Daily Card Draw for Dummies

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 08 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Pipistrelle	08 Mar 2005
Okay, I realise I may be alone in this one...but I just can't seem to get anything out of my daily card draw (i.e. drawing one card in the morning for the day). This is the thing most newbies to Tarot are told to do, in books and on these forums, to get acquainted with the cards and I can see its usefulness in terms of getting familiar with the cards and for study but that's not my problem. Every morning I shuffle the cards and ask for guidance for the day. I draw one card. And over the past six months or so since I've been doing this, I can remember very few days when I've been able to make sense of my daily card. To me, it's the most difficult kind of reading...there's no context in which to place the card. Any of the myriad readings could apply. Maybe I'm trying too hard or looking for greater guidance that I should expect from a daily draw but I'm getting frustrated now :( The questions that go through my head are: Does this card relate to my whole day or just a particular event? Does this card just describe a situation I will encounter or give advice? Indeed, does this card relate to the events of today, or the greater realm of "where I'm at" at the moment? Should I consider yesterday's card in relation to today's (and thus tomorrow's) or does each daily card stand completely alone? Should the meanings of major arcana cards be "toned down" in a daily reading? and the biggie: What am I doing wrong???? I would very much like to continue drawing a card a day for guidance and contemplation but at the moment I'm questioning whether it's worth it...please help! Pip

Keslynn	08 Mar 2005
Hi Pip! When I first started out, I also tried the daily card drawing with similar results. Sometimes it would match up with what was going on; other times, not so much. Eventually, I gave it up. Now I've started back on a daily card reading with wonderful results. Why the big difference? I'm using 3 cards in a spread. This goes a long way toward putting things in context and helping me to actually glean useful information. Also, you get to study the meaning of 3 cards instead of just one, and with context, the lesson is much easier to learn. I would recommend trying a small daily spread before you give up on daily draws entirely. The one I use is from Mark McElroy's site, and it's three cards in a row: 1. Something I need to know 2. Why it's important 3. Advice/what to do However, there are tons of other small daily spreads out there that you can try. I'm sure that a search of the Spreads forum would yield plenty. It's dependent on what kind of information you want out of your daily spread. Experiment and see what you like and, more importantly, whether a spread will work better for you. Good luck! :) Kes

Thirteen	08 Mar 2005
Kes' advice is really good. What's happening with you isn't a all unusual with newbies who reach that point where you're at--the point where the cards seem to mean everything and anything. One card that doesn't answer any specific question is going to just send your mind pinballing about--as it has. You can't make sense of it because it could be refering to anything. It's like asking someone how your day's going to go and they answer, "Strength." What the heck does that mean? Be strong? A strong day? Working out at the gym? As Kes wisely points out, three cards answering three specific points makes a lot more sense for a newbie that free floating confusion and anxiety. A daily card will work better as readings come easier to you. The more you read (and the 3-card readings will certainly be good practice), the more you'll get the feel of what particular message the cards are offering, rather than seeing them as a jumble of infinate possiblities. When you get to this stage, you'll be better able to "recognize" the significance of a daily card--that is, something about the card will strike you as relevant, and all the other possible meanings will fall away, leaving its message less confused and oblique. So when you pull a daily card and get "Strength" you'll suddenly see the best way to get the better of that roaring lion, your boss--ah ha!--rather than just an ambivilant message of "strength."

dolphinprincess	08 Mar 2005
Our fellow AT member, Lark, won a spread contest that Llewellyn had. Her spread was featured in the companion book to the Gilded tarot. It is a daily spread using 5 cards - and it really narrows each card into a specific are. I, too, often find my daily cards to be a bit ambiguous. I did a search and was able to find Lark's post when she won the contest. Perhaps this will help. lark wrote: Oh thanks for all your kind congrats. Of course Id love to post my spread. This spread came about out of my frustration at not finding a daily spread that met my needs. So its very simple but here goes. 5 cards 1. Work- This card gives you a peek into your workday. Stay at home or out in the world it shows the joys or challenges you might face today. 2. Home- This card shows your home life. Moods of husband, children, pets. Visitors, deliveries, events. Anything that happens in and around the home. 3. Unexpected- Just that, those little surprises life throws you just to keep things interesting. 4. My role- This card usually very accurately perdicts my mood, action, or reaction to things that go on in my day. 5. Outcome- The outcome of my day if I follow on the path as it's spread out before me. Of course I always have the choice to change my mood or action to alter the outcome for the better or worse. This card also often predicts a lesson learned or an inner spiritual revelation. I lay this spread out in a cross shape with the outcome card in the middle. Position 1 on the left. 2 on the right. 3 on top 4 on the bottom. I've used it almost every morning for three years. And I journal my readings. Barbara Moore at Llewellyn wrote me a very nice letter. She said although my spread was simple in design it won because if it's usefulness to the reader. As an excellent tool for daily divination and for learning subtle nuances of the card meanings. Blush Blush So there it is . If you try it please let me know how you liked it. I will post again when I find out what deck it will be joining.

