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October 10, 2024 14 mins

Today on CARD TALK, I’ll cover:
-the many things that "deepening your practice" can mean
-three habits that can help to expand and deepen your relationship with the tarot
-suggestions for resources that can support your work

For resources on deepening your practice:
CARD TALK episodes on collaborative readings and correspondences
3am.tarot Conservatory for a variety of resources including Card Connections
Magician’s Lens archetype intensive
Next Level Tarot lecture series for multi-card readings and spreads
Intermediate tarot Bookshop recommendations
deepening your tarot practice essay from devils & fools

For more on Meg, check out 3amtarot.com, and order your copy of Finding the Fool through Bookshop.org or your favorite local bookstore.

Find episode transcripts and more over on the CARD TALK website. And as a special thank you for CARD TALK listeners, click here to download a completely free, exclusive workbook for building your best personal tarot practice.

Love what you’re hearing? Support the pod with a one-time donation or recurring subscription, and please subscribe, review, and share with a friend or two!

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CARD TALK is written, edited, and produced by Meg Jones Wall of 3am.tarot. Theme music created by PaulYudin.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm Meg Jones-Wall and this is Card Talk, a mini
podcast for tarot basics andevergreen insights.
I'm here to help you build atarot practice that works for
you.
Glad you're here.
In today's episode, we aregoing to talk about deepening
your tarot practice.
Deepening your practice issomething I get asked about all

(00:32):
the time and I think there's alot of different ways that we
can take this.
But I want to just say off thetop that once you've got the
basics down and can read thetarot with fluency and
confidence, there's really nolimit to what you can do.
But depending on your readingstyle, your relationship with
the cards and your ambitions oryour dreams for your practice,

(00:52):
there are a lot of differentoptions for how you can grow and
what this might look like.
The idea of deepening yourtarot practice can look really
different for different people,and different people mean
different things by thisexpression.
So I want to just rattle off acouple of different things that
people might mean when they sayI want to deepen my practice.
Someone might mean that theywant to expand their practice to

(01:15):
include longer or largerreadings.
Someone might mean that theywant to utilize complicated
tarot spreads or even learn towrite tarot spreads for
themselves.
Someone might mean that theywant to build personal meanings
for the cards that go beyondwhat they've been using so far,
like standardized meanings ormore traditional meanings.
Someone might mean that theywant to work with their tarot

(01:36):
cards outside of just readingsand develop relationships with
specific archetypes, elements,number groupings, astrological
groupings with specificarchetypes, elements, number
groupings, astrologicalgroupings, individual cards or
the deck as a whole.
Someone might mean that theywant to interrogate
correspondences or even createtheir own correspondences to
broaden perspectives on thecards and build new layers of
meaning in the cards.

(01:57):
Someone might mean that theywant to start reading for other
people, either personally orprofessionally.
Someone might mean that theywant to create a detailed record
of individual relationshipswith the cards, perhaps turn it
into a reference or even try topublish it as a book and more.
There's so many other thingspeople might mean when they say
that they want to deepen theirtarot practice.

(02:18):
Now, if you're a regular cardtalk listener or you follow me
on social media, you might'venoticed that I've done episodes
on a lot of the things that Ijust mentioned, and that's not
my accident.
I wanted to get a lot of thoseepisodes created and out into
the world, as well as some newresources that I've made and
gotten out into the world beforeI released this particular
episode.
But I want to talk today abouta couple of my favorite

(02:41):
techniques for deepening my ownpractice that I haven't really
covered in other places, and Ialso want to point you
specifically to the resourcesthat I have already created that
are available to help supportthis work for you in your own
practice.
So let's get into it.
This first one is actuallygoing to sound super basic, but
I haven't included it anywhereelse, and that's literally doing

(03:02):
tarot readings.
Now I don't just mean doingreadings for your own, I mean
reading for or with other people.
Collaborative readings, which Ihave done an episode on, or just
reading for people as acollective, pulling cards with
your friends, et cetera canreally change the ways that you
see your cards and are alsogreat for breaking you out of

(03:23):
stagnant patterns or challengingyour approach to the tarot as a
whole.
I highly encourage you to trycollaborative readings with
people that you trust, or to setup groups, either in real life
or digitally, to read togetheron a regular basis.
Listen to the ways that othersinterpret their cards, watch how
they shuffle and move with thecards, look at the decks that

(03:44):
they're using and see what theyhave to teach you.
Rather than being a beginnerexercise, although collaborative
readings are fantastic forbeginners this can also be an
incredible way to deepen yourprocess and deepen your
relationship with the cards,because you're always going to
hear from someone a meeting thatthey have for a tarot card that
has never occurred to you.
Every single time I do acollaborative reading, I hear

