digital sarah art joy

hello tarot, an introspective gal's first tarot deck

~ 3 minutes to read

A few weeks ago, I decided to buy a tarot deck. Before that, I'd decided to start collecting Pokemon cards, but I wanted my collection to be fun, so I brainstormed ideas of collections to pursue and decided I wanted to make a Pokemon tarot deck (I also have another collection idea that I'll make another post about!). I've never done tarot before. I do get tarot reels on Instagram where someone does a reading. Whether or not they're super accurate, idk, but I do enjoy the affirmation and validation they often give.

For the Pokemon tarot, I clicked through so many cards on websites like pkmncards.com and pokelix.com. I found Pokemon cards for both the major and minor arcana — mostly trying to match the vibe of the art of the cards. In the end, to buy my Pokemon tarot collection, I think it was something like $800.

These are the cards that I thought best matched the vibe of the Rider-Waite deck major arcana, or they matched with my understanding of what the card means.

pokemon distraction (

I may still pursue it, but in the meantime I bought a $20 tarot deck to learn and practice with. It's called Mystical Forest by Cecilia Lattari and Wes Gama. It's full of vibrant colors, lush scenery, beautiful animals, and beautiful melanated folk. I probably spent 20 minutes searching Powell's decks until I found it and I'm so glad I did. I also bought a pocket guide to tarot by Alan Oken. It's cover (a bright orange) matches the deck.

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how I'm learning/practicing

I started by reading through the two books. I didn't read through everything, but more just skimmed through them. I mostly focused on understanding the different suites and their associations.

I haven't been pulling or making a spread everyday, but rather whenever I have something I want to think about more deeply. After shuffling and pulling, I start by just looking at the cards and thinking about how their images make me feel. I look for repetition or patterns with their suites or numbers. And I take notes on everything I've observed or thought of. After that, I'll look up each card in my books and sometimes online if I feel I want more info to think about. Then, with all that information, I look for more patterns or words that stick out and reflect on how they relate to the inquiry I started with.

my personal tarot philosophy

I love self-help books, and I view the tarot deck as a sort of self-help book that you're co-writing passages with on the fly. When you pull for yourself, since you're the one interpreting, everything is going to be more personal and relatable. Idk if this is really the proper way of thinking about it, but it's how I've been using it and have found it to be a valuable and insightful tool.

Just like self-help books, not everything is going to resonate, but every once in a while, you'll come across something that shakes you up and feels like a coming home or a wake up call. For me, one wild thing that happened was that I saw a hummingbird as I was thinking about and reflecting about the ten of swords card in the spread below, which has a hummingbird on it. It was an interview with the deck where each card, from left to right was in response to the questions: who, what, when, where, how, and why. A hummingbird appeared at the window in front of me when I was thinking about the ten of swords as ego death. So, the how: ego death. And the why? Victory.

photo of a tarot spread

Idk, maybe it's not that deep, but then again, maybe it is.

#hobbies #reflecting