March 27, 2025 • 20 mins
Today on CARD TALK, I’ll cover:
-what can spark feeling disconnected from the cards
-why it is super normal to struggle with making readings personal
-four essential reminders
-tips and prompts to help you approach this challenge with compassion
Suggested resources:
-intro to meg / deepening your tarot practice / reading tarot while stressed CARD TALK episodes
-card connections in the 3am.tarot conservatory
-good morning tarot / good night tarot mini books
-from grief to hope (and back again) workbook
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!
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're goingto talk about feeling
disconnected from the tarot ormoments when you're having
(00:31):
trouble personally connectingwith the cards in your readings.
This episode is part of alarger mini-series I'm doing on
issues that might crop up withinyour tarot practice, or desires
or or hopes or ambitions thatyou might have within your
personal practice.
Now, feeling disconnected fromyour cards can mean a lot of
things, but I'm thinkingspecifically about this.
(00:53):
Have you ever gotten a readingfrom someone who seems to just
have a really special, uniquedialed in personal connection
with their tarot cards?
Whether they read really fastand just immediately seem to
know what the cards are sayingalmost by instinct, or whether
they have a really gentle, slow,meditative style and take their
time with every single card.
(01:14):
Some folks really have adistinctive flavor to their
readings and you can see areally tangible, magical,
beautiful interaction with thecards every time they read, and
sometimes we want that forourselves right Now.
That's not the only way thatfeeling disconnected from your
cards can feel, but I think thatsometimes when we watch people
(01:36):
who have really establishedreally intimate relationships
with their cards, it can make uslook at our own practice and
find it wanting.
But being disconnected fromyour cards can be all kinds of
things.
It can mean all kinds of things, right.
If you're really early in yourtarot practice, if you're still
fairly new to the cards, thiscould mean that the cards just
feel sort of static or stagnant,that you don't feel a lot of
(01:59):
life or magic breathing throughthem, and I just have to stress
that that's super fucking normal.
Not everybody feels a zap oflightning or intuitive power the
second they first touch theircards.
I certainly didn't.
Now, if you want more of my ownstory, if you want to hear
someone who's now a professionalin this space talking more
about how slow it was to get toknow the cards, check out the
(02:20):
first episode of this podcast.
It's called Intro to Meg orliterally pick up my book.
The introduction is all abouthow much I struggled with the
tarot when I was getting started.
But I'm not going to not addressthe elephant in the room.
You might feel disconnectedfrom your cards because the
world is really hard and scaryand impossibly complicated right
(02:40):
now.
Around the globe, fascism isrising.
People are being more and moredisenfranchised, marginalized.
People are sufferingexponentially.
We still have multiplegenocides going on.
But here in the United Stateswe also have a literal fascist
coup happening in front of oureyes.
There are Nazis taking over thegovernment with their
20-year-old bro cronies.
(03:02):
It's fucked up and it is veryhard to survive right now.
Everything is expensive, thingsare collapsing.
If you can't feel connected toyour tarot cards, you're not a
personal failure.
You're just a person living inthis world paying attention to
what's going on.
So first, just please cutyourself some slack.
But there can also be a lot ofgrief in this feeling.
(03:24):
Right, if you have anestablished tarot practice, if
you have a long relationshipwith the cards, if you have felt
that magic and that lightningand that intuitive wisdom and
that support and that comfortand calm that comes with a
really beautiful reading in yourpast, and now you can't access
it, it really can feel like aloss and you might literally
(03:45):
feel like you are grieving therelationship you used to have
with your cards.
So in talking today about bothfeeling disconnected from the
tarot and just generally havingtrouble connecting with cards in
your readings, I want toencompass kind of all of these
experiences.
I also just want to stressagain how normal this is, no
matter how long you've beenworking with the tarot.
(04:07):
In my experience, basically,everyone goes through some kind
of transitional period or roughpatch with their tarot cards at
some point.
Again, you're not broken.
You're not a bad tarot reader.
Your practice isn't over.
You don't have to put the cardsaway and never pick them up
again.
The world is really hard, tarotis really hard and you're doing
(04:28):
great.
Okay, we're all just doing thebest we can.
Now, whether you are craving adeeper connection to your cards
or you're feeling disconnectedfrom your cards, there isn't
really a one size fits allprescriptive approach that I can
give you.
That's just going to magicallymake your readings click into
place or feel more personal.
I can't just turn you into anincredibly intuitive, gifted
(04:51):
tarot reader with one easy trick.
That's not how any of thisworks and, depending on who you
are and where you are and howinvolved you are and what your
relationship with the cards areand how your brain works and how
your body works, there could bea whole host of different
reasons for why you feeldisconnected from the cards or
why you're struggling to builddeeper connections with the
cards.
