, as you compose
individual entries, you can try sketching or drawing a few
illustrations to accompany your writing. Later, you can color your
artwork with markers or colored pencils.

Title. As you begin your new journal, consider giving it a title—

but be sure you give your journal a title you can live with,
because you could be laying the groundwork for a self-fulfilling
prophecy. If you title your journal “The Troubles I’ve Known,”
the universe might think you’re inviting more of the same—and
you can probably expect to find yourself dealing with more
trouble than ever before.
Later, you can also experiment with titling individual entries.

Epigraph. Open your journal with an inspirational quote or poem

—an epigraph. Consider this one, from Josephine Hart: “There is
an eternal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its
outlines all our lives.”
Table of contents. Leave the first few pages blank, so you can add
a table of contents later. Number each page for future reference.

Dedication. Determine the theme of your journal, and make your

intention for the journal clear. Then dedicate your journal to its
mission or to someone you wish to honor with your work.

History in the making. Open your journal by telling the story of

how you chose that particular journal and where you obtained it.
 Accessorize Your Journal
In addition to choosing a journal, the right tools and accessories will help
you focus your thoughts, unleash your creativity, communicate clearly, and
work quickly and efficiently.

A tarot card altar. Create a portable tarot card altar by gluing an

envelope, a plastic sleeve, or a ribbon to hold your tarot card of
the day in your tarot journal. Or find a frame, a picture holder, or
a clip to display a card in your journaling space. You might think
of it as a tarot card altar.

Pens. If you are handwriting your journal, take time to find a pen
that feels good in your hand and puts you in the mood to write.
You might even want to use several pens, with different colors of
ink for different types of entries.

Highlighters. You might want to use highlighters to mark

especially important entries, keywords, and phrases, or to cross-
reference your writing. You could color-code some entries, and
use red highlights for fiery, spiritual, wands-style passages; blue
for watery, emotional cups; yellow for airy, intellectual swords;
and green for earthy, material, and physical pentacles.

Art supplies. Your journal doesn’t have to be solely for writing. If

you want to create a visual journal, you can use pencils, pens,
markers, charcoal, watercolor, or acrylic paints.

A timer. If you plan to try timed writing for some of your entries,
you will need a timer with an audible buzzer or bell. Any simple
kitchen timer will work.
Storage bags. If you can sew, you might want to stitch matching
bags for your journal and tarot deck, as well as a coordinating
spread cloth to use when you work with the cards. Many tarot
readers always lay their cards on a square piece of fabric, to keep
them organized and clean. When the readings are over, they wrap
their cards in the same cloth. Traditionally, tarot readers wrap
their cards in black satin; you can use any fabric you like.
Generally speaking, solid colors are best, because busy prints can
distract from the images and symbols on your cards.

Storage basket or box. An attractive storage container will help

keep your journal and your accessories at hand, so you can write
whenever you feel the urge. Try a decorative basket or box.
 1

What Covers You

Turn up the top or first card of the pack; cover

the Significator with it, and say: This covers him.
This card gives the influence which is affecting the
person or matter of inquiry generally, the
atmosphere of it in which the other currents work.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 Atmosphere and Influences
When Arthur Edward Waite first conceptualized his tarot deck, he hired a
young artist named Pamela Colman Smith to illustrate each card. She was a
fellow member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, a mystical group that
truly believed in the importance of atmosphere: they met in a space
designed to look like an ancient Egyptian pyramid, and dressed in elaborate
costumes with robes and headpieces.
Pamela Colman Smith had a theater background, so she fit right in.
Earlier, she had designed sets, costumes, and programs for England’s Royal
Lyceum Theatre when it toured the United States—and she brought her flair
for the dramatic to the tarot cards she painted. In fact, when you look
through the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, you might notice that many of the
cards look like costumed actors posing on a stage.
Your own backdrop and surroundings can play a crucial role in your
journaling practice. If you want to get the most out of each performance,
you might want to think about setting the stage and ushering in a little
atmosphere.
 Location, Location, Location
Where should you write in your tarot journal? You might like to work in a
quiet room—especially if you plan to combine a full-fledged tarot reading
with your writing, and privacy is an issue. In that case, a bedroom, a den, or
a quiet corner in the yard is perfect. You might prefer to work where there is
a buzz or hum of activity—where you can see the archetypes of the tarot
come alive in the guise of busy strangers going about their business, and
you can overhear stimulating snippets of conversation. Cafés, restaurants,
coffee shops, libraries, and hotel lobbies are all good places to journal.
Honestly, you can write in your tarot journal anywhere you like, as long
as you can immerse yourself fully in the tarot cards and in the pages of your
journal—an area many tarot readers refer to as “sacred space.”
 Sacred Space
Many tarot readers routinely clear a sacred space for their tarot readings.
The process is simple: they clear away clutter and distractions, light
candles, and visualize pure white light filling their reading area.
Some tarot readers go a step further and establish a dedicated reading
area. Many tarot readers like to enhance that sacred space with symbolic
representations of the four suits and their corresponding elements, such as
candles for fire, chalices for water, soothing background music for air, and
crystals for earth.
In a similar fashion, tarot journaling should incorporate the four realms
of your experience: spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical. Tarot
journaling should also be a holistic experience that integrates all of your
senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
The imagery and colors of the cards, of course, will please your sense of
sight. Beautiful background music will uplift your spirit. Scented oils,
candles, or incense will stimulate your sense of smell. A glass of water,
coffee, tea, or wine will appeal to your sense of taste. And the weight of
your journal in your hands or on your lap will put you in physical contact
with your sense of touch.
Because the work you do in your tarot journal originates in your mind,
however, you have one option that isn’t open to you when you conduct a
tarot reading. When you write in your tarot journal, you can work with
sacred space that’s based more in your inner world than in your outer
reality. You might think of it as “imaginary” sacred space—except for the
fact that it will seem more real to you every time you visit.
You might choose a scene from a tarot card as the basis for your sacred
space. You might envision yourself in the Nine of Pentacles garden, for
example, or the seaside balcony in the Two of Wands. You can either select
a card at random or choose the card you most want to use.
Your sacred space also can be an idealized space that you picture in your
mind’s eye: the den, library, tea parlor, or landscape of your dreams. You
might even find a photo in a magazine and use that as inspiration.
 Imaginary sacred space is ideal for journaling, because it can travel with
you. Imaginary sacred space is always ready for you to close your eyes and
step inside—and cleanup is quick and easy. In addition, fantasy sacred
space has the added benefit of preparing you to someday discover or create
your ideal sacred space in the real world.
 Ritual and Routine
Tarot reading rituals help smooth the way for tarot readings, by eliminating
decisions about where you should sit, how you should shuffle, or how you
should open a reading. Likewise, a few well-designed journaling rituals will
help you get the preliminaries out of the way, calm you, and free you to
start the creative process of writing.
Here are some techniques you can try as part of your journaling routine.

Light a candle. Gaze into the flame for a few minutes before you
begin writing.

Enjoy your favorite drink. Feel yourself relax with every sip, and
imagine it filling you with energy.

Try four-part breathing. Inhale, and hold your breath for five
seconds. Then exhale, and again hold your breath for five
seconds. As you breathe, imagine yourself becoming more
relaxed and, simultaneously, more rejuvenated. Let the fresh air
permeate every cell of your being. Inhale to recharge. Exhale to
dispel tension and negativity.

Progressive relaxation. Consciously relax every part of your

body, from head to toe.

Ground yourself. Put both feet on the floor. Imagine that you are a
tree, with roots reaching far underground and branches reaching
toward the heavens.
 Starting Points
You might want to begin each entry the same way, so you don’t waste any
time composing your first few words.

Greet your audience. “Dear Diary” is cliché, but it works. You

might also address each entry directly to the audience you have in
mind. You might be writing your journal for your current self or
your future self. You might imagine yourself writing to your
children, your grandchildren, your students, your therapist, or
your support group. You might be talking to your partner—past,
present, or future. You might be writing to a friend—either
someone you know now, someone you used to know, or someone
you hope to meet.

Date the page. Include the time of day and your location.
Mood lighting. Write about your mood and the reason for your
attitude. Recap the events of your day so far.

Draw a card. Choose a card from your tarot deck, and write its
title on the page.
 Shortcuts and Abbreviations
In tarot journaling, you might find yourself writing many of the same
phrases, words, and titles over and over again. You can take shortcuts, like
the abbreviations and shorthand that follow. If you choose to develop your
own tarot timesavers, create a key and keep it with your journal.
 Major Arcana Abbreviations

You can refer to Major Arcana cards by their Arabic numbers or Roman
numerals, both of which are usually printed on the cards, and both of which
are fairly standard and consistent from deck to deck. The only exception is
Strength and Justice—cards 8 and 11. In some decks, depending on the
artist’s preference, Strength is 8 and Justice is 11. In other decks, that’s
reversed. In your journal, you might need to note which deck you’re using.
 Minor Arcana Abbreviations

You can use abbreviations for cards in the four suits of the Minor Arcana:
typically W for wands, C for cups, S for swords, and P for pentacles. If your
wands are called rods, use an R. If your wands are called staffs, distinguish
them from swords by writing “St” and “Sw.” If pentacles happen to be
called coins in your deck, use a “cents” symbol (¢) instead of the letter C.
You get the idea.
When you abbreviate the names of court cards, be sure to distinguish
between Knights and Kings by using the abbreviations Kn for Knights and
K for Kings.

If you prefer, you can also devise glyphs or symbolic illustrations to

designate specific cards. You might note your wands as straight lines (|) or
exclamation marks (!), cups as circles (o), swords as arrows ( ), and
pentacles as stars or asterisks (*). You could even rely on playing-card
symbols, and denote wands as clubs ( ), cups as hearts ( ), swords as
spades ( ), and pentacles as diamonds ( ).
 Reversed Cards
Many tarot readers note reversed cards with the n symbol—a shortcut
borrowed from astrologers, who use it to refer to retrograde planets. (Those
are planets that appear, from Earth’s vantage point, to be moving
backward.)
Astrological glyphs can be useful additions to a tarot journal.
Astrological references are built in to most tarot cards. The glyphs are not
difficult to memorize, especially once you realize that they actually look
like the symbol they represent.
Astrological Glyphs
 Checklists
You can save time during a journaling session by using a checklist to record
pertinent facts about your tarot readings. The following list of possible
checklist entries is extensive; don’t try to incorporate all of it. Just pick and
choose from the items on this list that truly interest you.
Some of the items you might want to include in your reading records
include:

• The date
• The time
• Your location
• Astrological data (Sun sign, Moon phase, planetary retrogrades,
void-of-course Moon data)
• The reader’s name, if you are getting a reading from a friend
• The querent or questioner’s name, if you are reading the card for
another person
• The question or concern
• The name of the deck
• The name of the spread
• The cards in each position of the spread
• Encouraging cards
• Discouraging cards
• Surprising cards
• Clarification or wild cards
• Number of Major Arcana cards
• Number of Minor Arcana cards
• Significant details
• Keywords and phrases
• Numerical significance and interpretation
• Interesting pairs and combinations
• Predominant suits and elements
• Predominant colors
• Missing suits and elements
• Positive interpretations
• Negative connotations
• Intuitive response
• Spiritual response
• Emotional response
• Intellectual response
• Physical response
• Themes (elemental, numerical, astrological, or kabbalistic)
• Hebrew letter
• Kabbalistic sephiroth
• Kabbalistic pillar
• Color scale
• Additional questions developed during the course of the reading
• Insights
• Conclusion(s)
 Fill in the Blanks
If you truly want to keep a quick and easy tarot journal, you might want to
develop standard “fill in the blank” pages to document most of your
readings. You can use any page design software to create forms like the
ones in appendix V, print as many copies as you need, and keep them in a
three-ring binder. You can also find downloadable versions of each page
online at www.tarotjournaling.com.
 2

What Crasses You

Turn up the second card and lay it across the first, saying: This crosses him. It shews the
nature of the obstacles in the matter. If it is a favorable card, the opposing forces will
not be serious, or it may indicate that something good in itself will not be productive of
good in the particular connexion.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 Journaling Obstacles and Stumbling Blocks
Tarot cards don’t pull many punches—and the Celtic Cross is one of the
most direct tarot card spreads you will ever find. It’s not for the dainty or
the faint of heart. It doesn’t pussyfoot around, or hint at obstacles or
problems. It doesn’t even ask if you want the good news or the bad news
first. It simply lays everything on the table and lets you make of it what you
will.
The crossing card in the Celtic Cross depicts obstacles and stumbling
blocks. In that vein, if you are starting a tarot journal, you may as well
know what difficulties you might face. Happily, most of them are fairly
common, and most have simple solutions.
 Fear of Commitment
Few people can pick up a notebook and start keeping a journal. Journaling
is a habit, and habits take time to establish. Journaling also takes
commitment—and that can feel like hard work. If you start to delve too
quickly into powerful emotions, painful memories, or liberate your creative
process and generate too many ideas, your psyche may react, resist, feel
overwhelmed, and want to stop.

Try a one-night stand. If you dread the thought of adding to your

list of obligations, commit only for the short term. Plan to keep a
journal for just an hour, an evening, or a weekend. If you like the
experience, you can start another journal to use more often—or
just plan to keep other short-term journals whenever you have
time.

Make it a quickie. Set a timer and write for five minutes. Don’t
worry about scheduling your session or setting up a sacred space
or following any pre-set format. Simply agree to sit down and
write for five minutes at a time.

The buddy system. Ask a friend to keep a journal, too. You can
meet for short journaling sessions, share selected passages, and
encourage each other to keep writing.

Reward yourself. Plan to treat yourself to something after each

journaling session. You might reward yourself with a new pen, for
example, or a cup of coffee, or a nap.
 Writer’s Block
When it comes down to writing time, the blank page can be intimidating.
When you keep a tarot journal, however, you never have to fear writer’s
block. Inspiration is as close as your favorite tarot deck.

Describe it. You can start by pulling a card at random and

describing it in your journal. Then determine how the card you
have pulled from the deck relates to your current situation. In
effect, use your journal to conduct a one-card reading for
yourself.

Draw a card. Literally, draw a card. Copy the card, or choose one
object or image from the card and draw it in your journal. Then
write about what that object means to you, how you felt as you
drew it, and why you chose to draw it. See where it leads, and
follow along in your journal.

Just do a reading. Conduct a full-fledged tarot reading for

yourself and document your results.

Be here now. Write about where you are now, in the present
moment. Note any insights and inspirations the tarot might have
for your situation.
 Performance Anxiety
You might be worried about what others would think of you if they found
your tarot journal. Don’t. You should be writing your journal only for
yourself.
You might also be worried about living up to the high expectations you
have for yourself. That’s a tougher obstacle to overcome—but it can be
done.

Loosen up. Any Empress can tell you that giving birth to your
creative self can be a messy process. Don’t worry about keeping
your journal particularly neat or making it into a work of art—
although you may lay the groundwork there for a creative
masterpiece. Think of your journal as a rough draft. Don’t edit or
rewrite your entries. Don’t cross out words, second-guess your
spelling, or feel self-conscious about your storytelling ability.
Give yourself the freedom to make mistakes—and the freedom to
make a mess.

Perfectionist tendencies. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar,

style, punctuation, or structure. Just write like you talk. You will
automatically find your own voice, your own style, and your own
fluid way of writing. Believe it or not, the less you worry about
your writing, the better your writing will be.

Focus on quantity, not quality. Your journal is a rough draft of

your experiences and your impressions. Rather than trying to
make each entry an award-winning essay, plan only to write a
certain number of words or a certain number of pages.“Don’t get
it right,” James Thurber advised. “Just get it written.”

Be playful. Tarot cards were first invented as a game. Your work

with them should be playful, not laborious. If you find yourself
getting too serious, and it’s dragging you down, look for a lighter
topic to write about in your journal.

Motive. Remember that you keep a journal because you want to,
not because you have to. Don’t be obsessive or compulsive. If
you really don’t want to write, put your journal away for a while
and try again later.
 Time Management
No matter how busy you are, you can find a way to fit journaling into your
schedule.

Get into the habit. Try writing at the same time and in the same
place every day, until journaling becomes a habit. Most people
seem to have the most success by writing first thing in the
morning or just before bed.

Make a standing appointment. Try to write at the same time every

day, for the same amount of time. Take a cue from Peter De Vries,
who said,“I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m
inspired at nine o’clock every morning.”

Stolen moments. Carry a tarot card and a small notebook in your

pocket or purse, and journal whenever you have a spare moment.

Set goals. You might want to try daily entries, weekly entries, or
some other regular schedule, such as three times a week.
Remember to set aside special journaling sessions on holidays,
anniversaries, and other special, meaningful dates. Also, set goals
for the time you will write at each sitting: you might want to
promise yourself just five minutes at a time, or fifteen minutes, or
thirty minutes. Set a timer and follow through.
 Procrastination
Procrastination is one of the seven deadly sins for anyone who wants to
write.
Granted, before you start to work in your journal, you should be mentally
prepared. You should be physically comfortable. You should have all of the
supplies you need, set up ahead of time and positioned at the ready. You
should be free of any distractions that could interfere with your train of
thought.
And most of us should be so lucky. Unfortunately, there will always be
dirty dishes in the sink, or a phone call that needs to be returned, or a light
bulb that needs changing somewhere in your house.
Those things can wait.
You could also spend time cleaning your journaling area and organizing
your journaling supplies.
Don’t do it.
The only way to stop procrastinating is to sit down in a chair and start
writing.
If you absolutely can’t seem to get started, set a kitchen timer for just five
minutes or ten minutes or fifteen minutes—whatever length of time seems
minimal and painless. Once you get started, you will probably want to keep
going.
 Bad Cards
Tarot journals are, of course, firmly grounded in your experiences with tarot
cards. You might encounter those cards during the course of a routine tarot
reading. You might choose cards to write about by shuffling and dealing
from the top of the deck. You might cut the cards or pull one at random.
You might even find a card because it works its way loose from the rest of
the deck and falls onto the floor.
But what if you sit down to write in your journal, only to find that you’re
working with the “wrong” card?
Never mind how you got the card. You just know it’s wrong. It looks
ugly, it gives you the creeps, it’s got nothing to do with how you feel or
what you did yesterday or what you plan to do today. It’s completely out of
place. It’s irrelevant. It’s insulting.
In that case, write about that. Write about how much you hate the card.
Write about how you don’t understand the card. Write about how you must
have shuffled incorrectly, or somebody came in and messed with your cards
when you weren’t looking, or the universe is mocking your best efforts to
keep a tarot journal and get a little insight into your life, and it’s all terribly
unfair.
Complete this sentence: This card is the wrong card for me because
_______________.
Then sit back and realize that you can’t really get the “wrong” card. In
journaling, as in tarot reading, you will always get the card you were meant
to see. When you keep a tarot journal, you will find inspiration in any card
you pull from the deck, even if you are surprised by what the card reveals.
When the card that turns up seems wildly inappropriate, look for the
reason you received it. Did you recognize the figure in the card as some
aspect of yourself or someone you know? Is it a joke, merely exaggerating
some point that you’ve been taking too seriously? If you really can’t tell, try
some of the writing prompts at the back of this book.
If all else fails, you can always have the upper hand. You don’t have to
play the cards you are dealt. You don’t have to suffer at the fickle hand of
fate. You are in charge of your destiny, and you can write about any card
you want. If you are absolutely convinced that you have pulled the wrong
card, put it back in the deck and choose another.
 Negativity
Sometimes, you might find yourself turning to your journal only when you
feel angry, unhappy, or disappointed. A journal is an ideal place to unload
all of your negative emotions. If you like to think of yourself as a happy,
positive person, however, it can be a shock to re-read your journal entries
and find that they all seem to paint a distorted picture of yourself.
If you find yourself spending more time on the dark side than you would
like, you can take steps to ensure that your journal entries remain balanced
—and that you maintain your reputation as a happy medium.

