Tarot Journalling

Manfeex

Hey guys!

Sorry if this is in the wrong section but I'm just wondering about tarot journaling.

I have just started doing it about a week ago, and every time I'm writing about a card and I'm getting different meaning to it, then I'm from other people or the internet.

Is it good thing or a bad thing?

Sorry I'm generally new to this even though I have been doing tarot on and off for a couple of years but I just read it from the books or online
 

CrystalSeas

Tarot journaling is an excellent method for combining your own intuition about what the card means with the other meanings you can find.

What is even more interesting is to watch your own understanding expand as you see the card over and over again in different contexts. Looking back you'll be able to see how your own intuitive interpretation changed over time.

It is not at all unusual for your first impression of a card to be somewhat different from the "book meaning". As you delve deeper into card meanings, you'll begin to see where you overlap with the common meanings, and where a card is somewhat different for you.

Then, when you move to other decks with other symbolism, you'll be in a good position to compare how you interpret that card differently depending on the art work of the deck.

Keep journaling and keep looking back to see how your knowledge has blossomed.
 

ldiddy

Any tarot journaling is good journaling if you ask me. Different meanings whether your own, from one book, from the internet may contradict themselves, but reading and writing them will be instrumental to your learning process.

To this day when I journal, I'll write the spread questions and cards pulled for each position. Depending on how much time I have, I'll write my interpretation and then go check and see what the book says. Again, time permitting, I will add that to my entry.

One other thing I've done which I recommend is to keep a separate book which contains my "index." I listed my decks in the front with abbreviations. Then I list each card at the top of a page. Anytime I draw and journal about the card, I'll note the date and deck abbreviation. This is handy so that I have my own "book" meanings. It also highlights when a card is stalking me ;0

Most of all, enjoy it. I have journaled more since I started studying and learning tarot about 2 years ago than I did for 15 years prior. Another hooray for tarot!
 

Barleywine

My journaling has become minimalist since I started taking digital photos of spreads and saving them on my computer. In some cases I'll write a brief interpretation and merge it with the picture in a .pdf document. The tedium of writing everything out finally defeated my efforts to keep a pen-and-paper journal, which I started and stopped numerous times over the years.
 

Enlightenment23

My journaling has become minimalist since I started taking digital photos of spreads and saving them on my computer. In some cases I'll write a brief interpretation and merge it with the picture in a .pdf document. The tedium of writing everything out finally defeated my efforts to keep a pen-and-paper journal, which I started and stopped numerous times over the years.

I'm in the same boat with Barleywine here. I've tried the whole pen-and-paper journaling thing, but sometimes, I just can't work up the energy to find my journal, then search for a pen, and then write everything all out. And on top of that, I got very frustrated because there came a time where I just didn't have any space in my journal to fit one letter, let alone a thought.

So I just started journaling on my laptop since, of course, docs have infinite space. But I have to warn against that as well! Computers are unpredictable. One moment they're operating just fine, the next day, they can crash. It's happened to me and I lost all my notes. So just be careful to back up your tarot journal every once in a while if you do decide to journal on a doc. :)

ETA: By-the-book meanings of cards are a great starting point when you're first learning, but as you become more comfortable with the cards, you develop a relationship with them, and you start throwing in your intuition in there, it's perfectly normal and fine and even applauded to come up with your own understanding of each card :)
 

nisaba

I have just started doing it about a week ago, and every time I'm writing about a card and I'm getting different meaning to it, then I'm from other people or the internet.

Is it good thing or a bad thing?

<grin> It's just a thing - the Way That It Is.

Think about it: there are 78 cards in a deck. There are millions of people in the world, all of whom could be in any number of different situations. Assuming a single-card pull, a Tarot deck might have to express hundreds, even thousands of different things, with only one card pulled from it.

Every card represents a feeling, an energy. That energy can manifest in people's lives in any number of ways. :)
 

Deana86

Hey guys!

Sorry if this is in the wrong section but I'm just wondering about tarot journaling.

I have just started doing it about a week ago, and every time I'm writing about a card and I'm getting different meaning to it, then I'm from other people or the internet.

Is it good thing or a bad thing?

Sorry I'm generally new to this even though I have been doing tarot on and off for a couple of years but I just read it from the books or online
Hey Manfeex

I feel like I have that same problem with interpreting cards and it seems to be different.
 

Barleywine

<grin> It's just a thing - the Way That It Is.

Think about it: there are 78 cards in a deck. There are millions of people in the world, all of whom could be in any number of different situations. Assuming a single-card pull, a Tarot deck might have to express hundreds, even thousands of different things, with only one card pulled from it.

Every card represents a feeling, an energy. That energy can manifest in people's lives in any number of ways. :)

And if every one of them merits a journal entry, well, that's one helluva lot of trees! :)
 

Manfeex

Thank you, for you replys everyone..

At the moment I'm doing it in order in how the cards are laid from when you first brought the packet..

It has to be in order for when I'm writing in my journal.
I do try and a card spread.

I normally ask:
what type of day will I have?
or
Am I going to have a good day?

and then I pull two cards out..
one for the morning and one for afternoon
I haven't done one since Saturday. And that was pretty good as it was expressing how I was feeling within the last couple of weeks/months so I did understood it when I wrote it
I have a "project book" where it has little section in between them.. one section is for the major and the next will be by minor and then the back is my daily reading

I normally write:
in how I feel when I look at the card? if its a positive or negative or a bit of both
what do you see when looking at the card? and that's me going in depth with the card in what I see.
and then lastly I do keywords for the card and then I do a reverse keyword too.

I do have four tarot cards all in all so I have a lot to get through. But I do like doing it!

I do feel better now. so thank you.
would there be anything for me to improve on?
 

Manfeex

Although there is something that I would like to do...
Meditation?
How do you guys do it? do you even do it?

and when is the good time to do it?