(04:07):
something I've never thought ofbefore, and it's always so cool
and just immediately expands myperspective on a particular card
or on reading a set of cardstogether.
I also encourage you to getreadings from other
practitioners, especially ifthey use different decks or
different styles than you do.
Having a professional orsomeone with more experience
read the cards for you canprovide so many new insights,

(04:30):
challenge your assumptions andgive you new avenues of
exploration.
Depending on where you are inyour practice and who you're in
relationship with, you might beable to do a reading exchange
with someone, but especially ifyou regularly read for other
people or you're already aprofessional, a trade or reading
exchange can be a great way toget more readings from other
practitioners.
And the last thing I'll sayabout readings is that you can

(04:50):
also expand.
The thing I'll say aboutreadings is that you can also
expand the size or depth of yourreadings by using spreads or by
adding an additional card to dolonger readings.
I have a lecture series thatkind of touches on that and can
support you through that process.
But simply making your readingsbigger can really immediately
force you to start deepeningyour practice, because you have

(05:11):
to find new connections withinthe cards, you have to
strengthen your ability to tellstories with the cards and you
also might deal with somesurprising combinations of cards
that force you to look deeperinto individual meanings or
correspondences or other layersof interpretation.
I think sometimes folks feellike they have to do something
really big in order to deepentheir relationship with the

(05:33):
cards.
But reading with intention andchanging up your reading style
or including other people inyour readings really can make a
difference in how your practicedeepens.
But, of course, the next thingI'm going to offer that's helped
me personally in my ownpractice is tarot studies.
Diving deeper into your taroteducation through brilliant
books, classes and resources canreally help you expand your

(05:56):
practice in different directions.
So I highly recommend findingteachers and authors who do work
that you love and dig intotheir offerings, and I also
really suggest mixing it up.
Don't just follow like me.
Don't just follow one teacher.
Check out different teachersand different approaches,
because everyone's going to havea different style and be able
to help you develop and grow indifferent ways and in different

(06:19):
directions.
Now, if you happen to love cardtalk, if you like my approach,
if you love my book, if you'vetaken classes with me before, et
cetera, I have a lot ofdifferent resources out there,
both for building a practice andalso deepening your practice.
But if you want to work with me, I would highly encourage you
to check out my signatureprogram, which is the 3am tarot
conservatory membership.

(06:39):
This is a monthly subscriptionthat gives you streaming access
to my most popular and robusttarot courses.
They're all original, they'reall self-paced and you can do
them in whatever order you like.
If you're looking to deepenyour studies, transform your
practice, learn to see the deckin new ways, build out personal
meanings for your cards or somany other things, the
conservatory is for you, and soI will throw a link in the show

(07:02):
notes to give you moreinformation and talk you through
joining, but I also reallyregularly recommend my favorite
teachers and practitioners onsocial media and through my
newsletter, because I just thinkthat it's so important to
listen to multiple people, takecourses with different people,
get readings with differentpeople, et cetera, and so you
can also find recommended listsof my favorite books about tarot

(07:23):
and other spiritual topicsthrough my bookshop link, which
I'll also put into the shownotes.
I'm trying to put together amaster list of my favorite
teachers and practitioners, butsome of the people I love to
work with aren't open forreadings right now or aren't
available for classes right now,so it kind of keeps evolving,
but I'm going to try to put thattogether and send it out as
soon as I can.
In addition to working withteachers and practitioners and

(07:46):
resources and studies that havebeen created by other people,
you can also do your ownpersonal studies Choose a
specific card or an archetype ora suit or a rank or a card
grouping or a correspondence setor an aspect of tarot history
or a deck type or style orliterally whatever else to study
on your own and take some timeto unpack that and dig into it

(08:10):
and research it and work with iton your own.
If you're someone, that'sreally curious, if you're really
self-motivated, you literallymight not need anything else
besides a decision to do a studyin order to go deeper with your
practice and learn more.
And the third and final methodI want to offer for deepening
your tarot practice is to branchout.
There are a lot of differentways to look at tarot cards, and

(08:32):
so if you're interested indeepening your practice, I
highly recommend looking intoother systems that might
intersect with or layer into thetarot in ways beyond things
you've already studied or thatyou already know.
If you love astrologicalcorrespondences, if you love
connecting cards to planets andzodiacal signs, check out
Deccans, which are astrologicalconnections for a lot of the