(05:11):
So in this episode I want totalk about a few different
factors and give you somedifferent questions to think
about and ask yourself andponder as well.
The first thing I want toremind you and talk about is the
tarot is a relationship, andthat means that sometimes
communication is going to behard.
Think about how you talk to yourcards on a regular basis.
(05:33):
What is your relationship likewith your cards?
Do you speak to the tarotpretty formally?
Do you talk to them morecasually?
Are you pretty intimate withyour cards or do you kind of
hold them at arm's length?
In other words, do you talk toyour cards when you're doing
your reading, the way that youtalk to a friend, or the way you
talk to a parent, or maybe theway you talk to a deity or to a
(05:53):
stranger, or to an acquaintanceor to a teacher?
What is the vibe of yourconversations?
What is the tone that you usewith your cards, and is that
what you want it to be, or isthis an area where you might
want there to be a shift or achange in some way?
Do you have the kind ofrelationship with your cards
that you want to have with yourcards, or do you wish it was
different?
(06:13):
Personally, I'm very casual andvery intimate with my cards.
I talk to them like I talk tomy partner or like I talk to a
very good friend or like I talkto the deities that I talk to
every day.
It is a very free flowrelationship.
My cards make me laugh.
I tell my cards when I thinkthey're being mean to me.
We joke around together.
It's a very friendly, generousrelationship and that's exactly
(06:35):
the kind of relationship that Iwanted with my cards.
But it took a long time to getthere because when I first
started reading with them, Iapproached them like I would
approach a priest or something.
I kind of treated them in thislike holy, sacred way and I was
so reluctant to engage with themin an intimate way because I
felt like I wasn't worthy ofworking with them.
Now, that's just my ownreligious trauma.
(06:56):
Your experience might becompletely different.
But just to say that yourrelationship with the cards will
continue to evolve the more youuse them.
But you can also start talkingto the cards the way you want to
talk to the cards.
You can also open up lines ofcommunication that might feel
different or more intimate ormore formal.
Maybe you are being reallycasual with your cards and you
(07:18):
want to be more formal.
You want to make it more of aceremony.
You can do that too.
This is entirely up to you.
But sometimes when we'refeeling disconnected from our
cards, it can be because we'reengaging with them in a literal
way that doesn't feel great forus or that doesn't reflect how
we feel about the cards in thatmoment.
The next thing I want to talkabout is that magic can ebb and
(07:40):
flow and your connection to thetarot might be spiritual or it
might not be, and all of thesethings can contribute to how
connected you feel with thecards.
If tarot is spiritual for you,then your relationship with the
cards could be a broaderreflection of your current
spiritual practice.
Which is to say, if you feelreally drained and disconnected
(08:02):
and just a lack of energy orengagement in your other
spiritual practice, tarot mightfeel the same way, whereas if
you're feeling really plugged inand super connected, if you've
got all these rituals going, ifyou feel really engaged and
active and motivated and excitedand connected and seen, then
tarot might feel really greatfor you, but tarot might not be
(08:23):
part of your spiritual practiceat all.
You might prefer to use tarotspecifically or exclusively for
creative work, or there'shundreds and hundreds of ways to
work with tarot cards besidesthe spiritual.
I have a whole episode on thatas well.
But I want you to think about doyou turn to your tarot cards
when you're craving spiritualconnection and understanding, or
(08:43):
when you want support from theuniverse, or from a specific God
or spirit or energy, and howdoes that spiritual longing or
perspective impact your readings?
In other words, do you want thetarot to be or feel more
spiritual than it currently does?
And the inverse is also a greatquestion to ask.
Do you want the tarot to feelless spiritual than it currently
(09:06):
does?
How is the magic living withinyour cards?
Where does it come from, andhow might that be a reflection
of your own relationship tospiritual work or spiritual
practice right now?
The next thing I want to say isthat the cards aren't going
anywhere.
Okay, I want you to consider howthe tarot is integrated into
the rest of your life, if at all.
(09:27):
For some people, their tarotreadings feel really separate.
Um, and that's completely fine.
There's nothing.
I don't say this with anyjudgment.
My business happens to be tarot, so everything is tarot to me,
but you might be completelydifferent, and that's very
normal and fine.
But how much is your tarotintegrated into the rest of your
life?
If you pull a card at the topof the day, are you thinking
about it and looking for it andwriting about it all day long?
(09:50):
Or do you pull the card, take anote of what it's saying and
then kind of set it to the sideand live the rest of your day
without necessarily thinkingactively about it all the time?
I also want you to think aboutdo you use tarot in your
relationships, in your creativepractices, your creativity, in
your work, in your play, in yourrest, in your reflections?
Do you use tarot to help youmake decisions?