Embrace your dual nature. In the world of the tarot, ideas,

concepts, and themes are consistently depicted in pairs: male and
female, light and dark, day and night, summer and winter, hot and
cold, birth and death, yin and yang. The twofold nature of the
tarot helps us see both sides of any issue—and you can use the
imagery of the cards to see both sides of any situation. Look for
cards that seem to illustrate your situation. Take note of the
positives that are associated with that card, as well as the
negatives.

Pros and cons. Make lists of all the pros and cons that apply to
your situation.

Go to extremes. In some cases, it can be highly informative to be

as negative as possible. Think of the Devil card: most illustrations
depict the most extreme version possible, with horns and cloven
hooves, a malefic grin, and a couple paralyzed by their own fears.
If you’re going to be negative, then by all means, be negative. Go
all out, and write the most negative entries you can conceive of.
Binge on your own misery—and then purge, so you get it all out
of your system.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . After you have completed a
particularly negative entry in your tarot journal, you can append it
to describe the other events you are dealing with in your life.
Whether they are glowingly positive or merely routine, they will
help balance your review.

Spin doctor. Rewrite your negative entries in the most positive

light possible, as though you were conducting a public relations
campaign on your own behalf.

Praise yourself. Journaling is a rewarding way to recognize,

praise, and compliment your good qualities, and offer positive
self-talk. Too many of us spend more time berating ourselves for
mistakes, errors, fumbles, and faux pas than we do congratulating
ourselves for the things we manage to do right. Did you turn in
your weekly report on time? Did you remember to feed the cat?
Did you help an old woman across the street? Congratulations!
You can use your journal to compliment yourself and revel in
your successes.

Be true to your school. Tarot readers have certain ethical

responsibilities when they read cards for other people. As a tarot
reader keeping a tarot journal, you also have a similar ethical
responsibility toward yourself. Just as you would never use the
cards to predict gloom and doom for another person, don’t use
tarot cards to beat up on yourself. Be as respectful, objective,
open, honest, and optimistic when you work for yourself as you
would for someone else.
 Critical Opinions
If you have ever tried to write anything—including a journal—you have
probably met your inner critic. You might not have been formally
introduced, but he’s the hissing little demon that stands behind you, always
just out of sight, looking over your shoulder as you write. It’s his voice that
tries to stop you from writing, tries to get you to change what you write, and
tries to make you question and doubt your own experiences.
You can evade your inner critic—and you can even outsmart him.

Take dictation. Write down whatever your inner critic says. Put it
in your journal, in black and white. In the bright light of day, you
can see how ridiculous your critic is—and cast him aside.

What a bunch of crap.You’re an idiot.Your writing

doesn’t even make sense.You’re crazy.You need a doctor.
If anyone ever read this stuff, they would know for sure
how stupid you are.read

That’s pretty easy to disregard, isn’t it?

Write for someone specific. Imagine that you are writing your
journal for a friend, a family member, or your future self. Tell
your inner critic that he is not the intended audience, so his
comments are not germane.

Write back to your critic. Answer his criticisms. Tell him where
he’s wrong—and tell him when he’s right. Give the devil his due.
After all, most critics just want someone to agree with them.

You’re right. I can be an idiot. I don’t always know what

I’m doing—especially when I first sit down with only a
glimmer of an idea.That’s what this journal is for. I’m
sorting out my thoughts, putting pen to paper, and
 attempting to make sense out of all my ideas.You are
more than welcome to take part. Just let me know where
you think I’m wrong, and tell me how you think I can fix
it.

Keep writing. Don’t think you can win by losing. Your inner critic
won’t know what to do with himself if you quit writing and take
his job away. He’ll just criticize you for stopping and start
harping at you to get back to the journal.

Meet your critic. Ask your critic for a formal introduction. Ask
your critic for his name, his life story, his likes and dislikes. See if
you have anything in common.

Find your critic in the cards. Choose a tarot card to represent

your inner critic. If you choose the card on purpose, he might
look like the Devil or the duplicitous Five of Swords or the
glowering King of Swords. You might also choose a card at
random. Consider the possibilities. What if your inner critic is the
beatific Empress? Is she hiding a dark side? What might that say
about you?

Dialogue with your critic. Question, interview, and challenge

your critic.

Q: Why are you bothering me?

A: I’m not trying to bother you. I’m just trying to be
helpful.
Q: How are you being helpful?
A: I’m preparing you for the comments that other
people are going to make.
Q: I’m not planning to show this to anyone else.
A: Are you sure?
Q: Positive. I’ll call you if I need you to review
anything I write for others, okay?
A: Okay. Just promise you’ll call, all right? That’s what
I’m here for.
Negotiate with your critic. Offer a compromise.

If you leave me alone for fifteen minutes, you can add

your comments afterward.

Find an advocate in the cards. Now choose a tarot card to

represent your advocate, your cheering section. Let your advocate
duke it out with your inner critic. Imagine, for example, that you
have chosen the King of Swords as your advocate.
King of Swords:You have overstepped your bounds.
Devil: I have no bounds.
King of Swords:This sword in my hands says otherwise. Back
off!

Let others do the work. Determine which card represents your

inner writer, struggling to achieve and accomplish. Then decide
which card represents your most vocal, most troubling, most
annoying judge, jury, and executioner. Replace that foe with an
inner fan, an inner supporter, and if necessary, an inner editor who
will come out for a gentle, supportive rewrite. Who plays which
role could very well change from day to day. Just watch the
interaction and record the results in your journal.

Work faster than your critic. While journaling is a reflective

process, it should be anything but slow and leisurely. The best,
most productive journal work is done quickly. Just write. Get
your impressions out of your head and onto the page. Give your
subconscious mind the freedom to express itself without
hesitation, without second-guessing, without criticism. You can
analyze it later. And you will probably surprise both yourself and
your inner critic.

Stay in bed. For many of us, the bed is the consummate sacred
space. We are born in bed, we die in bed, we create new life in
bed, and we share our most intimate selves in bed. We
reinvigorate ourselves, reinvent ourselves, and dream in bed.
When we seek comfort, healing, solace, or retreat, we go to bed.
What’s more, we rarely do anything particularly difficult or
taxing in bed. Try writing there, either as you are about to fall
asleep or just as you wake up. If you look as though you are just
lying around, your inner critic might not be tempted to crawl
underneath the covers and annoy you.

Write on index cards. Nobody could realistically believe that the

comments you scrawl on index cards could ever be mistaken for
serious writing. To criticize your notes would be as pathetic as
criticizing your grocery list.

Remember that you were born to write. Writing comes as

naturally as breathing. We are all born with an innate ability to
use words, to label objects, and to master our environment with
language. We all want to describe our emotions and to share our
insights and observations with other people. We all want to
communicate, and we all want to leave our mark. Just as
prehistoric people inscribed their stories on the walls of caves, we
all want to leave a record of our thoughts, our ideas, and our
experiences. Don’t let your inner critic take that away from you.
 Get Guidance
Just as you can find your critic and an ally in the cards, you can also find a
guide—a figurative escort and companion into the mysterious world of the
tarot. You might even want to think of your guide as a literal tour guide—
one who can lead you in and out of the cards, introduce you to friendly
locals, show you the most scenic vistas, and shepherd you safely through
shortcuts and down the occasional dark alley.
You can choose your guide from the cards consciously, simply by
selecting any character from the tarot deck. Alternately, you might find that
your guide seems to choose you, either by showing up repeatedly in your
tarot readings, walking into one of your meditations, or popping up
unexpectedly in your dreams.
You can work with any card to which you feel drawn. You can find your
guide at random by shuffling and dealing a card face down. Or you can use
a pendulum, dangling it over a fanned-out deck and letting it indicate the
card you should select.
You can even work with a series of guides—some short-term, some long
—by working your way systematically through the Major Arcana or
through the entire seventy-eight-card deck.
You can get to know your guide better through meditation, dialogues,
free or timed writing, and some of the other journaling techniques in this
book. You can meet with your guide before you begin a routine reading or
journaling session, or you could schedule recurring sessions with the same
guide card, just as if you were meeting with a counselor in the real world.
You can ask your guide for help in interpreting a single card or an entire
layout, or you can ask your guide to help you focus on a question for the
cards. Once you have chosen your guide’s card, pull it from the deck and
set it aside so you can refer to it during a reading or journaling session.
If you plan to do long-term work with a single guide, do some research
into his or her background. Learn whether or not your guide has made
historical appearances in myth or legend, in the guise of a god, goddess, or
hero. The Empress, for example, is often compared to Demeter, the Greek
goddess of the harvest and the mother of the lost Persephone, while the
Hermit is sometimes thought to be Merlin the magician. Any book or
encyclopedia of mythology can give you ideas, or you can learn more about
tarot card associations through specialized tarot decks like the Mythic Tarot
by Liz Greene and Juliet Sharman-Burke, or Legend: The Arthurian Tarot
by Anna-Marie Ferguson.
Some cards are also associated with real-life historical figures: the
Hanged Man, for example, could sometimes represent Judas or Mussolini.
The Emperor could be Caesar or Napoleon. Keep your own knowledge of
ancient and modern history in mind when you refer to the cards.
Once you know something of your guide’s background, look for
contemporary allusions to him or her in popular books, movies, or
television shows. The Star Wars series, for example, is filled with
archetypal characters who have tarot-card counterparts.
Also look for common interests and experiences that you share with your
guide.
You might even want to research the etymology of your guide’s name:
you could discover that you share a name, or a variation of your name, with
a character in the cards.
 Twenty-Two Tips for Tired Journals
Sometimes, you might not seem to be facing any major obstacles in your
journaling practice . . . but your work will just seem a little dull or a little
dry. Here are twenty-two tips for reviving a tired journal.

1: Augment your journal. Go back through your previous journal

entries. Highlight the interesting passages. Elaborate and expand
upon your earlier notes.
2: Footnote your work. Add footnotes, explanatory comments,
and conclusions to your journal entries.
3: Read your journal almost as you would read tarot cards. Look
for words, phrases, and entries with deeper symbolic meaning
than you ascribed to them as you wrote them. Look for messages.
4: Create. Turn one of your journal entries into a story, a song, a
poem, a drawing, or a painting.
5: Consult a guidebook. If you can’t find a direction you like, turn
your journal into a directed study. There are many tarot
handbooks and workbooks on the market. Find one you like, and
enjoy the structure it gives you. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.
6: Go back to school. Take a class in tarot or any related subject,
such as astrology, numerology, runes, I Ching, Kabbalah, dream
interpretation, tea-leaf reading, meditation, palmistry, or chakra
balancing. You might also want to take a class designed to help
you express your creativity through drawing, painting, creative
writing, or literature. Bring your new studies into your work with
the cards, and document the results in your tarot journal.
7: Find a theme. Go back through your journal entries, and see
what themes you can spot, as well as variations on those themes,
just as you would during a tarot reading.
8: Be hateful. It’s human nature to tend to be passionate in
describing things that we hate. Find a card that makes you angry
or fills you with disgust. Then get your creative juices flowing
with a good old-fashioned rant. Vent, lash out, spout off, and rage
on the page. What does the card—and your comments—tell you
about yourself?
9: Change your point of view. Get a new perspective. Be like the
Hanged Man: turn your journal over and write upside down, or
rotate it ninety degrees and write sideways. Start in the middle of
the page, and write in a circle or a spiral. If you are left-handed,
write with your right hand.
10: Switch voices. If you normally write about yourself in the first
person, with lots of “I’s” and “me’s,” switch to third person
—“he,” “she,” or “it.”
11: Tense up. If you usually write in the past tense, try writing in
the present or future tense, or the historical present, in which you
would describe past events as though they were happening now:
“The sun is shining brightly as I wait for the bus. It’s my first day
of school, and I’m excited—and scared, both.”
12: Switch styles. If you normally write in longhand, try printing
your entries. If you usually keep a handwritten journal, try typing
instead.
13: Switch hands. Write with your non-dominant hand. If you are
right-handed, use your left.
14: Switch times. Experiment with writing in the early morning,
at lunch, after dinner, or just before bed.
15: Switch formats. Go from a bound book to a journaling
program on your computer. Try dictating your journal into a tape
recorder or videotaping yourself.
16: Switch mediums. Draw, paint, or collage your entry.
17: Try a change of scene. Try writing in a coffee shop, at the
beach, in your car, or on the porch.
18: Go on a date. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way,
recommends a weekly “artist’s date” in which you feed your
creative spirit. Take a walk. Visit a museum. Treat yourself to a
break that will refresh and recharge your artistic nature.
19: Go shopping. Buy new journaling supplies. Get new pens,
markers, and colored pencils. Treat yourself to a scented candle or
a new CD. Find a new deck of tarot cards to use with your
journal.
20: Start over. Begin a new journal with a new theme and a
renewed focus.
21: Journal with a friend. Arrange to meet in a restaurant, a
coffee shop, a hotel lobby, or a park, and write side by side.
22: Retreat. Go on a journaling retreat, either alone or with
others. Spend a full day or two journaling in the park, at a camp-
ground, at the library, or at a bed-and-breakfast. Who knows how
far you could travel through the pages of your journal?
 3

What Crowns You

Turn up the third card; place it above the Significator, and say: This crowns him. It
represents (a) the Querent’s aim or ideal in the matter; (b) the best that can be achieved
under the circumstances, but that which has not yet been made actual.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
Personal Privacy and the Ethics of Keeping a Tarot
Journal
In an ideal world, your tarot journal would always remain private. No one
in your home would ever think of reading it without permission. Even if
you accidentally left your journal wide open on the kitchen table, anyone
who happened to pass by would just keep walking or close it gently and
return it to you.
In the real world, however, tarot journals are a source of a wide range of
ethical and privacy landmines. A tarot journal combines two intensely
personal realms: the secret world of your inner thoughts and the private
world of the tarot reading.
 Writing About Readings
Tarot readings are intensely personal events. Even when tarot readings are
conducted in the spirit of fun—at a party, for example, or after dinner with
friends—surprisingly intimate issues are bound to come up. In fact, tarot
readings can get so personal that many tarot readers refuse to allow
onlookers—and they refuse to discuss individual tarot readings with anyone
after the fact.
Does that mean you shouldn’t write about a tarot reading? Will you
violate anyone else’s privacy if you keep a record of their readings?
There are a few simple steps you can take with your journal, both to
protect other people’s privacy and stay true to your own tarot-reading
ethics.

Get permission. Ask permission before you write down any

information about the tarot readings you conduct for other people.
Tell them why you want to take notes in your journal and what
you plan to do with those notes.

Write after the fact. Don’t write in your journal while you’re
conducting a reading. You will inhibit the flow of information
from the cards, and you will interrupt your conversation with your
client. Make your journal entries at the conclusion of your
readings; the cards on the table should be enough to refresh your
memory about anything you discussed.

Keep open records. Offer to give other people a copy of your

notes about their readings. You could even keep a few sheets of
old-fashioned carbon paper handy, so you can give them instant
copies of your journal entries.

Be obtuse. Use initials or pseudonyms, instead of real names, to

identify the people you write about in your journal.
Be careful. If you include private information about other people
in your tarot journal, be prepared to safeguard it with
extraordinary care. Don’t leave it where you might lose it, or
where someone could pick it up and read it—like your desk at
work or the coffee shop or the front seat of your car. When other
people entrust you with their deeply held secrets, you have a
moral and an ethical obligation to keep those secrets safe.
 Reading About Others
What about using the cards to explore the role of other people in your own
life? One of the most popular reasons for keeping a journal is to improve
your relationships. You might be seeking insight into the motivations of
people around you or examining their reactions to things you have said and
done. Adding tarot cards to your journaling process will often help you
recognize causes and connections that would otherwise go unnoticed by
your conscious mind.
It can also be tempting to go to the cards for straight, immediate answers,
without analysis.
You should know, however, that it can be hazardous to use tarot cards
only to get information about other people—especially if you are seeking
information that they wouldn’t choose to share with you under normal
circumstances. In fact, many experienced tarot readers think it’s a serious
violation of ethics to read tarot cards about anyone who hasn’t given
permission.
Likewise, it’s a bad idea to use your journal to plumb the depths of what
may be happening in other people’s private lives, and you shouldn’t use
tarot cards to try to read someone else’s thoughts or gauge their emotions.
For one thing, the information you glean in a secret, unauthorized reading
probably won’t help you much. You won’t get the full story—just as you
wouldn’t get the whole truth from rumors or gossip. What’s more, in a
measure of cosmic justice, you could soon find that other people in your life
are going behind your back to get information about you.
There are times, of course, when you can ethically ask the cards about
another person. The key is to make sure that your questions focus on your
role in that person’s life. It is perfectly okay, for example, to ask how
someone perceives you, or feels about you, or will respond to something
you say or do.
Ultimately, your goal should be to use tarot cards—and your tarot journal
—to look for ways that you can help others and improve your relationships
with them. Just make sure that you and your relationships with them are the
real focus of the inquiry. Make sure that you are motivated by the right
reasons, that you consider your questions carefully, and that you are willing
to live with any repercussions.
In your tarot journal, as in any tarot practice, you will get the best results
by examining your own role in your relationships. Limit your tarot readings
to questions that directly pertain to your own life and your own thoughts.
Focus your thoughts and energy on your own choices and your own past,
present, and future. That way, the information you glean from a tarot
reading will be properly focused on your own life.
 Private Matters
If someone close to you might come across your tarot journal, you probably
should take some steps to protect your privacy—as well as their feelings.

Post a “keep out” sign. If you think you can scare trespassers
away, you might want to open your journal with a warning.
This is my private journal. Don’t read it!

Open with a disclaimer. You want to put a disclaimer on the first

page.

This journal is a private tool of introspection,

reflection, and self-development. While the entries in
this journal are based on the events and experiences of
my everyday life, some of them are also imaginary.
Some may be fantasy or fiction. Any similarities to
actual events, places, and people may be entirely
coincidental.

Ultimately, you will probably have the most success if you take
a few steps to ensure that your journal simply doesn’t pose a
temptation to passersby.

What’s in a name? Call your tarot journal a notebook, and tell

others you are using it in your study of the cards. Make it seem
dry, scholarly, and of no more interest than a collection of
chemistry notes.

