Living the Tarot

Looking for a way to spice up those daily or weekly readings? Here are some ideas we've come up with over at Comparative Tarot, where we study a single card in depth for a month in as many ways as we can think of to do it :) While you might not want to live the Five of Swords for a month (although we did it and lived to tell the story!), here are some new approaches to getting to know your cards in a whole new way.

Instead of doing a regular daily or weekly reading, just draw a single card from your deck. Now spend the rest of your day pretending you are that card. When you have an important decision to make or need to respond to a situation, think, "what would the Nine of Pentacles do?" or "What would the Knight of Cups say?" Trust that the Universe has given you the card you need to provide the right energy for the day, even if it's radically different from the approach you would normally take. We tried this approach in a class about elemental energies, to get people used to working with energies they normally lack - with very interesting results.

Another approach is to plan the day's activities in accordance with the card. For example, if you receive the Eight of Pentacles, perhaps this is a good day to buckle down and get a lot of practical things done at work. On the other hand, if the card you are given is the Four of Swords, don't rush around all day - recognize that you may need a break and curl up on the couch with the cat :)

At Comparative Tarot, we take our card of the month and do a fun little exercise with it. We take a calendar and deal out the tarot, one card for each day. When we receive the card we are studying, we know that that day will be particularly significant in teaching us something new about the card, or its energies will be particularly appropriate on that day. Then we talk about our experiences as they happen. While you may not want to spend a whole month on a single card, you could shuffle your deck and do a card a week (or do them in order, as you like).

If you try this and have interesting stories to tell... share them here! We'd love to read about them :)

-- Teresa Michelsen

Comments

[Mark McElroy]

I like this idea, because it takes a very familiar concept (the "Card of the Day") to the next level. Instead of the card being read as a commentary on what *might* happen later in the day, it becomes a factor in how you approach the day ... and what you do as you face your daily challenges.

Inspired by your post, I drew the Eight of Pentacles ... so, inspired by you, I'm off to do everything from squeezing out today's words on the novel to changing the cat box!

Hmmm. Maybe I should just draw the Eight of Pentacles *every* day...