Keeping a Daily Card Journal

[DreamGhost]

Couldn't find a thread specific to this question.

What do you all use to journal your daily readings? I plan to start a daily draw as of today, and I would like to find something (notebook, calendar, planner, or something or another) to record the cards.

What do you all use? What kind of notes do you put under each card (if any), and do write before or after your day starts?

 

[moon_shadow]

Hi, DreamGhost.

I am a newbie, so I think others would be able to share more great ideas on journaling (And if you run a search, there are many great threads talking about journaling) but I thought I'd share what I do with mine.

I've been keeping my daily readings on my online journal. I stick image/s and type whatever comes to my mind. I used to do a 3 card reading at night for the next day, but for a while now I've been drawing one card every night before I go to bed asking about my day I had that day. I stick an image of the card, and just go onto type my day just like I am writing a diary. When I get done with that, THEN I try to think what the card could be representing... and type my thoughts down
Sometimes, I go back to it after a few days if there are some things I want to add or change. When I do that, I never cut out my original entry. I just add them in a different color font and note what day I edited.

I have a 3 ring binder and write things down on papers, too. I usually use that when I am studying or if I am not at a desk. (I used to write down my daily readings on papers, but eventually I moved to an online journal site, which I find a lot easier.)

I think you can use just about any notebook.. and you can write whatever you want, because it is your journal. What you see..what colors you see... what feelings you get... what you think it's telling you..you can even draw pictures.. etc. (well, it is what I learned by reading what ppl here suggest! )

 

[AJ]

I have a hand written tarot journal, but for my daily draw, I blog. It won't get lost or ruined, and I can scan each card. As the year has progressed and I've drawn some cards 5-8 times now, I can search the blog and pull up just those posts and see all the different ways I interpreted them.

There are also threads here for daily draws. Some have started a thread specifically for them, other do it on the group thread.

Whatever way you choose to do it, just do it and do it daily...your understanding of the cards will grow by leaps and bounds.

edited to add: MoonShadow, why don't you put a link to your blog in your profile? I love reading tarot blogs

 

[lilangel09]

Well, for me, I used to write every detail of my day down and what I was feeling... then it got took tiring (spent about 2-3 hours per day doing it even when I was busy). I started in the morning and usually finished up writing before I went to sleep. I used to write it in a normal 70-100 page spiral notebook, but I don't anymore... I might pick up again soon. I now have a composition book with a page for each card and some loose pages at the end for anything else I'd like to add. I bought one for each deck... but I'm not so sure the deck matters too much except over small details... (I'll figure it out after I compare my 2 notebooks to each other to see the differences) But recently, I've looked at what I wrote before... and what didn't make sense.. suddenly "clicked" . I guess I was too close to the situations at those points to realize what they meant since most of those times I was guessing. It really allowed me to expand my outlook.

So if it doesn't do anything for you right now, when you look at it a few months, half a year, or a year later, it really does help . I think the act of looking back is more helpful than looking at it one day and forgetting about it the next.

LilAngel

 

[dandelion]

I've made use of small journals and plain ol' spiral bounds for school. In general, my biggest requirement is a comfortable pen, and a book that lays open flat while I write.

My first daily card-reading journal was a gift from a friend - a diary with a beautiful binding. It felt good in my hands

 

[moon_shadow]

Hi, AJ.

I just might create one for public to read one day - Mine is made private atm, so everything and anything gets mentioned on there!
BTW, I just visited your blog. You have a lovely one!!!

ok, this might have gone off topic, *apologizes to moderators*

 

[Starling]

After reading another thread about journaling, I bought The Journal, which is software that is intended for general journaling. It allowed me to set up a separate tab for Tarot, and under that there is a regular computer tree system.

I have one "page" for each card. When I start a new page for a card I haven't studied yet I get a picture file for that card off the web and just copy and paste it into my page. Then I date it and begin writing. The first time I pull that card I go into the Learn Tarot site and copy those keywords onto my page. I actually type them, not just copy and paste, so I will pay attention to what I am reading. Then I start with my own thoughts and insights.

