A Couple General Questions for People More Experienced than I...

rwcarter

I don't think of them as journals as much as study guides. But when I decide to study a deck, I scan all the cards in and put one on each page. I include any elemental and title info provided by the author, any imagery info provided by the author augmented with what I see, especially if no such info is provided by the author, the interpretations from the book or LWB and then my own study of the symbols and any phrases, idioms or aphorisms that are brought to mind by the imagery or any of the symbols.

So far I've done that for the Mythic Tarot, the Ancient Egyptian Tarot and the Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA.

HallowedNight

rwcarter said:
I don't think of them as journals as much as study guides. But when I decide to study a deck, I scan all the cards in and put one on each page. I include any elemental and title info provided by the author, any imagery info provided by the author augmented with what I see, especially if no such info is provided by the author, the interpretations from the book or LWB and then my own study of the symbols and any phrases, idioms or aphorisms that are brought to mind by the imagery or any of the symbols.

So far I've done that for the Mythic Tarot, the Ancient Egyptian Tarot and the Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA.

My journal has basically turned into a study guide as well now that I'm using Evernote. I have stuff in the LWB in easier to understand terms as well as what I feel and see on the card. I'm basically using my notes as a check sheet as I go through the cards to see what I have memorized or what new stuff I can pick up on.

I have all the major arcana finished, so I'm getting to know those specifically before I go on to the suits. I'm probably going to take them seperately; I feel like I'd get overwhelmed trying to comprehend and memorize the whole deck at once. Good thing Evernote is really organized.

SunChariot

HallowedNight said:
Hi there~ I have a couple questions about some general tarot stuff. (Mostly about tarot journals and what others put in them.)

Anyway, I recently started a tarot journal to help me bond with my Fantastical Creatures deck and to just get to know the meanings of the cards better. So far I have a few pages about my favorite spreads, but I'm mainly focusing on the cards themselves.
Basically, I start with the name of the card and I sketch a quick picture of it, then jot down some of the notes about the subject of the card (because the creatures and why they are which card is so fascinating to me) and the general meaning of the specific card from the little book that came with the deck. Then I look at symbols and whatnot that I see personally and what my intuition says and write that down too. I also write a little story about me personally interacting with the subject of the card, because it helps me remember all the different meanings (and I adore writing).

I guess I'm just wondering what others have put in their own journals, and what helps other than what I have. I'm mainly just wanting to bond with the cards (though being able to do a reading without consulting a book of some kind would be great as well. )

Also, I'm going to Scotland over the summer for a meditative relax-before-going-to-college trip, and I was wondering if taking my deck and meditating with it or calibrating it there would be a good idea. I've read some stuff about calibrating cards using nature, but I'm still not exactly sure what that entails, really. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Thank you so much for any advice or anything really! (I'm still kind of new to tarot, and I kind of feel like a wobbly baby deer or something. )

It's seen so long since I had a Tarot journal....I would just say to put whatever calls to you. Why not ask the cards. Do a reading and ASK what it would benefit you to keep in your Tarot journal. That should be fun.

I had a Tarot journal of course when I was starting out in Tarot. And it really is an invaluable tool. I pretty well kept everything in it down to how to crochet a Tarot pouch (no longer had the journal or directions for that).

But of it all what helped me most was to keep all my readings in it. At the start when I was new to Tarot, I had quite a few times when I could not make sense of a card in a reading or of the entire reading itself. I just recorded it along with that I thought it meant anyway. I recorded all my readings, but the ones you can't make sense of tend to be the most important to keep.

I would record those ones I did not understand, and months later, like 3 or 4 I would look back over those readings and after the events I had asked about had taken place. I could look back at what had actually happened and compare it to the cards that had come up at the time that I had not understood. That was always an AHA moment. It was like "So THAT is what that card was trying to say back then!!!"

All this gave me a much better understanding of how the cards actually talked to me. So that afterwards when the cards spoke to me in a similar way I was able to understand them the next time. That was what helped me most in the journaling overall.

Babs

SunChariot

HallowedNight said:
My journal has basically turned into a study guide as well now that I'm using Evernote. I have stuff in the LWB in easier to understand terms as well as what I feel and see on the card. I'm basically using my notes as a check sheet as I go through the cards to see what I have memorized or what new stuff I can pick up on.

I have all the major arcana finished, so I'm getting to know those specifically before I go on to the suits. I'm probably going to take them seperately; I feel like I'd get overwhelmed trying to comprehend and memorize the whole deck at once. Good thing Evernote is really organized.

Me too! I use Evernote for EVERYTHING. Don't know how I would live without the thing. And I feel safe as if my computer ever went down, everything is safe there.

I personally prefer having my journals online. It's easier to copy and paste things to it, including photos.

Babs

HallowedNight

SunChariot said:
It's seen so long since I had a Tarot journal....I would just say to put whatever calls to you. Why not ask the cards. Do a reading and ASK what it would benefit you to keep in your Tarot journal. That should be fun.

I had a Tarot journal of course when I was starting out in Tarot. And it really is an invaluable tool. I pretty well kept everything in it down to how to crochet a Tarot pouch (no longer had the journal or directions for that).

But of it all what helped me most was to keep all my readings in it. At the start when I was new to Tarot, I had quite a few times when I could not make sense of a card in a reading or of the entire reading itself. I just recorded it along with that I thought it meant anyway. I recorded all my readings, but the ones you can't make sense of tend to be the most important to keep.

I would record those ones I did not understand, and months later, like 3 or 4 I would look back over those readings and after the events I had asked about had taken place. I could look back at what had actually happened and compare it to the cards that had come up at the time that I had not understood. That was always an AHA moment. It was like "So THAT is what that card was trying to say back then!!!"

All this gave me a much better understanding of how the cards actually talked to me. So that afterwards when the cards spoke to me in a similar way I was able to understand them the next time. That was what helped me most in the journaling overall.

Babs

I never thought of asking the cards, that's a great idea. They'd probably tell me to keep looking at symbolism 'cause the LWB isn't helping... I feel like my cards know how I am, haha~

I've been putting my readings down, but I haven't done very many recently, mostly because I'm trying to just get a better feel for the cards first. I feel like once I can know a little more about each card, I'm be able to do more readings more confidently, and hopefully everything will snowball into a sphere of tarot learning~ When I do look back on the readings I've done, it's really interesting to see how things have worked out since the reading. That's probably one of my favorite parts of tarot; when the cards are right!

I just think it's so much fun. (That probably makes me a nerd, but that's okay.

)

And Evernote is so great! I love that I can makes notes and stuff on my computer then look at it on my phone, which is really nice for studying up on the cards wherever I have a spare moment. The picture thing is great too, 'cause you can have pictures of the cards your studying or reading's you've done. Super convenient!