Write in code. Use language that only you will understand,

including initials, pseudonyms, abbreviations, and shorthand
notes.
Plant a red herring. Keep two duplicate journals—a real one with
your true thoughts and feelings, and a boring “bogus” journal to
fake out any spies. You can fill it with grocery lists, weather
reports, and reminders of things you need to do.

Keep your journal hidden. Don’t leave your journal lying out in
plain sight. Because you probably won’t fool anyone by stashing
your journal in your sock drawer, storing it in a desk drawer, or
sliding it under your mattress, think of unusual hiding places.
Wrap it in foil and keep it in your freezer. Lock it in the trunk of
your car. Stash it in your toolbox. Just make sure you don’t hide it
so well that you can’t find it.

Become a master of disguise. Cover your journal with a dust

jacket from another book, and hide it in plain sight on your
bookshelf.

Keep it locked. Desperate times may call for desperate measures.

You can always drill a hole through your journal and padlock it.
Or you can keep your journal in a fireproof home safe.

Go high-tech. Keep an electronic version of your journal on your

computer. Use software that requires a password to open files.
Encrypt your text or lock your documents so that no one can read
them for a pre-set period of time.

Share the joy. Encourage others to start—and keep—their own

journals right along with you.
 Share with Care
Most people would agree that it is a violation of privacy and ethics to
disclose other people’s secrets. But what about sharing your own private
thoughts or revealing your own secrets? Can you share your journal with
other people? Should you?
It’s a tricky question—and you might want to consider all of the
ramifications before you make your life an open book.
Routine journal entries probably will never be an issue. If you simply
want to share an account of your trip to Chicago, or a review of last night’s
movie, or your plans for an upcoming dinner party, you pose little risk of
offending others or of opening yourself to criticism, judgment, or ridicule.
But you should be selective in what you choose to share, and any entry
that reveals sensitive personal information should stay closely guarded.
Before you make any of your journal entries available to someone else,
make sure that you trust them not to be hurt by what you have written—or
to be overly critical of your views or hurtful in their response.
Also, know your own reasons for wanting to share. Are you looking for
love? Understanding? A sympathetic ear? A shoulder to cry on? Whatever
the reason, be clear about the reaction you want to solicit. You may or may
not want feedback: say so up front. If you want comments, be specific about
what kind of remarks you would like to hear.
Even if you keep an openly public journal, as many people do on the
web, always remember that anyone with an Internet connection can access
it. Don’t post information that could damage your reputation, and be
especially cautious about personal information you post about other people.
A public journal is not the place to air your grievances with others or
expose their failures and shortcomings.
 A Legal Brief
If you are concerned about lawsuits or even just the possibility of finding
yourself in court, you should know that journals and diaries can be
subpoenaed. Your Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate yourself
doesn’t cover your journal entries, even if you believe them to be private. In
fact, journals and diaries are routinely entered as evidence in court cases. If
you are in a position in which you believe your words could be used against
you in a court of law, consult an attorney.
 Final Arrangements
What will you do with your journals when you finish working with them—
or when you die? Should you burn them? Bury them? Throw them away?
You might want to make arrangements for your ultimate parting of ways.
Many people plan for close friends, children, or grandchildren to inherit
their journals—and, in fact, they write their journals with those audiences in
mind.
You might also plan to donate your journals to a historical collection.
Many colleges and universities maintain archives of historical documents,
and personal journals and diaries are highly prized additions.
You may want to contribute journals to an archive in your home state.
Materials there will be accessible to people who have an interest in the
people, history, and culture of your area. If you are concerned about
keeping secrets and maintaining confidentiality even after you are gone,
you can ask that your journal be kept private for a period of years; viewing
restrictions on personal documents are routine at most archival institutions.
 4

What Grounds You

Turn up the fourth card; place it below the Significator, and say: This is beneath him. It
shews the foundation or basis of the matter, that which has already passed into actuality
and which the Significator has made his own.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 How to Use a Tarot Journal as a Foundation for
Your Work with the Cards
Whether you use your tarot journal primarily to enhance your
comprehension of the cards or to enhance your understanding of yourself,
your success depends on your understanding of each individual card. One
by one, as you work your way through all seventy-eight cards of the tarot
deck, you will develop a deeper understanding of the cards—and of
yourself.
This chapter will outline several ways you can use your journal as a
foundation for your work with the cards—and it will describe quite a few
journaling techniques, as well.
 Card Interpretations
If you plan to use your tarot journal as a card interpretation handbook, you
can lay the groundwork with some simple journal entries.

Consult the user’s guide. Some tarot readers start their journals by
copying information about each card from the little white booklet
that comes with most decks—known affectionately in tarot circles
as the LWB. Such notes could serve as a springboard for your
own thoughts and interpretations of each card.

Make a list. If you are planning to keep detailed notes about each
card, you might want to design a blank “template” page —a
checklist of the items you want to include in your entries. That
way, you can standardize your format, you can keep your notes
consistent from card to card, and later you can find information
more easily. You can find a sample template form in appendix V.

Consider the source. Remember to note the source of any new

information you record in your tarot journal in case you need to
refer to it later. Just jot down the source—whether you are
including information from a book, a website, an article, or your
own experiences with the cards. You might think you will
remember where you learn things, but time has a way of erasing
information that your journal can keep safe.

Leave room for dessert. Your interpretations and notes are bound
to evolve and grow over time. Ultimately, your interpretations
could evolve into freeform essays about the meanings of each
card. As you become more familiar with each of the cards—
through your reading, your writing, and your related experiences,
such as guided meditations and visualizations—you may want to
clarify or modify or expand your interpretations and definitions.
You could plan to leave space to revisit each card later, or you
could plan to add to later journals and entries.
 Cluster
The clustering technique integrates the processes of both the creative right
and the analytical left side of the brain. Clustering is fast. It’s
comprehensive. And in many respects, the clustering layout reflects the
basic tarot spread, in which you can see connections and reflections and
overlaps and permutations between cards.
To cluster, start by writing a single word or phrase in the center of a page.
You can start with the name of a card, the name of a character in the card, or
a word that describes an image, object, or symbol on the card.
Circle the central word or phrase, and then branch out by adding any
related words, phrases, or terms that come to mind. Draw lines connecting
your ideas. Free associate and head off on any tangents that interest you.
Let your mind wander all over the page. You will probably find yourself
making new and surprising connections, correlations, and associations—
and connecting the dots in ways you never expected.
Later, you can use your clusters to develop keywords for individual
cards. You can also use them as the basis of future journal entries.
 Card Descriptions
When you study the tarot, much of your work will involve studying
individual cards. By writing descriptions of each card in your tarot journal,
you will see each card more clearly.

Diagram. Use words to diagram the elements of the card, starting

with the central objects and working out toward the periphery. If
you are working with the Ten of Wands, for example, you might
try something like this: man—ten wands—path—little house—
rolling hills—blue sky.

Describe the card. Describe the card with as much detail as you
can muster. Write as if you were describing it to someone who
can’t see it. What images, symbols, or colors catch your eye?
What is the significance of the suit, the element, the number, and
the astrological correspondence? Are there any props in the
picture? How are the figures standing, sitting, or gesturing?

The Queen of Cups is sitting on her throne, surrounded

by calm, tranquil blue water. Her blonde hair seems to
blow softly in a warm breeze. She gazes reflectively at
the cup she holds in her hands ...

React to the card. Based on a first, casual impression, write down

your reactions to a card. Then go a step further. What feelings or
thoughts does the card evoke?

Familiar figures. Do you know anyone who reminds you of a

particular card? Who? And why? How does that affect your
interpretation of the card?
Same old, same old. How have you experienced the situations
depicted in each card? Think of times in the past when you have
felt like the character on the card, acted like the character on the
card, or found yourself in a circumstance like the one pictured on
the card.

Altered points of view. Change your vantage point. Describe the

card from above, from the side, from below, or from behind.
Describe the card from the point of view of someone inside the
card. Describe the card as if you were the artist. Describe the card
as if you were the omniscient god who created the world depicted
in the card.

In the background. Write only about the landscape or the

background of the card. Forget about the people who are pictured
in the card, the props, or anything situated in the area. Focus on
the setting.

Don’t bother to knock. If your card pictures a building, even one

far in the distance, imagine what it would be like to go inside.
Wander through the hallways, walk through the rooms, look in
closets and cubbyholes. Look out of the windows. What will you
see? What will you discover?

Hike the back country. Picture yourself wandering through the

landscape of the tarot cards. Wade into the streams. Swim in the
lakes. Climb the trees. Discover where the road leads. Where does
the river flow? What is just over the horizon? Who else will you
meet inside the card? Record your amblings and adventures.

Dip into a stream of consciousness. Many tarot cards depict

bodies of water. Examine your card. Do you see a pond, a lake, or
a sea? A stream or a river? What color is the water? Is it moving
or still? What is going on beneath the surface? Step into the water.
How do you move? Do you wade or swim? How do your feelings
change as a result of your dip? Write it all down.
Location, location, location. Have you ever been to a place like
the location pictured on the card? How did you get there? What
did you do there? Who else was there? Who did you meet? What
kind of person were you then? How did that place change you?
How has time changed you? What would you expect if you went
back?

A change of seasons. Change the seasons in a card. If flowers are

blooming and trees are budding, imagine the same environment in
autumn or winter. How does the change of seasons affect the
characters in the card?

Natural development. Imagine that you will develop the natural

setting of a card. Who will move in, and why? What will they
build? How will they use the land?
 One Card a Day
Many tarot readers draw one card a day, both for study and for reflection.
One-card readings focus on a single moment in time and force you to
recognize critical, immediate information. One-card readings can be routine
or reflective, as quick or intense as you like, but they do tend to force you to
go deep into yourself for insight and answers.
Card-a-day readings, like the phases of the moon, are fluid and constantly
evolving. They can reveal slivers of insight or illuminate a full circle of
information. A card-a-day reading can be a learning aid, as you work your
way progressively through all seventy-eight cards. A card-a-day reading
can be a predictive tool, as you seek omens and augurs, predictions and
forecasts for the day that is about to unfold. A card-a-day reading can help
you measure and hone your intuition. A card-a-day reading can also be a
meditative device or a jumping-off point for creative inspiration and journal
entries.
Keeping a card-a-day journal is simple.

Pick a card. When you first wake up, shuffle and draw a card at
random. Keep the card in mind—or keep it with you—as you go
through the day. If you normally carry your journal with you, you
could tuck the card into its pages. You could glue an envelope to
the inside cover, just to hold your card of the day. You could even
paperclip your card to one of the pages. At the end of the day,
make notes about your observations.
First thing in the morning, draw a single card at random and
see how many of the symbols in the card pop up during the course
of your day. Watch for parallels between the cards you draw, the
people you meet, and the events of the day. Your sharp-tongued
coworker, for example, might be the Queen of Swords; an
unexpected job assignment could be the Ten of Wands.
Before you go to bed, note your card—and the events of the
day—in your journal. As you write, ask yourself how you feel
about each card. Can you change your attitude and make a Ten of
Wands seem like an Ace of Wands?

Enter it in the log. Additionally, you might want to use your card-
a-day journal to maintain a checklist-style log of the cards you
have drawn. At a glance, you can see which cards you have
drawn repeatedly, which cards are most prominent during
different phases of your life, and which cards are notable by their
absence. Cards that either show up repeatedly or fail to make an
appearance are equally telling. List all of the cards in the deck,
from the Fool to the King of Pentacles. Draw lines to create a grid
or leave space to record the date each card is drawn. Leave a page
to keep a daily reading chart. List cards with check boxes and
date boxes. (You can find a sample checklist in appendix V.)

The end of the day. You don’t have to choose your card of the day
in the morning, at random. You can also select your card
consciously and face up at the end of the day. Just look through
the cards and find one that seems to summarize or capture the
spirit and events of the day that is now drawing to a close.

Today was an Eight of Wands day for me.The phone

didn’t stop ringing once. Every time I’d hang up,
someone else would call. You’d think I was the only
person in the office who could handle the customers. A
lot of it was coworkers transferring calls to me. The fax
kept ringing, too, and my e-mail was out of control. I
know the Eight of Wands is supposed to represent long-
distance and electronic communication, but this was
ridiculous. I missed lunch, and I couldn’t even get to the
bathroom.
 Correspondences
Any serious study of the tarot would be incomplete without noting the
myriad correspondences and cross-references that tarot scholars have
developed over the centuries. For example, the four suits of the Minor
Arcana—wands, cups, swords, and pentacles—correspond to the four suits
of an ordinary playing card deck (clubs, hearts, spades, and diamonds), the
four ancient elements (fire, water, air, and earth), and the four realms of
human existence (spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical).
Correspondences give us a sense of structure, of design, of deep-rooted
foundation in our work with the cards. Correspondences help us recognize
that the structure of the tarot deck is not arbitrary. The framework is not
haphazard. Tarot is not coincidence. There is a sensibility and symmetry to
the structure of the deck. Correspondences help us make sense not only of
the cards but also of our lives.
You can enter correspondences as you discover them. You may want to
reserve several pages strictly to record your correspondence guide in list or
table form. See appendix II for an example.
 Symbolic Touches
The tarot, which was born in Renaissance Italy and spread through France,
is inextricably linked to the culture and tradition of Western Europe. The
cards are steeped in the myths of Greece and Rome, the Bible, and the
history of Europe and the Americas. As a result, many of the tarot’s images
and symbols hold standard meanings that are readily understood by anyone
familiar with Western culture. Most, for example, could immediately relate
to the idea that an apple symbolizes “forbidden fruit,” and they could
extrapolate a wide range of related implications from the image.
You can find standard symbols and their interpretations listed in symbol
dictionaries. Occasionally, however, tarot artists and designers add new
layers of interpretation to their cards, so symbolism sometimes varies from
artist to artist, deck to deck.
More importantly, your own interpretations may vary from anything an
artist intended. Sometimes, an image or detail may not be universally
regarded as a symbol—but it may hold symbolic significance for you.
You might want to use your tarot journal to help you develop a
personalized symbol dictionary, both to note symbols that may be unique to
your deck and to note symbols that hold special significance for you. Pay
special attention to symbols and imagery that crop up in the cards and in
your everyday life. When you see a black cat skulking across your yard, for
example, then that cat reappears in your dreams, and then you notice a
black cat on the Queen of Wands, your own observations and interpretations
of the symbol will be more relevant than anything you could find in a
published symbol dictionary.
Keep a list of symbols you see in the cards, along with related symbols
you notice during the course of your everyday life. You can look up their
meanings in symbol dictionaries, along with whatever individual or
personal meaning they hold for you.
 Spreads and Layouts
As you work with tarot cards, you will naturally move between one-card
spreads and larger spreads like the Celtic Cross. You might learn spreads
from other readers, and you will probably even develop spreads of your
own, in response to specific questions and follow-up inquiries.
You can use your journal to keep a record of spreads you have learned
and spreads you invent. Just draw a quick sketch or diagram of each
position in the spread and its significance.
 Character Sketches
The characters in the tarot are much more than paper dolls or cardboard
cutouts. Because each one is based on powerful archetypes and symbols,
they seem to come to life with very little effort. As you meet and work with
each one through the pages of your tarot journal, you will find that they all
have stories to tell, adventures to share, and lessons to teach.

Life stories. Pick a character in any card, at random, or choose

one that you would like to know better. Take the ferryman in the
Six of Swords, for example. Name him, give him a life history,
and describe what is happening to him in the card. Explore his
past, present, and future, at length. Ultimately, you may discover
that what you think about a character can tell you a lot about
yourself.
Fiction writers often create elaborate histories and profiles of
the characters in their stories. Here are some factors you might
like to consider in order to transform your tarot characters from
two-dimensional figures into full-figured, well-rounded
personalities.

• Name
• Age
• Address
• Physical description: eye color, weight, height,
predominant feature, scars, tattoos, or distinguishing
marks
• Strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities
• Habits, good and bad
• Pet peeves
• Talents and hobbies
• Life history: birth date, astrological sign, hometown,
earliest memory, education, adolescence
 • Family: parents, brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts,
and grandparents
• Home life: spouse, children, pets
• Close contacts: best friends, advisors, enemies,
employers, supervisors, coworkers
• Employment: current job, work history,
responsibilities, salary
• Daily routine
• Favorite things: vacation spot, color, music, food,
restaurant, shops and stores, book, magazine, movie,
television show, sayings and expressions

A day in the life. Describe a day in the life of a figure in a card.

What do they do when they wake up? How do they prepare for
the day? What takes up most of their time? With whom do they
eat, work, play, and spend the night?

Age progression. Try your hand at age progression and regression.

Describe what a character will be like when they are twenty years
older or, alternately, what they were like twenty years ago.

Job search. Write a résumé for a character in the cards. Invent and
include their full name, address, objective, education, experience,
expertise, and references.

Pen pals. Write a letter to a figure in a card or from a figure in the

card. It can be any type of letter: a job application, news to an old
friend, e-mail. Imagine that you are the character in the card and
write a letter to yourself. Write a letter to a character in a card that
you don’t understand, don’t like, do like, or want to know more
about. Say anything and everything you want; ask questions.
Then answer the letter you wrote as if you were the character. You
can also compose entries in the form of telegrams and e-mail.

Play matchmaker. Find characters from different cards. Look for

characters that seem compatible, as well as pairs that would be
completely at odds. Set them up on a date, arrange for them to be
invited to the same party, or make them coworkers. Put them on
the bus or the subway together, or trap them in an elevator for an
hour. Observe how they get along, and record your observations.

Change of scene. Remove a figure from one card and insert them
into another. Put the Hanged Man on the Hermit’s mountain.
Have Temperance take a test drive in the Chariot. How do the
characters’ perspectives change? What advice do they have to
offer from their new location?

Prop master. Find an image in a card. Now find one in real life.
Hold it. Write about it. Make it a real, tangible experience.

Borrowed clothing. Borrow a set of clothing from one of the

characters in the card. Write about how it makes you feel.

Someone else’s shoes. Choose any figure from any card—man,

woman, child, or animal. Slip into her body. Slip into his skin.
Look out at the world through her eyes. Feel his body—bone,
muscle, and skin. Feel her clothing. Move around. Stand, sit,
walk, run, and stretch. Look at his reflection in a mirror. Imagine
that you are the main character in the card.
How are you standing or sitting? How does that feel,
spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically? Are you
holding anything? What? What does it feel like? What does it
symbolize? Write down all of your impressions in your journal.

Trading places. Imagine that you can trade places with any figure
in any card. Who would you switch places with—and why? What
will you do first? What do you do? How do you do it? And what
advice would you have for the character who will fill your shoes
for the day?

