Seeing yourself in the cards...

Reading Tarot is a complex art- it blends knowing the cards, often intuitive or psychic skills, with knowing yourself.

If you are reading for others then knowing yourself becomes even more important- because as you turn the cards over you may get an emotional or intuitive response that is personal to you- and if you know it is personal to you then you can step back from it. If you don’t know it is personal to you it may become enmeshed in your reading for your client. This is similar to the shamanic principle of the “hollow bone”. Being a clear emotional channel for a client takes time, and practice- and is an ongoing process.

So my most recent Tarot workshop was exploring finding yourself in the Major Arcana, using them as a mirror to better understand yourself (so helping with the “hollow bone” concept), and also of course helping understand the Major Arcana.

There are two ways to do this- doing Tarot readings to ask the cards to reflect you. This can be done with just the Major Arcana if you are having a focused study. I have a video on my YouTube channel (just search Maddy Elruna) where I recently shared my favourite “Who Am I?” spread.

The other way is to consciously look at the cards one by one, and see how they reflect you.

Watch out for the cards you don’t like! In the first 9 Major Arcana (which I am focusing on here) I would argue each of the cards are equally balanced. So if you don’t like one, or can’t see yourself within it-then that is a really useful self evaluation tool! The cards we don’t like (mine are the Queen of Cups & Temperance) can tell us far more than the cards we do like and associate with.

So I have created this list as a tool for self reflection. It's just for fun- so have a play and see if it helps your Tarot practice.

Run through it, which ones do you easily identify with? Which ones do you struggle with? Which ones do you project onto others? I’ve added my personal reflections in italic at the end.

1 Magician- Action: Focused, active achiever.

2 High Priestess – Intuitive: Introverted empath/psychic.

3 Empress- Nurturer: Caring creative.

4 Emperor- Disciplined: Self discipline organiser.

5 Hierophant- Educated: Knowledge seeking communicator.

6 Lovers- Harmony: Consciously creating harmonious relationships.

7 Chariot- Confidence: Moving on with self belief.

8 Strength-Acceptance: Kind, gentle strength.

9 Wisdom-Reflective, looking to understand.

I strongly identify with 1- I am great at having amazing ideas, and getting started. I am less good at maintaining the structure to keep going- my 4 & 7 are weaker than my 1!

I love 5. I am a bit of a geek, and I am very comfortable with my academic side. Becoming more comfortable at communicating it too.

I try to embody 9. Education is great, wisdom is even more life changing.

Others may see me as 3- I am a single Mum, but I am not naturally nurturing.

2 is my issue. Others see it in me, but I could easily get lost in it- whilst oddly not always seeing it in myself.

If my psychological profiles don’t work for you then mix it up, change it. This was created as a fun teaching exercise, not to define any of the cards.