I haven't done it yet, but when that list gets long I'll be putting each of the suits into its own folder with each page below it.

I've been using the software for about 3 or 4 weeks now, and I really like it. I do a daily journal in that section of the program, and I've bought a family history module so I can start working on that as well. It is a great program for people with lots of interests because there is plenty of ways to organize each of those interests with everything in one place. It also automatically backs up the file onto the same hard drive so you always have two of them just in case one gets corrupted.

 

[mosaica]

Here's what I'm doing right now: On Monday I draw seven cards, one for each day of the week. Using these cards, I do a both one-card reading and a three-card reading.

For example, today's single card is the Tower. In the morning I jot down some notes in my handwritten journal about card meanings, both my own impressions and a few from a couple of favorite books. Then I spend the day thinking about the card and paying attention to anything that comes up that might have to do with it.

My 3-card reading is made up of today's card, yesterday's card (2 of Pentacles), and tomorrow's card (Hermit). So today I put the Tower in the middle, the 2 of Pentacles to the left of it, and the Hermit to the right. Each day, I move the cards to the left (the 2oP will be taken town, the Tower will become the left card, the Hermit will be in the middle, and I'll put a new card on the right) and create a new 3-card reading. In the end, I spend three days with each card, and I also see how changes in position change its meaning.

I also have a private blog where I post pictures of both the single card and the three-card reading, and any thoughts on them throughout the day. (When I have time. It's all very time-consuming!) Blogs make perfect Tarot journals because they're so visual, and you can easily pull up all the readings that included a certain card. I also sometimes become attached to my readings, especially the most powerful ones, and I hate to take them apart! So if I know I have a picture of them on the computer and can easily look at them again if I want to, it's easier to let go.

The end goal with my daily reading journals is to study one card a day in depth, and also practice Robert Place's 3-card reading method.

Mosaica

 

[Oddity]

Hi DreamGhost,

I also consider myself a newbie, but I have been keeping a daily draw journal for six months as a way of getting to know the cards slowly but surely (that's the plan, at least)...
I try to keep it as simple as possible, so I use a cheap notebook - slightly bigger than A5-size, with black covers. It's not so pretty as to make me afraid to mess it up, and not so ugly so that I would hate to use it, if that makes any sense to you. It's just very very basic, and cheap, and the paper is nice to the touch. For writing I use coloured pens for today's heading (which colour depends on which suite today's card is from) and an ordinary pencil for writing today's entry.

I pick two cards every morning (I tried only one when I started, but that didn't work), one is "the main card" and the second one "the bonus card", which is a clarification of the first card, or a way to solve some sort of issue indicated by the first card, or something like that. (This, to me, makes a lot more sense than when I tried to pull only one card each day! Well, ok, sometimes it still doesn't make sense... but those times are fewer than before )

I write down what these cards make me think of and what they might mean to me that day. Then I put those two cards in my bookshelf. The next morning, before I draw my next two cards, I write in my journal what the day before was like, and if the cards I drew then had any relevance to whatever happened. Then I shuffle them together with the rest of the deck and draw two new cards.

I write very short entries, just a few lines, so I end up with two or more entries on every page. The whole daily routine takes maybe 20 minutes. And I also keep statistics of how many times each card appears, and on what dates. The goal with doing this is for me to get a feel for the cards and all the various things they can mean, viewed on different days and in different moods. When they like to show up, and what it usually means when they do.

Hope that helps,
Oddity

 

[Silverlyn]

Glad to see others are keeping Tarot Journals

I am about to start a daily draw Tarot journal, too. I haven't yet found just the right journal...I also want mine to lay flat, and a really good pen and pencil and a good separate eraser.

I thought about doing it online, and I still may, as an addition to my hardcopy journal, that'd probably be a bit more secure, than carrying around a journal. Hmmm. Yet writing in a beautiful journal and using a great pen and/or pencil feels....more meaningful, somehow.

If I do it online, I'll add my Tarot blog to my Profile!

What a great topic

Silverlyn