Be the ball. See yourself as the figure on the card—not an

idealized version of yourself and not someone in a costume.
Picture yourself in the card, exactly as you are, right now, and
write a description of how you look and feel.
 Go Inside the Cards
Sometimes, people who study tarot cards imagine themselves inside the
cards, exploring the landscape and meeting personally with the characters
inside each card. Typically, they enter each card through meditations and
visualizations—two simple, remarkably effective ways to connect
personally with each card.
The two techniques work seamlessly to bridge the communication gap
between your conscious and subconscious minds. Because the information
you glean during a meditation comes directly from your subconscious mind,
it is imminently relevant and pertinent to your life. And because your
journeys occur when you are fully conscious, meditations are easy to
remember when you’re through. Simply allow your mind to wander, and
watch as events unfold on the page.
 A Guide to Guided Meditation
You may want to try guided meditation before you work in your tarot
journal. Guided meditation will calm you and make it possible to explore
the cards in depth.
Once you start using guided meditation regularly, you might be surprised
at how quickly you can attain a state of altered consciousness. Many
people, relaxed by deep breathing and stillness, find that they can slip into a
meditative state simply by allowing their bodies to rest and their minds to
wander.
You might also be surprised by how “real” guided meditation feels. With
your eyes closed, you might see vivid images in your mind. You might hear
sounds, either subtle or dramatic. You might even notice odors, tastes, and
the sensation of different textures against your skin. Some of it may seem
literal. Other aspects of your experience might register more as impressions,
feelings, or intuitive flashes.
If guided meditation doesn’t work for you right away, don’t panic. It
might take practice. At first, you might not see any images. You might not
hear, smell, or taste anything. In fact, you will probably notice your
impressions come most clearly in one format: usually sight, sound, or smell.
Enjoy whatever you do experience. Each time you practice, you will get
better.
The following all-purpose meditation will work with any tarot card. You
can use it with a card you pick at random. You can also choose to use it
with a card you especially like or one you dislike intensely.
For best results, have someone read this aloud to you, or tape-record it
for yourself.
 The Meditation
Choose your card, and examine it carefully for sixty seconds. Start with the
name and number of the card. Then look at the sky pictured in the card, and
let your gaze move down the card, across the landscape. Notice the
background of the card, and then shift your attention to the foreground. Pay
attention to every detail. What colors are most prominent? Are there people
in the card? How are they standing or sitting? How are they dressed? What
are they holding? What are the expressions on their faces? Are there
animals in the card? What are they doing? In short, try to memorize the full
scope of the card.
Now close your eyes, but keep the card in mind.
Sit comfortably, with both feet solidly grounded on the floor. Make sure
there is nothing in your lap and nothing in your hands. Breathe deeply, three
times. Breathe in through your nose, and breathe out through your mouth.
Remember to keep breathing deeply throughout this meditation.
[Pause.]
Relax completely, starting with your feet. Wiggle your toes and then
relax them. Flex your ankles and relax your feet. Relax your calves, relax
your knees, and relax your thighs. Relax your hips and settle comfortably in
your chair. Take a deep breath and relax your stomach. Wiggle your fingers
and then relax them. Relax your hands, your wrists, and your arms. Shrug
your shoulders and then relax them. Move your head in a gentle circle and
relax your neck. Unclench your teeth, relax your jaw, and take another deep
breath. Notice how the deep breathing helps you sharpen your concentration
and focus your attention.
[Pause.]
Keep your eyes closed. Continue to breathe deeply, and see the card
again in your mind’s eye. Reconstruct it completely, from top to bottom. As
you envision the card, see it as large as life, filling the landscape in front of
you. The borders of the card will become a doorway, and a shining path will
lead from your feet through that doorway, into the card.
Follow that path, and walk slowly and comfortably into the card.
[Pause.]
 Look around. Notice the view in front of you, as well as to your right and
to your left.
Keep breathing deeply, and become increasingly aware of your
surroundings.
What do you see?
What do you hear?
What is the weather like?
How does it feel to be inside the card?
[Pause.]
Now look around until you find a character from the card. Approach that
figure. He or she has been expecting you, and he or she has something to
say to you.
Take a moment, and listen carefully.
[Pause.]
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. You may or may not get
a response. You may spend a few moments in quiet conversation, or you
may get an unspoken, symbolic message. Take a few moments to
communicate.
[Pause.]
It is almost time to say goodbye and come back to this room. Offer your
thanks, and then start moving away. As you leave, remember that you can
return to the card at any time by relaxing and remembering the route you
took into the card.
[Pause.]
Take a long, final look around the card. Then see the doorway that you
used to enter the card, the doorway back to this room.
Walk back through the doorway to this room. Step through the doorway,
and get ready to come back to your life in the real world. With your eyes
still closed, take three deep breaths to catch up to the here and now. With
each breath, you will feel more awake and reinvigorated. Take two more
deep breaths, and when you are ready, open your eyes.
 Journaling Prompts

• What did you first notice about your surroundings?

• What did you see when you looked down at the ground?
• What caught your eye when you looked out at the landscape?
• What did you hear?
• What time of day was it?
• What was the temperature like, and how did the air feel against
your skin?
• Of all sensations you experienced, which was the strongest?
• What were you wearing?
• Who did you encounter in the card?
• Can you describe that figure? Describe their dress, posture,
expression, and mannerisms.
• What message did that figure have for you?
• How does this message relate to your life at this moment?
• Did this meditation hold any surprises for you?
• What did you like or dislike the most about your experience?
• Would you like to return to this meditation on your own? Why
or why not?
 Focused Meditation
Once you become proficient at guided meditation, you can also enter a card
simply by looking at it.

Preparation. Choose one card from the deck. Sit comfortably in a

chair, with your feet firmly on the floor, and breathe deeply. As
you breathe, relax and study the card in front of you. Examine
every detail. As you look at the card, imagine it growing larger
and larger, until it stands in front of you, like a doorway into
another world. Picture yourself walking through that doorway and
into the card.

Survey the grounds. Look around, and describe what you see.
What do you notice that you couldn’t see from outside the card?
What do you hear? What do you smell? What is the weather like?
How does it feel to be inside the card?
You will probably be surprised by what you can sense. Many
people who try this meditate with the cards or visualize
themselves entering a card and report hearing background noise
like wind, birds, and waves. They can feel the heat of the sun or a
cool breeze or the grass underneath their feet. They can even
smell flowers, grass, and salty sea air.

You’re not alone. You find yourself face to face with a character
from the card. Write about the experience. Where do you meet
her? What is he wearing? What is the expression on her face?
What is his mood? How does she react to your presence? Does he
greet you, or must you initiate a conversation? What does she say
to you? How do you respond? Does he have a message for you?
Does she have a gift for you? What is it? How do you feel about
it? What do you say to him? What will you remember most about
your encounter?
The safe haven. Imagine that you are on the run from an unseen
attacker. Suddenly you find yourself in the scene shown in your
card, where you can hide safely. What makes this card a refuge
for you? What help can you find here? Put it down on paper.

Unexpected visitors. You may have gone into the cards during
meditation or visualization in order to explore the world of the
tarot from the perspective of the cards. Now, try the process in
reverse. Imagine that one of the characters has come out of a card
to meet you in your surroundings. Imagine finding the Magician
in your kitchen, or the boys from the Five of Wands roughhousing
in your living room, or the Hanged Man at your computer.
Visualize yourself walking through your front door and going
through your house until you find your visitor. How do you feel?
Angry? Alarmed? Amused? What will you say? What will the
two of you talk about? Record your interaction in your journal.

Tour guide. Imagine that one of the figures from a tarot card is
staying with you as a houseguest. What will you do to entertain
your guest? Where will you take him? What will you share with
her? How will he react?
 Dialogues
Dialogues are imaginary conversations that take place only in your mind or
in the pages of your journal. All you need to do is start the conversational
ball rolling—metaphorically speaking—and write down the exchange
exactly as you imagine it.
You can create a dialogue with any person, place, or thing. You can
imagine a dialogue with any creature or image in any tarot card: the
apprentice in the Eight of Pentacles, the dog that nips at the heels of the
Fool, the snake in the tree behind the Lovers, or the four sunflowers in the
Sun card. You can even imagine a dialogue between two characters, two
cards, or two versions of the same card.
The process is as unlimited as your imagination. If you are willing to
recognize that the tarot allows the flow of symbolic information from your
subconscious mind—and roll with that flow—you can get results.
Here are some starting ideas.

Ask questions. Don’t start with any suppositions or expectations.

Just pose a question to any card you choose, and wait for the
answer. Even if the response doesn’t make sense, ask for
clarification and write it all down. The process is kind of like
channeling, in which cosmic wisdom and information is said to
come from otherworldly entities.

Ask for information. Ask the figures in the cards for background
information, names, dates, places, and details. You can even use
your best investigator’s impersonation: “Just the facts, ma’am.”

Ask for advice. Seek guidance, counsel, and advice from a trusted
ally in the cards, either one that you choose deliberately or one
who seems to show up repeatedly in your readings and journaling
sessions.
Eavesdrop. Observe and record as characters from two different
cards talk to each other.

Interview. There may be times during your pursuit of information

and knowledge, both of yourself and of the cards, when you will
feel like a journalist who is on the trail of a big story. Tarot cards
can lend you an inside scoop on practically any subject.
It is easy to follow a reporter’s format as you investigate. Just
refer to the “Five W’s”—who, what, when, where, and why—and
how. Keep asking those questions. The first answer you receive
might not always be self-explanatory. Dig deep. You might find
yourself uncovering breaking news or the story of a lifetime.
 Lists
Writer Anthony Burgess once said that given a choice between a new play
by Shakespeare and a grocery list from the famous play-write, he’d want
the grocery list, for its ability to illuminate the man a little more.
Lists are telling, descriptive, and quick. They lend insight into your daily
life, as well as your motivations, drives, and desires.
Make a list of all the symbols on every card. You do not need to define or
interpret them right away. Simply note their presence on each card.
Lists you can create include:

Keywords of words and phrases, definitions, and information

about each card in the tarot deck.

Top tens. List ten things about a card. You can take them directly
from the card or they may simply be inspired by the card. You
could list quotes, song titles, symbols, colors, impressions, or
anything you like.

Colorful language. Write a list of adjectives that describe each

card: big, small, bright, hot, dim, or scintillating.

To be, or not to be. Write a list of “is” and “is not” qualities for
each card.

Question authority. Make a list of questions you hear frequently

about the tarot.

Routine inquiries. Make a list of questions people commonly ask

during their readings, along with your answers.

Pros and cons. List the positives and negatives, the pros and cons,
of each card.
Likes and dislikes. List the things you like and dislike about each
card.

Quotations. Keep a list of quotes that remind you of the cards.

Songs. Keep a list of songs that remind you of the cards.

Gratitudes. Use the cards to remind you of your blessings and

things for which you are grateful.
 Timed Writing
Timed writing is a staple of many journaling programs. When you try timed
writing, it doesn’t matter what you write; your only goal is to start writing,
and keep writing, until your time is up.
Timed writing sessions force you to write without overanalyzing your
efforts or doubting your talents. Timed writing helps unblock your
communication skills and primes the pump for further work.
There are several types of timed writing.

Less is more. Limited timed writing means you must stop when
the timer goes off.

Icebreaker. If you are using timed writing as a prompt, you can

keep going for as long as you like.

Focused free writing. Select a card you wish to explore. Set a

timer for five, ten, or fifteen minutes. Look at the card and start
writing whatever comes to mind. At first, your entries may seem
like complete nonsense—but don’t pause or stop, and don’t edit
or rewrite your entries. Don’t cross out words, second-guess your
spelling, or feel self-conscious about your storytelling ability. If
you need to, think of your journal as a rough draft. Just keep your
pen moving.
If you can’t think of anything new to say, repeat something you
just wrote, or write,“I can’t think of anything to write.” If you
find yourself going off on tangents, that’s okay, too. Just keep
writing, no matter what comes to mind.

An hour of your time. Set aside an hour, and write about one
single card for at least sixty minutes. When you think you have
run out of things to write, keep going. You might say, “That’s all I
see. A tree, a rock.” Keep writing until you have thoroughly
described and examined a single card.
When your time has elapsed, go back over your work and
underline the words, phrases, and sentences you find most
meaningful.
 Creative Writing
The tarot can be a useful tool for amateur and professional writers alike.
Sometimes, when you lay out the cards, stories practically write themselves.
Rachel Pollack and Caitlin Matthews used tarot cards to inspire a wide
range of authors to contribute to their anthology, Tarot Tales. Martin H.
Greenberg and Lawrence Schimel also compiled an innovative collection of
short stories entitled Tarot Fantastic.
You can use tarot cards to create any style of fiction, poetry, or drama, or
to enhance your understanding of literature by others.

Casting couch. Use the characters from your favorite book to

stand in as the lead players of your own tarot deck, much like the
creators of The Wonderland Tarot Deck or The Tarot of Oz. You
can also cast tarot figures in your favorite television show or
movie.

Myths and fairy tales. Select cards that reflect the characters and
the story lines of classic myths and fairy tales, like Liz Greene
and Juliet Sharman-Burke did with The Mythic Tarot, and Anna-
Marie Ferguson did with Legend:The Arthurian Tarot.

At the movies. Think about a story or movie you know well, and
connect various characters and events with an appropriate card.
Pick additional cards to serve as storyboards depicting locations,
plot twists, climax, and resolution.

The power of three. Choose three images, symbols, or

impressions—at random—from one card. Use them in a sentence,
and use that sentence to begin a story.

A work of fiction. Tarot cards can be a secret weapon in the

creative writer’s arsenal. The cards can suggest characters,
conflict, crisis, and resolution. Start simply, by writing a single
sentence based on the tarot. Choose three highlights from any
card: a color, an object, or an expression, for example. Then use
two of those highlights in a sentence. Then use that sentence as
the first sentence of a short story.
You can create characters based on the cards, derive plot twists
from random tarot readings, and find conclusions in the outcome
card of any spread. You can even generate dialogue by using the
same dialogue techniques you use in your journal.

Poetry in motion. Write a poem about a card. Initial poems are

fairly easy: just use the letters of any tarot-related word—like
“moon,” for example—as the first letter in each line of your
poem. You might like to try your hand at haiku, a Japanese style
of poetry, traditionally written in three lines of five, seven, and
five syllables each. You could even write a tarot limerick or a
tarot nursery rhyme.
 Artistic Pursuits
Illuminate your journal. You can create an illuminated journal, like the
monks during medieval times who embellished the large initials at the
beginning of a page and illustrated the margins with intricate designs and
miniature images. Start by painting colorful borders on some—or all—of
the pages of your journal, even before you begin to write. Stock up on
scrapbooking supplies at your local arts and crafts shop. As you compose
your journal entries, try sketching or drawing a few illustrations to
accompany your writing. Color your artwork with markers or colored
pencils.

A picture is worth a thousand words. You can even forget writing

completely and create a visual journal. You can express yourself through
watercolor paintings, pen-and-ink sketches, pencil drawings, or any artistic
medium you like.

Piece it together. Even if you don’t feel like much of an artist, you can
collage. Use an inexpensive foam paintbrush to coat a few pages with gesso
(available from art supply shops). Tear colored tissue paper and glue it onto
the pages with adhesive or gel. Cut images and illustrations from
magazines, along with words and letters that seem to reflect your thoughts
and feelings. Sprinkle your creations with glitter, and embellish your work
with bits of fabric, feathers, glitter, and rubber stamps. You can even add
copper, gold, or metallic leafing.

Design your own deck. Most people who work with tarot cards can usually
find a tarot deck they like—one that resonates with their worldview, speaks
their language, sings to their soul. After a while, however, one or two cards
might start to feel a little off. You might think the miser in the Four of
Pentacles looks a little too stingy, or wish you could trim that scruffy beard
on the King of Wands. In fact, almost everyone who works with tarot cards
eventually starts to think about the deck they would create for themselves—
if only they had the time and the talent.
 Your tarot journal is the place to start sketching and listing ideas for your
own perfect deck. In fact, Arnell Ando’s work in her journal led to the
creation of her deck, The Transformational Tarot.
First, gather your journaling art supplies, such as markers, glitter pens,
scissors, and glue. Find a healthy supply of old magazines, preferably ones
printed on heavy coated stock. (Fashion magazines and catalogs have the
best pictures of people, and travel magazines have the best scenery.
National Geographic magazines have both, and most used bookstores sell
them for just pennies.) If you would like to include pictures of family,
friends, and pets, find snapshots that you don’t mind cutting apart.
Then go through your magazines, looking for images that appeal to you
and reflect your understanding of the tarot. As you create your deck, focus
on one card at a time. Concentrate on its meaning as you rifle through your
images. You will probably be surprised at how quickly you will find the
appropriate elements for your collage.
As you cut and paste each card, keep your favorite deck handy for
inspiration or refer to a book like Anthony Louis’s Tarot Plain and Simple.
You might want to refer to your tarot deck to develop a list of images and
symbols to use as a starting point for your search.

Sketching. Copy a card into your tarot journal. Don’t trace: draw it
freehand. You can use stick figures, if you like. Include important symbols,
props, and details. You can even add talk balloons and thought bubbles, like
a cartoon.

Etch a sketch. Copy a card without lifting your pen from the paper. The
constant movement of your pen simulates the act of writing, lets your
subconscious and conscious minds connect, and allows ideas and
inspirations to flow.
 Sweet Dreams
When you read tarot cards, you will be more open to messages and
suggestions from your subconscious mind. Not only will you find yourself
slipping into a dreamlike state when you read cards or write in your tarot
journal, but you might also find that your dreams are set in the landscape of
the tarot. You might even expect nighttime visits from the figures in the
cards, as Major and Minor Arcana characters make guest appearances in
your dreams. You might find yourself drinking with the innkeeper from the
Nine of Cups or kneeling at the feet of the Hierophant.
A tarot journal is a good place to record your dreams, because many of
the same symbols and archetypes that make up the images of each card also
appear to us when we sleep.