seneris	08 Mar 2005
I would like to add a suggestion. I did the daily card draw for some time, and what helped me a lot was to go though my day and look for things that were somehow connected to my card of the day (menaing, numbers, etc.). It helped me in remembering and playing with the meaning of the card. It could be an option to drwa the card at the end of the day and then see if you can find any tarot 'symbolism' that happened during the day. Good luck!

Michelle	08 Mar 2005
Pipistrelle ~ I am soooo with you on this one !! I have a really hard time applying my card to my day. I think that I might look for it to apply too literally. Today I had the 2 of Swords ( Hanson Roberts) - I have no clue how it pertained to my day. Tarotbear had a great idea using 3 cards for your day - I'll look through the posts and see if I can find it. I used it for a couple of days - then the kids were home sick and I got off track. Good luck :).

Pipistrelle	09 Mar 2005
Thank you for all your replies. I'm glad to hear that it isn't just me struggling with reading just a single card! Keslynn, thank you for posting that 3 card spread. I'm going to try it this morning and see how I get on. I already feel like I have a better chance of understanding because each card has a specific purpose. Quote: It's like asking someone how your day's going to go and they answer, "Strength." What the heck does that mean? Be strong? A strong day? Working out at the gym? Thirteen - this is exactly what I was doing and you've expressed it so clearly! All of you make very good suggestions - seneris, I never considered trying to connect aspects of the card with my day rather than the card as a whole, but it sounds like a good thing to try... I'll let you all know how I get on...:) Pip

WolfSpirit	09 Mar 2005
Hi Pipistrelle, you already got some great advice. I often do a 2-card reading (I don't have the stamina to read 5 cards for myself every morning ;) ): 1. situation of the day 2. advice for the day. I find this already covers a lot; I often just do one card as well. Sometimes I do a more specific reading than a general daily reading; for example, if I have an important meeting today, I will not do a daily reading but ask a question like: how will my meeting with X go, what can I do about it (etc.). Simply because, if I do a general reading for the day, I will be wondering if the cards refer to the meeting (since that will be the main thing on my mind) or to something else. So I want to avoid that confusion and ask the cards straight away.

Emily	09 Mar 2005
Hi Pipistrelle, Try not reading the card - take it write down what card it is - then just look at it. Don't think of it as a 'Card of the day' but as a study card. What features do you notice? What can you relate to on the image? What feelings does the card invoke? Leave the card out and go back to it a few hours later. Have your feelings on the card changed? I do daily draws too but I usually draw at least 3 cards - One card doesn't do much for me either. :)

Pipistrelle	09 Mar 2005
WolfSpirit wrote: Simply because, if I do a general reading for the day, I will be wondering if the cards refer to the meeting (since that will be the main thing on my mind) or to something else. So I want to avoid that confusion and ask the cards straight away. This is a mistake I often make, I think. I draw one card in the morning because, well, that's what I always do...but really I should stop and think if there's anything specific I want to ask about. Thanks for pointing this out WolfSpirit...it hadn't even crossed my mind as one of the reasons I might be confused :) Thanks for your reply too Emily...I'm glad to know I'm not the only one :) Your advice is very helpful. Anyway, I did a 3 card reading this morning and all in all it worked well. I've been mulling it over for most of the day and making a few notes when I get a minute. I had some thoughts about the spread too - that the first position is perhaps WHAT, the second WHY and the third HOW and that bearing this in mind helps me relate the positions to each other (i.e. cards 2 and 3 relate back to 1) and helps me form an overall picture better (well, it worked today anyway). Still keeping the original position meanings but using the what/why/how as a structural thing. I might even lay the cards out in a triangle tomorrow...how adventurous is that? ;) Anyway, I'll keep trying three cards (I'm afraid I agree with WolfSpirit in that I'm not sure I could cope with 5 cards a day!) and hopefully I won't get so confused. A much happier.... Pip

