JOURNAL SUPPORT GROUP!

I'm a digital journaler through Evernote. I really like it. I keep track of everything cartomancy in it--Tarot, Oracles, Playing Cards, books, decks, deck reviews, spreads, readings, daily draws, weekly draws, card analysis, number analysis, different traditions and on and on.

I can categorize each post I write by deck, by subject, by lineage etc. So if I want to look up everything I've written about or worked with on, say, The Morgan-Greer I can key that in and have all the readings I've done with this deck, the daily draws, the journaling etc. Plus it's all accompanied by photos because Evernote makes it very easy to mail images to your account.

It's all backed up in the cloud so not limited to one device. What I enter on my laptop I can then access when I'm out and about through my tablet. I've been the most consistent with this form of journaling. I think it's the ease of keyboarding with the ability to include photos that keeps me going with it. Tarot is so visual that being able to have the cards right there makes a big difference when looking back on things.

I do a daily draw in the morning. Before I draw, I write three or four sentences about the previous day under the previous day's cards. If something amazing or stupendous happens (not likely, most of the time), I go back and make a note, usually in a different colored ink. I'm usually pretty consistent about color coding things.... Did I mention I'm a Virgo?

It took me a while to figure out that doing both my writing and daily draws in the morning is what works best for me. Experiment with it. I have a friend that allows himself 50 words for his daily draws. That's even a little too structured for me.

You have to allow yourself to be free about it, maybe try tweeting or a Snapchat or periscope video.
I like the 50 word idea, it's so short that it almost feels like nothing at all.

Even try mind mapping perhaps, just error down the first word that comes to mind then let yourself branch off from there.

This is such a useful thread, so many great ideas.

I have a beautiful journal I intend to use to record my readings, and I will just use a simple notebook for each deck to record information on spreads and the cards.

I don't know if it could be possible (or already done), but can we have a thread as a masterpost of various "how to" articles/videos about tarot journaling (prompts, exercises...)?
It would be very helpful for anyone starting on their new journaling journey.

btw, I'm starting a personal Thoth journal in a wiki format (having it as a blog is too confusing for me, I like structure)... I'm using My Wiki On A Stick

MaryHeather said:

I do a daily draw in the morning. Before I draw, I write three or four sentences about the previous day under the previous day's cards. If something amazing or stupendous happens (not likely, most of the time), I go back and make a note, usually in a different colored ink. I'm usually pretty consistent about color coding things.... Did I mention I'm a Virgo?

It took me a while to figure out that doing both my writing and daily draws in the morning is what works best for me. Experiment with it. I have a friend that allows himself 50 words for his daily draws. That's even a little too structured for me.

Click to expand...

I really like your suggestion about incorporating some reflection on the previous day in the morning before daily draws. I've done well at carving out time for a daily draw and journaling every morning since I started learning tarot but I know that I've been skimping on reflecting and recording how the card has actually played out during my days. I was always thinking I needed to do that in the evening, but I just haven't been able to schedule both a morning and evening tarot journal-time that I have stuck to every day. Now I think I will just work an incorporating an extra stage in my morning journal routine.

I'm just starting a tarot journal, but I want something very visual, not too energy-intensive and that can be edited on the go. With that in mind, I've set up an Instagram account and a visual Wordpress blog just for my tarot studies. I thought I would give them both a try to see which works best for me. I can take a photo of a card or deck and immediately make notes next to it, with minimum fuss

Such an interesting thread!
I also started a tarot journal but then I decided to merge it with my basic journal. I had a gratitude journal, a " morning pages" journal, an art journal. It was too much and I couldn't follow all. Now everything is in the same journal.

I use Flickr to host my photos because it has a feature where you can draw a box around part of the picture and put a note in it.

So I can annotate a card or a spread with all kinds of little post-it notes and see specifics in addition to my more general notes under the image

I'd like to add something about my new journaling of Tarot. Some time ago I found Bullet Journal system and I work with it pretty extensively. I never was a kind of a planner person but I really, really needed that. So in just one journal I have everything - you can find my daily to-do stuff and another page just for personal readings and musing about Tarot. And of course, notes how many clients I have to read for with writing e-mails or shopping lists. I like to put all in one place 'cause this notebook is always in my bag and I can note down anything anytime I want. It really works for me and I'm so happy with this experiment, I hope it'll stick with me for a longer while