The combining of therapy and tarot reading

Every Sunday I do a reading for my week. As a psychologist and avid tarotist (and a professional in both realms), a lot of people think I use tarot in my psychology practice. This is mostly a Mexican practice I believe, because it was developed and popularized by Mexican film director Alejandro Jodorowsky, but it was based on archetypes created by Jung, one of the forefathers of psychology, so it shouldn’t be a shocker to any professional therapist, despite its…weirdness.

Using tarot in therapy isn’t necessarily unethical if you do it right, but it’s not something I do. It’s a big ridiculous honestly, not even addressing potential ethics issues. I could also go home with a client and hold their hand to talk through their problems and guide them through meditations, but I have an hour a week at best. It isn’t possible to combine them if you’re being an attentive psychologist.

I want to be clear on that since it’s the first assumption people make when they discover that I have a love of both fields, that is about equal in its grandness. I do however evoke therapy in my tarot readings, which honestly, most good tarotists would. I think the Mexico tarot therapy movement went in the wrong direction. The therapy should come with the tarot, the tarot should not come with the therapy.

A Weekly Reading

I will use my weekly reading to explain more what I mean. I keep a signifier card at all times as my base. It is The Sun. I always choose The Sun because it is what I want and what I identify with. Warmth, radiance, a new day, no storms, light, beauty — all words I and likely anyone else associate with the sun. Does it have its negatives? Sure, we need a little rain and a little darkness. Too much sun burns all life. There’s always a downside, but I am and aim to be The Sun. I keep this card as an inspiration when I feel like my light is fading and it also helps me when I’m burning with rage — don’t burn anything, allow the clouds to cool everything down.

Birth Cards

Next I keep my birth cards, Temperance and The Hierophant, also as reminders as to who I am. Have you ever felt while reading your zodiac traits or some other personality descriptor based on birth, well damn, I am a prisoner to my birth, because it describes you exactly? I feel that way about being an Aries sun with Capricorn moon and Libra rising and about my tarot birth cards. I’m not an original at all! Temperance and The Hierophant are both strong cards with strong representations, and together they are a powerhouse. I keep them with me next to The Sun and try to invoke them together, to work and speak from my truth and to be a trusted leader while also a loyal follower.

Monthly Card

The next card I have displayed is The Empress, my card for August. This means there will be creativity and productivity this month — so far that’s no joke! Now I’ve already said I draw cards every week. I actually do a weekly card pull, then a card for every day, and then two “pre-draws” for the next week and the first day of the next week (which I start on Sunday for these purposes). With a pre-draw card I know how things will turn out if the cards for the day are accurate (which they always are), and I can compare the pre-draw to the official card of the week the next week to see how well I stayed on track with my own destiny.

Weekly Cards

My pre-draw this week was The Star. What does it mean? Quite simply it means that everything will be alright! But there are other cards that can say that as well, and I work with my daughter who is the closest person to me, and The Star and Strength are her birth cards. I think this means that she’ll be integral in solving problems this week (and there are many!).

For my weekly draw today on Sunday, I pulled the Ten of Swords. Instant panic! This is literally the worst card in the entire deck in my opinion. But not necessarily, especially if all your other cards are positive. It’s advice — this week you have to do everything right.

I also choose a third card of the week, or rather a service does it for me and sends it to me in my email every week. I could recommend many tarot readers to you and I could warn you away from others, but I can tell you I always, always check my card of the week as sent to me by Trusted Tarot. This week it’s the Strength card. You might remember I believe my daughter was being referred to when I pulled The Star, but now it’s almost a confirmation, because her other birth card is Strength. This card is just one more to confirm that we are on and must stay on our path.

Sometimes I check another tarot reader I like, called Chani. She also chose the Strength card this week though, so it will be the same. This isn’t surprising at it was the start of Leo season last week, but it might be a sign that it’s going to be a super powerful week.

Daily Cards

My Sunday pre-draw card last week was the 9 of Cups, one of the best cards in the deck and basically means all your dreams are coming true. The card I drew today for Sunday is 10 of Pentacles, which means accomplishment and abundance. My daughter, who doesn’t do weekly and monthly cards but does pull a daily card, drew the 10 of Cups. This is one of the best cards in the deck, about family love and unity, again sending a message that we will work together.

I have doubt we are going to see the fruits of these cards today, because I’m sick, woke up at noon, and am a little loopy and slow today, but I absolutely believe that these cards signify that today we’ve aligned to receive this.

Moving forward, I drew cards for the rest of the week.

• Monday, The Hierophant*. Don’t try to force yourself in
• Tuesday, The Hanged Man. Time stands still for no man, urgent!
• Wednesday, 10 of Wands. It will be a busy day!
• Thursday, 7 of Wands. You got this!
• Friday, The Empress*. Creativity & productivity
• Saturday, Ace of Wands. Act on your ideas!
• Sunday Pre-draw, 8 of Pentacles. Variety and balance is key to your happiness
• Next week Pre-draw, The Emperor. Own your space!

