Tarot, Self-Love Challenge

I didn’t buy my first tarot deck until I was around 22 years old.

I was officially living on my own and aware of the freedom that comes with it.

One day, I was driving home after having stopped at GameStop for a new video game, when I got the urge to go in to this metaphysical shop that I would drive by that I had always been curious about.

The smell of the shop is what hit me first, and it was highly intoxicating. (It would be another 10 years before I had the courage to find out what the name of the scent was called). But if you’ve ever been in a catholic church or some other metaphysical shop, then you know the smell of incense I’m referring to. 

It was heady and addicting and I took a few deep breaths just to calm my nerves. (I still had some religious guilt running through my head.)

I found a few trinkets, a box, and my very first tarot deck. 

I promptly took it all home and hid them deep in my closet. 😅

I wish I could remember or find that first spread I did. I remember reading through the guide book and looking over all the cards. 

Thanks to Animal Speak, I already had an idea on how to talk to my guides and how to meditate and speak to animals and nature, but the cards were something new. 

I do remember one of the spreads I did and I believe it was how to find your spirit animal. I remember being so flabbergasted that I got the lion card and I had already been talking to my lion spirit guide. 

I used the Wizard’s Tarot deck sporadically over the next few years. For myself when I was struggling, for my relationship when I was hurt, and even for a few close friends when we were just curious. 

The accuracy always astounded me. The ability to find the truth of the situation and know what the best way forward was constantly caught me off guard.

To be honest, there are times that I’m still astounded… 20 years of magic later and the Universe still finds ways to surprise me and give me messages that impress me. 

So fast forward to 2018 when I was getting out of a toxic relationship and I was very low on the self-love. A friend of mine suggested that I start listening to HayHouse Radio and it changed my life.

I started diving deeper into my meditations, learning more about astrology, and learning more about myself.

Based on one of the radio shows, I created a challenge for myself. I wanted to actually learn the tarot and not have to check the book during every reading.

So I created the tarot self-love challenge.

The idea was that I would pull a card each day and then list out 5 things that the card reminded me of that I loved about myself. It could be anything and everything, just as long as the card reminded me of it and I could take a minute to fully believe what I was saying. 

For starters, the beginning of my day turned into a mini love fest for myself (which was sometimes a struggle).

Looking at the card and finding 5 things I loved about myself wasn’t always the easiest thing.

Some days were easy, like with the King of Wands or Strength.

Some days were hard, like with the Tower or Death.

But every day I committed to do it.

At the end of 78 days I had a whole new outlook on life. Let alone on the tarot.

I had new connections to the cards that I had never seen before.

Let alone 390 (78x5) new reasons to love myself (and yes, some of them were duplicates, but that’s besides the point).

I still recommend this as one of the best ways to learn the tarot.

You make it personal and you find completely new ways to fall in love with yourself.

And you can do it with anything that you need support on. 

It could be 5 reasons you’re a great parent, 5 ways you’re a great entrepreneur, 5 things that make you a great manager… The list is endless. Whatever you need help on right now, you can get it.

Here’s how to help you set up:

1. Decide what you’re going to use for your 5 reasons. 

   • What are you struggling with right now? How can you help yourself? Where do you need some extra support?

2. Decide which deck you’re going to use.

   • Choose a deck that you’re not going to use for the next 78 days. Preferably a physical one, so you can easily see which cards you’ve chosen already.

3. Find a journal.

   • Whether it’s physical or digital doesn’t matter. Just some place that you can keep track of the days, cards, and your reasons.

4. Set an intention & shuffle

   • What is your intention for this exercise? In most cases it’s to improve your knowledge of the tarot and to improve in the area you chose in step 1.

   • Your method of shuffling is totally up to you. I usually shuffle 3 times and then split the deck once.

5. Then set the cards to the side until tomorrow.

Instructions for each day with one caveat - In all cases, do what feels right and what your intuition draws you towards. If you want to do this in a different order, then do that. If you want to journal first, do that.

The key to it all is to follow your intuition.

1. Take a few deep breaths to center yourself before you draw a card

   • If you can, meditate first. Ask for help from your guides and intuition.

2. Draw the card off the top of the deck.

3. Journal a few key thoughts, feelings, words, colors, symbols that stand out to you.

4. Start your list of 5 things using only your intuition

   • Write as many as you can, if you only 1 or 2 come to mind, just start with those.

5. Do a little research on the card

   • Check the book, check the internet, see if there are any other key words or ideas that come to mind.

6. Finish your list of 5 things

   • Using the new things you learned, finish out your list of 5 things

This is the format I used. And as I mentioned before, don’t be afraid to repeat yourself.

When I was doing the Self-Love challenge, there were many times that I had to remind myself how strong I was, how courageous I was, how special I was, and how strong my heart was. 

The only rule is that you stick to it consistently. Get through the entire deck and see how you feel at the end. Let alone how much more you know about each card! 

By uniting your emotions with your mind and the cards, you learn deeper about each card and learn to trust your intuition.

One of the exciting parts was trusting my intuition on something and then later researching the card to see that I got a definition “right” without even knowing it.

The biggest learning point of this exercise was to trust my intuition. It might not match the formal definition of the card, but it’s always going to match what you need to know about the situation.

In the Teach Yourself Tarot coaching program we practice to understand the cards with intuition and experience.

When you know the cards personally, it’s easier to do any kind of reading.

If you’re curious about the program, text me! (‪602-492-3795‬)
Email works too 🤗 [email protected]

Otherwise, happy Tarot-ing! Let me know what your challenge is going to be!