Tarot for the Resilient Heart: Cultivating an Intentional Self Care Practice with the Tarot

#ThrowbackThursday is from the google drive archives. This article was written on November 16, 2020.

Most folxs aren’t aware that I am one of four moderators for a facebook group called Tarot in Psychotherapy. The group is comprised of a variety of mental health professionals that incorporate tarot and oracle readings within their offerings for wellness support.

On Saturday, November 14th I attended a workshop hosted by Get Right Wellness, and facilitated by Biany Perez (she/they), that was posted within the facebook group. Biany has been an active group member of the facebook group, and I was thrilled to see this offering but also, the opportunity to support another Black queer, social worker with an expansive wellness practice. 

Before the workshop. I want to ensure that I highlight the intentionality for accessibility to attend the workshop. Get Right Wellness offered a sliding fee scale and provided a two tier option for payment. Of course, I had questions and they were responsive and super nice. 

The workshop. I was excited to attend this workshop to expand my toolbox on cultivating an intentional self care practice with the tarot. Biany provided an amazing workbook that included our agenda, an overview of the foundation of tarot, and the exercises that helped facilitate a self care practice. She outlined that some of the goals for the workshop included “accessing inner wisdom, building intuition, and cultivating a self care practice of our own.”

Accessing Inner Wisdom + Building Intuition 

We started with breathwork to ground our senses. This helped me to clear outside thoughts, so I was present and engaged within the space and with spirit (my eternal, ancestors, and goddess energies).  We then moved into setting community agreements and walking through the agenda for our time together. Although we moved swiftly through the overview of the tarot, I greatly appreciated Biany’s description of the major and minor arcana, specifically the court cards. As someone that has studied tarot through a few different platforms (self study, Oubria, Tarot for Troubled Times, etc) its always refreshing for a new perspective on the cards and their meanings.

One of the practices that Biany offered that resonated were different poetry selections from Black womxn writers, that she included in the workbook. We were instructed to quickly journal on each poem. These were amazing for grounding and expansion on themes for the next exercises. Given the purpose of the workshop was to center a self care ritual, the brief exercises (poetry/journaling, etc) were affirming to facilitate what our needs might be, places where we need a little more support, and just an emotional check in.

Cultivating A Self Care Practice of Our Own

We moved into a tarot exercise at this point, and Biany offered a trauma informed tip for anyone that might pull a card that triggers an unpleasant emotion. She instructed us to turn any card that elicits that type of emotion. I will offer depending on the type of tarot deck that you have, the images range in intensity, this tip is helpful if your deck includes intense imagery.

This tip was helpful because it also provides a place for deeper exploration on why an image may have elicited an unpleasant response. Which also applies to cultivating a self care practice.

I personally utilize a gratitude practice for a variety of reasons. This includes grounding, ancestral work, and nervous system regulation (mind, body, soul connection). Biany offered an amazing exercise utilizing the major arcana, to facilitate a gratitude practice. We were instructed to separate the major arcana cards from the deck, and pick one or two from the twenty-one to write a gratitude statement. I chose the High Priestess and the Devil card. My gratitude statement for the High Priestess card was “I am grateful that I trust myself, to be able to see, even when its hard. (third eye/crown activation)”

Everyone in the workshop typed out their gratitude statements and it was an amazing experience. Biany guided us through a few additional exercises that built on our toolboxes for our own self care practice with tarot. 

The workshop ended with a breathwork exercise and I will end with a gratitude statement about this workshop. I chose the Sun.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to shine bright. I am grateful that I got to play with others and cultivate joy through this practice.”

If you are interested in other wellness workshops offered by Biany and/or Get Right Wellness, check them out, for sure! The tarot deck referenced is the Lightseer’s Tarot by Chris Anne M.

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