Fudugazi	09 Mar 2005
Pip, if you want to continue with one card only, there is a way round your dilemma. You draw in the morning and write down what comes ot your mind - short and sweet. Then in the evening, as you go to bed, write what you think that card related to. I've tried that for some time now and my one card makes much more sense to me. It's also helping me read ahead of time. The other way is as you said, to ask a specific question. But then you might miss the "unexpected " ;).

dolphinprincess	09 Mar 2005
Helvetica wrote: Pip, if you want to continue with one card only, there is a way round your dilemma. You draw in the morning and write down what comes ot your mind - short and sweet. Then in the evening, as you go to bed, write what you think that card related to. I've tried that for some time now and my one card makes much more sense to me. It's also helping me read ahead of time. The other way is as you said, to ask a specific question. But then you might miss the "unexpected " ;). This is similar to what I do. I usually do my card draws at night - for the next day. I write down any initial impressions - and then the next night I try to see if I can relate the card to my day (and if any of my initial impressions were correct).

bassetized	09 Mar 2005
Pip: I've had mixed success with my daily readings, too. The one-card pull was a disaster for me, also, but I like the tips I've seen here and may try again. I use the 3-card spread (physical, mental, spiritual) from Mary Greer's Tarot for Yourself the most, but Lark's 5-card spread sounds excellent and I'm going to try that soon. Here are a couple of things that work for me: I do find that I have to "tone down" the meanings for daily use, as you mention in your initial post. If I keep drawing the same card several times in a week, then I start looking for something of more importance. I draw my cards at night for the next day. Mostly I do that because I'm a night owl and a complete disaster in the morning (doubt if I could shuffle the deck at 8 am, much less make sense of a reading). ;) But the bed-time draw also lets the cards percolate through my unconscious while I sleep. Sometimes I wake up with new ideas about what they might mean for my day. The thing that's been the most help to me is to keep track of any card I draw more than three times in a set period (a month, a moon cycle, whatever works for you). At the end of that period, I pull those cards and do a spread with them. I then jot them down in my journal. It was amazing to go back through two years of these card collections and see how accurately they tracked what was going on in my life and what was coming soon. (This technique was mention in Mary Greer's book, too.) Thanks for posting this thread, Pip--it's been lots of help to me. :) PS: Just found some interesting daily spreads on the "How Often Do You Use Tarot" thread that's running now: [thread]37645[/thread]. I like Umbrae's two-card spread and tarotbear's 3-card daily pyramid.

Fudugazi	10 Mar 2005
I like the look of Lark's 5-card draw as well, but I don't have time to do it every day and take notes. So I think I might try it at week-ends.

Major Tom	10 Mar 2005
Just a suggestion here. I like to use the question, "what do I need to know about today?" for my daily draws. ;)

Dylan	10 Mar 2005
I think i must start to use these ideas for myself more if I want to improve. I shall try a daily 3 card spread from tomorrow combined with a journal.

MercyMe	10 Mar 2005
There is an easy two-card spread that the book The Heart of the Tarot by Sandra Thompson, Robert Mueller, and Signe Echols, created. Basically, it takes the first two cards of the Celtic Cross. The first card is The Situation. The crossing card is The Challenge. In a daily reading, or in any reading, you can ask a specific question or you can simply ask, "What do I need to focus on today?" or siomething along those lines. For example, if I drew the King of Swords as The Situation it may suggest that I or another involved in my situation are being too inflexible because we are sure we are correct; or it might be saying that I can make an important decision or carry out a definitive action based on my knowledge and my own inner sense of rightness; or it may be telling me that I possess the insight to cut through the unnecessary or illogical issues clogging up the process, although in doing so others may perceive me as ruthless or uncaring. As Thirteen mentioned, the individual reader must decide what that card means to him/her in that moment for him/herself. Then, say, I draw the Six of Swords as The Challenge card. That may tell me that I may need to "travel alone" for a while in order to get to where I need to go...or maybe to make sure my decisiveness really is right. Maybe the King of Swords decision is that decision to redirect my life and make a fresh start even though others may perceive me to be uncaring how it will affect them. You get the picture. It's worked amazingly well for me. ~Mercy

huredriel	10 Mar 2005
I had actually stopped doing a daily card drawing, but having seen Lark's spread further down this thread, I tried it a couple of days ago and am going to try and keep up with that on a daily basis. I think it's a great spread, and more specific to me as I still have a hard time interpreting one card for one day.