Get ready for bed. You can even go so far as to plant the seeds of
tarot dreams and visions. Make sure you have your journal and a
good pen on your nightstand. Choose a single card at night, just
before you go to sleep. Study it carefully. Tell yourself that you
will receive insight and a message in a dream. When you wake up
the next morning, write down the messages you receive. Cluster
images and words to get them on paper fast. It might help to set
your alarm to a quiet station or musical selection, so you won’t be
jolted into full consciousness. Also, write in semi-darkness or low
light, so you can linger halfway in the world of your dreams.
 5

What Lies Behind You

Turn up the fifth card; place it on the side of the

Significator from which he is looking, and say:
This is behind him. It gives the influence that is
just passed, or is now passing away.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 How to Rewrite History in the Pages of Your
Journal
“Sometimes,” said author Josephine Hart, “we need a map of the past. It
helps us to understand the present and to plan the future.”
Many people think of tarot cards as a tool for telling the future. In
practice, however, tarot readers spend as much time looking backward as
they do looking forward.
The future, after all, is vague, shapeless, and unformed. For most of us,
it’s too huge and too far away to picture clearly. At the same time, the
present is fleeting. But the past is a place we recognize, and it’s a place
we’re comfortable in—if only because it’s familiar. We’ve been in the past.
We lived through it. We know what happened . . . even if we don’t always
know why events unfolded as they did or how things came to pass.
That’s where a tarot journal can help.
With your tarot cards on the table and your journal in hand, you can
relive, reconsider, and re-create an entire lifetime—or maybe just an
evening or two.
 History in the Making
No one is able to move fully into the future until he or she is comfortable
with what happened in the past.
When you can see the patterns and images of your past literally laid out
in front of you, you can identify pivotal moments. By studying and re-
examining your past, you can see the turning points in your life. You can
spot cause and effect; you can see how a thought, a word, a look, or a
gesture changed the course of events and set a new future into motion.
You can also use the experiences of the past to judge the present and
make decisions for the future.
You can use your tarot journal to relive happy times and celebrate your
past success. “We write to taste life twice,” Anaïs Nin said, “in the moment
and in retrospection.”
You can even take ownership of all that has made you the person you are
today.
A tarot journal can help you understand and heal old wounds. You can
gain understanding, closure, and resolution. You can learn to let go of hurt
and angry feelings.
Reviewing your past also demonstrates that you are not always a hapless
victim of circumstance. You are the master of your own fate, the captain of
your own ship, and, ultimately, the only one in complete control of your
destiny.
In a tarot reading, the cards that fall in the past position serve as a
measure of reliability. You can recognize events and experiences, and verify
the cards’ accuracy. By studying the cards’ version of the past, you can also
learn to decipher the symbolism of the tarot.
A tarot journal can also serve as a record of the person you are today, to
serve as a reference for your future self—the person you will be tomorrow.
“History will be kind to me,” Winston Churchill once said, “for I intend to
write it.”
Here are some suggestions for dealing with your past in a tarot journal.
 Study the Fool’s Journey
The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana combine to form an allegorical
description of our journey through life. That adventure is frequently called
the Fool’s journey, in honor of the Fool card that leads the pack,
representing each and every one of us.
In theory, the Fool moves step-by-step through each stage of human
development, in order. In real life, however, most of us don’t proceed
sequentially. As you will see in your tarot readings, we move up and down,
as well as back and forth. Sometimes we learn the lessons life tries to teach
us. Sometimes we ignore them. Sometimes we forget—or fail—and we
need to repeat a class.
Pull the Fool card from the deck, and lay the remaining Major Arcana
cards, one through twenty-one, in three rows. Each row will have seven
cards.
Then look at them from two perspectives—both as a series of
consecutive lessons, and also as a cosmic game of “Chutes and Ladders.”
Here are some suggestions for a very basic interpretation of each step of
the journey. Feel free to change them, expand them, or adapt them to your
own experience.

The Fool’s Journey

THE TWENTY-TWO CARDS OF THE MAJOR ARCANA, THE FOOL’S
JOURNEY LAID OUT IN GROUPS OF SEVEN (USING THE
UNIVERSAL TAROT BY ROBERTO DE ANGELIS).
 Row One

The Magician • The High Priestess • The Empress • The Emperor

• The Hierophant • The Lovers • The Chariot

The first seven cards in the tarot often depict a fundamental level of
development. They portray the earliest stages of self-awareness, our first
relationships with others, and our initial attempts at self-mastery.

• With the Magician card, we discover our power to control the

forces of nature and the world around us.
• The High Priestess may describe our early emotional life.
• The Empress may represent our mother.
• The Emperor might represent our father.
• The Hierophant might represent the beginning of our formal
education and a growing awareness of societal expectations.
• The Lovers card depicts our first fumbling forays into romance.
• And the Chariot card describes our first independent travels out
into the world. It’s the “driver’s permit” card.
 Row Two

Strength • The Hermit • The Wheel of Fortune • Justice • The

Hanged Man • Death • Temperance

Refining our sense of self becomes more of an issue in the next seven cards
of the tarot. They depict the challenges we face as we try to bend the world
to our will.

• With the Strength card, we become heartened; our courage takes

shape, and we become a force to be reckoned with.
• With the Hermit, we become more introspective.
• With the Wheel of Fortune, we begin to experience the
seemingly random twists of fate. We discover that life often
seems unfair.
• With Justice, we become more socially aware. We try to combat
the unfairness of the Wheel of Fortune experience.
• With the Hanged Man, we learn the value of self-sacrifice for
causes larger than ourselves.
• With Death, we learn how to make graceful transitions.
• And with Temperance, we learn how to mix and balance
seemingly apparent forces.
 Row Three

The Devil • The Tower • The Star • The Moon • The Sun •
Judgement • The World

The universe has its own agenda, and once we let go of our attempt to
control the whole world we truly realize our full potential.

• With the Devil, we learn of temptation, materialism, and the

thrill of danger.
• With the Tower, we learn the consequences of poor choices—
and we get the chance to rebuild.
• With the Star, we find new hope and set new goals for our lives.
• With the Moon, we learn how to best tame our primal urges.
• With the Sun, we rediscover our optimism and sense of self.
• With Judgement, we accept all of our mistakes and successes.
• With the World, we celebrate the full scope of our lives and
prepare to begin a new cycle of learning and discovery.
 Your Own Fool’s Journey
Retrace your steps. Lay out the Major Arcana cards, and think back to a
time in your life when you experienced each one of the archetypes
firsthand. Keep the cards in order, but know that you don’t have to list your
own experiences in chronological order. It is perfectly okay to list an
incident from your childhood right next to an event that took place during
your first year of college. For example:

0.The Fool—I backpacked across Europe during the summer of

my senior year.
1.The Magician—I learned to write.
2.The High Priestess—In tenth-grade English, Sister Mary
Margaret taught me to love great books.
3.The Empress—I became a mother when Lizzie was born.
4.The Emperor—After just six months on the job, I was promoted
to supervisor.
5.The Hierophant—I had a disagreement with our minister and I
stopped going to church.
6.The Lovers—I fell in love for the first time when I met Steve.
7.The Chariot—I drove across the country for my first job.
8.Strength—I moved into my own apartment and got a pet cat.
9.The Hermit—I felt isolated and alone when I first moved to
Colorado.
10.The Wheel of Fortune—I won a new TV in a department store
raffle.
11.Justice—I got into a fender bender and the insurance company
took me to court.
12.The Hanged Man—I felt like I was in suspended animation
while I waited for the birth of my daughter.
13.Death—My grandfather died a month after Lizzie was born.
14.Temperance—I learned to balance my own needs with the
needs of my family.
 15.The Devil—I watched my brother become an alcoholic, and I
watched him fight to recover.
16.The Tower—My house burned down.
17.The Star—I tried out for the school play when I was in tenth
grade.
18.The Moon—As a teenager, I used to write poems in my room
at night.
19.The Sun—I think my truest joy is watching my daughter as
she plays outside.
20.Judgement—I willingly allowed my master’s thesis to be
judged by committee.
21.The World—I graduated with honors.

Tarot timelines. Alternately, you can create a timeline of your life and
assign a tarot card to each significant milestone. You can also construct
timelines for individual, more focused periods of time, such as your
childhood, your adolescence, your college years, your career, or your
marriage. You can chronicle your emotional development, your spiritual
growth, your education and intellectual development, your physical growth,
your health, or your aging process. You can even try variations on a theme
by creating tarot timelines of your emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and
physical development. Focus on your childhood, adolescence, high school
and college years. Depict the life story of your marriage, your life as a
parent, or your career.

Dateline. Make lists of important days, events, and milestones in your life
—such as births, deaths, miscarriages, illnesses, injuries, moves, important
meetings, interviews, and graduations. Do your best to develop a
comprehensive record of your life and times. Because it could take some
time to remember all of your milestones, leave space so that you can add
dates as you remember them.

Remembrance of times past. Here is a simple exercise that you could repeat
a thousand times and never get the same result. Shuffle your tarot deck and
pull one card at random. An image on that card—a symbol, a color, or a
detail—will take you back to a moment in your past. What’s more, that
moment will have great meaning for you now. Simply pull a card and
complete this sentence: I remember a time when _____.

Past tense. The present is perpetually slipping away and becoming part of
the past. You can see it happen with this exercise. Write about your current
life in the past tense. Is there anything you want to change, now, before it’s
too late, and before it is permanently inscribed on the pages of history?
The words of James Barrie might inspire you: “The life of every man is a
diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his
humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he hoped
to make it.”
 Personal Stories
Castle of Crossed Destinies. In Italo Calvino’s book The Castle of Crossed
Destinies, an array of travelers find themselves stranded for the night in a
strange castle, mysteriously stripped of their ability to speak. One of them
produces a deck of tarot cards, and they all begin to share their stories,
wordlessly, by choosing cards to illustrate their adventures.
Compose your own life story by selecting cards. Show them to someone
else. Later, you can write in your tarot journal how you intended your story
to be seen and how it was actually interpreted.

Compliments and cruelties. Write about the nicest thing anyone ever told
you or the meanest thing anyone ever said about you. Find cards to
represent those people, their comments, and your reaction.

Good intentions. At some time in your life, you may have intended to write
a diary, to take notes, and to keep records of a monumental event or a
momentous change. You may have wanted to document your baby’s first
year, a cross-country vacation, or a similar, life-changing event . . . until life
itself got in the way, and your diary fell by the wayside.
With a tarot journal, it’s never too late to re-create what might have been.
Just start writing down everything you remember. Don’t worry about
specific dates or places; it’s getting your experience down on paper that
counts. The more you write, the more you will remember—and you can
always turn to the cards for hints and reminders about details you may have
forgotten.

Groundhog Day. In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray is forced to

relive the same day, over and over. If you could relive any day from your
past, which would it be? On the other hand, which day were you glad to see
end?
 Sadder but Wiser
Advice for my former self. It’s a common journaling technique to write
letters from your current self to your former self. What do you wish you
could tell your younger, less experienced self? You might also want to
conduct a tarot reading on behalf of your younger self.

Crisis counseling. Think about a time in your life when you felt troubled or
faced a crisis. Now imagine that you can go back in time and conduct a
tarot reading on behalf of your former self. What would the cards advise?
What would you recommend, as an objective tarot reader?

Slow learners. We always learn from our mistakes—but we don’t always

learn the “right” lesson. Some of us learn that we have rescuers, excusers,
enablers, and second chances. Others learn that the excitement of crisis is
its own reward for bad behavior. Pull a card or two to examine what lessons
you have learned from your past.

Catch and release. Pull a single card to describe a piece of your past. Then
pull a second card to describe the lesson you learned during that period. List
ways in which your experience changed you. Then leave that experience in
the pages of your journal, and vow not to return to it in your daily life.

My favorite mistake. We have all made mistakes. Some of us have made

whoppers. What mistakes have you made that ultimately turned into
something good? Maybe you married the wrong person—but you learned a
lesson or two in time for your next walk down the aisle. Maybe you had an
unplanned pregnancy, which led to the birth of a child you love more than
life itself. Use your tarot journal to document mistakes that ultimately
changed your life for the better.

Silver linings. Think back to a time when tragedy struck, everything went
wrong, and you felt devastated and unsure of yourself and your future.
Don’t focus on mistakes you made. Rather, think about cosmic shifts that
were well outside your control—like the events depicted on the Tower card.
Maybe your house was hit by lightning, leveled in an earthquake, or swept
away by a tidal wave. Maybe you were laid off in a sudden corporate
restructuring. Maybe you were in an accident. How did you recover? How
did you rise from your own ashes, like the phoenix? What new
opportunities were born out of your tragedy? How is your life better now?

You done good. Make a list of at least three smart decisions you have made:
going to school, for example, or changing careers, or choosing a pet.
Describe the situation that led up to each decision and the factors you
considered before coming to your conclusions.
 The Person You Used to Be
The author and poet Joan Didion once wrote,“We are well advised to keep
on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them
attractive company or not. Otherwise they run up unannounced and surprise
us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 A.m. of a bad night and
demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to
make amends.”
You can keep in touch with the person you used to be by memorializing
him or her in your tarot journal. By writing about your past, you can
reclaim pieces of your old self that may have been damaged, stolen,
misplaced, or forgotten. A tarot journal can serve as a record of the person
you used to be and help you reconnect with your former self.

The way we were. Pull a card to help you answer the following questions,
which are based on the symbolic realms of the four suits: spiritual,
emotional, intellectual, and physical.

• What did I used to believe?

• How did I used to feel?
• What did I used to know?
• What did I used to treasure?

Write about how your old beliefs, feelings, knowledge, and treasures
have affected you. Did they help or did they hurt? How many of them do
you still hold? Should you change them? Should you abandon them?
Should you replace them? Why or why not?

Lost and found. List at least three of your favorite belongings at the age of
five, ten, fifteen, or twenty (and more, if you can remember them). Reflect
on the items you held during each stage of your life, revisiting your old self
and your former possessions at five- or ten-year progressions.
Auld acquaintance. Pull the court cards from your tarot deck. Each one will
represent someone you used to know. Who were they, and how did you
know them?
You can repeat the technique with all of the wands cards, or cups,
swords, or pentacles cards. You can even try it by shuffling and laying out
ten cards at random.

Person, place, or thing. Alternately, look to the cards for reminders of

places you used to visit, work, or live, or things you used to do.
 Rewrite History
What would you do if you could turn back time? Which moment would you
return to, and what would you do differently? How would the course of
your life have changed?
With the tarot, you can relive—and rewrite—history. You can reconstruct
your past by choosing cards to represent critical moments and decisions.
Then you can experiment with different options—and different endings—
simply by laying new cards on the table.

Turn back time. To try an alternate timeline at random, think of a

crucial turning point in your past. Then shuffle your tarot deck
and lay out three cards: one for the period that led up to that point,
one for the moment of decision, and a third card for the
consequences of that decision. Finally, lay a fourth card. Imagine
that it represents an alternate course of events. How might your
life have changed? Write about it in your journal.

The road not taken. According to the theory of quantum physics,

all possibilities are realities somewhere. While you eliminate
certain paths simply by choosing one option over another, you
may have parallel selves in parallel universes who choose the
roads you didn’t take.
Think about the choices you opted not to take and the paths
you didn’t follow. What would have happened in your life if you
had made a different choice . . . married a different person,
accepted a different job, had a child, or stayed childless? Then
write your life story as your parallel self. If you now find yourself
as a social studies teacher in Wisconsin, you could travel back in
time and write about what might have been:

I married Bob in 1992.We moved to New York City and

I found a job in public relations. I worked in a towering
 skyscraper for six years. I was promoted several times,
but I was never quite comfortable with the politics of
corporate life. Finally, I quit my job and moved upstate,
where I became a potter and started selling my
creations at craft shows throughout New England.

Alternate endings. Deena Metzger, the author of Writing for Your

Life, describes a technique she terms “creating a usable history.”
If you don’t like the story of your life, you can use your tarot
journal to create a new life story for yourself—and change the
outcome of an unhappy or unfortunate experience. Was your
mother cold and unfeeling? Write about the caregiver you wish
you had—a warm and nurturing parent who baked you cookies
and read you bedtime stories. Were you an unpopular teenager? In
your journal, you can describe your days as the head cheerleader
and homecoming queen. Simply write your life story as you
would have liked it to read in the first place.
While the process of rewriting history might not change reality,
it will change your attitude. As Willa Cather said, “Some
memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever
happen to one again.”
 6

What Lies Before You

Turn up the sixth card; place it on the side that the Significator is facing, and say: This
is before him. It shews the influence that is coming into action and will operate in the
near future.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 How to Use Your Tarot Journal to Design Your
Future
We all want to know what will happen next. We watch the weather forecast
on the evening news. We listen for traffic reports on the radio. We read our
horoscopes in the daily paper.
And we read tarot cards.
While you can’t control the weather and you can’t always avoid a rush-
hour traffic jam, you can use tarot cards to take control of your destiny.
With the cards and your journal in hand, you can do more than simply wait
for the future to unfold: you can create it. What’s more, the only magic
wand you will need is your pen.
 Seal the Deal
Ordinary tarot readings can often inspire us with good news about the
future, encourage us to continue on a path, or caution us to make changes. If
you don’t take notes in your tarot journal, however, the cards will probably
fade from memory, like the dream you forget by the time you drink your
first morning cup of coffee.
If you want to seal a reading and imbue it with power, write it down.
When you record your readings in your tarot journal, you give physical
substance and shape to ideas and concepts—simply by representing them in
the form of letters and words.
By keeping a record of your tarot readings, you will also start a chain of
events in motion. You will discover new ways to express the cards’
messages in your daily life. You can start to manifest the messages of the
cards and generate follow-through in the world around you.
 Make Plans
You can use your tarot journal as a planning guide. Maya Angelou once
said, “Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads
which lie ahead and those over which we have traveled, and if the future
road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we
need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step
off that road into another direction.”
Start planning for your future by assessing your present. Look through
your tarot deck until you see a card that depicts your current spiritual,
emotional, intellectual, or physical state. How did you get here? Then find a
second card to represent the goal you want to achieve. How will you reach
it? Try this three-step process:

1: Set goals. Summarize your goal in a single sentence. I will sell

my company and move to a house in the country.

2: List milestones. List the milestones you will need to reach—

with a time frame, if possible.

I need to boost sales by 42 percent within the next six

months.
I need to write a marketing plan by June 30.
I need to hire an additional salesperson in the next two
weeks.
I need to write a business plan by August 31.
By the time I start writing the business plan, I need to
find a broker to handle the sale of the company.
I will sell the company and move into a new house by
New Year’s Eve.

3: Chart your progress. Leave space in your tarot journal to note

the actions you take, the results you attain, and your steady
progress toward your goal.
 Brainstorm
Mark McElroy offers a wide range of brainstorming techniques in his book
Putting the Tarot to Work. One is to flip quickly through all of the cards in
the Major Arcana—the Fool through the World—and glean one idea from
each, as if each character were offering you his or her own take on your
situation. Need advice? Ask each archetype what you should do. Need a
critique? Gather your tarot-card focus group together and start gathering
opinions. Need information? Ask your tarot-card counselors what they
know.
 Back to the Future
In the Back to the Future movie trilogy, young Marty McFly travels back
and forth through time, watching history unfold and making adjustments in
an effort to keep events on course.
You can use your tarot deck like a time machine, too. By picturing
yourself in the future, you can make adjustments to ensure that your history
unfolds as you like.

Creative visualization. “To bring anything into your life, imagine

that it’s already there,” Richard Bach said—and tarot cards are a
great source of visual inspiration and thoughtful suggestions.
Start simply by envisioning yourself a month from now, a year
from now, or ten years from now. Where will you live? Where
will you work? Who will you be with? Visualize your ideal
partner, your ideal home, your ideal job, and your ideal self. Be as
detailed as you can—and look for specific cards to represent each
option. What will you look like? How will you feel? What will
you do with your time? Find tarot cards to suit all of your needs
and desires.
Record your choices in your tarot journal, along with the
reasons you used to make each decision.

Flash forward. Sit down and imagine that you can do a reading
for your future self. What advice do the cards have for the person
you will become? What advice do you have for the person you
want to become? What do you want to remember as you move
toward your goals?

A word to the wise. Here’s a real time-warp technique: project

yourself into the future and allow your future self to do a reading
for your present self. Read the cards as someone who has already
attained the goals you have in mind. See if that changes your
perspective. It will be possible, if you believe as T. S. Eliot did,
that:

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.

