How my Journey with Tarot Began
I remember my first professional tarot reading vividly. It took place in a cozy local café back when I was living in Canada. Honestly? I was a little nervous.
At the time, I was nowhere near the path I’m on now. For most of my eleven years in Canada, I had packed away my spiritual leanings and intuition in a dusty box, trying to ignore them. But as we know, those things have a habit of bubbling back to the surface whether we like it or not.
I didn’t even have a specific question ready, so the reader offered a general overview. She laid out a complex circular spread tied to astrological houses (I later learned it was the Zodiac Spread). I was stunned by how accurate the insights were, especially considering I was a total stranger and hadn’t fed her a single detail about my life.
That single session lit a spark of curiosity in me that wouldn’t go out. Not long after, I bought my very first deck: The Shadowscapes Tarot by Stephanie Law. I’d been following Stephanie’s art for years, so when she announced a tarot deck, it felt like the perfect excuse. I told myself I was just acquiring 78 beautiful pieces of artwork… but really, I was finally ready to dabble in the magic behind them.
SIDENOTE:Should you buy your own Tarot deck?
Some say that you shouldn’t buy tarot or oracle decks for yourself, that they must be gifted… but to that I say ‘PAH!’ - you should absolutely buy your own deck(s)! Because if they inspire you and resonate with you, then that is what’s going to work best for you. As much as I enjoy the Rider-Waite-Smith deck for example (which is perhaps the best known version of the tarot), to me it doesn’t appeal quite so much to my artist’s eye as Stephanie’s deck (and others I’ve since acquired). The art of tarot is first and foremost a visual and symbolic language, so ideally that language makes sense to you and appeals to you.
What had been alluded to in my first reading was a major life change, and indeed as time moved on things started to come to a head. Firstly, my dad died of lung cancer after a year-long battle, and then a few years later my Aunt (his sister) was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and after a three year battle with it, she also passed away. Those five years were perhaps the most difficult and challenging of my life in which I experienced numerous crisis of faith.
During that time, I reached tarot to help me through some of those dark and incredibly difficult days. I would use a very simple 3 card spread that looked at my past, present and future, and I can’t tell you how many times The Tower card would appear in my present and The Star card would appear in my future. It was uncanny how reliably it showed up!
‘The Tower’ from The Spirit Awakening Tarot
The Star is a card of faith, hope, rejuvenation and healing, it is a reminder to trust in the divine workings of the Universe, it is what remains after the cataclysm and upheaval that The Tower brought.
It gives me such a sweet feeling whenever it comes in a reading because now - looking back some 10 years on from those difficult days - I can quite rightly say that the times of The Star did indeed follow. It wasn’t easy moving through those dark days but I held on to the vision of The Star and trusted in the natural unfolding of things in my life.
In a relatively short period of time, I packed up my life in Canada and moved back to my homeland, the UK and pursued my lifelong dream of being a full-time artist.
Needless to say the meaning of those two cards is indelibly etched in my mind.
In the Fool’s journey through the Major Arcana, The Tower is followed immediately by The Star - one cannot come without the other. The Tower - can indicate a time of deep, foundational upheaval, a collapse of something you’ve built, that can shake you to your core. If you’ve ever been through a “tower” period, you will know it as one of the darkest, most gnarly and difficult times to walk through. For years after I would flinch every time it came up in a reading as I just couldn’t bare the thought of going through that pain again. Needless to say it was a lot!
But without any exaggeration, The Star did indeed follow - sitting in my ‘future’ - it was a vision I held onto whilst my world collapsed around me during those Tower days. It gave me a huge amount of hope.
‘The Star’ from The Spirit Awakening Tarot
After those first, stumbling experiences with Tarot, and experiencing their astonishing accuracy I began to explore more deeply the archetypes and meanings, trying out more complex spreads and exploring other decks (some of which I’ve reviewed on YouTube).
I reach for Tarot when I’m trying to understand areas of my life that seem to have hit a snag, or have had an unexplainable sudden shift. I also get playful with it and have asked for insights such as “Who would I be if I let all my worries go?” Or even I remember a particularly insightful card on a day when I was feeling quite depressed. I asked: “What card represents me as an individual?” and I got The Tower - and I snorted because in all honesty, on that day I really didn’t feel great at all - it did feel world-endingly bad in that moment - so then I rephrased: “So who am I when I’m not having a bad day?” and I got the Ten of Cups. In that moment it gave me a chuckle and felt delightfully playful.
To sum up
I see Tarot as a way to communicate with your Soul’s purpose, your Guides, Spirit, All That Is, God - whatever it is you like to call it. It’s a way of gaining a higher perspective. I don’t personally use it for looking into the future but I do ask for it to deepen my understanding of circumstances within which I find myself. It gives me a higher view, a deeper perspective and sometimes a bit of a shake up to not take it all so seriously!
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You can find out more about my reading style and my very own deck - The Spirit Awakening Tarot here >
