The Power of an Intentional Tarot Session
When you interpret tarot cards, you rely heavily on your subconscious. This means that we don’t understand how reading cards works. Of course, there’s the image and the traditional meaning that you could look up in a book. But that’s not what we want. What we’re looking for is an intentional tarot reading.
While I find it a million times more interesting to find out what happens inside my mind when it registers the image, it is still a mystery to me. The interpretation is affected by my past experiences, beliefs, culture, values, and stories I tell myself. These aspects have sunk into the background of my mind and do their work without me knowing it. As a result, I receive a thought or a feeling that I can interpret more consciously.
Embrace Your Limitations
I am always amazed at how many learning opportunities there are in my sessions. These opportunities arise because I let you interpret the cards while working with me. While some people may want a clear-cut answer from me as a reader about what they should do, I want to pick your brains to coach you, so you know what to do. You already have the experiences, beliefs, cultural backgrounds, values, and stories – that’s quite enough. You don’t need mine to add to that. What I need to mentor you, is to hear your interpretation of the cards. After dozens of readings done this way, I know you know them – even when you have never read a tarot card in your life. This way, we find out how your view of the card is formed by your experiences, beliefs, cultural background, values, and stories. I help you make the right decisions within these limitations, so you can embrace them fully without hesitation.
No matter what question you bring to the session, don’t just pick a general question haphazardly and hope for the best. I want to know your intention for the next six months. When we work from your intention, we both know you’re not coming for fun – you want to grow and develop. That’s how I work with the cards.
The Question Behind the Question
There is always meaning in a question. For instance, you just started dating and met someone nice, and you go to a reader with the question: “Is X a right match for me?” When I get a request like that, I wonder: Why would you come to me with this question? You meet someone new but have doubts. Why? If it weren’t an issue, you would not come up with a question like that. Where does the question come from?
If I would grab my deck of cards without thinking about this essential difference, you might not get the reading you’d need. So, before I start the intentional tarot reading, I have a couple of questions for you, like:
- Could you please tell me more about X?
- How did you meet them?
- What are your experiences with them?
- Do you feel free to be yourself when you are with them?
- What do they remind you of?
- What are your previous experiences with other people?
- What do you hope?
- What do you fear?
Based on your answers and the intention you already sent me I may change the original question into a more suitable one that could give you much more insight into what is happening inside.
What Do You Need?
Throwing some cards on the table and telling you if X is a match would not help you. We need direction in the reading. Only then can we work on the intentional tarot reading and coaching together. It is sometimes not what my clients expect from our sessions, but they are always relieved to talk about what keeps them awake at night.
The wonderful thing is that I know the cards will be bang on once we define the proper focus for our session. The more focus we bring into the session, the more specific the guidance will be. The good thing is that defining the right question is part of the coaching because most clients are not aware that they have different questions than they think. Once we start defining, there’s always a more profound question below the surface.
Resisting The Real Question
What I notice is that clients can have a bit of resistance to the right question. I understand that because they came into the session to ask if X is a good match, and suddenly they must talk about their deepest fears of repeating the same mistakes they once made with a former partner. That’s no fun! I agree. It may not be fun, but it is helpful!
I once had a client who gave me two pieces of feedback three weeks apart. The first showed a slightly disappointed person who had gotten the reading she needed but not what she wanted. I contacted her, and we talked for a bit, but she didn’t want a new session to clear it up, so I had to let it go.
A few weeks later, she sent me a new email, which she apologized for her previous email and explained how she now saw that her new partner triggered a fear based on an old, failed relationship. The new partner was very loving, and she could not believe he was authentic, so he must be untruthful. Having to talk about her fears felt big and overwhelming, although she told me that I did it ever so gently. I was glad she let me know that she had changed her experience into a much more positive one. Not because I now got a compliment, but because I understood that she understood. We talked for a bit and she told me she was happy she got the intentional tarot reading.
Close Your Eyes and See
When we work on interpreting the cards, we process the imagery. When the client does that, I can see it in their eyes. They either close their eyes to see the images in their mind’s eye or look up and away from me. It is a perfect way to connect with their inner wisdom.
At the same time, your brain goes through its archive of possible meanings. This doesn’t mean that you now suddenly come up with the perfect interpretation of the card. I believe that at that moment, you subconsciously connect to your Akashic Record (even if you do not even know you have one) and go through every past, present, and even future experience the images remind you of.
I can almost imagine you wondering how you can remember future things. Isn’t that a contradiction? When you look at it from our experience in the regular timeline we have here in this incarnation, but in the Akashic Records, there is no perception of time. There is only information that is available at present. Since there is no past and no future in the records, there is only now, making it possible for us to know about it.
You find meaning in the card’s image with all the information available. If you always thought reading tarot cards or the Akashic Record was complex, then no, it’s not. You only need to know how to bypass your weird brain that always gets in the way. You also must step away from the noise around you all the time. Some discipline is needed to spend more time with yourself, but as a budding reader, which may not be difficult.
Learn How to Do an Intentional Tarot Reading
I have written a beautiful book on the process of intentional tarot reading, called Tarot Guide for Beginners. It teaches you to associate freely with the imagery on the card and helps you to move freely in and out of your source of wisdom. Technically, you don’t need me for that. If this puts me out of work in this field, I’m happy with that 😊.
My name is Jolanda Bolt, and I am the author of the Tarot Guide for Beginners. If you are looking for a simple but straight forward (a.k.a. Dutch) way to learn how to read tarot cards, this is your sign to buy it. If you want to learn more about reading tarot cards, then find my blogs here.
My understanding of the metaphysical and how to manifest an abundant life change and evolves all the time.What I hope is that you got something out of this blog. I want you to have a more fulfilling, more authentic life, and one of the ways to do this is to subscribe to my newsletter so you can stay up to date with what I’m creating. Another thing you can do is to decide what this blog taught you, leave your comment below and tell one person you know. Thank you, and I love you.
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