Do you have to be psychic to read tarot?

This is a question that many people ask or assume. Truth is, you don’t have to be psychic to read tarot. It’s also true that not all psychics read tarot.

However, you may begin to notice that by reading tarot, your psychic abilities may begin to develop and strengthen.

Tarot can be read in a variety of different ways and methods. Psychic abilities and intuition relies on the left side of the brain where there is more fluidity and association, even creativity and imagination.

Tarot can also be more logical and rationally done with the right side of the brain by interpreting images more logically and matter of fact.

 

Tarot can be a study within itself.

 

In fact, The Order of the Golden Dawn didn’t necessarily use the tarot for readings and prediction and was more for esoteric and occult study and practices (mostly the major arcana was used.)

There are many different branches of study that can cater to the logical mindset. You can rely on these and incorporate them into a reading without needing to be psychic or even intuitive, if you feel you aren’t.

Systems used in tarot can be:

• Numerology
• Astrology
• Colours
• Patterns
• Card interactions
• Qabala 

 

Tarot & Psychic Abilities

 

What if you want to develop your psychic abilities? Can tarot do that?

Absolutely! You may find that you become more psychic or intuitive the more you study and use the tarot.

For some people, these abilities are developed and can be used aside from doing tarot readings.

For other people, they may find they are only psychic or intuitive when using the cards. The tarot can act as a muse or trigger for psychic information.

Tarot is steeped in imagery of the major archetypes in humanity as noted by psychiatrist/psychologist Dr. Carl Jung.

Tarot has long been studied when using psychic abilities that even Jung used it in his studies of psychic abilities and archetypes.

 

 

Psychic Ability Definitions

 

What are some of the ways you can receive psychic information in a tarot reading or otherwise?

To begin understanding how we receive psychic information, let’s look at what the five common psychic abilities are.

 

These psychic abilities are:

 

Clairaudience: Hearing

 

Information is received through mentally or even physically hearing words, noises, phrases, sentences and sounds.

When you hear something clairaudient, this can most commonly sound like your own voice in your head.

How do you know that it’s not your own thoughts or the idea or thoughts from Spirit, a loved one in spirit, a spirit guide or something else? You may be able to tell by the context and what is said.

Most often the word or sentence may seem as though it just “popped” in your head and seems to come from outside your own ego.

If in doubt, question it and feel what your gut response says. My guides and other guides usually have a larger (and smarter) vocabulary than I do, that they use words that I have to look up to find the meaning!

 

Clairvoyance: Seeing

 

You may get an image of a place, person or thing in your mind’s eye. This may be in black and white, colour, a still or moving image.

To practice what clairvoyance is like, look at a something or a picture of something or someone. Take mental notes of the features. Study it closely.

Now close your eyes and try to re-create the image in your mind. Can you see it? Can you picture someone’s face that you know very well? That’s what clairvoyance is like.

How do you get clairvoyance to work?

During shuffling or during the reading you can ask Spirit to send you an image that may offer clues to the reading.

During the reading while interpreting cards, you may get an mental image of something or someone when you look at a card. This is how clairvoyance works.

To practice clairvoyance, try to re-create images in your mind and hold the image for as long as you can. Play memory games that a visual.

Clairvoyance is visual psychic information that anyone can practice.

If you are a visual person or learn by sight, then you may have an aptitude for clairvoyance.

 

Claircognizance: Knowing

 

Do you sometimes just know something without knowing how or why?

When you do a tarot reading, does information just flow like a story that you know?

Claircognizance (or clear knowing) is about knowing something to be factual or true without really knowing why or how.

Claircognizance is similar to knowing something as fact like knowing your name, where you live and your phone number.

Things that you know to your very core to be true, just by knowing. These can be proven to others with a little work and time, which claircognizance can sometimes be proven as well.

It may seem as though you’re pulling this information out of “thin air”, but really this information is received psychically.