(10:11):
Do you use tarot to help youpredict or imagine the future?
Do you turn to the tarot whenyou want to calm down or get
fired up or clarify yourperspective or leave things
behind?
When and why do you reach foryour cards?
That's really the TLDR here.
When and why do you reach foryour cards?
What do they offer you?
How do you use them to addressthese needs?
(10:32):
How do the cards literallypractically support you on a
regular basis and do you feellike your current practices and
your current relationship withthe cards is actually giving you
what you want, or are youreally looking for something
else?
The cards aren't going anywhere.
They don't leave unless you setthem down and break up with
them.
But your relationship with thecards is allowed to change and
(10:55):
how the tarot is integrated intothe rest of your life also gets
to change.
We're all going to have periodswhere the tarot feels super
present and super necessary,where it might be something that
we're leaning on really heavily, but there are also going to be
periods where things are alittle bit slower.
Maybe it doesn't even occur tous to reach for our cards in
working through something ortrying to make a decision.
(11:17):
All of this is super normal,and just because you might be
reaching for the cards indifferent times or the moments
when it feels good to reach foryour cards is different than it
used to be doesn't mean that thecards are leaving you or that
the cards are out of reach.
Thinking about how the cardsare actually feeling supportive
for you and when and where thecards are actually feeling
(11:40):
supportive for you in thismoment can be helpful.
Try not to compare your currentpractice to all of the other
versions of your practice thatyou've had.
Especially if you've beenreading for years and years and
have a really long establishedrelationship with the tarot,
your practice is allowed to lookdifferent.
Right now, the world is on fire.
Things are really fucking hard.
It's okay If your tarotpractice needs to evolve to meet
(12:04):
your current needs.
It doesn't mean they're goinganywhere.
But in the same way,acknowledging how the cards do
feel good for you right now canhelp you adjust your practice
and deepen your relationshipwith the cards in ways that feel
really natural.
If using the tarot to help youmake decisions is feeling really
good right now, if it's justhelping you find clarity, then
(12:24):
leaning more heavily on spreadsthan you perhaps have in the
past could be a really usefulpractice and could help you
deepen that relationship orreconnect with the cards in
another way.
But if you find that tarotreally is just doing its best
when it's calming you down,you're doing readings that are
around you know, checking inwith yourself or doing some
introspection, then doingreadings that allow for a lot of
(12:46):
journaling or open upconversations with the cards
could be a very different way todeepen your relationship with
the cards, so it's really justabout what you're using them for
right now and how you can leaninto that instead of judging
yourself for it.
Lastly, I just want to say yourtarot story doesn't have to be
over.
I want you to think about howtarot has already transformed
(13:07):
you, times that it has empoweredyou, ways that it has inspired
you right.
How has tarot encouraged andsupported you over the course of
your practice, however longthat practice has been?
In other words, what is yourtarot story?
How did you start working withthe cards and how does it feel
good to work with them right now?
Thinking about what your tarotstory is and how it has evolved
(13:29):
over time can help you identifywhere you want to go next and
can be really affirming as areminder that your practice has
probably already evolved at somepoint in the past and it's
allowed to keep changing.
Probably already evolved atsome point in the past and it's
allowed to keep changing.
When I think about who I was asa person when I bought my first
tarot deck back in the summer of2016, it's almost hard for me
to find things that I had incommon with that person.
(13:52):
My life has changed sodrastically and so completely.
Since I bought my first tarotdeck, literally almost
everything about my life isdifferent from my relationship
to where I live, to my community, to my job, to the ways that I
show up in the world.
My hair is different, I havemore tattoos.
I feel like a completelydifferent person, and that's
(14:13):
great.
I think.
In a lot of ways, tarot hashelped me find this person that
I am now and become an even moreauthentic version of myself.
But that also means that theway I'm working with the cards
now is so different than the waythat I was in those first
couple years of building arelationship with the tarot, and
I think that's a good thing.
I'm glad I'm not still doingthe same things that I did back
(14:35):
in 2016.
I'm glad I've found someadditional ways to show up.
I've made tarot such a centralpiece of my life, and that's a
beautiful.
So take some time to tell yourtarot story to yourself, and it
might be really helpful inslowing down and showing
yourself some grace andremembering how much you've
(14:56):
changed since those times aswell.
Now, a lot of these prompts andquestions, but particularly
this, your store, this aspect ofyour tarot story these are all
ideas that are borrowed fromworkbooks and mini books that I
have written, and so I'm goingto link some of those in the
show notes in case you want amore guided experience through
some of these ideas journalprompts, et cetera.
(15:16):
But I wanted to offer them andtalk through them here because I
think that when our readingsfeel impersonal, or when it
feels like we're not connectingas deeply to the cards as we'd
like to be, it really is worthyof some reflection and
consideration.
