Tarot Journal

[fairykisses]

Hello all,

I am new here but thought I would start a topic about Tarot journals which is a personal passion of mine. I see Tarot as a tool for self discovery and my journals as a place to document that self-discovery. I also feelt hat Tarot taps my subconscious at its deepest level as does the writing process.

Do you use a notebook, dayplanner, blog, pre-printed blank book to journal?
Are there any Tarot/journaling exercises that you have used?
Do you know of any books on this topic?

Love and light to all,
Lori

[Pook]

Oh my goodnes!! There are so many ways of journaling for tarot! I have tried many times to organize a journal for myself, but always end up using a plain spiral notebook to write down everything that comes to mind.

There are, however, many threads on journaling here.All you have to do is use the search function and type in the word 'journal'.

Here are a couple of recent ones, but there are many more......

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=34816&highlight=journal

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=3463&highlight=journal

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=2236&highlight=journal

I hope that helps a little....by the way...stop over at the 'New Members' area and introduce yourself...

[SunChariot]

Hello all,

I am new here but thought I would start a topic about Tarot journals which is a personal passion of mine. I see Tarot as a tool for self discovery and my journals as a place to document that self-discovery. I also feelt hat Tarot taps my subconscious at its deepest level as does the writing process.

Do you use a notebook, dayplanner, blog, pre-printed blank book to journal?
Are there any Tarot/journaling exercises that you have used?
Do you know of any books on this topic?

Love and light to all,
Lori

Hi Lori,

I love your name (fairykisses) :-)

I am just the same as you, you could have been describing me with your letter. :-)

I type my journal entries after my readings are done. I can never read my handwriting. LOL

So my journals are binders. Just a bunch of binders and my trusty hole punch. :-) I have some pretty ones though. They are gold with holographic stars on them.


I like to have the readings in typed format also because I tend to add into the end of my readings any Internet articles and pictures that I find related to the subject of the reading, that might shed additional light on the subject. When it is all on the computer you can just copy and paste things from anywhere easily. I add all kind of things in at the end, any horoscopes saying the same thing as my reading go in as well. Anything related or showing any kind of syncronicity goes in. Postcards that show up at the same time showing the theme of the reading....I like keeping it all, it reminds me of the syncronicity of the world and the beauty of it.

A great book for you for Tarot exercises (my favourite Tarot book) is:
Tarot for Self Discovery, by Nina Lee Braden. The whole book is composed of different exercises for different situations. They are easy to do but very revealing. I have learnt alot from them all that I did not know about myself. Most that I have done have sparked a whole series of additional Tarot readings.

Love and light to you too. :-) And to everyone here as well:-)

Bar

[dadsnook2000]

fairykisses, this topic has always gathered a lot of good suggestions and resulted in a lot of threads. If you use the search engine you will find a large number of prior threads, some of them quite recent.

One of my favorites is "how do people organise their journals" in which one list member notes a free software program that is specifically applicable to journaling. The software is called TreeDBnotes and there is a link there to reach and download the software. Essentially, the software lets you set up a book with chapter and sub-chapter structures so that you can go to an index and jump to a specific topic and page. I've set up a general structure for my card pages, another for spreads, etc.

The good thing about this is that you can copy and paste anything you see here or elsewhere directly into your journal, saving a lot of typing. You can also edit it and change it any way just as you would in a word processor. Dave.

[sharpchick]

I'd hate for any of you to see the condition of my tarot journals. . . Organization - forget it. I do use post-it flags of different colors to mark pages where I've recorded spreads that I use over and over again (one of my favorites is the New Moon Spread, which I do every New Moon).

I have used books sold as journals (with the word on the front), but in the end, I like a spiral bound notebook that stays open flat when I write in it.

[ocho8s]

Welcome to ATF fairykisses

I am a newbie also and I bought a nice notebook and began writting since my first celtic cross reading that I did for me, I also draw a card every day and I write which one on my daily planner so after a month and then after a year I can check how many times I got the same card or do some statistics.
thank you for starting this thread I am going to check the old ones and see if I can get more tips
Blessings
Anaoly

[Michelle]

Hi Fairykisses ~

I love your name, also :).

I have been trying to keep a tarot journal off and on for a few years . I recently started taking a tarot class and part of our homework is to do a written tarot meditation.
I thought this would be a good time to finally start (and keep up with) a journal. I'm just using a spiral notebook.

For Christmas my daughter got me the Goddess Tarot datebook and I have begun using that for daily draws. Although it is so nice -I almost hate to write in it.

I hope you enjoy your time here !!