Claircognizance is commonly associated with the solar plexus where confidence and true knowing reside.

The crown chakra and third eye are also activate, but claircognizance is most strong through the solar plexus chakra.

 

Clairsentience: Clear Sensing/Feeling

 

When you do a reading, do you get certain feelings? Fear, anxiety, happiness, confusion? These can be psychic clues to help you to interpret and provide the reading.

Clairsentience can also be used in mediumship to get a feeling of how someone in spirit passed away.

The most troubling one I’ve had is a tightness around my neck to describe how someone passed away from suicide by hanging themselves. That’s how the person communicates with me to let me know it’s them.

If you are empathic, you may already be used to receiving information about people and places through feelings and sensing things. Working on clairsentience can help you to become more empathic.

 

Clairgustance: Tasting

 

Although not a common psychic phenomenon, it can be a helpful one.

You can have experiences such as foods, spices and flavours that may describe a type of cuisine or ethnic background.

These can be pleasant experiences, yet sometimes can be unpleasant ones. (I’ve had the tastes of an ashtray before in my mouth as a experience of connecting with a smoker.)

 

Clairalience: Smelling

 

Do you get the scent of something while doing the reading?

This can sometimes be perfume or air fresheners in the room, but sometimes it can be a psychic clue.

If you’re doing a mediumship reading, sometimes spirits will give off a scent.

In our home, we have experienced the smell of campfire, maple sugar cookies, rainbow vanilla birthday cake, and the scent of cherries.

If you smell something that doesn’t seem to be coming from anywhere, try to see if there’s a connection to someone that you knew or know.

If you’re doing a reading for someone else, relay this information to the person as they may have a better understanding who it may be.

 

 

How to Prepare to do a Psychic Tarot Reading

 

Getting psychic information commonly happens when you’re most relaxed, comfortable and at ease. Psychic information is often received when the mind is rested and in a receptive state.

 

So how do you do that?

 

Some psychic readers can receive information and do readings anytime, anywhere and anyplace.

This takes skill and practice to be able to do readings in an instant and be able to “link” to spirit in a snap.

For the beginner and even intermediary, it takes practice and time to develop that. Not to mention dedication as well.

Here are a few ways to help you switch your mind to receive psychic information before, during and even after a tarot reading:

 

Meditation

 

This is an important step to develop psychic abilities.

It doesn’t have to be zen/zazen medication where you clear your mind and focus on “nothing”

Guided meditation can help to focus your mind on one thing at a time. James Van Praagh has some great guided meditations on his website. Some videos are free and some videos/lessons are paid courses. His techniques are easy and fun, and definitely worth a try.

Meditation can be done to connect to God, Goddess or deity, Spirit, you spirit guides or higher self to get information and clarity. 

Try asking a question and see what answers you get.

Practice your clairvoyance by focusing on a image and try to make it as realistic as possible in your mind’s eye.

Try to make yourself as comfortable as possible. If you can’t sit cross legged on the floor (I can’t), then try on the sofa or bed with pillows, blankets, yoga blocks, etc. to make yourself comfortable.

Don’t worry if you fall asleep during meditation. If you do, you probably needed the sleep anyway!

 

Crystals

 

Certain crystals can help to open the third eye and other chakras like the crown chakra and solar plexus chakra to receive psychic information.

Try different crystals for that purpose. Be sure to learn how to care for your crystals and cleanse them if they need it.

Clear quartz, fluorite and amethyst are good to start with. Want to know about other crystals for intuition? Read more about Crystals for Enhancing Your Intuition.

 

Incense / Sage / Aromatherapy

 

Scent can be a powerful stimulator. Sandalwood is a popular scent among the spiritual community and helps promote psychic abilities.

Pure sandalwood essential oil is quite expensive for only a small amount, so better to opt for a good quality of sandalwood incense to get the same effect.

Other scents that can help are patchouli, frankincense and myrrh.

