Struggling to trust my intuition

[24seasons]

Hi! I'm still pretty new to tarot, I'm not super experienced yet and I've only been reading for myself so far. This might just be something that comes with practise but I'm really struggling to trust my intuition, with most cards I'm constantly second guessing myself, immediately telling myself I'm wrong, etc, and I feel like it's stopping me from getting the most out of the reading and it's frustrating, it's like something's blocking my thoughts in a way. It's hard to describe so hopefully that makes sense haha. Does anyone know that feeling and what I can do to help with it? I'd like to read for others someday and I want to figure this out before then. Thanks in advance

[DanielJUK]

Of course, this is one of the hardest and most frustrating parts of learning and it gets better with experience and practising readings 🙂

 

Some people don't read in a very intuitive way at all and so it might not match your style or method. There is a scale I think with intuitive reading entirely at one end and a more logical reading style at the other with learnt or reference meanings. Most people are somewhere between the 2 ends I think.

 

But all you can do with reading the cards is to keep trying if you want to improve that method of reading. Look at the card images, does anything catch your eye in the picture? Do any of the symbols activate any of your senses? Some people find making them stories helps or like a scene in a movie, this is on capture, what happens before and after. There are different intuitive techniques you can use.

For me, using learnt meanings or having keywords or a basic "learnt idea" of each card is a back-up in this situation. Sometimes I get nothing from a card, so I turn to the reference meanings as a back-up. That is how it works for me but intuitive messages or feelings always have priority. This really improved for me about a year after spending a lot of time with the cards and using them.

 

If you feel you want to try it out sometime, we have monthly reading circles where you practice with other members. ISG is an intuitive circle, you read one (or sometimes a few) card and you are not allowed to use any learnt or reference meanings. It is pretty hard at the start but good for intuitive practice. They launch in the first week of each month, you can see this area here. ISG is pinned at the top so you can read about it. If you don't feel too confident about joining in with others, try the exercises yourself each month, see how it goes 🙂

[24seasons]

@DanielJUK Thanks for the tips!! I think sometimes I get a little overwhelmed and that's why I get confused and struggle, having questions to ask myself will hopefully help break it down! And if it doesn't it's nice to know not everyone heavily uses intuition, part of me was definitely worried I was doing something wrong haha

 

I'd love to join a circle someday but I'm busy next month so I'm not sure if I'll have time, plus since I'm pretty new I'd like to have a little more general practise before reading for others. Maybe I'll join in august!

[Nemia]

There are two books I can recommend for this problem (which will get better over time although it can always pop up in certain readings). 

 

Mary Greer's Tarot for Your Self leads you through a series of exercises. You'll get to know yourself better but also the cards. An intimate relationship with the cards will give you self confidence. You know your family members well and can say intuitively how they're going to react, don't you? Make the cards your family, your friends. They can still surprise you, but you'll relax with them and know them in depth. 

 

Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot is an intimidating tome, but you don't have to read it from beginning to end. When she wrote that book, she had a no-nonsense approach, very cerebral and intelligent (she was turned a bit more mystical-magical since then but stll incredibly lucid and intelligent). 

 

I find reading books important, and reading the cards most important of all. Another important step to becoming a better, more self-trusting reader of cards: write down your readings, return to them. Take pictures, and come back to your readings after a while. 

 

It will all fall into place over time. 

 

And start reading for others. Here on this forum, you'll get all the support and non-judgemental feedback that you need. Just join. There is no better way of learning than in such a community. We're all on stations on that tarot journey, and being new and fresh can also be an advantage. You may see nuances in the cards that more practised readers overlook. 

[24seasons]

@Nemia Oooo, thanks for the tips and recommendations! I've seen a lot of tarot books while browsing decks but there's so many options I would never have been able to choose one on my own. I'll keep those two in mind!

[gregory]

Another book which takes a very fun approach to all this is Lynda Cowles'  Tarot Playbook.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764339885/

https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/books/playbook/

https://tarotnotes-majorandminor.blogspot.com/2012/05/review-tarot-playbook.html

 

Exercises such as "what would you buy for the King Pents as a Christmas gift" or Pick a card at random and imagine you have been cursed by it. What afflicts you ?" "What does the six of swords SMELL like ?" - you really CAN'T rely on learned meanings for this kind of thing, but it REALLY gets you into the cards.

[KiMo]

As always there is some amazing advice here but I just wanted to reiterate something that Nemia mentioned. Diarising / journaling your readings will really help you to not only familiarise yourself with the cards and develop your own layers of meanings, but will also help you to start recognising those little bells of intuition that ring when you're presented with a message.

 

I've only been reading the tarot for two years so I consider myself a beginner, and I'm also a person who chronically questions themselves and their own judgement. In February this year I began doing a daily draw of two cards in the morning, really with the intention of learning more than anything else (so the readings are in that respect a little more objective than they would be if I focused on an issue that I was emotionally connected to), and have journaled on each draw since. I can't tell you how much it has improved not only my knowledge of the cards but also my connection to my intuition, all in a relatively short time. 

 

I appreciate this may sound cliched but as someone who would so easily get discouraged at the first sign of 'not getting it perfect', taking one small step every day is so valuable. You'll start to notice things about yourself and your abilities very quickly.

 

Also, please do join the reading circles on the forum when you can! I join the newbies circle most months. Everyone here is so supportive, it's an amazing place to learn. 

[24seasons]

@gregory Ooo that sounds like the kind of thing I'd really love going through, thank you!

 

@KiMo Thanks for the tips! I have been doing daily single card readings but not putting a ton of thought into interpreting them beyond very surface level so I'll start putting some more time into it. I don't have a dedicated place to write my interpretations down yet (the notes I have taken for other readings are a bit scattered across multiple places lol) which is one of the reasons I wasn't putting much time into the daily ones but that's a pretty easy fix.

 

 

And as a general message to everyone who's posted, thank you again!! 💖 I've been pleasantly surprised by how kind and welcoming everyone is here, makes me really excited to learn and build my skills!

[KiMo]

2 hours ago, 24seasons said:

I have been doing daily single card readings but not putting a ton of thought into interpreting them beyond very surface level so I'll start putting some more time into it

One thing I've seen recommended by a couple of readers (Chariot on this forum if I remember rightly, and a YouTuber I follow) is to try using two cards for a daily draw rather than one. The YouTuber mentions that with a one card draw, the danger is that you slip into bringing to mind just the keywords, which is fine of course but it can be difficult to draw out nuance sometimes. I've mentioned this elsewhere but for me personally, two cards together form a kind of mini narrative and help to contextualise the message.

 

Here's an example from yesterday - in the morning I drew the Queen of Swords and the Fool. Later in the day I was walking home with my daughter after school, she was zipping along on her scooter. We live on a busy road with many houses and businesses, and from a driveway a car started to pull out without looking. My daughter was inches away from scooting in front of it and getting hit, had I not been watching and shouted quickly at her to stop. It was an event that passed very quickly but could easily have ended in disaster. I realised the Queen of Swords represented vigilance and carefully chosen but required words, to guide the Fool and stop them from walking straight into danger. If I'd stopped at just pulling the Queen of Swords, I would not have associated it quite as confidently with that event.

 

I appreciate that this is just what works for me and others will have their own processes that work for them, but I thought I'd mention it as reading this way has helped my learning hugely. 

[gregory]

I'll never forget a very experienced reader I knew (If anyone has news of Rosanne, please share) who had pulled a single card with - among other things - a lot of bees on it. Pretty, she thought. Later she went to get her mail - and a swarm of bees had taken up residence in her mailbox and she was badly stung.... "How bloody literal can you get ?" she said !