[KathleenC]

I like exercise books so that I don't lose anything, but I also use a writing pad so I can rearrange pages in order when I explore different aspects of the tarot. I always intend to keep a separate book just for readings, but I never stick to it. Sometimes I write on whatever happens to be lying around. I have one reading I did five years ago on the back of an electricity bill. I have always been this way. At school I always had the messiest book out of all the girls, and most of the boys. As long as you can find it to read it again when you want to. That is all that matters.

[Chara]

Well, my journal is an actual journal...it was sort of a spur of the moment buy, and at the time, I'd had no idea that other people had tarot journals, because this is the first contact I've had with any other readers...

I was at Barnes & Noble, and looking at the sale items. I picked up a beautiful journal that has red binding, and tarot cards printed all over it (I may scan it one day, because the cards look hauntingly familiar - all majors - but I can't really place them. They "look" old, but you can't trust that, I suppose!). It was gorgeous! (And still is!)

I decided I'd buy it, and write down the readings I did with it, so that I wouldn't have incidents like one I'd had just before the trip, when someone I'd given a reading to months before came back and asked, "What did it say? I don't remember, and I think it may be right." Ack!

The journal was bought, I thought I was a genius for having a tarot journal, and then I stumbled across this place, and now I'm a bit less big headed about my brilliant idea...

So, that's all I really use the journal for now, to keep track of readings. Now that I know others are out there, and all of the cool stuff they do with their journals, I want to buy another journal (or possibly a binder), just for exercises and meditation, as this one would run out of room quickly if I did that!

[Emily]

I've had so many starts and stops at trying to keep a Journal that I think I am destined never to have one. So the closest thing I have is a couple of A5 ring binders that I have jotted notes down into - not really my idea of a fully functioning tarot journal but better than nothing.

I start out with good intentions but never seem to keep them going. I'm reading Joan Bunnings 'Learn Tarot' and for the study work on that I pinched one of my sons exercise books. :)

My ideal Journal would have the basics of date, time and what deck, the spread, who was the reading for, how many Majors, how many Minors, numerological aspects of each card, a break down of the spread, what the reading meant to me, my feelings on the spread and then a space where I could come back later and add extra feelings and thoughts - See I have it all worked out, now why can't I do it on paper lol :)

[sharpchick]

Do the sheet you want on the computer, print it and have a bazillon copies made, and then punch them for your binder. . . .

I'm not nearly that organized, but I do leave space after each reading I do for myself to go back at later dates and add notes about how the issue did resolve, if I've had any further thoughts about interpretation, etc.

[Emily]

I've got to get something organised - only this morning I came across readings I did in the middle of last year and found that I could relate to them now but I didn't at the time.

But thats a good idea, I'll print them out and make sure I use them. Once I get into the habit I'll carry on. :)

[tarotbear]

I have different kinds of journals for the different reasons I journal.

My daily (well, almost daily) personal readings go in one journal to keep them all together in one place.

Stuff I find or photocopy go in another one in clear plastic sleeves, usually sorted into 'spreads', 'knowledge', and 'stuff.'

If you do Tarot on a daily basis, or close to and DON'T journal what you read, you are wasting an opportunity to learn a lot. Memory fails, but what you wrote down can last forever.

[fluffy]

I have just started a journal since joining this site. I add in it my daily card draw and thoughts on it, readings that i do and interesting spreads that i know i will forget if i don't write them down. I put the date, deck and my thoughts for all of the above. I don't know how much more i will add to it, but there is a wealth of things to add as i have seen on other threads and this one and i may choose to add more in the future.

Fluff

[rainwolf]

I cant really limit to one journal, because of quantity of input....but anyways, i have aobut 3:
My first one i made has all of my interpretations for readings i have done.
My second one has alot of stuff in it, namely spreads, descriptions for whole decks, and any random information i deem necessary.
The third one i made is the most useful...i dedicated each page to a card, on the front i have interpretations, and on the back i have ill dignified interpretations. I also have astrological correspondences to each card. After all of the cards, i have small sections relating to dignity, court card careers, sequences, series, numerology, and all that fun stuff. If i had to go anywhere, i would take my deck and second journal because of the spreads in it, but if i was gone for a longer period of time i would take the third, so i could study meanings and the individual cards. The advantage of having several journals is better organizations, but you may have to sacrafice space with several journals, just as i have shown. Good luck adn remember....always make a journal!! :-D

[SoulFlower]

I use an "Atoma" notebook. Those are the kind of notebooks where you can pull your papers out and place them to another place. That way it's easy remove a page or replace it. I have two sections in my notebook, one for daily cards combined with the interpretation. Sometimes I just write the card down, sometimes a few keywords with it and other times an entire explanation of what I think of it. This way, when you pull the same card another time you can see if you still feel the same way about that card or not. The second part of my journal are the readings I do.

