How to Connect with Your Tarot Cards
If you are looking to improve your Tarot readings, your connection to your Tarot deck is the first thing you should consider. To reach the deepest insights and have the smoothest readings, it is critical you cultivate a meaningful bond between you and your Tarot deck. So, let's jump into connecting with your Tarot cards so you can get the most out of your practice.
What does a strong connection look like?
You’ve probably noticed that some of the best Tarot Readers have a clear connection with their cards. They ask questions while shuffling and cards effortlessly fly out one by one, or they shuffle and draw them from the top of the deck.
Right away, you can tell the accuracy is unquestionable. You see the flow and smoothness of the whole reading process, deck and reader working together as a team. In the same way olympic athletes can work in perfect synchronization with their teammates, master readers maintain steady unspoken communication with their deck.
But there you stand with your newly received pack of cards, and even shuffling is a challenge! Don’t get discouraged. As you bond with your deck, your flow will improve drastically.
Connecting with a New Tarot Deck
Initiation
If your Tarot deck is brand new, a common practice is to initiate it. For that, you need the four elements fire, water, air, and earth represented on the cards. Plus, ether can be symbolized with a sound bowl or bell.
Place the symbols, a candle as fire, a glass of water as water, incense as air, earth as salt, and the ether in the shape of a pentagon. Take the new deck and move it above each element with its back and front. You can also say a couple of sentences for affirmation, such as ‘I initiate the deck and clean it with the element of air (use the name of the specific component you are holding the deck above). To finish it up, rattle the bowl above the deck you placed in the middle of the pentagon shape. With that, your new Tarot deck will be initiated.
Introduction
To start cultivating the energy relationship between you and your new deck, you should take time to introduce yourself to it.
It would be best if you spent time with the deck. Use it, shuffle it, work with it. The more time you spend with the cards, the more energy you put into them, and the deck will form a connection to you. It is like forming a friendship with somebody new for the first time. It’s awkward a little bit at first, then you get to know each other, you have so much in common, and at the end of it, you finish up each other’s sentences.
Your Tarot cards are your friend, your helper, and your oracle. You have an entire deck of ancient wisdom right at your fingertips.
Engaging with each card
Pick one Tarot card and write down everything you see on it. Consider what sticks out to you, what kinds of feelings it transfers to you. It is surprising how few people do this exercise, but you will be blown away by how many details you find that you have never really noticed before. You will understand sacred card meanings embedded within each suit of the Minor Arcana or among the trump cards of the Major Arcana.
Slowly go through the image, be present with it and describe what you see. Examine the card, first describe obvious things, and spell out factually what you see. You will find certain things that catch your imagination, attention, and curiosity. Then you can dive deep into the symbolism—a symbolic system where meanings are accumulated. Maintain a Tarot journal to log these thoughts, you will notice patterns in them over time.
Using your intuition
Master Tarot readers recommend engaging intuitively with the deck. Instead of referring to concrete descriptions, use your own interpretations. This is not to discredit the traditional views but to enhance them.
For example, take The Emperor, a heavy red card of the Major Arcana. What does red symbolize in general? What does it mean for you? How does it make you feel when you see it? How is this significant in the Fool's Journey? Through this questioning process, you will channel new insights and pick up on hidden gems embedded within the repeating symbols of the Rider-Waite images.
The Major Arcana pertains to big picture attitudes or happenings in life, so try to relate every single card to a past event in your life or your current situation. This will help your readings, because if they point to a potential outcome you will grasp the meaning of it more clearly.
Within the minor arcana cards, focus on the emotions and circumstances contained within each suit, giving special attention to the court cards. The four Tarot suits of cups, wands, swords, and pentacles (coins) conjure elements of their respective areas of everyday life. As you peruse through the four suits, you will see that they quite thoroughly cover the variety of experiences that we cycle among at any moment of life. When they emerge in a Tarot reading, you will much more readily identify their meaning and the guidance they seek to dispense.
It can seem overwhelming with 78 cards but rest assured it’s worth the time. Plus, once you begin, you might even find it to be a fun process.
Decks
Decks have their own personality, and you may notice one deck is not like other decks you have. New decks will have a fresh start compared to your old deck, and you will cultivate a unique working relationship will all them. Many readers have a personal ritual they use when they introduce a new tarot deck. A popular approach is giving the new deck a moon bath under a full moon and then performing daily draws and writing your meditation down in your Tarot journal.
Separate the cards based on reaction
Another helpful exercise is to separate the deck into three piles:
Cards that you like / feel drawn to
Cards that you dislike or feel disconnected from
Neutral cards (no strong feelings either way)
It should be insightful to you when you see how many Tarot cards fall into each category. A good place to start is with the cards you feel disconnected from.
Negative Reaction Pile
Take the cards you have a negative reaction to and journal. Is it violent? Is it grotesque? Or is it just too surreal and not grounded enough? Take some time to reflect on why you had those reactions. It is especially great for cards that you struggle with in readings. Ask the card ‘Why do I struggle with you?’ and see what comes up for you.
