Starting May 15th, I will be offering a free 2-week long group coaching session for tarot. I talk about tarot here fairly often, but I wanted to share my tarot story. I don’t have a birth story or anything like that, but I do have a tarot story. It is not novel worthy, but I want to share so you can make an informed decision on if joining the Discord might be a right fit for you!
I have been studying tarot since 2017, but I did not get my first deck until Christmas day of that year. So really, I have only been actively reading since 2018. The latter half of 2017 was me scouring the internet in the evenings and copying down notes about different tarot cards. I was already well into my crystal era, and I was curious about expanding my spiritual practice beyond meditation with my crystals under my favorite tree.
Tarot ended up opening so many doors for me, and while they may not be lucrative in a capitalistic view, these doors have become portals of transformation for me.
Community
Posting about tarot on IG opened me up to an amazingly beautiful community. I got to meet
, Julia of aplace_todock, Christina over at Moon and Cactus, Thomas of Hermit’s Mirror, Josephine of Healer.Josephine, and so many, many more! Pre-2020, the tarot community on IG was incredibly inviting and wholesome. There was much less commercialization and much more learning, sharing, and nerding out.If you were to go back through my journals over the years, you would find gratitude note after gratitude note of me being so incredibly grateful for the community I have over on IG.
This community has led to friends, joy, and some cool collaborations. Posting tarot and crystals on IG is what has led me here to The Oracle Portal.
Intuition
Practicing tarot has helped me heal in a lot of ways, especially as I have grown more accustomed to reading intuitively rather just from the guidebooks. I am certainly a rule-based type of person. I like boxes. I like guidelines. I like knowing the expectations so I am not guessing. Up until the last couple of years, I had always felt more connected to tarot than to oracle cards because the rules of tarot made it easy for my brain to understand interpret. I love the hard and fast rules of tarot, the symbolism, the diversity in the decks, etc.
One of my first decks was The Victorian Fairy Tarot, and it was exactly what I needed to better understand the rules of tarot, but also to begin dabbling into intuitive reading. The scenes on the cards really told a story, and the suits were seasons vs. pentacles, etc. Relating tarot through the seasons, which I have always felt very attuned to. You end up feeling that way when you grow up on a farm. The weather is truly life or death at that point.
Another deck I used was The Mystical Cats Tarot, and its suits were the 4 elements. This also allowed me to lean in more intuitively. Was I an intuitive reader at this point? Nope! That took me around 5 years to begin to really feel comfortable even attempting. That being said, these two deck really helped me come into my own intuition because I was building additional context. I need a lot of context to feel knowledgable and prepared.
I still struggle with my intuition. I’m not sure that I will ever be fully intuitive in any aspect of my life as I deal with a boat load of anxiety, and those gut feelings can be very hard to decipher. Tarot has helped me trust myself more though, and that has been very healing.
Spiritual Development
Tarot is the number one way that I speak with my spirit guides. I am not great at meditation these days. The ADHD brain is just NOT having it. But I CAN get into the zone with my tarot cards. When I do have the privilege of reading for others, and they give feedback, it’s often “this is spot on!” So I know that I can zone in and focus so long as my hands and brain have something tangible to focus on. Knowing that divination is a space where I can be successful, I have begun to use it as my main tool for communication with my goddesses, ancestors, etc.
Tarot has brought into my life routine, grounding, and structure. I read tarot daily and have journal upon journal of entries since 2018. I use it to be intentional about the lunar cycles, to guide my energy for the day, to connect with my spirituality.
It has opened my eyes to new perspectives, to symbols and messages from my guides. I know that a rabbit or bat are Persephone, a snake or wolf are Hekate, a bear or deer are Artemis, a crow is The Morrigan.
I feel closer to the seasons and elements thanks to tarot because I had the honor of learning on decks that used those as symbols and highlighted their importance. I also have seen where teacher lies within the deck (The Page of Swords), and it has helped me become a better teacher, which is my day job! It has allowed me to bring a spiritual mindset to my work.
Civic Duty
Tarot, when you take a holistic approach to it, can help remind you of your civic duty. There are many cards about helping others, fighting for what’s right, etc. My cards have jumped out at me more times than I can count reminding me to get my shit together and get involved in the cause: racial justice, disability justice, food justice, indigenous sovereignty, etc. If you take a holistic approach to life, you will want to take a holistic approach to tarot as well.
My nana called me out yesterday. She gave me that damned King of Cups reversed when I asked about interpersonal skills. She said loud and clear: DO NOT FORGET YOUR COMPASSION. Do not forget your own struggles as a child. Walk through life with that generous lens of understanding… when I very much do not want to be understanding towards entitled people. But it’s there. It’s the reminder.
Being kind to people in your day to day life (not over the top, just an acknowledgement of their existence sometimes) is part of your civic duty. I try to give a smile or a wave to every person I cross paths with. Sometimes people look at me like I’m crazy. Other times, their faces light up as if it’s the first time they’ve been acknowledged in a while.
Tarot isn’t for love predictions and what job is coming next. Many of the people I see using tarot in that way often come off as predatory and fear mongering. Tarot, for me, is a way to heal, to ground, to become present. It is a way to connect, to remember, to fall into a state of stasis. It can help you plan for sure, but it is also, more often than not, I have found, a way of forcing focus on topics and situations you may not want to focus on.
Working with me on tarot will be a little more academic, a little intuitive. I am a teacher by trade. I understand how learning works. I specialize in accommodating students with specific needs. So if you need help, I am here and have the professional experience and knowledge to help. I will ask you to dig deep and maybe challenge you to dig deeper, to look outside your original scope. If you’re interested, come join the Discord. It is free from 5/15-5/31. We will be learning together, sharing together, holding each other accountable, and most importantly, building community and bonds.
Please let me know if you have any questions. If you are already in the Discord, leave a comment for others to read about the experience so far.
Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.
With love,
Aventurine ✨
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Great article 🤩
I love how meaningful tarot is to your whole life!
My tarot routine is about self care, healing and introspection. I do a daily pull for some guidance for the day ahead or a focus or sometimes a word or phrase to help me get through the day. Any seasonal spreads again just act as a guide to an area of my life to work on or focus.
I don’t use my cards to predict the future but they definitely seem to know what is going on in my life and whether I need gentle guidance or a kick up the ass 😆