I use a different notebook for every deck as well to keep things a bit organised.

One last hint, might be obvious, but still: always write down the date!

[sharpchick]

About the journals for each deck. That would be doable for me.

[Stacie Doll]

i have 2 tarot journals so far. i know i will end up with more. one is for my personal readings, and the other is for detailing the making of my own deck.

[ivyrita]

If you do Tarot on a daily basis, or close to and DON'T journal what you read, you are wasting an opportunity to learn a lot. Memory fails, but what you wrote down can last forever.

i don't keep a readings journal.. sounds like i ought to begin :)

i use a binder for stuff i find online, and the few pages of interpretations that my teacher gave me when i began learning tarot..

[MoonMaiden]

I have started a few and stopped again. Then one day a few days ago I just HAD to write about my experience with the RWS 3 of Swords. Afterwards I felt different, like I used to feel when I wrote songs because of all the stirrings within that I couldn't give voice to all at once. I can't say I'll commit to the journaling, since that's the one thing (saying I'll do it, that is) that makes me feel like I'm curbing my freedom, lol. But it was satisfying and I would like to ask for guidance to make it a part of my spiritual study. Thanks for this nice thread. :)

[bleuivy]

I tried writing a tarot journal a few times, and never was successful. The problem? I decided to keep it on the computer, because I'm at computers for a large part of each day, and it just seemed to make sense in terms of planning. Always failed; on one memorable occasion, I began and then quit a journal in the span of a week.

Now my tarot journal is handwritten, and kept in a binder, so I can move pages around, or take a few out for study when I can't take the entire binder with me. I don't know what it is, but the computerized journal always struck me as too sterile. Now, I enjoy the organic process of writing out spreads and impressions. It feels much more 'mine' than the previous journals ever did. I have sections devoted to spreads I have tried or want to try, then a section for the spreads I've done, and another for notes on the individual cards, and a final section for general notes and musings. Don't know why the computerized versions never worked out, but so far this handwritten binder version is working really well.

I know. I'm strange. :) I've mostly gotten used to it, though.

[Emily]

I carried on with my idea of using an A5 binder for my journal and after posting on here the other day I sat down on the PC with a spreadsheet programme (to make it easier to do the sections) and made my journal sheets up. It took me forever but I now have a fully functioning journal with pre-printed pages to write in. And I am using it. :D

I am using it for the full spreads I do and intend to make another sheet for my daily cards. The binder also has sheets for all of the 78 cards and pages for handwritten notes. I never realised I could be so organised.

Things I have on my page include:-
The deck, time and date of reading
How many Majors
How many Minors
The suits of the cards and how many
First thoughts on the card
The spread used (I've given myself 10 lines for this little bit because the biggest spread i do is the CC)
My comments on the spead

I'll add to the pages later. :)

[fairykisses]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and all of the great comments on this topics!

[hamlet]

Hey I have started using this book for my journal time. I hope this question doesn't show my stupidity to much, but how do I find out what sign the sun is in each day? Braden asks for that to be a part of each entry. I have never studied astrology so I am lost on this subject.

[Legobrick]

We've kept a book for a while now, we tend to keep spiritual/psychic journals anyway (dreams, channelling, other work/crossover stuff/channelling about mundane issues and so on) but we do have a separate book for readings so we can access them easily.

When I (I have since got engaged to my soul-mate met through all of this) started out I was keeping a dream diary and expanded it to include readings, but then I did think that it was a better idea to keep readings separate from dreams because of the need for clarity. When I read for others I am normally doing it via internet forums, so I just type into the reply box...the reading is there on the forum for reference later. The email readings I do I save as a Word file and often scan the cards in as well for the client, so there is a record, but again, my hard-disc is not the most uncluttered of places...as long as they are there somewhere, though, that is important.

I envy the person who says they keep them in a binder. I and M always use books, because we are not the most organised of people and have very rarely EVER ;) used binders properly, even when studying at university. I still keep coming across folders of loose-leaf pages I needed when doing my exams...and so does M, even though his last set were in 1961...

[mirkmaid]

I'm still fairly new to Tarot and I have to say it never occured to me to keep a journal but it makes a lot of sense. Up until now I had been writing on scraps of paper that I then discarded...this seems terribly wasteful after reading all of your replies!!!

There's always something new to learn!