The Hierophant and The Empress

You’ll notice an asterisk next to The Hierophant and The Empress. That’s because I like to take out the cards I’ve already used when I choose a card for the day, so the previous cards should not come up. I do this because I like to see the complete story the cards tell with each unique card. Occasionally I forget to remove them though! This happens for a reason, and when a card comes up for the second time I take it to have extra significance. (And I use a second deck to take the photo!)

Another interesting note is that my Thursday card is almost always a card of encouragement but not of significance. In my personal life, it’s a day I take for family that is necessary but with long hours and is emotionally taxing, so when I come home I go right to sleep almost always. It is essentially my Sunday, and the cards know it!

The Hierophant is a wise and pensive teacher who gives advice. The Empress is a woman in control of herself and her life, a decision-maker and a successful well-regarded person in general. These cards are also from the Major Arcana, which means they represent life lessons. We have my birth card in The Hierophant and the representation of a mother in The Empress. I hear a message of guidance from my mother, and I hear a confirmation of my earlier suspicion that my daughter and I together will achieve our goal and solve our problem.

Other Things To Look For

When I review the cards, I look for more. If you have more Major Arcana than Minor, or more of one suite or one number, or more court cards, this means something.

For example, I pulled the 10 from every suite. We have only gotten a little over half the reading finished or maybe two-thirds, but there are no more 10s. This means I’ll likely go through several dramatic events this week but that they are necessary, and it will be a showy wrap-up to my problem. Keep in mind while this is scary, all the cards suggest a good outcome.

The reading is heavy in Major Arcana results, meaning there are still a lot of life lessons to learn and experiences to go through. When weighing this percentage, don’t include the birth cards, as those are all Major Arcana, or the representative card, which is your only consciously chosen card in the reading.

There are no court cards in my reading thus far, which suggests that the problem I face is entirely of my own doing and will be left to my own ability to resolve, or that the other people are not yet involved. The reading thus far in suites is heaviest in Pentacles and Wands. Pentacles suggests a financial issue and Wands is about creativity and passion — which is what my whole month has already been declared to be about!

The Shadow Card

The last card I pulled is the shadow card. This is a card you pull at the end of a reading and it’s the very bottom card of the deck. It is the subconscious influence you feel underneath the question and the energy. I pulled the Three of Pentacles, which says that I must take action.

This confirms the entire reading. I know personally what goals and problems I have to work toward and resolve this week, but every card speaks to it and tells me how to go about it. The shadow in the end confirms that this week will be challenging but successful as long as I work and don’t stop.

Continue Daily

Monday through Saturday I will pull cards on the day to measure how close I am staying to the path and for any further information about the day. When there are concerns or vagueness, I often pull up to 3 clarifier cards and yes/no questions. (Clarifier cards I do not return to the deck for the next reading, but yes/no cards I do.)

These readings help me to reflect and confirm how to process my feelings and solve my problems. They do not provide me with the tools that therapy does, but rather the encouragement and reflection to further my path, while I use my therapy tools.

Adding Extra Tools

When I find my cards aren’t being clear, or I believe they’ve stopped answering, then I move to using my pendulum for yes/no answers and dates or words and names spelled out. But here’s the thing. While the tarot may warn me of impending doom, helping me to avoid it or emotionally preparing me for its arrival, I personally find the pendulum is often (though not always) wrong and tells me what I want to hear, and that dates and names are nonsense.

What “Wrong” Answers Might Really Mean

For me this serves as a reminder. If I receive an answer I don’t want, I know it’s likely true and I need to take action to prevent it. But receiving an affirmative answer isn’t necessarily an affirmation. I sense it often tells me what I want to hear so that I have the encouragement to keep going — because failure is actually an option, it always is, but failing because you give up or failing because you tried your hardest and didn’t quite get there are actually two very different outcomes.

Therefore the pendulum actually gives me evidence of my own power to change outcomes — if the pendulum does as it knows I want it to, then I can control that energy elsewhere in my life as well if I can harness enough energy. Every wrong answer the pendulum gives you,you should take as an indication that you’ve begun to harness this ability of attraction, but you still have a ways to go to perfect bringing this desire to yourself in physical reality.

In some cases the cards do this too; I have the cards throw yes and no answers all the time that are far-fetched and do not manifest but in the moment they encourage me to carry on and things work out for the best, usually when the answer I was seeking was predetermined in my mind but things worked out so what I needed and eventually wanted was the other. I had to get to that point before the answer could be revealed or I may have strayed from my path.

Again, what this tells us is that the power perhaps isn’t even in the cards or the pendulum. The energy is spiritual and should move through us, not a manual tool. It reminds us that we have the ability to control this through our touch, and now we have to bring that energy toward us.

Here we show that psychology and therapy can actually function during a tarot reading, but tarot shouldn’t be used in the reverse in a therapy session. A good tarot reading requires empathy and intuition, patience and insight. A good tarotist can interpret options and present them with potential outcomes to a querent. A psychologist can’t give advice or predict outcomes; a psychologist helps with internal processes, not the intersection of the internal with external.