Where Exactly Does Intuition Come In When Reading Tarot?
You probably don't even realize you're using it!
A common question from many people just getting into tarot reading (and something I wondered about a lot when I was first learning!) is how exactly intuition fits in.
In other words, if we read up on how tarot works and study the traditional meanings of the cards, then when we do a tarot reading, don’t we just recall and analyze that learned information? Where exactly does intuition come in when reading tarot?
In this week’s newsletter, we’ll explore three aspects of tarot reading in which your intuition plays a role, either big or small.
Deciding to do a tarot reading in the first place
If you’re like me, you probably don’t turn to your tarot deck for every single question, challenge, or problem in your life. That would be pretty impractical and even debilitating actually!
Instead, there are probably specific occasions or circumstances, or even specific yet seemingly random days, that inspire or motivate you to consult your tarot cards. Our decision to sit down and pull some cards in the first place is an intuitive one.
If something happens or you’re grappling with a question and you think to yourself, “A tarot spread would be great right about now,” that’s your intuition waving its arms and calling out, “Hi there! Please use this tool to activate me. I believe I have some input that could help.”
Even for those of us who do daily card pulls out of habit or routine, deciding what question to ask can be an intuitive practice. That’s precisely how I came up with my Inquire Within deck of tarot questions actually! My ego may be fixated on one question, and my anxiety might be preoccupied with another question, but I can shuffle my Inquire Within deck and allow my intuition to lead me to a crucially empowering or nurturing question that may or may not have even been on my radar that day!
How you go about your tarot reading
A second way intuition plays a role in our tarot readings is in the literal way we do the reading.
If you have multiple tarot decks, which one were you drawn to for that day’s reading?
How do you shuffle your cards? Or decide when you’re done shuffling for that matter?
How do you know which card to pull for your reading?
If a card flies out of the deck while you’re mixing it up, do you incorporate it into your reading? Or do you just pick it up and put it back in?
Because there isn’t really a right or wrong way to go about a tarot reading, all of these micro-decisions we make along the way - for no discernible reason really - is our intuition guiding us.
When I first started tarot reading, I researched what other people did and then just mimicked them. I wasn’t married to any specific way of doing things yet because what did I know? So I just followed their instructions.
After awhile though, once we start to get more comfortable with our tarot cards, most of start to develop our own quirks and ways of reading. I, for instance, no longer felt the need to knock the deck against the table three times, do a riffle shuffle exactly eight times, then start picking cards from the top of the tarot deck. I can’t really recall what I tried instead, why or in what order, or when I eventually landed on what I do now. I just followed my intuition and did what “felt” right.
The way you interpret the tarot cards you pull
Finally, of course, a major way intuition factors into our tarot readings is the way we interpret the meanings of the tarot cards.
There are traditional tarot card meanings. And as a devout nerd and career academic, I get immense fulfillment from diving into and exploring those meanings and symbols. However, the traditional meaning of a given tarot card isn’t like the basic dictionary definition of a word. Traditional tarot meanings are nuanced and have so many layers and flavors and possibilities that it’s up to us and our intuition to narrow it down.
(P.S. Some tarot readers would categorize channeling and psychic mediumship as intuitive tarot reading as well. I can’t really speak to that though in an informed or intelligent way since it’s not part of my practice or experience.)
Even if you are trying to be super objective and academic about interpreting a card, you’re still going to have to pick out which traditional interpretation of the card applies in any given situation. After all, it’s not very helpful or informative if you’re doing a reading and you can’t get further than: “This card could mean this, or maybe that, but sometimes this, but because I’m in this particular situation, it could also mean this, but also since I’m doing this specific type of reading, it might actually be saying this. Sooooo, yeah. The book says any one of those could be the message for me today. Cool! Off I go!”
Because tarot reading is an art and not an exact science, there is no formula or equation that dictates precisely which part of the traditional tarot card meaning to pull out for yourself that day. That part is all intuition and feeling it out. There’s simply no way around it.
And that’s the magic and fun of tarot reading!
When we pull a tarot card and feel stumped, stuck, or even offended at what we think it means, that’s when our intuitive skills can jump in and help our analytical skills sort things out in a way that feels informative and resonant.
Plus, perhaps even more importantly, learning to listen to and trust our intuition (our fuzzy, inexplicable, can’t-be-verified-by-your-know-it-all-partner-or-a-quick-poll-of-all-your-friends-in-the-group-text intuition) is healing and empowering!
That’s such a valuable gift tarot can give us.
(In fact, did you catch my piece in Brit + Co. last year about how reading tarot for myself transformed my life?)
How do you balance intellect and intuition in your tarot readings?
Do you find yourself more or less comfortable with the intuitive parts of tarot?
And what helps you practice and get more in tune with your intuition?
Always,
Annie
The art in the card and in the deck that I choose plays a huge role in my intuition. Some of it is straight out reading symbols. But the intuitive part comes in with color patterns, designs chosen, and such. I've got minimalist cards and maximalist cards and my intuition is a lot louder on the maximalist ones.
Still stuck often at the part where a card could mean 'many things'. I have recently learnt to distinguish between intuititon and anxiety though I am still trying to grasp what intution is like for me and the different ways in which it manifests and maybe nurtured.