I don't want you to feel likethis is a silly way to feel or
like this is a foolish way tofeel.
It's really real.
But I do want you to drill downa little bit into what you mean
(15:39):
by this.
Exactly.
What does it mean to feeldisconnected from the tarot?
What does it mean to feel likeyour readings are impersonal?
I want you to find a way toarticulate what you are craving
in your tarot relationship,because once you know what that
is, you can start to identifysome fixes.
Now there's lots of ways thatyou can reconnect with your
cards and deepen your connectionto the tarot, but I want to
(16:03):
just shout out three reallyquick things in addition to like
working through workbooks ortaking a class or whatever.
First, taking breaks from yourcards is a hundred percent fine.
If reaching for the tarotgenuinely feels bad right now,
for literally any reason, thereis nothing wrong with taking a
break.
You can have a little goodbyeceremony for your cards.
You can wrap them in somethingpretty or put them in a special
(16:25):
box and literally tuck them outof sight if you want to, or you
can just set them down on yourbookshelf and promise that
you'll come back when it feelsgood.
You don't have to make this abig elaborate thing, but if it
feels good to you to make a bitof a ceremony out of it, say
goodbye to the cards whatever.
That's totally fine too.
Do what makes sense for you,but give yourself permission to
take a break.
If that's what you need,there's truly nothing wrong with
(16:48):
it, and you can always comeback to the cards when you're
ready and when it feels good.
Next, I do want to offer thatshifting from readings into card
studies or tarot journalingjust might feel better right now
than trying to pull cards in areading, especially if you find
yourself really anxious aboutthe future, wanting to do
predictive readings but thenreally regretting it after
(17:10):
you've done the reading or justfinding it hard to come up with
questions to ask.
Card studies and journaling andother kinds of courses could
feel a lot more supportive andcould still feel like a way to
continue deepening yourrelationship with the cards or
reconnecting with the cardswithout the stress of trying to
interpret a reading.
Lastly, you might find thattrying out a different kind of
(17:31):
divination or a new spiritualpractice could feel more
nourishing.
That doesn't mean that you haveto leave the cards behind, but
it could mean that integratinganother practice into your tarot
work could feel supportive andstill like stimulating or
inspiring or calming orencouraging or whatever.
So I'm thinking like add anOracle card to your readings, or
(17:52):
try using dice, or try adivination coin or a pendulum.
Expand you know who you'reworking with or who you're
talking to start an ancestorpractice.
Anything like that could be ahelpful way to help you continue
to build that relationship withyour cards, but again, without
necessarily doing the samethings you've always done.
Sometimes learning somethingnew or trying something
(18:14):
different can help you break outof a rut or help you reach that
next level in your practice.
Now, while I know I have offeredsome theoretical, quote unquote
solutions here, I really wantto encourage you to think of
disconnection from the tarotless as a problem that you need
to solve and more as informationabout where you are and what's
(18:35):
going to support you best rightnow, in this moment.
I really do believe that tarotcan sit with us through any
situation, challenge, obstacle,crossroads, decision or ambition
that we hold.
But just because the tarot candoesn't mean that we need to
force it.
If it doesn't feel good, iftarot is not the right tool for
the job right now, don't makeyourself use it.
(18:56):
Find something else or find away to use it that's going to
feel a lot more supportive forwhere you are right now.
Truly showing yourself graceand compassion with your
practice right now is one of thekindest things you can do.
When it comes to the tarot.
I always like to end theseepisodes with a tip or a trick
for you, and so, in addition tothrowing a bunch of different
resources and recommendationsinto the show notes, I also just
(19:18):
want to say that, if you coulduse some structure for this kind
of exploration specifically, Iwrote a completely free
downloadable resource that'sexclusively for you card talk
listeners and it's on this exacttopic.
It is a 12 page workbook andit's called building your best
practice, and you can find itright now linked in the show
notes of this episode and everyepisode.
(19:39):
This is going to give youjournal prompts and questions
that you can sit with, as wellas a few different tarot spreads
to work through.
It's going to encourage you towrite your own tarot story, but
it also gives you space toidentify goals or ambitions that
you might have for your ownpractice and consider the tools
and resources that can help youget there.
Now you're not going to findthis linked anywhere else on my
(19:59):
website, so please make sure youcheck the show notes.
It's completely free andthere's the direct link to
download.
It is right in those show notes.
I really hope that this hasbeen helpful, but that is all I
have for you today.
So, as always, thank you somuch for spending this time with
me, and I'll be back again soonwith more Card Talk.
Card Talk episodes are alwaysfree for everyone to enjoy, so
(20:22):
if you love what you hear,please consider supporting the
podcast by subscribing,recommending Card Talk to a
friend or donating to help withproduction costs.
