Tarot for Radical Self-Care and Awareness
Discover how tarot can transform your self-care practice and deepen self-awareness.
What do you do when your emotions get the better of you? Do you call your bestie, listen to your favorite album, or go for a run? How about a good couch nap?
I do all the above, but once I’ve calmed my feelings, you’ll likely catch me shuffling a deck of cards. Tarot, to be exact.
For me, tarot isn’t just a powerful way to connect with my intuition and the energies around me, but it’s also a tool for radical self-care and awareness that helps me navigate life’s ups and downs.
What are radical self-care and radical awareness?
When I mention self-care, I mean more than the marketing buzzword. We’re talking about radical care, the kind that has been historically elusive for many communities, yet is essential in a society that lowkey and overtly tells some of us we don’t deserve mental, physical and spiritual nurturing. In this way, as Audre Lorde and bell hooks taught us, caring for your whole self isn’t only necessary, it’s resistance.
We all love a good Sunday reset, but radical care goes beyond pampering. It's about self-love, setting boundaries, reclaiming rest, and honoring our beings holistically. It’s about taking time to nourish every part of ourselves, despite internal and external pressures that tell us the opposite.
The work of caring for our whole selves–mind, body and spirit–involves a type of awareness and presence we rarely give ourselves today. It’s the kind of awareness that leads to a better understanding of self without judgments or criticisms, fostering compassion, acceptance and healing.
Why tarot?
I picked up tarot as a quirky preteen, but it fell by the wayside along with my Destiny's Child and Britney Spears posters. That was until life put me through it in my twenties. (Saturn Return, anyone?) Like many others, I rediscovered tarot during a dark personal period.
I just left a toxic job and an on-again-off-again relationship to match its energy—all while my (then undiagnosed) generalized anxiety worsened and I became increasingly isolated. Searching for answers and intuitive care outside my therapy sessions, I asked my friend to pull out her tarot cards and read my energy.
Soon after, I knew I needed to get back into my practice, but this time in a more intentional and spiritually aligned way.
I reintroduced myself to tarot through an easy morning ritual, and you can too. I started every day by meditating, cleansing my energy, and then asking my guides, ancestors or higher self (whichever my spirit led me to) about the energy around my day. Sometimes, I would ask for advice or simply a message I needed to carry with me.
Then, I would pull a single card, reflect on the message and journal my thoughts and feelings. I consulted the guidebook or a favorite website if I needed clarity about a card’s meaning, but I always trusted myself first. For me, this was the key to strengthening and, most importantly, trusting my intuition foremost.
While people often think of tarot as a way to peek into the energy of the future, it’s also a powerful tool for self-care and shadow work. I’ve used it to examine emotional triggers, investigate how past traumas are presently affecting me and discover ways to care for my mind, body and soul at a given time.
You can even use tarot to get clarity on how you might be internalizing oppression (for example, imposter syndrome or survivor’s guilt) and how you can move towards liberation personally and communally.
Tarot prompts introspection by encouraging us to slow down, reflect and connect. Each card pull also allows us to pause and discover what we need in that moment. And, if you incorporate tarot into a daily ritual, the practice will help deepen your awareness and spiritual life over time.
How to use tarot for radical self-care?
You can find a reader you resonate with if you’re interested in using tarot for personal growth or radical self-care. Use your best judgment when seeking a reader, and if something doesn’t feel right, then trust that feeling. You can also ask your guides to lead you to the right person.
Whether you decide to have a professional reading or not, I recommend building your relationship with the cards by getting a deck. Don’t be intimidated when you’re starting. Like most things, learning tarot takes time and intentional practice. Make space for your learning and keep a journal to track the messages, meanings and symbols of the cards.
Most importantly, trust your inner knowing while reading. Yes, each card has its unique meanings and associations with astrology, numerology and symbolism, but each card pull will also depend on the energy of the specific reading.
The more time I devoted to my tarot practice, the stronger my connection to divination (and myself) became, and that will happen for you, too. And, on the bright side, you’ll be engaging in self-exploration in the process. Asking your deck simple yet intimate questions like: “How can I better care for myself at this moment?” “What parts of myself am I neglecting?” and “What shadow work do I need right now?” can be profoundly enlightening.
“How can I better care for myself at this moment?”
“What parts of myself am I neglecting?”
“What shadow work do I need right now?”
Devoting myself to practice and ritual not only reconnected me to tarot but also to myself at a time when I felt stuck, exhausted and alone. Although spiritual practice is not a replacement for mental healthcare, I found the combination of spiritual and mental wellness deeply transformative. I could see my therapist once a week while doing a daily ritual that increased my emotional awareness and sense of personal power. Committing to this self-care practice allowed me to reclaim my energy and cultivate a deeper relationship with myself and the (seen and unseen) world around me.
Instead of avoiding my uncomfortable emotions and triggers, tarot helped me navigate and ultimately transmute those feelings. Most importantly, my practice brought awareness to and helped me accept even the unpleasant aspects of myself.
