Creative Breakthroughs Using Cards

Feb 25

I’ve talked before about what oracle and tarot cards can offer in terms of creativity and introspection, but I want to talk more about how powerful it can be to use them in your journaling practice and how they can have the potential to help you work through a breakthrough in your life.

My daily card reading practice and “challenges” provide me with a way to combine my spirituality with my writing in a fun and healing way. It has become my way of “micro-journaling” (I have a blog post all about it!) because I learn something about myself through re-reading my thoughts from the challenges. I start to see patterns from my posts that connect to patterns in other areas of my life, too. It’s almost like I get a deeper sense of who I was in those moments, and how different it is from this very moment.

But it’s also about cultivating a deeper relationship with the cards. Some people have varying levels of “gifts” to access wisdom from a card. Like everything else in my life, writing seems to be the way I “tap” into the deepest wisdom of what the card is trying to tell me. And if I’m being really honest here, I don’t even go that deep on most days — and it still feels like a lot. If I learned how to harness the power of other gifts, I’m sure I would find another set of deeper meanings and layers of the card.

This combined whirlwind of spirituality and creativity has certain alchemy to it. It stirs something up in me that I can’t quite describe. It’s pulsating energy though and it feels wonderful. But it also has the tendency to make what’s simmering beneath the surface come bubbling out whether I want it to or not. That’s the cards for you — fickle as life is — but that’s the joy in looking back at your entries and seeing the magic and chemistry of your deepest thoughts, feelings, behaviors shifting and morphing.

This alone makes journaling with the cards worth it to me.

But we haven’t even touched on the ways your journaling with the cards can spark other changes in your life.

Truth Be Told

I’ve had quite a few remarkable readings since I began using the cards in my writing and spiritual practice. But none struck me as fully as the one I did after my meeting with a business coach. During our session, I had a major breakthrough moment as it related to my business and where I wanted to take it. To be honest, I’d felt “stuck” for a while in how to shift the energy around, make changes, and improve. After this breakthrough, my entire perspective on things was changing. And I turned to the cards for support. I want to share with you the real, raw, and vulnerable reading that transformed my perspective completely.

I approached the cards with this fairly simple question: What am I meant to do with my business to best support myself and the growth of my work in the world?

I used two decks to complete the reading — The Sacred Creators Oracle by Chris-Anne and The Sacred Rebels Oracle by Alana Fairchild (two of my very favorite and trusted decks).

These were the cards I got for the reading:

The following is my exact journaling entry for this reading:

Holy shit. The first card already has me in tears. During my coaching session, I broke down when I was asked the question, “what is that you really want to do with your life and your business?” For years, I’ve been living on the surface of that answer. My standard response has been: I want to help creatives. And that’s a beautiful thing! But as my coach probed further, I knew that wasn’t the answer she was looking for or the answer I wanted to give.

“I get that you want to help creatives,” she said. “But, how?”

This is where I really lost it. The answer had been lodged in my throat for so long… unable to get to the surface because I was scared of it. I was scared that I couldn’t fulfill what it was that I truly wanted to do (even though, as my business coach pointed out, I already was fulfilling it). What I really wanted to do was help people find and tell their stories.

What made me want to write stories and help people find theirs in the first place? The card is my answer. I learned to fall in love with my own stories and through that, realized that I could help others find and fall in love with their stories.

The second card has just as much power as the first because for the last year or so, I’ve been bubbling with creative juices around the nonfiction book I’ve been writing (my own word that wants to be written). Additionally, I’ve coached more people through finding their story (their word that wants to be written) in the last year than ever before. It completely lights me up to work with people in that capacity. So this card brings so much affirmation and confirmation to me that the changes I need to make in my life and business do need to be centered around writing.

The third card feels like the big confirming answer to the question I’ve been asking myself: is this the direction I should go? Will I be able to do this? My soul says yes. My fear and the logical brain say, maybe. But the card isn’t asking about my fears or logical brain — it’s asking about my soul. What does my soul say? And it’s a resounding YES in my body and in my heart. Yes, this is what I want. Yes, this is what completely lights me up. Yes, this is exactly where I believe I should be.

Conclusion

This may not seem like a very “revelatory” reading, but it was to me. It was exactly what I needed to hear (and what I already knew deep inside of me). The cards don’t give you what you want to know… they give you what you need to know. Even when it’s hard. Even when it’s life-changing and instructive. Could I have gotten to the same conclusion without the cards? Yes, probably. But what this reading allowed me to do was feel secure and confident in the new perspective shifts and changes I was making. It allowed me the space to put down my fears and concerns for a minute and peek into what I was thinking beneath the surface. This is the power of using the cards for growth and introspection.

Want to learn how to use the power of cards in your own journaling or creative practice? Consider joining The Write Minded Community as this is something we talk about often!