You can episode transcripts.
Learn more about me and join mysignature tarot conservatory
membership program through mywebsite, 3amtarotcom.
Thanks for listening and seeyou next time you.
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're goingto talk about feeling
disconnected from the tarot ormoments when you're having
(00:31):
trouble personally connectingwith the cards in your readings.
This episode is part of alarger mini-series I'm doing on
issues that might crop up withinyour tarot practice, or desires
or or hopes or ambitions thatyou might have within your
personal practice.
Now, feeling disconnected fromyour cards can mean a lot of
things, but I'm thinkingspecifically about this.
(00:53):
Have you ever gotten a readingfrom someone who seems to just
have a really special, uniquedialed in personal connection
with their tarot cards?
Whether they read really fastand just immediately seem to
know what the cards are sayingalmost by instinct, or whether
they have a really gentle, slow,meditative style and take their
time with every single card.
(01:14):
Some folks really have adistinctive flavor to their
readings and you can see areally tangible, magical,
beautiful interaction with thecards every time they read, and
sometimes we want that forourselves right Now.
That's not the only way thatfeeling disconnected from your
cards can feel, but I think thatsometimes when we watch people
(01:36):
who have really establishedreally intimate relationships
with their cards, it can make uslook at our own practice and
find it wanting.
But being disconnected fromyour cards can be all kinds of
things.
It can mean all kinds of things, right.
If you're really early in yourtarot practice, if you're still
fairly new to the cards, thiscould mean that the cards just
feel sort of static or stagnant,that you don't feel a lot of
(01:59):
life or magic breathing throughthem, and I just have to stress
that that's super fucking normal.
Not everybody feels a zap oflightning or intuitive power the
second they first touch theircards.
I certainly didn't.
Now, if you want more of my ownstory, if you want to hear
someone who's now a professionalin this space talking more
about how slow it was to get toknow the cards, check out the
(02:20):
first episode of this podcast.
It's called Intro to Meg orliterally pick up my book.
The introduction is all abouthow much I struggled with the
tarot when I was getting started.
But I'm not going to not addressthe elephant in the room.
You might feel disconnectedfrom your cards because the
world is really hard and scaryand impossibly complicated right
(02:40):
now.
Around the globe, fascism isrising.
People are being more and moredisenfranchised, marginalized.
People are sufferingexponentially.
We still have multiplegenocides going on.
But here in the United Stateswe also have a literal fascist
coup happening in front of oureyes.
There are Nazis taking over thegovernment with their
20-year-old bro cronies.
(03:02):
It's fucked up and it is veryhard to survive right now.
Everything is expensive, thingsare collapsing.
If you can't feel connected toyour tarot cards, you're not a
personal failure.
You're just a person living inthis world paying attention to
what's going on.
So first, just please cutyourself some slack.
But there can also be a lot ofgrief in this feeling.
(03:24):
Right, if you have anestablished tarot practice, if
you have a long relationshipwith the cards, if you have felt
that magic and that lightningand that intuitive wisdom and
that support and that comfortand calm that comes with a
really beautiful reading in yourpast, and now you can't access
it, it really can feel like aloss and you might literally
(03:45):
feel like you are grieving therelationship you used to have
with your cards.
So in talking today about bothfeeling disconnected from the
tarot and just generally havingtrouble connecting with cards in
your readings, I want toencompass kind of all of these
experiences.
I also just want to stressagain how normal this is, no
matter how long you've beenworking with the tarot.
(04:07):
In my experience, basically,everyone goes through some kind
of transitional period or roughpatch with their tarot cards at
some point.
Again, you're not broken.
You're not a bad tarot reader.
Your practice isn't over.
You don't have to put the cardsaway and never pick them up
again.
The world is really hard, tarotis really hard and you're doing
(04:28):
great.
Okay, we're all just doing thebest we can.
Now, whether you are craving adeeper connection to your cards
or you're feeling disconnectedfrom your cards, there isn't
really a one size fits allprescriptive approach that I can
give you.
That's just going to magicallymake your readings click into
place or feel more personal.
I can't just turn you into anincredibly intuitive, gifted
(04:51):
tarot reader with one easy trick.
That's not how any of thisworks and, depending on who you
are and where you are and howinvolved you are and what your
relationship with the cards areand how your brain works and how
your body works, there could bea whole host of different
reasons for why you feeldisconnected from the cards or
why you're struggling to builddeeper connections with the
cards.
(05:11):
So in this episode I want totalk about a few different
factors and give you somedifferent questions to think
about and ask yourself andponder as well.
The first thing I want toremind you and talk about is the
tarot is a relationship, andthat means that sometimes
communication is going to behard.