Future tense. Write a letter to your future self and a letter from
your future self. Remind your future self what you presently think
about your life and how you would like your life to change.
 Special Requests
Pencil it in. It’s astounding how often the universe will respond to your
clearly stated request—especially if it’s in writing. “The very act of seeking
sets something in motion to meet us,” said Jean Shinoda Bolen. “Something
in the universe or in the unconscious responds as if to an invitation.”
The act of entering your hopes and dreams into your journal will help
you clarify them in your mind, picture the results, and prepare for the
possibilities. What’s more, unless you carve them in stone, you can amend
them if you change your mind.
 Spell It Out
In ancient times, most people couldn’t read or write, and those who could
were thought to possess a certain kind of magic power. After all, they had
the power to transcribe spoken words, and transform thoughts into reality.
You still have the power to cast spells—even in the most magical sense
of the word—by spelling out your fondest hopes and dreams in the pages of
your tarot journal. Simply record your hopes, dreams, wishes, and goals in
as much detail as you can possibly muster.
 7

Your Self

The seventh card of the operation signifies himself—that is, the Significator—whether
person or thing—and shews its position or attitude in the circumstances.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 Who Do You Think You Are?
The avant-garde novelist Anaïs Nin is best known for documenting her own
life in a series of published diaries. As she recorded her experiences over
several decades, she came to one powerful conclusion.
“We don’t see things as they are,” she wrote,“we see things as we are.”
How do you see yourself? What are your strengths and your weaknesses?
How do you express your spiritual beliefs, your emotions, your thoughts,
and your values? And as a result, how do you see the world?
Your tarot journal can lead you through a process of self-assessment and
self-development. As you see and express yourself more clearly, your view
of the world could change, too.
 Worlds of Experience
In tarot, the four realms of everyday experience are represented by the four
suits of the Minor Arcana. Wands represent your spiritual life, cups depict
your emotional affairs, swords conceptualize your intellectual ideals, and
pentacles embody your physical existence.
You can use your tarot journal to analyze those four realms of your
experience, both separately and as a whole. You can see where most of your
focus lies, where your experiences overlap, and where you have room to
grow and change.
 Your Spiritual Self
The fiery wands cards, which usually picture freshly cut branches from
leafy trees, represent the world of spiritual existence. They symbolize
inspirations and drives, passions, and primal quests.
Think of the wands cards as you work with the following journal
prompts:

Spiritually, I believe _____.

Spiritually, I feel _____.
Spiritually, I think _____.
Spiritually, I am _____.
Spiritually, I value _____.
Spiritually, I have _____.
Spiritually, I need _____.
Spiritually, I would like to _____.
Spiritually, I am becoming more _____.
Spiritually, I secretly_____.
Spiritually, I express myself by _____.
My greatest spiritual skill is _____.
My greatest spiritual weakness is _____.
The card that best depicts my spiritual life is _____.
 Your Emotional Self
The watery cups cards usually picture goblets and chalices filled with water
or wine, as well as a wide range of individuals in emotional situations. The
cups cards symbolize the world of attitudes, feelings, and relationships with
others.
Think of the cups cards as you work with the following journal prompts:

Emotionally, I believe _____.

Emotionally, I feel _____.
Emotionally, I think _____.
Emotionally, I am _____.
Emotionally, I value _____.
Emotionally, I have _____.
Emotionally, I need _____.
Emotionally, I would like to _____.
Emotionally, I am becoming more _____.
Emotionally, I secretly _____.
Emotionally, I express myself by _____.
My greatest emotional skill is _____.
My greatest emotional weakness is _____.
The card that best depicts my emotional life is _____.
 Your Intellectual Self
The airy swords cards usually picture sharpened swords, which represent
the heady world of the intellect. Swords symbolize the airy issues of
thought and communication, as well as the words we use to defend
ourselves and attack those with whom we disagree.
Think of the swords cards as you work with the following journal
prompts:

Intellectually, I believe _____.

Intellectually, I feel _____.
Intellectually, I think _____.
Intellectually, I am _____.
Intellectually, I value _____.
Intellectually, I have _____.
Intellectually, I need _____.
Intellectually, I would like to _____.
Intellectually, I am becoming more _____.
Intellectually, I secretly_____.
Intellectually, I express myself by _____.
My greatest intellectual strength is _____.
My greatest intellectual weakness is _____.
The card that best depicts my intellectual life is _____.
 Your Physical Self
The earthy pentacles cards usually depict coins, which represent the
tangible realities of physical life. Pentacles represent the things we can
touch, the things we can feel, and the things we treasure—both material and
spiritual.
Think of the pentacles cards as you work with the following journal
prompts:

Physically, I believe _____.

Physically, I feel _____.
Physically, I think _____.
Physically, I am _____.
Physically, I value _____.
Physically, I have _____.
Physically, I need _____.
Physically, I would like to _____.
Physically, I am becoming more _____.
Physically, I secretly_____.
Physically, I express myself by _____.
My greatest physical strength is _____.
My greatest physical weakness is _____.
The card that best depicts my physical life is _____.
 Birth Cards and Year Cards
In addition to self-assessment through journaling, you can learn more about
yourself by studying your birth card and year cards.
Both are typically derived from simple numerology. One common way to
find your birth card is to add the numbers of your birth date together, like
this: M+M+D+D+Y+Y+Y+Y.
Take Emily, for example, who was born on October 24, 1992. To find her
birth card, Emily would add the numbers of her birth month (10), birthday
(24), and birth year (1992). The numbers would look like this:
1+0+2+4+1+9+9+2. (That’s 10-24-1992.)
The sum should be a number between 1 and 21, which will correspond to
one of the Major Arcana cards. In Emily’s case, however, the end result is
28.
If, like Emily, your result is more than 21, add those two numbers
together. Emily would add 2+8, and get 10. That means her birth card is
card number ten, the Wheel of Fortune.
That also means that she is one of the lucky people who actually get
more than one birth card. She can add the 1+0 for a second card, which
would be card number one, the Magician.
Your birth card will be your birth card for as long as you live. However,
you might also discover that other Major Arcana cards seem to reflect a
predominant theme for every year of your life.
You do, in fact, get a new year card every time your birthday rolls
around. Simply use the same mathematical formula to determine which card
will come into play as you grow a year older. When Emily turns forty, for
example, on October 24, 2032, she can determine her year card by adding
1+0+2+4+2+0+3+2. She’ll get 14: the Temperance card.
In a way, knowing your birth card and year cards is kind of like knowing
your astrological sun sign. You will obviously share your birth card and
year cards with many other people—there are only twenty-one cards to go
around. But you will also be able to identify some personality traits and
characteristics that you couldn’t otherwise explain. If you are a born
Magician, for example, raised in a family of decidedly non-magical
personalities like Hermits and Hanged Men, you might suddenly understand
why you didn’t fit in with the rest of your relatives. And if your life
suddenly seems to be disrupted during a Tower year, you can make any
attitude adjustments you need—and know that a Star year is coming up
next.
To learn more about the attributes associated with every Major Arcana
card, consult a standard tarot textbook, such as Anthony Louis’s Tarot Plain
and Simple or Teresa Michelsen’s Complete Tarot Reader.
 Facets of the Jewel
Psychologists often say that every symbol and image in a dream is an aspect
of the dreamer’s personality. The rabid dog that hounds you in your
midnight hours might actually represent the wild animal side of your own
human nature. The flower garden of your dreams—lush, green, and
blossoming with color—might also symbolize your desire to cultivate your
own creative talents.
The same holds true when it comes to the tarot deck. Every card in a
seventy-eight-card deck represents one aspect of your personality. The Five
of Wands might represent your playful, adolescent self. The Three of Cups
might depict your role as a friend and confidant to others.
You can use the cards to come to terms with the many facets and sides of
your personality, simply by choosing the ones that most accurately depict
the traits that you recognize—and also by determining how the less familiar
cards fit into your psychological makeup.
Start by working with the cards that suit you best. Write about them in
your journal: describe how you identify with them, why you identify with
them, and why you value the traits and characteristics they represent. (If
you don’t value them, write about how they came to be part of your
personality, and what you plan to do with them in the future.)
As time goes on, you can also write about the cards that don’t seem to be
an especially strong part of your makeup.
 Role Play
You can develop a stronger sense of self—and integrate your various
subpersonalities better—by using the tarot as the basis for some easy role-
playing games. Simply choose to live as a tarot card, just for a day.
Select any card, either face up or face down, and study the character on
the card. Notice how he or she stands, or sits, and try to stand, sit, and move
as you imagine that character would.
Pay attention to how the figure is dressed: wear a similar outfit, if you
can, or simply choose clothes with the same colors or patterns.
Picture what he or she might do for fun, and see if you can’t fit a similar
activity into your schedule. Yes, the King of Pentacles probably does enjoy
bowling: check to see if there’s an open lane in your neighborhood bowling
alley tonight. Judgement blows a horn; you might want to pick up a musical
instrument, too. If there are horse-drawn carriages for rent in your area, it
might be time for you to take a little Chariot ride. Use your imagination.
To fully imbue yourself with the essence of a tarot card, you can even try
to eat a meal that the characters in each card would enjoy. For menu ideas,
consult The Epicurean Tarot, a collection of recipe cards based on the tarot.
When you are through living out the archetype of a tarot card, be sure to
record your experiences in your tarot journal.
 Masks of Personality
Actors in ancient Greek dramas relied on exaggerated costumes and masks
to express the defining characteristics of their roles, as well as to enlarge
movements and gestures that would otherwise be difficult for their
audiences to discern.
If you sometimes worry that your actions are overlooked, or the full
range of your emotions isn’t being fully expressed, you can play with a
similar technique. Simply rehearse a range of scenes and acts from your real
life as if you were an actor on a stage—and use tarot cards as your mask.
Hold the card of your choice in front of your face, and pretend you are the
character in that card.
If you are playing the role of Temperance, for example, you might want
to portray her in your most graceful manner, with perfect posture and an
evenly modulated speaking voice. If you are the Four of Swords, you might
want to move to the couch and say your lines while you lie flat on your
back.
Afterward, write about it in your tarot journal, and see how much of your
role-playing carries over into your everyday life.
 8

Your House

The eighth card signifies his house, that is, his environment and the tendencies at work
therein which have an effect on the matter—for instance, his position in life, the
influence of immediate friends, and so forth.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 Journaling about Family and Friends
In Welcome to the Great Mysterious, author Lorna Landvik tells the story of
Geneva Jordan, a forty-something Broadway star who stumbles across an
old family scrapbook. As a child, Geneva and her twin sister had filled the
scrapbook with existential questions. “What is true love?” they asked.
“What is the meaning of life?” Each night, as the children slept, Geneva’s
parents and grandparents would quietly take turns writing answers to the
children’s questions.
Years later, as Geneva re-read their words, she found herself reconnecting
with people she had loved and lost—and rediscovering her former self.
You can use your tarot journal to help you rebuild relationships, reconcile
old grievances, and reconnect with your family and friends—even if you
can’t connect in real life.
 The Royal Family
The tarot deck’s four sets of court cards represent four idealized families:
father, mother, brother, and sister. Choose the court card family that most
closely represents your family. Wands would indicate a family that is
spiritually strong, or structured around a shared spirituality. Cups court
cards might symbolize a family that is emotional. Swords court cards could
represent a family that is intellectually strong, with values, intellect, and
communication. Pentacles probably would indicate a family that values
physical agility and expression.
Now use a mix of court cards, along with relevant Major and Minor
Arcana cards, to more accurately depict the strengths and weaknesses of
your individual family members. If your mother reminds you of the Queen
of Cups, for example, with just a hint of the Page of Swords or the Two of
Wands, use all three cards in combination to represent her—and explain the
reason for your selections in your journal.
 Forget Me Not
Sadly, it’s a fact of life that as you grow older, your connection to the past
will fade. As the years pass, you will inevitably begin to lose the people you
have always known—like your grandparents, your aunts and uncles, and
old family friends.
No matter what happens, however, you can keep them alive in the pages
of your tarot journal.

Family history. Write down everything about your family history

that you know to be a fact. Check with your other family
members for their versions of the story.
If you like, you can turn to the cards to fill in the missing
pieces. How was grandma feeling when she came over on the
ship from the old country? Was she dancing with her fellow
travelers in the Three of Cups? Or did she seem more like the
solitary wanderer in the Eight of Cups?

Individual histories. Use the cards to reconstruct the life story of

someone close to you—your mother, father, husband, or wife.
Compare your own tarot-based timeline to theirs. You may
discover intriguing new ways in which your paths paralleled,
crossed, or parted ways with each other.

Family reunion. Make a list of all the people you love and know
well, and the people you interact with on a regular basis. They
can include your family members—parents, grandparents, aunts
and uncles, brothers and sisters, spouse, and children—as well as
your classmates, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Which tarot
card reminds you of each one? Why?

Skeletons in the closet. What secrets did your family guard from
outsiders? What secrets did your family members keep from each
other? What secrets did you only understand once you had
reached adulthood? Use tarot cards to bring your family’s secrets
out of the shadows and into the pages of your journal.

Karmic connections. Some say you can choose your friends, but
you can’t choose your relatives. On a spiritual level, however,
some people believe that we do choose the families we are born
into. Some people believe that our souls agree to be born into a
certain place and time to live with a predetermined set of parents,
brothers, and sisters, and to learn from the experience.
Whether or not you accept that premise, try it in your tarot
journal. Pull one card from your tarot deck, at random, for
information about why you might have chosen the people in your
life. The card will trigger your memory and help you recognize
the lessons you have learned from your family, the visions you
share, and the gifts you have received from your relationships.
What did your father have to teach you? What gifts did your
mother give you? What have you learned from your grandparents,
aunts, and uncles? You can pull a card for every person who has
played a significant role in your life—and start to write about how
their presence has helped you understand the world and yourself.

Keep in touch. Start a journal to share with a friend or family

member. Take turns writing in it, like Geneva Jordan’s family did
in Welcome to the Great Mysterious. When you want to exchange
it, simply leave it on the table, on a living room chair, or on each
other’s pillows. If you live miles apart, mail it back and forth. A
shared journal is more fun than sending letters, and when you
have filled its pages you will have a piece of family history to
treasure forever. You can even plan to leave it to your children or
grandchildren.

See and be seen. How do your friends and family members see
you? Write about yourself from any other person’s point of view
—maybe your brother, your sister, or your great-aunt. You could
even pull a tarot card from the deck, and imagine that you are a
character in the card. Look at yourself from that character’s
vantage point. How would you describe the person you see?
By writing about your life from someone else’s perspective,
you can start to see yourself as others see you. You might even
start to understand their point of view.

Unsent letters. Use your journal to write a letter to someone who

affected you strongly as a child. You might want to challenge
them or question them about something they said or did to you.
You might also want to thank them or praise them for their
handling of a certain situation. If you have any unfinished
business with the person, address it in your letter.

Familiar strangers. Experienced tarot readers often notice a

strange phenomenon: when they read cards for other people, they
inevitably find that the cards seem to reflect issues and events that
are prominent in their own lives. Test the phenomenon for
yourself. Find a place where you can read for people you don’t
know. Offer to read for strangers in a coffee shop, for example, or
at a party. If you aren’t comfortable reading for others, choose a
name at random from an article in the newspaper—before you
have read it.
Do you notice any parallels between your life and those for
whom you read? What issues seem to overlap? What messages do
the cards hold for you? Record them in your tarot journal.
 9

Your Hopes and Fears

The ninth card gives his hopes or fears in the matter.

—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 Plumbing the Depths and Climbing New Heights
In a Celtic Cross tarot reading, one card represents both hopes and fears.
How can a single card symbolize two separate issues? Because hope and
fear are inextricably linked. They are two sides of the same coin—or
pentacle, if you will.
How often have you wished for something big—a new car, a new job, a
new relationship—but held off, just a bit, for fear that you might actually
get what you wish for? After all, a new car usually comes with a hefty price
tag. A new job involves writing résumés, cover letters, scouring the want
ads, and dressing up for interviews. And a new relationship takes time,
energy, and commitment. Sometimes, it’s just easier to stay home and watch
TV.
Your tarot journal is the perfect place for you to explore your most
fervent desires and your deepest, darkest fears, before you take steps to
materialize them in the real world.
 Hope Springs Eternal
Hopes are easy to write about. We all have high hopes for the future, as well
as innumerable hopes for the next day, the next week, or the next month. In
fact, your challenge in a tarot journal may be to limit the number of things
you merely hope for, and focus on turning those hopes into reality.
In the meantime, however, you can start listing some of those hopes.

Wish list. Make a list of all the things you hope will come true for
you in the next year. Then pull a card to get advice about each
item on the list. Should you pursue it? If so, how?

Success stories. Make a list of things you have hoped for in the
past and achieved. How did you attain each one? Do you see any
patterns? Do you see any advice for achieving your current
hopes?

Secret wishes. Pull a card to represent a hope you haven’t yet

recognized or thought about consciously. What do you want?

Why ask why? Think of something you have hoped for for some
time that hasn’t yet come about. Ask yourself why—not once or
twice, but repeatedly—until you run out of answers.

What are your hopes? Why?

Why haven’t you attained those hopes?
Why haven’t you reached your goals?
What will change in your life if you reach your goals?
What steps must you take to achieve them?
 Fear Factors
“Sometimes,” Eleanor Roosevelt said, “you must do the things you think
you cannot do.” You can test that theory in your tarot journal. Before you
face your fears in real life, you can confront them on paper.

Boo! Pull a card at random from the deck. Some symbol or image
on the card will represent one of your fears. What is it? Write
about it, stream-of-consciousness style.

Check the lineup. Which card in the tarot deck seems to illustrate
your fear? Which card illustrates the way you handle your fear?
Describe the connections in your journal.

The origin of the species. Think about a fear you have

experienced for a long time—a fear of heights, for example, or
snakes, or public speaking. Which card illustrates the origin of
your fear? A symbol or an image may suddenly reveal what you
need to know.

Worst-case scenarios. Assume, for a moment, you have pulled a

card that represents your deepest, darkest fear. Take time to
explore it in your journal. Use a simple question-and-answer
technique to determine the worst-case scenarios that are at the
heart of your fears, and follow each one to its logical conclusion.
It might get gruesome; after all, this is your “fears” section. But
don’t be afraid to keep going. By examining your fears and
following each one to its logical conclusion, you could start to
resolve issues that otherwise lie just underneath the surface,
worrying and gnawing at you. Some of your fears could even start
to resolve themselves. At the very least, you’ll be able to name
and describe your fears—and there’s something to be said for
knowing your enemy.
 Take the Death card, for example.
Q: What frightens you most about the Death card?
A: It reminds me that I could die. I could be in a car
accident or something.
Q: In that situation, what would be the worst-case
scenario?
A: I would be dead.
Q: What would happen then?
A: Well, personally, I think I would be okay, because I
believe in an afterlife.
Q: So what worries you about dying? What’s the worst-
case scenario?
A: My children would lose their mother.
Q: What would happen to them?
A: Their father would raise them.
Q: In that situation, what would be the worst-case
scenario?
A: In the worst-case scenario, he might die, too.
Q: What if you both were killed? What would happen
then?
A: My sister and her husband would raise my children.
Actually, I think that’s the logical conclusion I need to
reach. If I were dead, my children would be motherless,
but I guess that’s beyond my control. I’ve made sure
they would still have loving adults to step in and raise
them. I suppose I can live with that.

