For all the tarot booklets, encyclopedias, and websites, I still found myself staring blanking at the 10 of Wands…What does it mean? I looked at the card and felt “something” but couldn’t put it to words.
Learning tarot is a continual process, no matter how “good” you get. If you are a beginner, learning all 72 cards may seem daunting and it can be. The artist’s booklet says one thing, the bulky tarot book says another, and the website you found says a different thing. Wading through all of these interpretations gets confusing. The great thing is that none of these interpretations are wrong, but at times, none of them seems quite right.
That’s because tarot is as much intuitive as it is intellectual.
So let’s get into how you can learn tarot in your sleep!
1. Set the Mood
Make your sleeping area as comfortable and non-disruptive as possible. Have a pillow that’s too high? Chuck it. Does the traffic outside wake you up out of your dreams at the best part? Wear earplugs. Is the light shining under your bedroom door from the hallway making it difficult to fall asleep? Pop on an eye mask.
Is it making sense? You getting your best sleep is critical to learning from your sleep. So here’s a quick list of tips to assess and correct to get the best sleep:
· Go to sleep at the same time every night
· Make it as dark as possible
· Don’t eat right before bed
· Hygge should be your bedroom inspiration
Read the full article I wrote, “Beginner’s Guide to Optimized Sleep”, for more tips and tools.
2. Cleanse Your Deck
The simplest way to cleanse your deck (because why would anyone overcomplicate this?) is to pray, chant, say a mantra or whatever you want to call it. Whatever energy or deity you believe in is who you will speak to. Simply ask them to cleanse the deck of anything that doesn’t belong, letting its messages be pure and true. Ta Da!
3. Pull or Pick a Card
Pulling a card is also very simple. After shuffling, just pick the first card. You, of course, can make it as complicated as you like but I find that after numerous nights of doing this, the whole rigmarole gets tedious. You don’t want anything to get in the way of you learning tarot, not even ritual.
Let’s say, after a few weeks, you find you keep pulling the same card. Well, we all know the reason for that. If you don’t, read “Why You Keep Pulling the Same Tarot Card & How to Make it Stop”. A short cut is to simply go through the deck and pick a card you’re not familiar with. The purpose is to learn, not get a reading so don’t put too much pressure on yourself to pull a card each time. Just pick a new card and keep it movin’.
4. Set Your Intention
State your intention to learn the meanings of the card that you pulled in your dreams. You can just say it out loud, say it in your head, pray to your godhead, whatever you prefer. Say it with meaning though!
5. Place the Card Under your Pillow
In the rare instance you have both a satin or silk pillowcase and sheet set, you might wake up and find that your card is on the floor. Or maybe you sleep like a banshee and everything ends up on the floor!
If this is you, stick the card in your pillowcase, under your pillow. You can also stick it under the mattress when your head would lay. That should definitely keep it in place.
6. Night, Night!
Go to sleep. No, really! Get off your phone, put down the book, turn off the TV and actually go to sleep.
7. Record your Dream
Good morning! I hope you slept well! Now that you’ve risen, its imperative that you record your dream right away. I strongly recommend you use a voice recording app. It ensures you don’t have to turn on the light and fumble around for your journal and pen during those critical first moments, potentially forgetting important messages. Record every single thing you can remember: images, words, people, animals, sounds, tastes, thoughts, numbers.
8. Interpret your Dream
As you are noting your dream, you may be coming to realizations. Record those too! Now is the time to grab your card and ask yourself how your dream reflected the meaning of the card. If there are symbols that you’re not familiar with, look those up and record those as part of your interpretation.
9. Write your Card Interpretation
Once you are done writing your dream interpretation, take a moment and write down your interpretation of this card. Include any deeper insights that you came to. The great thing about tarot is that its all up to interpretation. Your meaning is just as valid as Biddy Tarot’s meaning.
Extra Credit
There is true value in reading others’ interpretations of tarot. It should not be your only resource though. Everything you need to Know is already accessible to you through intuition. Should you find yourself seeking other interpretations of the cards, I do weekly and monthly collective readings as well as personal readings for myself that I post online. You can read those here. I provide Assisted Tarot Readings where I guide you through a reading for yourself, teaching you how to do it, and guiding you to understanding the meaning of the cards using your intuition. Contact me at inquiries@ashaoya.com to book. Finally, one of my go-to online resources is TeachMeTarot.com. Vivien Ní Dhuinn, the creator of that site, is a wealth of knowledge.
Good luck and let me know how your dream learning went!
Much love,
Asha