Think about how you talk to yourcards on a regular basis.
(05:33):
What is your relationship likewith your cards?
Do you speak to the tarotpretty formally?
Do you talk to them morecasually?
Are you pretty intimate withyour cards or do you kind of
hold them at arm's length?
In other words, do you talk toyour cards when you're doing
your reading, the way that youtalk to a friend, or the way you
talk to a parent, or maybe theway you talk to a deity or to a
(05:53):
stranger, or to an acquaintanceor to a teacher?
What is the vibe of yourconversations?
What is the tone that you usewith your cards, and is that
what you want it to be, or isthis an area where you might
want there to be a shift or achange in some way?
Do you have the kind ofrelationship with your cards
that you want to have with yourcards, or do you wish it was
different?
(06:13):
Personally, I'm very casual andvery intimate with my cards.
I talk to them like I talk tomy partner or like I talk to a
very good friend or like I talkto the deities that I talk to
every day.
It is a very free flowrelationship.
My cards make me laugh.
I tell my cards when I thinkthey're being mean to me.
We joke around together.
It's a very friendly, generousrelationship and that's exactly
(06:35):
the kind of relationship that Iwanted with my cards.
But it took a long time to getthere because when I first
started reading with them, Iapproached them like I would
approach a priest or something.
I kind of treated them in thislike holy, sacred way and I was
so reluctant to engage with themin an intimate way because I
felt like I wasn't worthy ofworking with them.
Now, that's just my ownreligious trauma.
(06:56):
Your experience might becompletely different.
But just to say that yourrelationship with the cards will
continue to evolve the more youuse them.
But you can also start talkingto the cards the way you want to
talk to the cards.
You can also open up lines ofcommunication that might feel
different or more intimate ormore formal.
Maybe you are being reallycasual with your cards and you
(07:18):
want to be more formal.
You want to make it more of aceremony.
You can do that too.
This is entirely up to you.
But sometimes when we'refeeling disconnected from our
cards, it can be because we'reengaging with them in a literal
way that doesn't feel great forus or that doesn't reflect how
we feel about the cards in thatmoment.
The next thing I want to talkabout is that magic can ebb and
(07:40):
flow and your connection to thetarot might be spiritual or it
might not be, and all of thesethings can contribute to how
connected you feel with thecards.
If tarot is spiritual for you,then your relationship with the
cards could be a broaderreflection of your current
spiritual practice.
Which is to say, if you feelreally drained and disconnected
(08:02):
and just a lack of energy orengagement in your other
spiritual practice, tarot mightfeel the same way, whereas if
you're feeling really plugged inand super connected, if you've
got all these rituals going, ifyou feel really engaged and
active and motivated and excitedand connected and seen, then
tarot might feel really greatfor you, but tarot might not be
(08:23):
part of your spiritual practiceat all.
You might prefer to use tarotspecifically or exclusively for
creative work, or there'shundreds and hundreds of ways to
work with tarot cards besidesthe spiritual.
I have a whole episode on thatas well.
But I want you to think about doyou turn to your tarot cards
when you're craving spiritualconnection and understanding, or
(08:43):
when you want support from theuniverse, or from a specific God
or spirit or energy, and howdoes that spiritual longing or
perspective impact your readings?
In other words, do you want thetarot to be or feel more
spiritual than it currently does?
And the inverse is also a greatquestion to ask.
Do you want the tarot to feelless spiritual than it currently
(09:06):
does?
How is the magic living withinyour cards?
Where does it come from, andhow might that be a reflection
of your own relationship tospiritual work or spiritual
practice right now?
The next thing I want to say isthat the cards aren't going
anywhere.
Okay, I want you to consider howthe tarot is integrated into
the rest of your life, if at all.
(09:27):
For some people, their tarotreadings feel really separate.
Um, and that's completely fine.
There's nothing.
I don't say this with anyjudgment.
My business happens to be tarot, so everything is tarot to me,
but you might be completelydifferent, and that's very
normal and fine.
But how much is your tarotintegrated into the rest of your
life?
If you pull a card at the topof the day, are you thinking
about it and looking for it andwriting about it all day long?
(09:50):
Or do you pull the card, take anote of what it's saying and
then kind of set it to the sideand live the rest of your day
without necessarily thinkingactively about it all the time?
I also want you to think aboutdo you use tarot in your
relationships, in your creativepractices, your creativity, in
your work, in your play, in yourrest, in your reflections?
Do you use tarot to help youmake decisions?
(10:11):
Do you use tarot to help youpredict or imagine the future?
Do you turn to the tarot whenyou want to calm down or get
fired up or clarify yourperspective or leave things
behind?
When and why do you reach foryour cards?
That's really the TLDR here.