Pipistrelle	10 Mar 2005
Wow...I'm so glad so many people are posting to this spread. Everyone's comments are very useful and reassuring. MercyMe, you explain the two card/mini celtic cross method very clearly and it sounds like it might be easy for me to try as well. Maybe I should shake things up a bit and use three cards one day, two cards the next...I dunno, sounds daring ;) Today, my 3 cards were more difficult to decipher but at least I made lots of notes...:) Bassetized...I can't shuffle at 8am either but I keep trying...cards everywhere! Pip also a food slave :)

Airial	16 Mar 2005
Hi, as a complete newcomer to the Tarot and just starting off on my journey! I`m trying just ONE card a day, as I`m not too great with reading loads of info and actually absorbing much of it! I`m using the Universal Waite Deck and after a rather clumsy shuffle THREE cards fell to the floor... THE SUN..THE EMPRESS and THE MAGICIAN. As I had picked the Sun card up first, I decided to concentrate my question to this particular card... QUESTION "Show me what i need to know" I was bowled over by what I felt and saw in its images, probably too much to mention. The thing is, I felt strongly that it was showing me that the path I have travelled to get to this point in my life is now past (behind the wall?) and where I find myself in the present (going forth into the future) ready to embrace the future paths, with renewed enthusiasim,energy,optomism and hope, wherever they may lead. Lots of thoughts struck me, mostly to do with the Sunflowers (does anyone see them as representing a family situation?) My intuition made me think of the three sunflowers to the left of the image as my own children ( Could these be the seeds the Child figure has sown and nurtured ? )The first two are shown with their stems still attatched (growth and nurture) The third seems independant (no stem visible) yet still connected to the child (garland and petals connected) and yet separate from the other two. I have two kids still at home and the eldest is away from home at university. This leads me to the Fourth flower which is divided from the group "Family?" by the Vibrant Flag, seems as though it is being kept at arms distance. It also looks as if it has not grown and it has a stagnant feel to it and to me it looks like it`s keeping a sneaky peek at whats going on (my ex partner) lurking in the background... What I`m wondering now is... Am I projecting my situation into the Image or is the Image showing me how it actually is? Does any of this make sense to anyone? I would really appreciate some help.

Dave's Angel	16 Mar 2005
I think there's always a bit of an element of projecting a situation into a card reading, and a tendency to see what you want to see (as unintentional as it is). What I would recommend is that instead of drawing a card for the day, draw a card (or three cards, because that's very good advice in my books) less regularly. Maybe twice a week, let's say. Because I personally can get overkill with Tarot. You know how it is. You do a reading, it goes swimmingly, and then you want to do another, just because. I think that overdoing it can inure you to the cards, it becomes a bit samey and habitual, and it's easy to focus too much on something and try and wring a meaning out. Let's be honest - most days are pretty boring, not much happens (well mine are!!). Some days you could be searching for something in the cards when there just isn't anything worth you knowing about. After a couple of days, you can come back refreshed, and any events in your life will have moved on a bit. What I'd also recommend as an exercise for you, Pipistrelle, if you find you have trouble homing in on a meaning and relating a card to the events of your day, is for you to draw a card (or three!) in the morning as usual, BUT DON'T look at the cards. Leave them face down. Then go back to them in the evening, read them as usual, but this time trying to link back to what has happened to you. Then you can get a clearer idea of the "language" the cards may use to tell you about certain events in your day. When I was at school, if I was stuck in Maths, I'd look up the answer, then try and work out how they got the answer - this is the same really.

huredriel	16 Mar 2005
Well I have been trying Lark's spread and I have to say I think it's brilliant, especially the hidden card. I will usually lay them out the night before for the following day. Then I go back at the end of that day to see how I can apply them. Thank you ((Lark)) for sharing this spread. x Huredriel

Pipistrelle	17 Mar 2005
Thanks Dave's Angel...that's good advice. It's funny you mention not doing a reading every day as for the last couple of days I haven't. Instead, as a study exercise (because I realised just how patchy my knowledge was of the cards) I've been randomly drawing a card and answering the questions in exercise 1.2 of Joan Bunning's Learning the Tarot. It's basic but it's been very enlightening. I'm getting a lot from it and I'd like to continue. But I'd also still like to do some sort of reading for guidance so your thread helped me realise that I should try maybe just a weekly one or twice a week as you suggest. My days are pretty bland as well :) Pip