Generally, the root reason that you may have an aversion to a particular Tarot card is some kind of life circumstance or attitude (for example, in the Major Arcana, some people dislike the Hermit because it digs up unpleasant memories of social ostracism). Strong reactions are an important characteristic of working with Tarot decks, because they are tuned to channel deep emotions. As a Tarot reader learning Tarot, you should be prepared to ...Sometimes, unpleasant thoughts surface, but part of divination practices is to accept the good with the bad--you cannot fear what may come up in a Tarot reading. This introspection can get you to look at a card in a new way or unlock a part of your intuition that wasn’t connecting to a card earlier.
Neutral Pile
Next, go through the cards that you don't have strong feeling towards. Try to establish some kind of connection with them. Every Tarot card holds valuable knowledge, so it's not fair to say that you don't react to a certain card because you find it lacking insight. Spend some time with the card alone, and take a deep breath. Contemplate its meaning and think about where it can enhance your readings.
Masterful Tarot reading comes from a vast understand of the cards, a developed Intuition, and an established connection with each Tarot card in your deck. As you internalize the meanings of the Major Arcana cards and the nuance of the Minor Arcana cards, you will see that your reactions to your cards will change.
As your life circumstances change, so too will your reactions to the cards. These different perspectives should be welcomed because they develop your relationship to each card, and will lead you to uncover more profound answers in each reading you perform.
Pick a card before you go to sleep
Also, a continuation of the previous exercise can be this one. Pick a card, meditate on it for a few moments, and then put it under your pillow. Some interesting dream could surprise you that night since you may link with them subconsciously (learn more about Tarot and Dream Interpretation here).
If the message of a card does come to you in your dream, make sure to write down some notes about it. It can be challenging to remember the dream once time passes, so try to right it down immediately while you still have clarity. If you are sensitive to dream energies you might want to skip darker cards, like the nine of swords. Beginning this fun and interesting practice can access unique parts of your unconscious mind and lead to some incredibly special readings.
As a last note, some people find that sleeping with the king or queen Tarot cards can be helpful in areas of your life that relate to the suit. For example, if you are struggling with finances, the energy of the King of Pentacles (coins) can benefit you. If you feel that your creative energy has been lacking and you can't make sense of why, the Queen of wands may help you find your answer.
Interviewing your Tarot deck
Ask your Tarot cards questions just as you do when you want to get to know somebody. Tarot decks are willing to open up, so focus on the questions that are genuinely important to you. Once you ask something, pull a card and see what it wants to reveal.
To give you an example f0r guidance, some of the most commonly asked questions are:
What kind of reading is best for you?
What spread is your favorite?
What is your strength?
What are your limits?
What are you here to teach me?
What card sums you up best?
What is your main characteristic of you?
And these are just some of the possible options. You can start communicating with it about the dynamics between you and the deck itself. Remember that everything in learning to read Tarot revolves around hearing and trusting your inner guidance, and here is no exception. Do what feels right in your gut. Once your Intuition "clicks" with your cards, a whole new level of your Tarot journey will begin for you.
Spreads
There are a few ways to connect with your Tarot cards through spreads. There are many spreads online but generally a classic interview spread will serve you best. Especially for a new tarot deck, you want to use a more formal technique and record your experience in your Tarot journey.
Experiment by asking your cards questions and deploying the cards into various types of spreads. You can split your deck by Minor arcana and Major arcana cards here to hone in more specifically. See how the deck behaves in response to the energy you transfer. When you ask a question, see if the answer to it brings clarity or further confusion. If one suit appears much more frequently than another, such as swords emerging far more frequently than pentacles, wands or cups, try to understand why that is. Also, see if a certain number card or one of the court cards emerges frequently for you.
There are a few ways to connect with your Tarot cards through spreads. There are many spreads online but generally a classic interview spread will serve you best. Especially for a new tarot deck, you want to use a more formal technique and record your experience in your Tarot journey.
Spreads are of course an important cornerstone of Tarot readings, and that maintains in connecting with your cards. You can color outside the lines in a more informal practice such as this, so experiment with unique spreads you might not use in a typical Tarot reading.
There are many different spreads available to use, but generally the best ones to start with are a three card or five card spreads. The general format of the former is to draw three cards to illuminate the past, present, and future of a question or circumstance, but there are many variants that may work well for you.
When you want to dive into deeper meanings during the reading, five card spreads add that additional layer of detail.
Cleanse / charge the deck
It is absolutely necessary that you cleanse the energy of the deck regularly. This will keep your connection to your cards clear of negative energy and dispel anything that could adversely impact your readings. You should find that Tarot reading after cleansing your Tarot deck comes with more clarity and often the answer to difficult questions.
Final thoughts
Even over time, it's important to continue engaging in the practices to connect with your Tarot deck. Each reading you do improves your skills, and so will each effort you make to bolster the connection with your decks. Beginners are instructed to do this, but it's easy to fall off later on. So make sure you sometimes take a moment to consider your energy relationship with the cards.
You should practice the ritual that feels most comfortable to you. Its purpose is to help you get into the mood and state of mind and connect you with your intuition and higher consciousness.