Intuitive Tarot Reading

The greatest Tarot readings come from the heart.

More specifically, they come from your intuition, the spiritual wisdom embedded deep within you. Master Tarot readers have a developed ability to channel their intuition during Tarot readings to access the wisdom of their spirit, which is why they can deliver profound insights. The traditional meanings of Tarot cards are helpful to guide interpretation, but they are simply a tool to access your innate Intuitive powers. Effectively using your intuition is like working out a muscle, it's difficult at first but you improve over time with practice.

There is no right or wrong way to evoke your intuitive abilities. Reading Tarot cards is a deeply personal practice, and over time you will find ways to maximize your intuitive readings. You may even come to develop other intuitive reading techniques for different situations. There are many other forms of divination and plenty of ways to connect with your higher self and your spirit guides for guidance, so don't feel locked into a specific way of doing things.

Experienced Tarot enthusiasts often find their own Tarot card meanings within the deck. For example, a certain card may often emerge before a certain happening. That's why you should note down the outcomes of Tarot readings in your Tarot journal. You will begin to recognize patterns over time and extract your own meanings.

Intuitive Tarot Readings

To perform Intuitive Tarot Readings, you must focus on the spiritual messages being communicated to you. This does not mean discarding the established meanings of the Tarot cards. Rather, it means to utilize them as a tool to receive and clarify the insights your spirit has to offer.

Any Professional Tarot reader will know that Intuitive Tarot readings can bring the most profound insights, but they also take a tremendous amount of practice to perform well. Don't get discouraged if your first few attempts are confusing. You may not be used to listening to your intuition, and that's completely fine. Some of the most intuitive people in the world recount how badly they struggled at first. It simply takes time to understand how your intuition speaks to you and what you need to do to best open up to it.

Here, you can find helpful tips to improve your Intuitive readings:

Tips for Intuitive Tarot Readings

Clear your mind

Intuitive Tarot reading is about evoking and listening to your gut feeling. To be able to hear these feelings in the first place, you must clear your mind. So, before attempting any kind of intuitive Tarot reading, take a moment for meditation. Draw deep breaths, and focus on the air cycling in and out of your lungs, as well as the energy circulating throughout your body. Tune into your vibration. When you are still enough, you will start to sense the spiritual energy surrounding you. Image yourself pulling this energy into your core, and letting it fill your being. It is real energy that can give you greater clarity and eliminate cloudiness in your mind. It's powerful stuff!

Shuffle Thoroughly

Before jumping right into the Tarot reading, take some time to shuffle your cards. Feel the transfer of your energy into the deck. Shuffle through, and communicate your intentions to your Tarot deck. Are you looking for insight into the future? Are you helping deliver guidance to another person? Do you have specific questions about your life that you need answers for? Come into the vibration of your purpose and transfer that vibration to your cards.

Immerse yourself in the Question

When you begin the reading, concentrate on the question. Summon in your mind visuals, emotions, sounds, and anything that relates to it. You want to be in the full energy of the situation as you channel your intuition. Make your intention clear, understand exactly what it is that you seek. The accuracy of your Tarot reading will be improved greatly by your being in this state. You transfer your energy into the Tarot deck, and it interprets in and communicates it in a digestible way. So, the more thorough the energy you provide, the more lucidity your answers will have.

Let your Intuition Speak

The purpose of Intuitive Tarot reading is just as the name states, to read Tarot with your intuition. For that reason, don't be pulled too deep into the academic meanings of the Tarot cards.

For instance, if you are dealing with a suited card in the Minor Arcana, such as Four of Swords, the card may be trying to convey something to you that is not related to action/thinking (as are the associations of swords) or being in a state of stasis (four of swords premise). There may be something about the knight's tomb, or the stained glass window, or the hung swords that evoke something within you. You are free to take liberty in your interpretation of the symbolism, as the ideas presented by your intuition and spirit guides supersede your knowledge of the traditional meanings of the cards.

It's well documented that when you are struggling with an idea or problem solving, you can activate parts of your unconscious mind by looking at art. Certain symbols will stick out to you that illuminate new way of thinking. When you read Tarot cards, a similar spiritual process occurs. In an Intuitive Tarot reading, you jog your intuition to recognize meaning in the energies around you.

Remain Neutral

The most special messages and greatest clarity come when you read with your mind free of bias. Every Tarot reader occasionally falls into the trap of "wanting" or expecting a certain answer. But, the most accurate guidance is when you let your Tarot deck channel messages from your spirit uninterrupted and accept them at face value. Sometimes the ideas that proceed from your spirit are cryptic, but part of the tarot card reading is deciphering the true meaning behind them. That is why it is especially important to truly connect with the cards and interpret them beyond the defined traditional meaning.

Trust your Intuition

You could read all the books on astrology and Tarot in the world (which would probably be interesting but overkill) and still miss the communication conveyed to you in a reading. That's because any Tarot card can emerge to say something specifically tailored for your intuition. You will find your readings are more accurate when you let the cards increase your reception to spiritual communication than scientifically piecing together a story based on traditional meanings.