bleuivy	17 Mar 2005
This is such a great thread! I've just started doing daily draws again after a very long hiatus. Like many people who've already commented, I became agrivated with the one-card draw as I could never understand what it was telling me. Now that I've started up again, I'm doing a 3-card draw, and it's working wonders! I feel much more confident with the cards after only a week! I also find myself actually looking forward to my daily draw, rather than thinking of it as a chore, as I used to do with the one-card draw. It's quickly become part of my morning routine, like breakfast and brushing teeth. :) One of the reasons I think the one-card draw didn't work for me is because at the time, I was a hopeless beginning at tarot, so to be fair, most of my readings didn't make sense to me. As I have become more comfortable with the cards lately (thanks in a large part to the people here at AT!) and I started thinking about doing a daily draw again, I realized that a one-card draw wasn't for me. One of the most fascinating things about tarot - to me, anyway - is the interaction between the cards. You know -- "This card is saying one thing, but this card says something different. I wonder what they mean." With just one card every morning, I don't get the kind of card-interaction that I crave. So now that I'm using more than one card every morning, I get that interaction and more time with the cards! It's win-win! I'm going to try narrowing the reading down to two cards. I think I'll try MercyMe's two card spread and see what happens. Thanks for all the great spreads, guys! :D

Fullmoonsinger	17 Mar 2005
I like this daily card worksheet from Don Stephens: http://www.nodntap.net/tarot/daily_card_worksheet.shtml He points out that he got the idea from James Ricklef--he just made it into a worksheet. You don't have to worry so much about what the card "means." MoonSinger

satinangel	18 Mar 2005
Keslynn wrote: I would recommend trying a small daily spread before you give up on daily draws entirely. The one I use is from Mark McElroy's site, and it's three cards in a row: 1. Something I need to know 2. Why it's important 3. Advice/what to do I also use this same spread every morning. One day this week, I thought the spread was very different and very emotional. It took me until the afternoon to realize that the spread was actually regarding my oldest daughter...so sometimes these daily spreads hit something right on the money for ourselves, but it can also reflect those around us as well.

Alpha-Omega	22 Mar 2005
You might have troubles be cause you might be tired and not in the best state of mind when doing the reading.

Tabby	26 Mar 2005
I too felt wiped out after doing daily draws. I use to try doing the Celtic Cross every day when I first started because someone referred me to that spread. But, for me it was too much info for me to digest and figuring out how the cards related to each other and all that. I just recently started back with my cards after a little bit of a hiatus and I think that had to do with forcing myself with too much info too soon. I appreciate the ideas that everyone one had in this thread and I think it will help to stick with it and not go into overkill with the cards.

Elektra	08 Apr 2005
I'm late to the party on this one, but I have a suggestion. I can't seem to make myself do daily draws. I just don't have the time in the morning. This week I did the Week Ahead spread (http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17863). I sat down with my cards last Sunday evening and did the spread for the week. It's great because you still have a daily card every day, but you don't have to do the spread more than once a week. Moreover, every day this week so far has given me a new (and I might add much more practical) take on that day's card. For example - it would never have occurred to me that The Hanged Man could indicate money problems, or that the Ace of Wands could be a huge, unwanted new project (I'd always thought of that card as very positive, even though I know that all the cards have both positive and negative aspects). The High Priestess can signify intuitive flashes like randomly thinking "I should really call X" and then getting a call from or about them (this happened to me twice re: two different people on Monday, my High Priestess day). Three of Wands can signify a burst of energy and productivity. So I do think that card-a-day is a valuable thing to do, because the insights I've gotten so far are incredible...I just like doing all my cards once a week because it works better for my schedule and temprament. I also find that I can figure out how the card relates to my day better this way than if I actually draw every day. Could be psychological, but works for me. I fully intend to do this spread every week from now on!

Pipistrelle	08 Apr 2005
Thanks for posting that Elektra - I think I'll try that this Sunday. I imagine as well it gives you more time to think about the cards, because they've been "sitting" in your mind all week. Although, on the other hand, it means you can't observe meaningful patterns, like the Ace of Wands appearing two days in a row (as it has for me, yesterday and today)! I'm still going to try it though :) Pip

DoctorArcanus	13 Apr 2005
Keslynn wrote: I would recommend trying a small daily spread before you give up on daily draws entirely. The one I use is from Mark McElroy's site, and it's three cards in a row: 1. Something I need to know 2. Why it's important 3. Advice/what to do Yesterday I read this thread and today it came to my mind a number of times....finding it again has not been easy: this forum is huge (and full of good stuff). I like Keslynn's daily three cards spread, and I also like the week ahead spread that Elektra referred to. I am going to try both and see what happens. I am quite sure a journal is needed, to get some feedback and to learn from my own successes and mistakes :) Thanks to Pipistrelle for starting it all and to everybody for sharing ideas and suggestions! Marco

The Daily Card Draw for Dummies thread was originally posted on 08 Mar 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.