 

Candles

 

Candles can be soothing, relaxing and mystical. Having a special candle that’s lit just for psychic or tarot readings can help to signal your mind that it’s time for psychic or spiritual work.

Fire or flame gazing can also be another way to practice psychic abilities (remember The Hound looking into the flames in Season 7 of Game of Thrones?)

Candles can help to set the mood to begin a journey between the worlds and into psychic work.

 

Music

 

Instrumental music works best to keep your focus and drown out outside noise and disturbances. Music can also help to raise your vibration.

Be sure to know what music will be playing during your psychic or tarot session. An annoying song that suddenly comes on in the middle of a reading can really throw you off your game.

 

Raise your Vibration

 

This is a technique that I’ve done for decades then discovered that James Van Praagh teaches this technique.

Imagine pulling your energy to the centre of your body into your solar plexus.

When you feel the energy in your centre, start to pull it up to your heart chakra, then your third eye and towards to your crown chakra.

Then imagine antennae out of your crown chakra reaching up to the sky, the ether to Spirit and downloading information that you need. Try to maintain the connection during your reading.

When you’re done, pull your energy back into you (and the antennae), close your chakras and ground yourself.

 

Want to learn more about developing your psychic abilities?

Read Psychic Development for Beginners for books and resources. 

 

Putting your Psychic Abilities & Tarot Together

 

When starting to read tarot, it can be overwhelming with all the information.

There’s after all 78 cards, then reversed cards, numerology, astrology correspondences, colours, four suits, etc. Where do we even begin?

If you’re new to tarot, start with one aspect of tarot such as the meanings.

As you grasp the meanings, then you can decide if you want to learn a branch of tarot such as numerology and astrology that’s more right brained or go with your intuition to develop that further.

If you want to combine the two or more aspects to blend intuition with a branch such as numerology, go for it!

The more you discover and learn, especially what works for you, you’ll soon have your own unique way of reading tarot.

With any psychic ability or reading tarot, always go with your first impression, response or instinct.

 

It takes confidence to be a tarot reader and/or a psychic reader.

 

You have to have self-confidence to do this work. Trust what you see, hear, feel or know – even if you don’t know how you know.

 

 

Don’t Be Afraid to Be Wrong

 

Being a tarot reader or psychic means sometimes you’ll be wrong. Not everyone can be right all the time.

Sometimes the reader can be right, but the querent just can’t see at that time how the reading applies to them.

Sometimes there can be miscommunication. Sometimes a reader will misinterpret a symbol, sign or message.

Psychic abilities are similar to tuning into a radio station.

To get perfect clarity, the dial has to be right on the signal.

Remember the old radios with the dial? If you’re trying to get 101.8 FM, you had to turn the dial to try to get that exact station.

If you hit 101.6 FM you might get some of the signal, but mostly static.

If you overshot the station and got 102 FM, again you might get some of the signal, but more static. You have to get 101.8 FM on the dot.

It takes energy to try to get that signal.

Sometimes we can’t get the exact signal every time and only get bits and pieces of it; other time the message comes in crystal clear.

This takes practice, but as humans, we’re susceptible to many different problems and daily problems that may get in the way.

So don’t be afraid to be wrong sometimes when it comes to psychic abilities and practicing your abilities. Keep practicing!

Pin this!

So whether you consider yourself psychic and/or tarot reader, or you feel that all this psychic stuff is just a bunch of malarkey and you just prefer to study tarot from a rational point of view, there’s a wide range that tarot can be interpreted that leaves it possible for anyone to read tarot.

Find what works for you.

Try different types of readers to see how they interpret the cards Try different psychic readers to see how they work.

Everyone is different in their approach.

Until next time!

 

Blessings,
Stacey & the Tarot Pugs

 

Related Posts:

Spirit Messages, Signs & Cartomancy

Psychic Development for Beginners

Spirit Guides & Tarot

 

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