Taking a Break from Tarot

Like everything in life, practicing tarot is cyclical. Sometimes you're fascinated with the cards: feeling drawn to pull on every morning, doing reading for anyone and everyone, or spending nights alone interpreting intricate personal readings. 

And sometimes the cards just aren't calling to you.

When I was in college I had a strange way of writing papers. I'd start out in a frenzy of research, stockpiling books and pouring over articles. It was an exhilarating hunt (and full of reading - lots and lots of reading). And then I'd just stop. Walking around campus, daydreaming as I rode the bus back to my apartment, I'd put all the piles of books to the side and turn off the computer. I needed to get out in the world, read a book about something fascinating and decidedly un-academic. Hell, I'd even take baths and pour over wrinkled copies of UsWeekly, a habit I still have today.

And yet I had a deep feeling that while I stepped away from the process of creating and studying, another process was unfolding. It was as if the paper was slowly forming in my subconscious. When I finally sat down to write, the words came out quickly and with clarity I couldn't muster in the days before.

I think the same process is at work in tarot. Spending too much time engrossed in the cards detaches us from the world around us. I can tell when I need to go out and collect some magic, or simply let my tarot experiences rest and percolate. Give yourself the freedom to follow your own tarot cycles and trust that the cards will call to you when you're ready to come back.

---