(08:53):
minor arcana cards and courtcards.
You can do a Deccan walk.
You can read all of thesedifferent books and resources
out there about Deccans.
It's not something I work withclosely, but I do hope to do a
Deccan walk on my newsletter atsome point in the future.
But if you already loveastrology and you want to
connect astrology and tarottogether more, decans are
fascinating and a great way todig more into the astrology of

(09:16):
the tarot.
If you love tracing patternsbetween the numbered groupings
of the cards, study somedifferent systems of numerology
and see what greater depth youcan find within the numbers and
the tarot.
I work with Pythagoreannumerology, but there are a
number of other systems ofnumerology that you can study
and there is so much to findwhen it comes to numerology, so

(09:36):
this can be a really fantasticway to deepen your understanding
of the cards and to expand thelayers of meaning that you find
within the tarot itself.
If you're fascinated by themajor arcana in particular, do
some deeper studies onarchetypes, both with Jung and
psychology, but also withcharacter archetypes that come
up in storytelling or mythologyor folklore.

(09:57):
If you love looking atdifferent kinds of card images,
study some symbolism or colortheory, look to the patterns to
discover new connections withinthe cards and also study the
history of tarot art.
It is fascinating.
And if you really love usingthe tarot for general
predictions about the future,dive into the world of timing
techniques using the cards andstart to practice.

(10:19):
See how precise you can get byusing the cards to get more
specific about when somethingmight happen or what something
might look like.
Those are just a fewsuggestions of places to get
started, but branching out withyour studies and learning to
incorporate other aspects of thetarot into your work can be a
really cool way to deepen yourpractice in some unexpected ways

(10:39):
.
Of course, there are plenty ofother methods for deepening your
practice beyond this, but I dohope that, in addition to past
episodes of Card Talk, theresources I'm sharing in the
study notes and thesesuggestions here, you have a
bunch of new, fun, interestingthings to try out in your own
practice.
I think the most importantthing to consider when you're
thinking about how you want todeepen your practice is really

(11:00):
to consider what it is you'regoing for, what you want to
accomplish and what deepeningyour practice means to you,
because the steps that you takeor the things that you pursue or
try out, the things that youstudy, the ways that you
experiment, really can be chosenbased on what your goals are.
What kind of reader do you wantto be?
What does deepening yourpractice mean to you?

(11:20):
What does it feel like might bemissing from your practice, or
where do you want to be strongerin your practice?
Right, take some time to reallythink about that journal, about
it, pull cards around it, and Ithink it's going to also just
help you clarify what steps totake in order to deepen that
practice in a way that's goingto be really personal and
supportive for you.
If you want help in thinkingabout how to deepen your

(11:43):
practice or build out yourpersonal practice, I have a free
downloadable workbook that'savailable just for Card Talk
listeners.
I'm not talking about thisliterally anywhere else, but
it's completely free to download.
It's 12 pages.
You can print it or use it onyour computer or your phone as a
PDF, or you can just copy thequestions into your own journal.
But it'll talk you throughtelling your story through the
cards and finding your own storyof the tarot, and it's also

(12:06):
going to ask you a bunch ofdifferent questions that you can
journal with and think aboutaround where you want your
practice to go, what's alreadyworking, where you might be
looking for some change and whatyour goals are around your
practice.
So you can find a direct linkto that in the show notes and I
highly encourage you to checkthat out again.
It's completely free.
You just have to go to mywebsite to download it Now.
I always like to give a tip or atrick, and this one I know I've

(12:29):
already said a couple of timesin previous episodes, but I just
want to emphasize here thatdeepening your practice is not
necessarily a process that canbe rushed, because once you know
the basics of tarot, deepeningyour practice is really just
having a tarot practice for therest of your life that you
continue to utilize.
But I do want to say that withexercises like the ones I've

(12:50):
talked about and differentresources that I'm sharing in
the show notes, it's more thanokay to be intentional about
that work, to want to deepenyour practice.
There are so many resources outthere that can support an
expanding or deepening practice.
It's just important to knowwhat that means to you and what
you want, so that you can setyour goals accordingly and find
resources or systems or studiesor whatever that are really

(13:13):
going to support that work foryou.
That's all I have for you today, but, as always, thank you so
much for taking this time withme today and hanging out to talk
about tarot, and I'll be backagain soon with more card talk.
Card talk episodes are alwaysfree for everyone to enjoy, so
if you love what you hear,please consider supporting the
podcast by subscribing,recommending card talk to a

(13:35):
friend or two or donating tohelp with production costs.
You can find episodetranscripts.
Learn more about me and join mysignature Tarot Conservatory
membership program through mywebsite 3amtarotcom.
Thanks for listening and seeyou next time.
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