Meet face to face. Choose a card from the tarot deck to represent
one of your fears. Then use your journal to have a written
conversation with that card. Imagine, for example, that you are
afraid of public speaking, and that you have chosen the confident,
outspoken King of Wands to symbolize your fear.

Q: Why am I afraid of you?

A: Because I represent power and authority.
Q: I want power and authority.
 A: No, you don’t. Because you don’t want the
responsibility that goes along with it.
Q: What do you mean? I’m a responsible person. In
fact, I feel a little insulted.
A: When you take on the role of authority, you’re going
to have to take a stand on certain issues. And once you
take a stand, you won’t be universally liked.You’re
going to ruffle some feathers. Right now, it’s more
important for you to be liked than to be respected.

Unreasonable fears. Make a list of all of your “unreasonable”

fears—a fear of clowns, for example, or mountain climbing or
red-headed men named Chuck. How did you develop your un-
reasonable fears? Where did they come from? Why do you hold
on to them? What purpose do they serve in your life? Explore
them. You might discover that you have perfectly reasonable
explanations for your fears—as well as an array of coping
methods to ease their burden.
 10

What Will Come

The tenth is what will come, the final result, the

culmination which is brought about by the influences
shewn by the other cards that have been
turned up in the divination.
It is on this card that the Diviner should especially
concentrate his intuitive faculties and his
memory in respect of the official divinatory
meanings attached thereto. It should embody
whatsoever you may have divined from the other cards
on the table, including the Significator itself and
concerning him or it, not excepting such lights
upon higher significance as might fall like sparks
from heaven if the card which serves for the
oracle, the card for reading, should happen to be a
Trump Major.
—ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE,
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
 Foretelling the Future
Can tarot cards tell the future?
Many of today’s tarot readers would probably bristle at the question.
Tarot cards, of course, have a reputation as a fortunetelling device. For
centuries, the cards have been purveyed by mystics, fortunetellers, gypsies,
and seers. Many people still think of the tarot primarily in conjunction with
divination and fortunetelling—at best, a harmless pastime, and at worst, a
tool for charlatans, frauds, con artists, and swindlers.
In the last few decades, however, the tarot has been reclaimed by a new
generation of readers, and the cards are no longer strictly limited to
divination. Tarot cards are widely used as an aid to meditation, reflection,
self-examination, and self-development. Writers, artists, and storytellers use
them as inspiration for their creative efforts. Psychiatrists, psychologists,
and counselors use the cards like a sophisticated deck of Rorschach blots,
prompting their clients to look into their own life stories to make sense of
their own past, present, and future.
The tarot, its proponents would argue, is much more than a parlor game
for giddy school girls and bored housewives. The tarot, they would tell you,
is a psychological tool, ideally suited to aid us in the quest for
understanding and self-development. The tarot is also a useful device for
unleashing creativity and unblocking communication.
But every now and then, a parlor game can be a lot of fun. For most of
us, it can be wildly entertaining to read the cards with an eye to the future
and try to predict when a tall, dark stranger will cross your path.
Even when the cards are read just for fun, a naysayer might point out that
most “fortunetellers” overstate their abilities. Obviously, tarot cards can
depict the road you have taken, the path you are on, and your most likely
destination . . . But then again, it doesn’t take a lot of skill to see where
most people are headed. Much of the work that is touted as fortunetelling is
merely common sense.
Many experts, including famed psychiatrist Carl Jung, believe that the
tarot taps into the collective unconscious—the underlying bond of energy,
emotion, and shared experience that unites us all. Others believe that users
are simply drawn instinctively to the symbols in each card that have the
most meaning and significance for them.
Every now and then, however, tarot readers seem to pick up on future
developments, with very little to go on—either from the cards or from the
observations they make about a client.
Does the tarot really have the power to predict the future?
No. But people do. So while no one can honestly say that tarot cards are
psychic, you might be.
 Fortunetelling and the Tarot
Psychic ability isn’t talked about much—even among tarot readers, who
depend on their psychic gifts every day. Maybe it’s the word itself. Some
people think the term “psychic” connotes sham artists, con games, and
gimmicks. It might make us think of spooky-looking women who crack
open bloody eggs and mutter dark-sounding curses, all to trick the desperate
and the gullible out of their life savings.
That hardly describes most of the tarot readers in the real world, who
spend most of their time as mild-mannered accountants, beauticians,
doctors, dentists, administrative assistants, and business owners . . . in short,
as ordinary people.
Even tarot readers who make a living with their psychic skills tend to call
themselves “intuitive” rather than psychic. For one thing, the “intuitive”
label takes tarot out of the realm of gypsy wagons and storefronts with neon
signs. It’s kinder, gentler, and far more down-to-earth. What’s more, it’s a
term that’s based in our scientific understanding of the conscious and
unconscious mind. It’s easy to explain that we can make a few observations
about another person or a situation, mix the information up a bit in our
subconscious, and come up with an accurate analysis via the cards. By
calling our talent intuitive, we can easily reassure ourselves—and any
skeptics and disbelievers—that the cards operate according to logical,
rational rules.
However, intuition simply doesn’t explain how tarot readers can glean so
many personal details about other people just from looking at a few pieces
of cardboard. There are too many times when the information that comes up
in a tarot reading can’t be written off as merely a good guess.
Theres something else to consider, too. When we call our gifts intuitive,
we diminish them. We make them smaller. We claim them as our own
creations, and we trace their origin back to our innermost selves, rather than
accepting our psychic talent as a gift from a power greater than ourselves.
And, in many ways, we limit our use of the tarot. A tarot reader who is open
to receiving information psychically can offer much more than one who
wants to adhere to the here and now. And tarot readers who admit that some
of their insight comes from a source outside of themselves won’t feel afraid,
ashamed, or compelled to account for that information. They can freely
offer whatever knowledge or insight they glean from the cards without
embarrassment or apology.
No matter what psychic gifts they have, most people find that working
with a psychic tool like the tarot will help them develop and refine their
talents. But what many people don’t realize is that tarot cards are also handy
for people who are naturally very psychic. Some are so sensitive that they
block out every impression, simply to get through a normal day. For them,
tarot cards can be just as useful as they are for those with little natural
ability. They can use the cards to filter their psychic stimuli, just as others
use the cards to magnify and enhance their skills.
Granted, you don’t need to be psychic to use the tarot—but it doesn’t
hurt. Most experts even say that using tools like the tarot can help you
develop your innate psychic gifts.
 Types of Psychic Ability
There are several widely recognized types of psychic ability, all of which
could play a role in your tarot reading and journaling practice.

Telepathy. Telepathy is the ability to send and receive mental

images. During a tarot reading with another person, you may pick
up on unspoken thoughts and feelings. You might find yourself
drawn to one card or one image that reflects the main issue or
concern.
Don’t be afraid to let those unspoken signals guide your
reading. In fact, try to verbalize those messages, so you can get
confirmation from the other person.
Be sure to write down your psychic impressions in your tarot
journal. As you do, let your imagination run wild. Don’t block out
any impressions, and don’t regard any information you receive as
too silly or too nonsensical to be considered. Rather, accept
coincidences and look for synchronicity.
When you give yourself permission to let go, you will probably
be surprised by your psychic accuracy.

Clairvoyance is the ability to see the future or gain an awareness

of another time and place. The information isn’t always visual,
however. Most often, clairvoyance is expressed as a sudden flash
of insight or understanding that springs suddenly into one’s
consciousness.
If you would like to develop your clairvoyant skills, look at a
single tarot card as if you were looking at a photo in a newspaper.
Breathe deeply, let your focus relax, and simply gaze at the
image. You might see one feature of the card gain new
prominence. It might seem to shimmer, shift, or rise up and
become three-dimensional. Stay calm, continue to hold the card,
and watch what happens. Record any impressions you have. As
you feel more confident, you can even do the same exercise with
design-based pip cards, like those in the Marseille Tarot or an
ordinary deck of playing cards.
You might also like to experiment with conducting tarot
readings only in your mind’s eye. Lay out a standard tarot card
spread, but keep all of the cards face down. Don’t turn them over;
simply imagine what each card might be and read the cards as if
you could see them face up. Record your reading in your tarot
journal without looking at the front of the cards. Afterward, check
your work. How clear were your impressions? How accurate was
your reading?

Clairaudience is the ability to “hear” messages from the

metaphysical or spirit world. Sometimes clairaudience comes in
the form of a voice or a sound that originates outside the listener.
People with clairaudient experiences might hear an urgent shout
of warning, for example, or footsteps in an empty house, or music
that seems to come out of nowhere. More common, however, is
the clairaudient who describes a quiet voice inside his or her
head.
A clairaudient experience is not the same as a psychotic
episode. In fact, it is common to experience clairaudience during
tarot readings. As you look at a tarot card, you may hear a word
or a phrase inside your head. If you try to ignore it, you will
probably hear it again and again, until you acknowledge it.
If you are reading the cards for someone else, don’t be afraid or
embarrassed to say things that seem to make no sense. They may
know exactly what you mean. And if you have a clairaudient
experience while you are reading the cards for yourself, write it
down in your tarot journal, and see if it makes sense once events
have had time to unfold.

Psychometry is the ability to receive information through touch.

Some psychics can get a mental picture or personality clues
simply by holding an object that belongs to someone else.
If you want to enhance your own skills at psychometry, shuffle
your tarot deck and fan the cards out, face down. Slowly pass
your hand over the cards. Do some seem to radiate heat? Do some
feel cold? Does your hand seem to tingle as it passes over the
cards? Those may be the cards that have special significance for
you.
Just for fun, you might also want to have a friend choose three
Major Arcana cards from the deck and put each one in a sealed
envelope. Without knowing which cards are inside, hold each
envelope in your hands, and then write down your impressions.

Precognition and prediction both describe the ability to foretell

the future. To test your precognitive ability, just shuffle a tarot
deck, face down. Before you turn each card in the deck face up,
guess whether it is from the Major Arcana or the Minor Arcana. If
you are right, you get to keep the card. If you are wrong, put it in
a discard pile. Give yourself a pat on the back for every card you
call correctly.
You might also like to try an exercise that’s pure visualization.
First, picture yourself shuffling your favorite tarot deck. Then
imagine yourself cutting the cards. Finally, envision yourself
turning over the top three cards. Which ones are they? Write them
down. To check your work, shuffle and cut your deck for real, and
lay out a classic Celtic Cross. Do those same three cards show up
anywhere in your reading?
To develop your skills at prediction, practice. Start by making
predictions based on stories from the daily news; how will each
story play out? What will happen to the newsmakers tomorrow or
next week or next month?
Alternately, you could write down ten or twenty questions in
your tarot journal, and predict the answers. Date each one, and
check your accuracy later.
One word of caution: Be wary of making predictions about
illnesses, accidents, or events of a tragic nature. The tarot speaks
the language of symbols and metaphor. The cards are not
particularly good at predicting physical death, disease, or
destruction.
Prediction may be the most difficult skill you will attempt to
develop as a tarot reader. It’s common to discover, as you review
old readings in your journal, that the cards were accurate—but
your predictions were wildly off base. When you review your
entries, you will often see where your interpretation went astray.
Maybe it was in the way you phrased the questions; you might
have been unclear or failed to suggest a time frame for the
answer. You might even have based your predictions on your own
expectations, rather than what the cards said.
It’s also important to remember that the future is never set in
stone. While tarot cards can suggest the most likely outcome of
someone’s current path, the future is not predetermined. The
decisions people make—perhaps as the result of a tarot reading—
can and will affect their end results.
As Richard Bach once said, “You’re always free to change your
mind and choose a different future.”
 Guidelines for Psychic Development
Before you begin any work with the tarot or with psychic development, you
might want to keep a few ground rules in mind:

Cheer up. Make sure you feel enthusiastic, optimistic, and

energized before you sit down to practice your psychic skills.
Don’t do any psychic work if you’re tired, sick, depressed, or out
of sorts. That’s because “like attracts like”—and if you’re in a
funk, a psychic practice session probably won’t be enough to pull
you out of it. You might even compound the problem, because
any number of sad, lonely spirits might decide to drop by and
commiserate with you.

Stay sober. Don’t practice your psychic gifts while you’re under
the influence of alcohol or drugs. When you get behind the wheel
of psychic development, you will be operating heavy machinery
—and a DUI on the metaphysical highway could have cosmic
consequences.

Be alert. Don’t feel pressured to add psychic development to a

long list of “to do’s.” These days, many people are chronically
sleep-deprived, which can have the same effect on psychic ability
as illness, drugs, and drinking. You might find you are as psychic
as you need to be already—but you are also too tired to act on it.
Maybe all you really need is a nap.

Ground yourself. Odd as it sounds, you need to be grounded

physically before you can take off spiritually. So once you have
caught up on your sleep, go for a brisk walk. Fill your lungs with
fresh air. If you can see open sky or be near water, so much the
better. If you really want to rejuvenate your spirit, indulge your
senses: Listen to music. Visit a museum or an art gallery. Buy
some new incense, a scented candle, or perfume. Take a long bath
or shower. Eat something. For both practical and symbolic
reasons, you should also drink plenty of water. If you’re very
metaphysical, you might think of it as increasing your receptivity.
If you’re more practical, you might just realize that any
concentrated effort—even spiritual work—can be both
psychically and physically draining.

Wear protection. Remember to shield yourself psychically. Most

people don’t head for the beach without sun block and a T-shirt.
You shouldn’t scamper unprotected into the spirit world, either. If
you don’t yet have a shielding routine, start with the basics. Sit up
straight and put both feet on the floor, so you are well-grounded
in every sense of the word. Breathe slowly and deeply. Close your
eyes and visualize a beam of white light coming down from the
sky above you, encasing you in a protective, warm embrace.
Announce your intentions in the form of a prayer or a meditation,
and ask for support. You might want to have the Temperance card
nearby to represent your guardian angel or spirit guide.

Come back to the real world. When your psychic session

concludes, offer thanks for the insight and information you
received, and then close up shop for the day. While you never
need to let your psychic shield down, you can let it slip from your
conscious awareness—at least until the next time you come to the
tarot reader’s table.
 Documenting Your Success
If you want to use your tarot journal to develop your intuition and hone
your psychic ability, keep a comprehensive record of your tarot readings.
Note the cards that appear, along with their positions and significance.
Write down all of your impressions about the cards—especially if your
insights seem wildly out of line. Also, keep a record of any unanswered
questions that crop up during your readings. Leave space so you can review
your records as events unfold. As time passes, you can refer back to your
journal for additional insights into events as they occur and as they are
resolved.
Before long, the notes in your tarot journal will help you learn what
personal meaning the cards have for you. If you think of a new romance
every time you see the Two of Wands—and that proves to be the case in
your own experience—you will bring that non-standard interpretation to the
table every time you sit down to read the cards.
With time, you will probably be surprised to discover how intuitive you
are—and your tarot journal will serve to confirm your wisdom and insight.
 APPENDIX I
Writing Prompts
If you are looking for something to write about in your journal, try one of
the following prompts.
Choose any prompt that intrigues you or that seems to relate to a card
you’re considering. Use the prompt as a starting point, which will give your
subconscious mind a gentle push and your conscious mind something to
think about.
It may help to set a timer and write without stopping for five, ten, or
fifteen minutes. You could also use these writing prompts as a basis for
dialogues, visualizations, or letters in your journal.
 In Your Own Words

My favorite card is the [name of card] because _____.

I don’t understand the [name of card] because _____.
I really dislike the [name of card] because _____.
I am just like the [name of card] because _____.
I act like the [name of card] when I _____.
Sometimes I feel like the [name of card] because _____.
This card makes me feel _____.
This card makes me think _____.
This card reminds me of _____.
If I were the [name of card], I would _____.
If I were the [name of card], I would feel _____.
If I were the [name of card], I would say _____.
If I were the [name of card], I would think _____.
If I were the [name of card], I would be _____.
The most important symbol on [name of card] is _____. The least
important symbol on [name of card] is _____.
The most striking symbol on [name of card] is _____.
At first, I didn’t notice the _____ on the [name of card].
I know someone who reminds me of the [name of card]; [who?
and why?]
 Get into Character

I am the [name of card]. I came to you because _____.

I am the [name of card]. You chose me because _____.
I am the [name of card]. You would never guess it by looking at
me, but _____.
I am the [name of card]. I often fantasize about _____.
I am the [name of card]. When I look back on my life, I regret
_____.
I am the [name of card]. When I look back on my life, I am proud
of _____.
I am the [name of card]. When I look back on my life, I am
ashamed of _____.
I am the [name of card]. The happiest day of my life was _____.
I am the [name of card]. The greatest tragedy of my life was
_____.
I am the [name of card]. I was born to _____.
I am the [name of card]. I was destined to _____.
I am the [name of card]. My biggest mistake was _____.
I am the [name of card]. If I could change anything about myself,
it would be _____.
I am the [name of card]. Someday, I will _____.
I am the [name of card]. My most prized possession is my _____.
I am the [name of card]. Spiritually, I feel _____.
I am the [name of card]. Emotionally, I feel _____.
I am the [name of card]. Physically, I feel _____.
I am the [name of card]. Intellectually, I feel _____.
I am the [name of card]. When I pray, I pray to _____.
I am the [name of card]. When I pray, I pray for _____.
I am the [name of card]. I have always loved _____.
I am the [name of card]. You need me because _____.
I am the [name of card]. You don’t understand me because _____.
I am the [name of card]. I will show you _____.
I am the [name of card]. I will teach you _____.
I am the [name of card], and I came here today to tell you that
_____.
I am the [name of card], and I have a secret. It is _____.
 APPENDIX II
Minor Arcana Correspondences
 APPENDIX III
How to Conduct a Tarot Card Reading
If you came to this book as a journaler but not a tarot reader, you might
like to develop your own tarot reading routine to use in conjunction with
your work. Here is a step-by-step guide to a typical tarot reading.