Know your Deck

Of course, it is helpful to know your deck inside and out. That includes knowing both the traditional meetings, as well as understanding the energy of the particular deck you're using.

The benefit of knowing the full meanings of the cards is it adds another layer of meaning and concepts that can be communicated in a reading. Complex or abstract concepts that are not easily communicated from your spirit can present themselves more clearly. It essentially expands the "vocabulary" of your higher self. So, if you are not well-versed in the intrinsic meaning of the Tarot imagery, you are doing yourself a disservice. Key details could be lost in translation.

Understanding the personality of the Tarot deck you're using is helpful because different decks speak in unique ways. Although all the Rider-Waite Tarot cards have fixed intrinsic meanings, decks can represent a concept or idea with a particular card. If you use one Tarot card deck for a long time and then switch to another, you will find that they each represent the same notion with different cards. So, knowing the particular Tarot cards you're using will be helpful to deduce what it means to tell you.

Mixed signals

Throughout the course of any reading, you may seem to receive messages that are confusing or seemingly contradictory. This generally means that an earlier interpretation was misleading, and your spirit guides are seeking to course-correct. If you feel this is happening in a Tarot card reading, pause for a moment, and reassess the cards that have emerged. Dive into their symbolism. Think of their related life themes and their greater context in astrology.

How to Develop Your Intuition

Your intuition is always working, even outside of Tarot readings. As you proceed through your everyday life, it your spirit is in constant communication with the Universe. When you are stressed or

The traditional cards meanings are helpful towards the beginning of your Tarot journey, but they become less important as you observe what they tend to represent for you. Different decks will interpret your energy differently, so in a way they "assign" different unique card meanings to the cards, and no two decks are created equal. This emphasizes the importance of a Tarot journal, so you can document the trends among your decks and evaluate your readings against the point of your life you were at when you did them.

Have a Sacred Space

Create a sacred space for your Divinations and Tarot practice. This is covered extensively in our Tarot reading course, but the important takeaway is to reserve an area specifically for spiritual and intuitive time. Do not bring the stresses of your life into this area. It should be a place for meditation, tarot reading, and relaxation. You don't need it to be anything fancy, like velvet curtains and a crystal ball, but try to create an environment that lends well for Tarot reading.

As you've read a few times by now, a key aspect of Intuitive Tarot reading is an absence of conflicting energy or distraction. This is to make room for your Intuition to flourish. It will be quiet at first, so you must quiet your mind and external reality in order to pick up on its messages. Over time, you can develop your Intuition to be a helpful guide throughout your regular life, even without Tarot cards.

Don't get discouraged!

Intuitive Tarot reading can sometimes be a challenging practice. Although it's rewarding, it requires lots of focus and can be difficult without proper instruction.

Sometimes, you may feel shut out from your intuition. That is totally normal, especially in the beginning, because you are not going to be on your A-game every day. If you're not picking up on signs and messages from your subconscious, simply use the traditional Tarot card meanings for your reading. The cards can still deliver insight even if its not as powerful as it could be.

Only an expert Intuitive Tarot reader will be free of this phenomenon. Having worked at it for long enough that their intuition acts as a daily guide, the "volume" is loud enough that it never goes away. Even if they were to never read Tarot cards again, they've unlocked a special power that lives on with them. Through meditation and internal spiritual communication originally guided by meaning, they can now use the power of their intuition at will. You, too, can reach this point, and be assured it is well worth the journey. There's a reason deeply Intuitive people always seem so successful. Your spirit knows exactly what to do to achieve the things you desire.

A Note on Traditional Card Meanings

Note that you should not discard the meaning of each card simply because you want to listen only to your intuition. That's not what is meant here. Your spirit works hand-in-hand with the cards to communicate. It's like your intuition is speaking a language you know poorly. You may be able to understand a word here and there, and can pick up on the general emotion or topic, but you can't grasp all of it. The cards act as a translator, communicating the full body of the message complete with its nuance and detail. As an Intuitive Tarot reader, you simultaneously draw the most speech out of the foreign speaker and translate it as accurately as possible.

Moving Forward

We threw a lot of information at you here, and there is much more to Intuitive reading than can be covered in a single blog post. But, don't feel overwhelmed. It should be a fun and enjoyable practice! If you feel stressed about your abilities or are frustrated, you've got the wrong idea. Of course, everything worth doing gets frustrating at times. But, working with your intuition, and reading Tarot in general, is meant to make your life easier. It should be stress relieving and gratifying, not burdensome.

We are called Intuitive Souls because we focus almost entirely on using and developing your intuition. Our Tarot Reading Course is rooted in exactly that and is worth checking out if you want to expand your Intuitive Tarot reading abilities. If you are simply looking to learn the traditional meanings, there are many great Tarot books and Tarot course options available online and in your local metaphysical shop.