Tarot as Inspiration

tarot inspiration

I look at my deck of tarot cards when I’m in need of inspiration. As Tarot-Explained.com mentions a lot, Tarot cards are a great addition to your life in terms of decision making and getting a second opinion. They can act as another person to bounce ideas off of or a sounding board for your own ideas.  They even helped with this update. Once you understand even the basic card meanings, you’ll be able to bounce ideas around and develop them.

The idea generation process is different for everyone, but as most of us have a visual memory and visual brain, Tarot lends itself to idea generation well. You can look at single cards, combine cards, take elements you like from some and ignore others, it’s really up to you. The imagery of the Rider-Waite tarot deck is complicated and filled with lots of hidden symbology. Personally I find this extremely interesting, and it adds a whole new layer of depth to the cards. You can spend ages looking up card meanings and reading about new concepts.

How do I put this into practice?

If you have a project you want to start, a painting for example, in mind, here is what I’d suggest. Of course you can adapt this to whatever you’re working on. Grab a piece of paper and your tarot deck and find somewhere quiet for ten minutes or so. Write down any of your first ideas to start on the paper as a mind map. You don’t need any ideas to start with really, but if you do, the Tarot deck is a good place to grow them.

Shuffle your deck and draw a card. When you draw a card, first of all, take note of the visuals, does this apply to anything you’ve written down so far? Add it in, link concepts down. Next, check out the card meaning. Anything else relevant? When you’ve exhausted a card, it’s time to draw another. You can continue until you feel your ideas are developed enough to start working on.

I use this method when I’m stuck. This post, for example; I was stuck for an idea of what to write. I have a list of topics to cover written down but none of them felt ‘right’ for writing right now, so I looked at the deck, in front of me where it always is and drew a card. I drew the three of pentacles. Although it isn’t the given meaning of the card, I saw people discussing. It looks like they’re discussing ideas. I sometimes have trouble generating ideas, and realised that whenever I’m like this, I can and often do just look into my tarot deck for inspiration. That was my train of thought, and it just goes to show that a Tarot deck can have more uses than mystical divination.

Meditating with Tarot

meditating with tarot

Tarot cards can be great object for meditation. We’ve previously touched on meditating with Tarot in this blog post; Swapping the elements in your card readings. If you are familiar with meditating generally, this will be an easy element to add into your practice, and there are a number of ways to go about it. If you aren’t an experienced mediator, then that’s fine too, you’ll still be able to take something away from this. Using Tarot cards as a visualisation tool will help you better understand your deck, and the meanings of the cards.

Before you start, you should always set aside some time where you won’t be disturbed. Put your phone on silent and try to block out exterior noise. If you live with others, request that they don’t bother you while you’re meditating. You should try to be as comfortable as possible. Sit on a cushion on the floor, or on a comfy chair. You’ll need to be still for a while, so choose whatever is best for you. Some choose the lotus position, but you don’t need to.

Once you’re comfortable, you are ready to begin meditating.

One way to learn given meanings of the cards, as well as understand what they mean to you, is to meditate on single card. You can look up the meanings beforehand if you wish to get an overview. When you’re ready, choose a card to begin.

The Meditation Process

  • Place the card in front of you and gaze at it for a while.
  • Take in as much detail as you can
  • Close your eyes
  • Picture the card in front of you in your room, and slowly make the room disappear
  • Grow the card in your mind until it is larger than you
  • Picture the scene in the illustration as if it were a real life scene and step into it.
  • Take a moment to visualise the details of the card. You can open your eyes briefly to remember  any details you might have missed.
  • When you’re ready, in your minds eye, ‘step’ into the card, and take in the sights and sounds of the illustration.
  • Be a part of it for as long as you want. The scenario doesn’t have to be static, move it along. What happens next?

There are a lot of things to explore here. You can remain in this imaginary card world for as long as you wish. You can also combine cards. Much like meditating on one card, using two cards follows a similar procedure. Place the two cards together and imagine they are one. What is happening? How do the meanings combine and affect each other? This may seem simple, but when you’ve got cards that can have opposite meanings, it can lead to interesting and unexpected results.

When you’re ready, you should reverse the process. Step out of the card, make it smaller again. Visualise your room to ground yourself back to reality.