Journaling with Tarot and Oracle Cards

I can't believe it's finally happening. This is the class I've been waiting on for a few years. I don't typically share my written journaling practice with the world because it has always felt so sacred and so personal. But I've been keeping a written journal since I was a teenager. I have more than 100 journals in my possession filled with my thoughts and musings, over the last three decades. It's fun to go back and flip through them from time to time to see how much I've grown and changed, and in what ways I've stayed the same. I journal every single day -- without fail -- even when I don't feel well or when I'm traveling or when life is heavy (or maybe especially when life is heavy), I pen something in my journal. Sometimes it's just a sentence, sometimes it's pages and pages. Journaling is my maintenance program for living a healthy, happy, and well-balanced life. 

So this course is near and dear to my heart, which is why I invited some pretty special folks along for the journey. And I'm inviting you along, too. Journaling can be personal and still be done with others. It can be sacred and simultaneously fun and experimental. 

People Always Ask Me...

When friends come over and see my tarot and oracle decks, they usually want to know if I'm a tarot reader. I'm not. But it opens the door for me to talk about my love for the cards and how I have been using oracle decks for the last 20+ years as a part of my journaling ritual (I've been using Tarot for 5 years.)

I love to share my journaling practice with friends and those closest to me, so it just makes sense that I would eventually start to share it here with you all -- my online pals. Journaling is one of the most powerful tools available to anyone looking to do some serious self-study and transformation. My word this year is Self-Study so this is one of the many ways I'm diving deeper into who I am and how I am becoming the person I want to be. 

So in this course -- PULL PEN PAINT: Journaling With Oracle and Tarot Cards, we get to explore all the many ways to use the cards in our journaling - written, visual, and art journaling. 

The Myth About Tarot and Oracle Cards

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here, but let's just say that if you're thinking that Tarot and Oracle cards are "evil" or "demonic" or somehow using them means you don't believe in or love God, then you're probably like lots of other people in the world who just don't know the history of the cards. And Tarot has a looooong history that goes back even before the information held in the cards was printed onto the cards. The information is ANCIENT. The cards are a newer construct for holding the sacred knowledge that has been around for millennia. 

Hollywood has done a horrible job of creating a stigma around tarot by using the image of the gypsy or circus side-show fortune teller to stereotype people who use tarot cards for guidance (and for those who use it for divination). It's so much more than that, but I don't want to tell YOU how you should view the cards. You really have to experience them for yourself and decide for yourself how you want to use them, if you want to use them. And that's the other reason I created this class. I wanted to help those who, like me 5+ years ago, don't have a clue about Tarot, but are curious.

A Source of Inspiration

Before I truly understood how to use the cards, I was simply using them for inspiration and prompting for my writing on those days when I just couldn't think of what to write in my journal. The cards helped me quiet the noise of the world long enough to focus on one thing and pen my thoughts. 

So I use the cards a lot for inspiration. As an artist, I'm in love with some of the decks that have amazing artistry on them. The amazing artwork helps me in both my written journaling practice and my art practice. We will be exploring this way of using the decks in the class, too. 

My hope is that you'll join us, if you haven't already. That you'll come with an open mind and heart and see where the class takes you. Join us and see what the teachers ignite in you, see how your art changes as you begin to use the cards as a way to excavate and unearth the beauty that lies deep inside. 

Here's a blog post I wrote back in September 2016 on Art Journaling with Tarot. There's a video that goes with it if you want to watch my process. 

I'd love to hear if you're already using the cards in your life. How do you use them? What are your favorite decks? What have you noticed about your journaling when you use the cards?