tarot session FAQ
What is it like to have a tarot reading with you?
A tarot reading with me is a 50-minute, one-on-one conversation over zoom shaped around a question that you + I refine together, + that I pull a series of tarot cards about. Our conversation is a give-and-take about how the cards relate to your question, + your responses to that.
My role in the session is to read the oracle—the arcana that appear in your tarot spread—in a way that speaks directly to your question. Using your question as the lens through which we look at the spread, you + I have the chance to relate with the arcana’s images to help:
- affirm where you’re at
- gather the scattered pieces of your situation into a coherent + empowering narrative
- invite curiosity, creativity, inspiration + excitement
- reframe unhelpful narratives, habits + perspectives by naming the pervasive influence that our socialization in a settler-colonial, cisheteropatriachal, white supremacist, ableist, ecocidal, misogynistic, disaster-capitalist culture—the “overculture”—has on our thoughts, feelings, behavior + spirit
- generate ideas for practice + reflection around issues that came up during your reading that you can work with following the session
Why would someone get a tarot reading?
Some people like to receive readings to mark birthdays, anniversaries, or life transitions, like a change of career, retirement, or hitting a milestone. Some people seek out a reading when a job or significant relationship ends, or following the death of a loved one. Still others like to get a tarot reading when they are on the threshold of a major decision, like buying a house, relocating to another city, interviewing for a job, or ending a relationship.
A tarot reading can help support you through periods of stuckness—when you feel like you’re circling around the same issues and challenges with no movement or seeming “progress”—as well as support you through periods of change.
Do I have to believe in tarot to benefit from a reading?
Whoever or whatever you believe is speaking through the tarot, the messages that come through are connected to your own innate wisdom. A good tarot reading most often feels like hearing something that you already know deep down to be true, but the reading is a way of surfacing that wisdom + insight so that you can operationalize it in your everyday life.
What if I’m nervous about finding out something unpleasant or that comes out of left field?
Tarot, as I read it, is not a predictive, fortune-telling tool. I can’t “see” what is going to happen to you. A tarot reading is like getting a deep snapshot of the current moment you’re in. By seeing what kinds of energies are present in different areas of your life, you’re able to identify, name + reframe things that are causing stress and anxiety, + feel empowered to make more informed + intentional choices.
That said, the tarot describes the full range of human experience—the good stuff + the hard stuff + everything in between. You might see cards in your reading that feel scary; this is something we can explore together. Being able to look around all sides of a card to see what other possibilities are present in a frightening image can be incredibly empowering.
What is tarot anyway?
Tarot decks developed in 15th-century southern France and northern Italy as sets of illuminated playing cards for those who could afford to commission them from artists.
Through regular use + cross-pollination with groups + cultures that still carried ancient, pre-Christian wisdom with them, tarot became a technology of divination in the 19th century. With the publication of the iconic Rider Waite Smith tarot deck in 1910—bearing the innovation of artist Pamela Colman Smith’s narratively illustrated minor arcana—the cards continued to attract meanings to them like a magnet attracting iron filings.
Whether we know anything about tarot or not, its power as a divinatory tool is immediately accessible to us. The images on the cards speak to the same part of us that is activated when we gaze up at the moon in the night sky. We can invite the images of the tarot to stir our feelings, ignite our hearts, inspire our mind, + ground our bodies. The cards can become a resource we turn to for nourishment, inspiration, + to challenge the stories that tend to keep us stuck.