Tarot Challenge - Tumblr Posts
May Tarot Challenge - Self Awareness
I wanted to develop a challenge that helps diviners develop core skills that sustain long term practice. Or in less clinical terms, there’s a ton of stuff for newbie card readers but you, my friend, are in this for the long haul. You’re gonna need a strong foundation for when you’re reading cards ten, twenty years from now. This month we focus on self awareness. I have trouble putting into words just how important this skill is. Knowing how your perception is colored and limited is key to giving good readings. A reader needs to have a sense of when their personal bias is creeping into a reading. Just went through a break up? You need to know when you’re projecting that unhappiness onto other readings. Just got a new job? You need to know when you’re feeling unreasonably optimistic given the cards in front of you. For this challenge, you’ll pull two cards. One you select and one you shuffle/draw at random. The goal is to see how closely your perspective of yourself aligns with your deck, to give your deck a chance to check you. Feel to start this challenge whenever you feel like it, well after May even. If you post this somewhere else, please credit me and link to my tumblr if you can. Use the tag “#hillbillyoracle may tarot challenge” for posts so we can all support each other.
1 T – What is your current situation? 2 W – Who are you in your situation? 3 T – What happened leading up to this situation? 4 F – What will happen in the immediate future? 5 S – What is the root of the situation? 6 S – What advice are you getting from gods/spirits/the Universe? 7 M – What talents do you bring to the situation? 8 T – How do the people around you see the situation? 9 W – What are your hopes? 10 T – What are your fears? 11 F – What have you been ignoring lately? 12 S – What should your next action be? 13 S – What lesson are you learning from your situation? 14 M – Who in your life should you make amends with? 15 T – How should you make amends with them? 16 W – What’s the state of your friendships? 17 T – How can you improve them? 18 F – What’s the state of your relationships with family? 19 S – How can you improve them? 20 S – What’s the state of your romantic life? 21 M – How can you improve it? 22 T – What’s the state of your relationship with yourself? 23 W – How can you improve it? 24 T – What’s the state of your relationship with the world around you? 25 F – How can you improve it? 26 S – What the state of your relationship with spirits/gods/The Universe? 27 S – How can you improve it? 28 M – What is holding you back in your spiritual path? 29 T – How can you break free? 30 W – What has changed over the last month? 31 T – What lessons did you take away from the challenge?
The Deck Bonding Challenge
One of the ideas I tossed around when I was looking at challenges to create for myself for the #100DaysOfTarot, one of the ideas I tossed around was a deck bonding challenge; to take my “Start Here” material and organize it into small chunks that someone could do daily while still using their deck for regular readings. I initially scrapped the idea since I don’t have a new deck I’m working with at the moment but my girlfriend asked me to write the challenge out for her to do with her deck.
If you want to see someone doing this challenge in June, I’d recommend checking out @petrosophia, she’s kickass. I’m biased of course but she’s also just objectively a very reflective person, which is helpful if you want someone to follow along with.
Before You Start
I’d recommend reading all of my “Start Here” section but especially my posts on not learning tarot cards like flashcards and on reading vertically.
The important concepts here are the narrative approach to the Major Arcana/the suits and, well, reading vertically - taking all of the 1′s then all of the 2′s and so on.
What to Do Each Day
On days the prompt says to ask the deck a question, shuffle and draw three cards. Use the book to look up the meanings if you need to. Make any notes you might want to keep or make a post about it.
On the other days, select the cards listed and start with your first impressions. What story do you think is being told? What’s the emotion of each card? What’s the action? After you’ve made notes of your first impressions, make notes of the book’s definitions for each card as well. When you’ve completed a suit - say all of the pentacles - write a brief one or two sentence summary of the story being told. When working vertically, jot down three keywords after you’ve finished taking notes.
For the two signifier questions, feel free to either select one and reflect on it or shuffle and draw one then reflect on it. Or hell do both. See how closely your pick matches you deck.
You might also consider combining these prompts with the SOAP Journaling framework.
Why Do This Challenge
The benefit I see with this challenge is that it allows you to develop a framework understanding of your deck over the course of several weeks which I think is more approachable for a lot of folks. I’m also just a firm believer that a little structure goes a long way.
But feel free to play with this structure. Do all the Pentacles at once if you please. Maybe you need to break down the Vertical Reading into smaller chunks. Maybe you’re using a playing card deck so you just omit all of the Major Arcana. This is just a starting point.
And I’m excited to see what y’all do with it!
The Prompts
1 Ask the Deck: What are your Strengths? (Draw 3 Cards)
2 Ask the Deck: What are your Weaknesses? (Draw 3 Cards)
3 Pentacles 1-4
4 Pentacles 5-7
5 Pentacles 8-10
6 Pentacles Page & Knight
7 Pentacles Queen & King
8 Swords 1-4
9 Swords 5-7
10 Swords 8-10
11 Swords Page & Knight
12 Swords Queen & King
13 Wands 1-4
14 Wands 5-7
15 Wands 8-10
16 Wands Page & Knight
17 Wands Queen & King
18 Cups 1-4
19 Cups 5-7
20 Cups 8-10
21 Cups P&K
22 Cups Q&K
23 Major Arcana 0 & 21
24 Major Arcana 1-5
25 Major Arcana 6-10
26 Major Arcana 11-15
27 Major Arcana 16-20
28 Vertical Reading - The 1’s
29 Vertical Reading – The 2’s
30 Vertical Reading - The 3’s
31 Vertical Reading – The 4’s
32 Vertical Reading – The 5’s
33 Vertical Reading – The 6’s
34 Vertical Reading – The 7’s
35 Vertical Reading – The 8’s
36 Vertical Reading – The 9’s
37 Vertical Reading – The 10’s
38 Internal Signifier – Who am I Internally (Select or Draw a Card)
39 External Signifier – Who am I Externally (Select or Draw a Card)
40 Ask the Deck: What do you want me to know? (Draw 3)
Nonbinary November Tarot Challenge
I’ve been having such a great time doing @tarotprose’s amazing #MonthOfSpreads2 challenge that it inspired me to design another Tarot challenge to do in November.
As the holidays get closer, I tend to creep back toward the closet with regards to my gender. I throw on dresses more even when they make me uncomfortable and style my hair more like a pixie cut – not like the crew cut it is. I do this because I want the holidays to be fun and avoid conflict but the price I pay is not being fully myself in those moments. I wanted to set the tone but creating a challenge that helps me focus on my gender and being true to it even when the pressures of family and friends of friends make that hard.
Cis folks are welcome to participate. We all have complicated relationships with gender and how we perform it, even those who identify with their assigned gender. Examining it can help us unpack in what ways we uphold oppression too. Just know this challenge is created for trans folks, nonbinary ones in particular.
Use the hashtag #NonbinaryNovemberTarotChallenge
I’ll be randomly selecting 3 people who post their readings in that tag to win readings from me; one small (3-5 cards), one medium (6-8 cards), one large (10-14 cards). So the more you complete, the more likely you are to win. I’ll draw for the readings on December 4th so you’ll have a chance to catch up if you wish.
Complete the challenge at your own pace. Work ahead, skip days, catch up in a marathon session.
For brevity’s sake, prompts are below the cut. Happy Divining!
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