When and why do you reach foryour cards?
What do they offer you?
How do you use them to addressthese needs?
(10:32):
How do the cards literallypractically support you on a
regular basis and do you feellike your current practices and
your current relationship withthe cards is actually giving you
what you want, or are youreally looking for something
else?
The cards aren't going anywhere.
They don't leave unless you setthem down and break up with
them.
But your relationship with thecards is allowed to change and
(10:55):
how the tarot is integrated intothe rest of your life also gets
to change.
We're all going to have periodswhere the tarot feels super
present and super necessary,where it might be something that
we're leaning on really heavily, but there are also going to be
periods where things are alittle bit slower.
Maybe it doesn't even occur tous to reach for our cards in
working through something ortrying to make a decision.
(11:17):
All of this is super normal,and just because you might be
reaching for the cards indifferent times or the moments
when it feels good to reach foryour cards is different than it
used to be doesn't mean that thecards are leaving you or that
the cards are out of reach.
Thinking about how the cardsare actually feeling supportive
for you and when and where thecards are actually feeling
(11:40):
supportive for you in thismoment can be helpful.
Try not to compare your currentpractice to all of the other
versions of your practice thatyou've had.
Especially if you've beenreading for years and years and
have a really long establishedrelationship with the tarot,
your practice is allowed to lookdifferent.
Right now, the world is on fire.
Things are really fucking hard.
It's okay If your tarotpractice needs to evolve to meet
(12:04):
your current needs.
It doesn't mean they're goinganywhere.
But in the same way,acknowledging how the cards do
feel good for you right now canhelp you adjust your practice
and deepen your relationshipwith the cards in ways that feel
really natural.
If using the tarot to help youmake decisions is feeling really
good right now, if it's justhelping you find clarity, then
(12:24):
leaning more heavily on spreadsthan you perhaps have in the
past could be a really usefulpractice and could help you
deepen that relationship orreconnect with the cards in
another way.
But if you find that tarotreally is just doing its best
when it's calming you down,you're doing readings that are
around you know, checking inwith yourself or doing some
introspection, then doingreadings that allow for a lot of
(12:46):
journaling or open upconversations with the cards
could be a very different way todeepen your relationship with
the cards, so it's really justabout what you're using them for
right now and how you can leaninto that instead of judging
yourself for it.
Lastly, I just want to say yourtarot story doesn't have to be
over.
I want you to think about howtarot has already transformed
(13:07):
you, times that it has empoweredyou, ways that it has inspired
you right.
How has tarot encouraged andsupported you over the course of
your practice, however longthat practice has been?
In other words, what is yourtarot story?
How did you start working withthe cards and how does it feel
good to work with them right now?
Thinking about what your tarotstory is and how it has evolved
(13:29):
over time can help you identifywhere you want to go next and
can be really affirming as areminder that your practice has
probably already evolved at somepoint in the past and it's
allowed to keep changing.
Probably already evolved atsome point in the past and it's
allowed to keep changing.
When I think about who I was asa person when I bought my first
tarot deck back in the summer of2016, it's almost hard for me
to find things that I had incommon with that person.
(13:52):
My life has changed sodrastically and so completely.
Since I bought my first tarotdeck, literally almost
everything about my life isdifferent from my relationship
to where I live, to my community, to my job, to the ways that I
show up in the world.
My hair is different, I havemore tattoos.
I feel like a completelydifferent person, and that's
(14:13):
great.
I think.
In a lot of ways, tarot hashelped me find this person that
I am now and become an even moreauthentic version of myself.
But that also means that theway I'm working with the cards
now is so different than the waythat I was in those first
couple years of building arelationship with the tarot, and
I think that's a good thing.
I'm glad I'm not still doingthe same things that I did back
(14:35):
in 2016.
I'm glad I've found someadditional ways to show up.
I've made tarot such a centralpiece of my life, and that's a
beautiful.
So take some time to tell yourtarot story to yourself, and it
might be really helpful inslowing down and showing
yourself some grace andremembering how much you've
(14:56):
changed since those times aswell.
Now, a lot of these prompts andquestions, but particularly
this, your store, this aspect ofyour tarot story these are all
ideas that are borrowed fromworkbooks and mini books that I
have written, and so I'm goingto link some of those in the
show notes in case you want amore guided experience through
some of these ideas journalprompts, et cetera.
(15:16):
But I wanted to offer them andtalk through them here because I
think that when our readingsfeel impersonal, or when it
feels like we're not connectingas deeply to the cards as we'd
like to be, it really is worthyof some reflection and
consideration.
I don't want you to feel likethis is a silly way to feel or
like this is a foolish way tofeel.
It's really real.
But I do want you to drill downa little bit into what you mean
(15:39):
by this.
