Combine tarot and journaling to edit your life story

Our lives are a series of stories. That’s not to say that they progress along an individual story arc, nor that they go to the plan we may have in our head. In reality we live multiple stories at any given time. That would be way too complicated if we were to try and capture them in a single novel or memoir. No-one would be able to follow that! After all, characters we consider “real” in books don’t share the mind blowing number of thoughts most of us have swimming around in our heads at any given moment.

As I write these initial few lines, my mind is considering whether or not I should make a coffee, my phone has just pinged with a message, and I’m wondering if it’s actually raining outside or the sound I can hear is just water falling from the trees. There’s a lot of noise to wade through. Imagine reading a whole book like that. And remember, I’m concentrating, so science and logic tells me I’m blocking out so much more.

Why am I telling you all this? I’m telling you this because even though I’m supposedly concentrating on writing this post, my mind is doing its own thing and letting me do mine and for the most part I’m pretty oblivious. And, I know I am in no way unique. So, “real” characters in books are never completely real.

If they were, there’s a good chance we’d stop watching or reading. We don’t want to hear that sort of inane chatter from others. Nor do we want to hear them constantly whining about not being good enough, attractive enough, successful enough and so on and on and on and on and on. Yet do we listen to it without challenge when its playing over and over in our own mind without acknowledging how painful it is?

I think the answer is yes. Actually I’m pretty sure it is. Or maybe we acknowledge that it’s painful but we let it persist nonetheless. We don’t make ourselves as accountable for our own stories as we do the authors of fictional ones. Many of us are quick to recognise unbelievable characters in a story, but how would we really know? What makes a believable character?

Do we actually live how we think we live, how we want to live, or true to how we see ourselves? Do we even know what that means? I know I didn’t. I’d let my head ping pong me around from one thought, one doubt, one hurt, one joy, one unchallenged story after another day after day, week after week. Not always, but way too often. So often in fact that I woke up one day and wondered where the fuck the me I used to be went.

So what does all this have to do with tarot and journaling? Everything. Because taken together they can help us focus, reimagine, edit and change our stories as we deem appropriate. Any motivational speaker will remind us we only have one life to live and we should be living it blah, blah, blah and I’ll admit they can be really inspiring at the time. But afterwards we come back to ourselves and after a week or so things are back to where they were. Something obviously drove us to watch, read, listen to whatever it was, but change is hard. Accountability is daunting and hard. Being true to ourselves can be downright petrifying. Tarot and journaling came help simplify the process.

We might love the ideas suggested in the latest crop of “Not giving a f*ck” books and talks that are popular right now but loving them and living them are two very different things. I know I have been inspired by them, but that inspiration is usually anger driven. David Goggins would say that’s fine. Use your anger to your advantage and I can see that it is a pretty powerful motivator. But more importantly, we need to be our own motivation. We need to own our own stories. That is where, for me, the tarot and journaling can help.

Tarot can get a bad wrap. “It’s all crap”. “It’s fake”. “People that read tarot are charlatans taking advantage of vulnerable people”. “Tarot is fortune telling”. “Anyone who believes in psychics is gullible”. I could keep going and going and going, but I’m not going to. It’s pointless. I don’t use tarot for any of those reasons. I see tarot as a set of 78 cards that illustrate the archetypes and lived experiences of everyday people. It’s as simple and as complex as that. To see what I mean, check out the people pictured below.

Who hasn’t felt victorious after overcoming a challenging situation? Or maybe envied another’s success? Or maybe been a tad too boastful or egoic about their own success? Guilty on all counts. Meet the 6 of Wands from the Radiant Wise Tarot (a version of the standard Rider Waite Smith tarot deck many are familiar with). He’s the guy sitting up tall and proud on his horse. Not into him, then how about the black cat holding up a trophy (Black Cats Tarot), or a lady embracing the applause (Light Seer’s Tarot), or a hurdler winning a race (The Everyday Enchantment Tarot).

These are all just pictures that when we look at them allow us to form a story in our minds. They also, if we let them, encourage us: to think about those stories; to ask questions associated with them; and to apply what we come up with to our own lives. This is where the journaling aspect comes in.

Questions such as: if you’ve never felt victorious, why not? How did you act in times when you were? How often do you consider the time and effort that went in to your success? Was it worth it to you? How about how much time and effort went into someone else’s success? Do you still envy them or maybe instead do you just celebrate their achievements? I mean is there really any such thing as an overnight success? According to Eddie Cantor it takes around 20 years to become one.

Now, when I add another card into the mix, chosen at random, it adds another dimension to the story. Here I’ve drawn the Page of Cups from the Tarot of the Abyss. When I look to the 6 of Wands, in every case there is the idea of this too shall pass. The applause is going to end. The thrill of winning is going to end. However, the time you spent doing whatever it was that brought about the success has definitely already passed and there’s no way it’s coming back. Pretty important then to spend it wisely. But how do we know we’re doing that in the moment.

The Page of Cups trusts that his heart will lead him towards wherever it is he actually wants to go. This isn’t some New Age adage that isn’t practical in the real world. Why do I believe that? Because difficulties overcome in order to achieve what it is we really want, are more likely to fill our cup than drain it. Our success provides a sense of achievement rather than a struggle we’d like to forget. Following a certain path purely because we want recognition isn’t going to cut it in the long run. Following a path because it’s what others want for us, makes even less sense. Unfortunately, it’s the one many of us follow. But that makes it their story not ours.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the truth in that. But, in combining just two randomly chosen cards shows how combining tarot and journaling can help us to rewrite our stories, one by one, until we are truly comfortable with the story we’re drafting. All it takes is a willingness to ask and explore the questions that surface coupled with a willingness to act on the answers they uncover. Easy no, life-changing, potentially yes. No witches garb, no incense, no psychic ability necessary. Just an open mind, pen and paper, and the desire to be the best version of ourselves, even if only in one small area of our lives.

Tarot isn’t going to tell you what to do. Nor should any tarot reader. Tarot is merely a tool we can use to help us uncover and gain fresh perspectives; to help us be accountable to ourselves and ourselves only; and ultimately to help us live a life that’s in alignment with the most authentic version of ourselves.

We are not just a character in a book or movie. We are real people living real lives. But since our lives are our stories, I believe we should be writing a story we’d be happy to read. To do so we need to work out which chapters, which characters, and which ways of thinking, acting, and being we feel don’t belong. No-one wants to, or should, get to the end of their own story and find they were the painful character they really didn’t like. If you don’t like what you’ve written in your journal you can set about changing it.

Below are links to reviews I’ve written on the tarot decks I’ve mentioned throughout. If you check them out you’ll see lots more images and if you like you can start to see what questions they raise for you along the way.