Keeping a Tarot Journal

One of the things I learned in the early days of my tarot journey was that keeping a daily tarot journal is a good way to improve tarot literacy. I still do it as a daily practice even though I’ve been reading tarot for twenty years. For one thing, I’ve come to realize that I will never really know everything there is to know about the cards no matter how long I study them. I find that I'm always learning new things through constant study. I also take classes as well.

I draw a card of the day (COTD) each morning and I keep a tarot journal to record the daily drawings. There are wonderful tarot journals that you buy these days but I like to buy a planner with enough space to write out my thoughts about the cards each day. Some days I read them predictively, other days I see how they help describe the energy of the moment, and yet other times they don’t seem to be connected to my current life situation at all, so I take those days as an opportunity to learn a little more about the meaning of the card.

Since I collect books about tarot almost as enthusiastically as I collect tarot decks, I have plenty of books filled with tarot meanings that I can read for inspiration. If a tarot deck has a companion book to go with it, I always buy it. It gives me perspective on the deck creator’s vision for each card, but it also adds to the many layers of meanings that I have learned for each card. The planner I use has a two-page layout for the month-at-a-glance at the beginning of each month and I can easily spot any trends .  Here is a shot of my monthly planner for June.

Since I’m also a stationary geek, I record the cards with color-coded pens. I use purple for the Majors, green for Pentacles, red for Wands, blue for Cups and orange for Swords. When you take a look at the month of June, you can see that I drew Majors 14 days out of 30, which I perceive as a message to pay attention because there’s something important happening. I also note any cards I drew twice or more; in this case I drew Three of Swords, Queen of Swords, and Judgment twice, and I drew Three of Pentacles three times! Yes, there have been some moments that required focus and logic.

Ultimately keeping a tarot journal is a fun and easy way to play with the cards while constantly adding to your tarot knowledge base. You can make up your own process to do it anyway you like; you can record manually as I do, or journal digitally or through art or even through music. The possibilities are endless! Wishing you the best on your tarot journey.