Exactly.
What does it mean to feeldisconnected from the tarot?
What does it mean to feel likeyour readings are impersonal?
I want you to find a way toarticulate what you are craving
in your tarot relationship,because once you know what that
is, you can start to identifysome fixes.
Now there's lots of ways thatyou can reconnect with your
cards and deepen your connectionto the tarot, but I want to
(16:03):
just shout out three reallyquick things in addition to like
working through workbooks ortaking a class or whatever.
First, taking breaks from yourcards is a hundred percent fine.
If reaching for the tarotgenuinely feels bad right now,
for literally any reason, thereis nothing wrong with taking a
break.
You can have a little goodbyeceremony for your cards.
You can wrap them in somethingpretty or put them in a special
(16:25):
box and literally tuck them outof sight if you want to, or you
can just set them down on yourbookshelf and promise that
you'll come back when it feelsgood.
You don't have to make this abig elaborate thing, but if it
feels good to you to make a bitof a ceremony out of it, say
goodbye to the cards whatever.
That's totally fine too.
Do what makes sense for you,but give yourself permission to
take a break.
If that's what you need,there's truly nothing wrong with
(16:48):
it, and you can always comeback to the cards when you're
ready and when it feels good.
Next, I do want to offer thatshifting from readings into card
studies or tarot journalingjust might feel better right now
than trying to pull cards in areading, especially if you find
yourself really anxious aboutthe future, wanting to do
predictive readings but thenreally regretting it after
(17:10):
you've done the reading or justfinding it hard to come up with
questions to ask.
Card studies and journaling andother kinds of courses could
feel a lot more supportive andcould still feel like a way to
continue deepening yourrelationship with the cards or
reconnecting with the cardswithout the stress of trying to
interpret a reading.
Lastly, you might find thattrying out a different kind of
(17:31):
divination or a new spiritualpractice could feel more
nourishing.
That doesn't mean that you haveto leave the cards behind, but
it could mean that integratinganother practice into your tarot
work could feel supportive andstill like stimulating or
inspiring or calming orencouraging or whatever.
So I'm thinking like add anOracle card to your readings, or
(17:52):
try using dice, or try adivination coin or a pendulum.
Expand you know who you'reworking with or who you're
talking to start an ancestorpractice.
Anything like that could be ahelpful way to help you continue
to build that relationship withyour cards, but again, without
necessarily doing the samethings you've always done.
Sometimes learning somethingnew or trying something
(18:14):
different can help you break outof a rut or help you reach that
next level in your practice.
Now, while I know I have offeredsome theoretical, quote unquote
solutions here, I really wantto encourage you to think of
disconnection from the tarotless as a problem that you need
to solve and more as informationabout where you are and what's
(18:35):
going to support you best rightnow, in this moment.
I really do believe that tarotcan sit with us through any
situation, challenge, obstacle,crossroads, decision or ambition
that we hold.
But just because the tarot candoesn't mean that we need to
force it.
If it doesn't feel good, iftarot is not the right tool for
the job right now, don't makeyourself use it.
(18:56):
Find something else or find away to use it that's going to
feel a lot more supportive forwhere you are right now.
Truly showing yourself graceand compassion with your
practice right now is one of thekindest things you can do.
When it comes to the tarot.
I always like to end theseepisodes with a tip or a trick
for you, and so, in addition tothrowing a bunch of different
resources and recommendationsinto the show notes, I also just
(19:18):
want to say that, if you coulduse some structure for this kind
of exploration specifically, Iwrote a completely free
downloadable resource that'sexclusively for you card talk
listeners and it's on this exacttopic.
It is a 12 page workbook andit's called building your best
practice, and you can find itright now linked in the show
notes of this episode and everyepisode.
(19:39):
This is going to give youjournal prompts and questions
that you can sit with, as wellas a few different tarot spreads
to work through.
It's going to encourage you towrite your own tarot story, but
it also gives you space toidentify goals or ambitions that
you might have for your ownpractice and consider the tools
and resources that can help youget there.
Now you're not going to findthis linked anywhere else on my
(19:59):
website, so please make sure youcheck the show notes.
It's completely free andthere's the direct link to
download.
It is right in those show notes.
I really hope that this hasbeen helpful, but that is all I
have for you today.
So, as always, thank you somuch for spending this time with
me, and I'll be back again soonwith more Card Talk.
Card Talk episodes are alwaysfree for everyone to enjoy, so
(20:22):
if you love what you hear,please consider supporting the
podcast by subscribing,recommending Card Talk to a
friend or donating to help withproduction costs.
You can episode transcripts.
Learn more about me and join mysignature tarot conservatory
membership program through mywebsite, 3amtarotcom.
Thanks for listening and seeyou next time you.
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