1. If you are reading for another person, sit directly across from
each other with the cards in the middle, or sit side by side with the
cards in front of you. If you are reading for yourself, find a
comfortable place to sit where you won’t be interrupted.
2. Clear the room of bystanders, light a candle, and calm yourself
with a few moments of deep breathing or quiet contemplation.
3. Look through the deck to choose a significator—a card that
depicts the question, concern, or situation you want to explore. If
you like, you can follow the rule of thumb that calls for using
court cards: Pages for children, Knights for adolescents and
young adults, Queens for women, and Kings for men.
4. Lay the significator face up, and shuffle the rest of the deck
thoroughly. Many readers shuffle the deck seven times: not only
is it a mystical number, it also randomizes the cards fairly well.
You can shuffle poker-style, hand over hand, or by mixing the
cards in a slush pile on the table.
5. As you shuffle the cards, concentrate on your question or
concern to focus the reading and imbue the cards with the essence
of the issue at hand.
6. Use your left hand, which is associated with the unconscious,
to cut the deck into three piles. You might want to look at the top
card in each pile for a quick mini-reading: the three cards may
represent the past, present, and future of the situation.
7. Put the deck back together. Take a look at the card on the
bottom of the deck; it sometimes represents unconscious factors
and motivations that influence a reading, or hidden or unseen
forces that are at work.
8. Lay the cards out in the spread of your choosing, keeping them
face down. Whether you use a simple three-card past, present, and
future spread, or a more complex layout like the Celtic Cross, you
should know in advance what each card position represents, and
have a timeline in mind for the response.
9. Turn each card face up, one by one. Turn them from right to
left, just as you would turn the pages in a book. Try to avoid
flipping the cards end over end. That way, upright cards remain
upright, and reversals can be easily spotted.
10. Most of the cards should be oriented toward you, so you’re
not looking at the images upside down. The cards should always
be interpreted from the reader’s point of view. (If someone is
sitting across from you, you can turn them around so they can
have a better look.)
11. As you turn over each card, say its name aloud, and describe
the image on the card. Point out any symbolism that seems
significant.
12. If a card is upside down, it may represent forces that are
blocked, delayed, or misinterpreted. A reversed card might also
indicate energy that is being misused or an issue that needs
special attention.
13. Once all of the cards have been turned face up, go back
through the spread to note a number of issues: What colors are
most prominent? Which cards seem most important? Which cards
seem to be looking at each other, and which ones seem isolated?
Which cards seem to be coming into the spread, and which ones
are leaving? Which cards are supporting the others? Which cards
are saying the same things, and which ones are contradicting the
others? What themes do you notice?
14. Consider how many of the cards come from the powerful
Major Arcana and how many originate in the everyday Minor
Arcana. Which suit is predominant? Remember that cups
symbolize emotional affairs, swords represent intellectual
concerns, wands stand for spiritual matters, and pentacles
represent physical matters.
15. Conduct a quick count of the numbers on each card. If most of
the cards in the spread have low numbers, such as aces, twos, and
threes, you are just beginning a cycle. If most of the numbers are
fours, fives, and sixes, you are in the thick of things. If the
numbers are sevens, eights, and nines, you are near the end of a
phase. Tens signify successful completion and preparation for a
new cycle.
16. Court cards usually signify people in your life or aspects of
your own personality that are reflected by the people around you.
17. If any card seems too confusing or unclear to interpret, lay a
clarification card on top.
18. Try to end each reading on a positive note whether you’re
reading for yourself or for a friend. Offer a final summary of the
spread, point out the factors that are within your control and any
opportunities for improving the situation.
19. Once a session has concluded, record notes and comments in
your tarot journal.
20. Finally, put the cards away. Some tarot readers return each
card in the deck to an upright position. Some “seal” the deck by
placing favorite cards on the top and bottom. Some wrap their
cards in silk or place them in a special wooden box—traditionally
stored above head level—to protect the cards from unwelcome
psychic vibrations.
 APPENDIX IV
Tarot Card Keywords
If you come to this book as a journaler but not a tarot card reader, you
can refer to this chart of keywords to guide you in your interpretations of
the cards. Many of the keywords come directly from Arthur Edward Waite’s
Pictorial Key to the Tarot.
 The Major Arcana

0.THE Fool. New beginnings, a leap of faith, the happy wanderer,

adventure, folly, mania, delirium
1.THE MAGICIAN. Skill, diplomacy, self-confidence, will,
mastery, showmanship, and a reminder of the esoteric maxim “As
above, so below”
2.THE HIGH PRIESTESS. Intuition, hidden wisdom, spiritual
secrets, mystery, silence
3.THE EMPRESS. Creativity, fertility, growth, and nature
4.THE EMPEROR. Civilization, stability, power, protection,
authority, order, control
5.THE HIEROPHANT. Society, spiritual teachings, organized
religion, culture, marriage, alliance, inspiration, mercy, goodness
6.THE LOVERS. Love, attraction, choices, partnerships, balance,
duality
7.THE CHARIOT. Travel, movement, independence, mastery of
one’s drives, warrior spirit, triumph
8.STRENGTH. Courage, fortitude, self-control, power
9.THE HERMIT. Wisdom, solitude, experience, guidance,
prudence, disguise
10.THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE. Destiny, fortune, success, luck,
expansion, the circle of the year, cycles of life
11.JUSTICE. Fairness, balance, equity, legal matters
12.THE HANGED MAN. Isolation, sacrifice, separation,
withdrawal, patience, enlightenment, initiation, new perspectives,
alternate realities
13.DEATH. Endings, transitions, new beginnings, regeneration
14.TEMPERANCE. Balance, moderation, management
15.THE DEVIL. Temptation, materialism, addiction, human
nature
16.THE TOWER. Disaster, calamity, ruin, catastrophe,
destruction, liberation, release
17.THE STAR. Heavenly guidance, inspiration, wish fulfillment
18.THE moon. Reflection, shadow, hidden enemies, darkness,
intuition, romance, wax and wane, ebb and flow, secrets, the
unconscious
19.THE Sun. Full consciousness, enlightenment, happiness,
annual events
20.JUDGEMENT. Karma, destiny, responsibility, forgiveness,
resurrection, new life
21.THE WORLD. Conclusions, completion, endings and new
beginnings
The Minor Arcana
 The Suit of Wands
ACE OF WANDS. Creativity, invention, virility, potency

TWO OF WANDS. Planning, preparation, dominion, contemplation

THREE OF WANDS. Opportunity, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce,

discovery, business success, economic strength

FOUR OF WANDS. Prosperity, partnerships, haven, repose, harmony,

prosperity, peace

FIVE OF WANDS. Challenges, scuffles, strife, imitation warfare, strenuous

competition, struggle

SIX OF WANDS. Victory, conquest

SEVEN OF WANDS. Defiance, defense, valor, discussion, successful

negotiations, competition

EIGHT OF WANDS. Communication, travel, speed, flight, arrows of love

NINE OF WANDS. Resilience, resistance, strength

TEN OF WANDS. Burden, overwork, oppression, suffering

PAGE OF WANDS. Spiritual concepts and lessons; a dark, faithful young

man; a lover, an envoy, a postman

KNIGHT OF WANDS. Spiritual rescue; departure, absence, flight,

emigration, a new home; a dark, friendly young man

QUEEN OF WANDS. Spiritual nurture and protection; a dark, friendly,

chaste, loving, honorable woman; love of money; success in business
KING OF WANDS. The generation and administration of spiritual energy;
honesty; a dark and friendly married man
 The Suit of Cups
ACE OF CUPS. New love, overflowing emotion, fertility, joy, nourishment,
abundance

TWO OF CUPS. Attraction, commitment, love

THREE OF CUPS. Friendship, celebration, abundance, merriment, solace,

healing

FOUR OF CUPS. Disenchantment, boredom, weariness, disgust, aversion

FIVE OF CUPS. Sorrow, loss

SIX OF CUPS. Nostalgia, pleasure

SEVEN OF CUPS. Choices, daydreams, illusions

EIGHT OF CUPS. Seeking, quests, crusades, abandonment

NINE OF CUPS. Pleasure, contentment, drunkenness, material or physical

happiness

TEN OF CUPS. Contentment, perfect happiness, success, happy home and

family

PAGE OF CUPS. Emotional lessons and messages; a student; reflection and

meditation

KNIGHT OF CUPS. Emotional rescue; arrival, approach, advances,

propositions, invitations

QUEEN OF CUPS. Emotional nurture and protection; dreamy, visionary; a

good, fair, honest, and devoted woman; success, happiness, pleasure,
wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother

KING OF CUPS. The generation and administration of emotional energy; a

fair man, an intelligent man; a man of business, law, or divinity;
responsibility
 The Suit of Swords
ACE OF SWORDS. Inspiration, clarity, conception, pregnancy

TWO OF SWORDS. Difficult decisions, peace restored, courage, concord

THREE OF SWORDS. Heartache, sorrow

FOUR OF SWORDS. Recuperation, retreat, rest from strife, repose, exile

FIVE OF SWORDS. Poor sportsmanship, defeat, degradation, infamy,

dishonor, loss

SIX OF SWORDS. Travel by water, solace, reward

SEVEN OF SWORDS. Dishonesty, thievery, betrayal, futility

EIGHT OF SWORDS. Restrictions, cruelty, victimhood

NINE OF SWORDS. Insomnia, nightmares, despair, cruelty, lamentation

TEN OF SWORDS. Overkill, martyrdom, ruin, desolation, sadness

PAGE OF SWORDS. Intellectual concepts and lessons; secret service,

vigilance, stealth, a spy

KNIGHT OF SWORDS. Intellectual rescue; chivalry, skill, bravery,

defense, war

QUEEN OF SWORDS. The nurture and protection of intellectual energy; a

sharp-tongued woman, a widow, a woman with a keen wit and intelligence

KING OF SWORDS. The generation and administration of intellectual

energy; justice, the power of life and death; command, authority, militant
intelligence
 The Suit of Pentacles
ACE OF PENTACLES. Physical and material foundations

TWO OF PENTACLES. Balance, juggling of resources, harmonious

change

THREE OF PENTACLES. Artistic and spiritual mastery

FOUR OF PENTACLES. Miserliness, stinginess, isolation, earthly power

FIVE OF PENTACLES. Poverty, loss, material trouble

SIX OF PENTACLES. Charity, generosity, material success, gift-giving

SEVEN OF PENTACLES. The wait before the harvest, success unfulfilled,

barter, innocence

EIGHT OF PENTACLES. Apprenticeship, industry, prudence, work,

employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill

NINE OF PENTACLES. Comfort, abundance, material gain, prudence,

safety, success, accomplishment, discernment

TEN OF PENTACLES. Wealth, gain, riches, family matters, archives,

family home

PAGE OF PENTACLES. Physical lessons; study, scholarship, reflection,

management

KNIGHT OF PENTACLES. Offers physical rescue; slowness, heaviness,

endurance, utility, serviceability, responsibility
QUEEN OF PENTACLES. Nurtures and protects physical energy; a dark,
intelligent woman with a great soul; opulence, generosity, magnificence,
security, liberty

KING OF PENTACLES. Generates and administers physical energy; a dark

man; courage, valor, intelligence, business aptitude, mathematical gifts
 APPENDIX V
Forms and Templates
You can find downloadable, print-friendly versions of the following
forms and templates online at the following address:
www.tarotjournaling.com.
 What’s In the Cards?
Remember today’s insights with this record of your tarot reading.
 Reading Summary
Each card’s meaning is highlighted by the position in which it falls.
 Suit Yourself
What do the four suits represent? Here’s a quick guide:

Wands: spiritual issues Cups: emotional affairs Swords:

intellectual matters Pentacles: material things
 Major Players

Major Arcana cards represent powerful forces in your life.

• 0. The Fool
• 1. The Magician
• 2. The High Priestess
• 3. The Empress
• 4. The Emperor
• 5. The Hierophant
• 6. The Lovers
• 7. The Chariot
• 8. Justice
• 9. The Hermit
• 10. Wheel of Fortune
• 11. Strength
• 12. The Hanged Man
• 13. Death
• 14. Temperance
• 15. The Devil
• 16. The Tower
• 17. The Star
• 18. The Moon
• 19. The Sun
• 20. Judgement
• 21. The World
 Tarot by the Numbers
Aces: new beginnings
2: duality and balance
3: blending and growth
4: solid foundations
5: upsetting the balance
6: re-establishing the balance
7: new awareness
8: re-evaluation
9: near completion
10: completion, prepare to begin again
Pages: lessons, news, messages
Knights: adventures, protection
Queens: safeguard, nurture
Kings: organization, defense
 Minor Keys
You control the forces of the Minor Arcana.

The Celtic Crass Spread

 The Card-a-Day Record
Draw one card a day for yourself. Keep a record of the cards you draw, and
look for patterns and distribution over time.
 Tall Dark Stranger
Tarot for Love and Romance

Corrine Kenner
 For centuries, the love-struck, lovesick, and lovelorn have consulted the
tarot—a tradition still thriving today. Tall Dark Stranger makes it easy for
anyone to explore matters of the heart through tarot. There is even a guide
to tarot terms and symbols.
Corrine Kenner’s tour of the tarot begins with its colorful, romantic
history. She goes on to describe the deck itself—explaining its structure,
suits, symbolism, archetypes, and astrological associations—while relating
its special significance in love and relationships. The second part of the
book is devoted to the nitty-gritty of tarot readings: choosing a deck,
preparing for a reading, asking appropriate questions, timing events, and
interpreting cards and spreads. By the end of the book, readers will have a
powerful edge in conquering the ever-mysterious ways of love.

0-7387-0548-9
312 pp., 7½ x 9 , illus. $15.95
 To order, call 1-877-NEW-WRLD
Prices subject to change without notice

Taking the Tarot to Heart

Fun & Creative Ways to Improve
Your Love Life

Mark McElroy
Waiting for Prince Charming may not be an effective strategy for finding
love, just as ignoring relationship problems isn’t always the best solution.
Instead of letting chance rule romance, Mark McElroy suggests using the
tarot to improve your love life.
No knowledge of the tarot or belief in the supernatural is necessary.
Anyone can use Taking the Tarot to Heart to take charge of their romantic
destiny. For both singles and couples, this book provides tarot spreads and
exercises to answer questions like “How can I find my soulmate?” and
“How can I spice up my love life?” Emphasizing the practical, not the
mystical, McElroy demonstrates how easy it is to find creative solutions to
relationship issues without bleeding the mystery and meaning out of
romance. Many topics are covered: defining your perfect partner, dating,
gifts, break-ups, granting forgiveness, and more.
0-7387-0536-5
264 pp., 7½ x 9 , illus. $16.95

To order, call 1-877-NEW-WRLD Prices subject to change without notice

Putting the Tarot to Work

Creative Problem Solving, Effective
Decision Making, and
Personal Career Planning

Mark McElroy
 You have your cell phone, your pager, and your palm pilot. But a tarot
deck? Why not? It’s the perfect tool for thinking outside the box.
Business manager and consultant Mark McElroy has worked and thrived
in the corporate pressure cooker. Let him show you the secrets of using the
cards to boost your creativity, make better decisions, and increase your
value as a boss or employee. Apply this versatile tool today to clarify your
values, define your goals, and restore meaning to your career.The cards can
even help you plan productive meetings, breathe new life into dull
presentations, and improve business relationships.

0-7387-0444-X
264 pp., 7½ x 9 $16.95

To order, call 1-877-NEW-WRLD

Prices subject to change without notice
 The Complete Tarot Reader
Everything You Need to Know
from Start to Finish

Teresa C. Michelsen
Teresa Michelsen’s one-of-a-kind self-study program helps students
develop a long-lasting, intuitive approach to tarot reading that works with
any tarot deck! Instead of memorizing standard card meanings and spreads,
readers are encouraged to use their own life experiences and knowledge to
craft a personal understanding of the cards.
Organized like a study guide, this book includes study goals, progress
activities, and easy exercises for exploring the suits, court cards, major
arcana, and a variety of reading techniques, including methods to work with
reversals, dignities, timed readings, and large spreads. Michelsen also
discusses the underlying structures and patterns in the tarot and how various
cards are related to astrology, numerology, psychology, and myth. Practical
aspects of tarot reading—difficult clients, reader’s block, good questions,
and ethical issues—are also covered.

0-7387-0434-2
288 pp., 7½ x 9 , illus. $15.95
 To order, call 1-877-NEW-WRLD
Prices subject to change without notice
 To Write to the Author
If you wish to contact the author or would like more information about this
book, please write to the author in care of Llewellyn Worldwide and we will
forward your request. Both the author and publisher appreciate hearing
from you and learning of your enjoyment of this book and how it has
helped you. Llewellyn Worldwide cannot guarantee that every letter written
to the author can be answered, but all will be forwarded. Please write to:
Corrine Kenner
c⁄o Llewellyn Worldwide

2143 Wooddale Drive, Dept. 0-7387-0643-4

Woodbury, MN 55125-2989
Please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope for reply,
or $1.00 to cover costs. If outside U.S.A., enclose
international postal reply coupon.

Many of Llewellyn’s authors have websites with additional information

and resources. For more information, please visit our website:

www.llewellyn.com
 Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Epigraph
A Cautionary Note
Dedication
Foreword
Preface: Reading and Writing
How to Use This Book
The Benefits of Tarot Journaling
Significant Decisions
Chapter 1 - What Covers You
Atmosphere and Influences
Location, Location, Location
Sacred Space
Ritual and Routine
Starting Points
Shortcuts and Abbreviations
Reversed Cards
Checklists
Fill in the Blanks
Chapter 2 - What Crasses You
Journaling Obstacles and Stumbling Blocks
Fear of Commitment
Writer’s Block
Performance Anxiety
Time Management
Procrastination
Bad Cards
Negativity
Critical Opinions
Get Guidance
Twenty-Two Tips for Tired Journals
Chapter 3 - What Crowns You
 Personal Privacy and the Ethics of Keeping a Tarot Journal
Writing About Readings
Reading About Others
Private Matters
Share with Care
A Legal Brief
Final Arrangements
Chapter 4 - What Grounds You
How to Use a Tarot Journal as a Foundation for Your Work with
the Cards
Card Interpretations
Cluster
Card Descriptions
One Card a Day
Correspondences
Symbolic Touches
Spreads and Layouts
Character Sketches
Go Inside the Cards
A Guide to Guided Meditation
The Meditation
Journaling Prompts
Focused Meditation
Dialogues
Lists
Timed Writing
Creative Writing
Artistic Pursuits
Sweet Dreams
Chapter 5 - What Lies Behind You
How to Rewrite History in the Pages of Your Journal
History in the Making
Study the Fool’s Journey
Your Own Fool’s Journey
Personal Stories
Sadder but Wiser
The Person You Used to Be
 Rewrite History
Chapter 6 - What Lies Before You
How to Use Your Tarot Journal to Design Your Future
Seal the Deal
Make Plans
Brainstorm
Back to the Future
Special Requests
Spell It Out
Chapter 7 - Your Self
Who Do You Think You Are?
Worlds of Experience
Your Spiritual Self
Your Emotional Self
Your Intellectual Self
Your Physical Self
Birth Cards and Year Cards
Facets of the Jewel
Role Play
Masks of Personality
Chapter 8 - Your House
Journaling about Family and Friends
The Royal Family
Forget Me Not
Chapter 9 - Your Hopes and Fears
Plumbing the Depths and Climbing New Heights
Hope Springs Eternal
Fear Factors
Chapter 10 - What Will Come
Foretelling the Future
Fortunetelling and the Tarot
Types of Psychic Ability
Guidelines for Psychic Development
Documenting Your Success
APPENDIX I - Writing Prompts
APPENDIX II - Minor Arcana Correspondences
APPENDIX III - How to Conduct a Tarot Card Reading
APPENDIX IV - Tarot Card Keywords
APPENDIX V - Forms and Templates