Tarot For Reclamation and an Invitation to Self Healers' Summer
What does the word “Tarot” bring up for you in your body? Curiosity? Skepticism? Overwhelm? Outright fear? Those are the words I would have picked. What are yours?
In 2020, right in the beginning of the global lockdown, I was inexplicably, and quite out of nowhere, inspired to learn Tarot. I had dabbled in oracle cards [sidebar: oracle cards are similar to Tarot but freeform without following a set series of images and meanings. Oracle cards can be anything from divination tools to inspiring quote cards. There’s a ton of options out there.] for years since actively deconstructing from evangelical Christianity but for some reason I felt like that wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted the richness and depth of symbolism that tarot seemed to include. So, like all good Millennials, I bought myself a “Tarot for Beginners” kit off Amazon and got to work.
I quickly felt myself getting overwhelmed. There were 78 cards and each one had it’s own unique meaning and associations. Was I supposed to be able to memorize all of these?! There 56 suited cards reminiscent of the unassuming playing cards most of us are used to, each suit with it’s own significance, coloring the interpretation of each card within it like a colored haze. 22 cards with weird-to-me, almost nonsensical words across the top and… roman numerals? These 22 seemed especially wrought with exasperation for me because there were cards included in this set called “The Devil” and “Death” and that felt a bit dramatic to me. Honestly, you’re just cards. Calm down.
I didn’t love the idea of a playing card telling me to anticipate death or a devil. It felt a bit ‘Miss Cleo’ for me. Even before I dabbled in using cards of any kind for my spiritual journey I never felt aligned with the notion of them being used for divination. I have always had too many logistical questions about stuff like that and too much skepticism after my youth in a version of religion that required so very much suspension of belief and cognitive dissonance to make it make sense. Anyway… I never liked the idea that my future was set or outside of my will to make a choice that might adjust it. And I really didn’t like the idea of someone or something out there knowing it before I did.
So when I picked up my first tarot deck in 2020, I felt a deeply grounded urge to use them *not* to figure out the future, but to figure out myself. Right here. Right now.
Tarot For Reclamation, An Accidental Perspective
I accidentally stumbled into a very Jungian interpretation of Tarot. I’m talking about Carl Jung.
Carl Jung’s perspective on things was one of embracing all of the human experience. His theories on psychology argued that the whole of the individual’s experience should be respected and included instead of breaking them apart and pathologizing them like his contemporary Freud was talking about. Jung believed that the “shadow” parts mattered and were part of the whole. Of course there’s so much to his work but I just want to touch on his contribution with archetypes and imagery because that’s what we’ll be dipping our toes into here.
Jung believed that the unconscious and the conscious were interconnected and interdependent. He put forth a concept of the collective unconscious. Meaning that there could be structures of the unconscious mind shared among people or patterns and reactions in the mind that all people all across the world share. An easy example of this would be dreams and common dream symbols.
He identified archetypes and universal symbols that seemed to be embedded in the subconscious mind of all humans. Jung believed these symbols were ancient remnants passed down. He believed that the subconscious communicated and made sense of things using these symbols. And a Jungian way of thinking that you might have done without realizing was to say something like “Oh everyone dreams of their teeth falling out. It means ______.” We commonly follow his path of thought when we talk about universal dream symbols. Things like tornados, tsunamis, broken phone lines, being chased, teeth falling out, realizing you have no pants on all of a sudden. Why would we all dream things like this? Jung would argue it’s part of the collective unconscious.
So… the way I found myself most drawn to learning Tarot was as a way of making sense of my own unconscious insights. Using these universal symbols in the art of the cards and these common archetypes shown in the characters of the cards, I could *perhaps* allow my subconscious the chance to make sense of things in the way it knew how to: symbols and imagery.
(I am and continue to use the words “unconscious” and “subconscious” as interchangeable. I will do this also in my essays and even in my work as a Mimetic practitioner and RRT Specialist)
One of my all time favorite ways I’ve seen words put around the way I intuitively came to Tarot is written online by the CG Jung Institute of Chicago. It reads:
“Among Jungians, the study of divination systems, such as the I Ching, Astrology, and the Tarot, is considered just another aspect of the study of the mind. Analytical Psychology’s consideration of these systems is predicated on Jung’s understanding of synchronicity. Events that occur in rapid succession or simultaneously in space/time can be understood not only through possible causal relationships, but also by investigating the meaning that arises in the psyche of the percipient when confronting these events. Divination systems, including the Tarot, may be thought of as means of invoking synchronicity, rather than waiting for synchronistic events to occur.”
There it is!
Invoking synchronicity rather than waiting for it to occur. Not predicting the future, but rather, deciding on it. That felt empowered to me. That was what I wanted!
I was learning to speak the language of Tarot. Learning what the suits meant, what the numbers meant, and what the characters meant. Filtering things through whether a card that came up in a reading was from the Major Arcana and thus reflective of my inner journey or from the Minor Arcana and thus reflective of my moving through the tangible world. There were so many layers and I loved how each one took me deeper into my own inner knowing.
Tarot for Reclamation is how I explain my way of using tarot cards in my healing journey. And I want to share it with you so that it could become a tool in your toolkit that moves you forward in beautifully poetic and reflective ways like it has for me.
You’re Invited to: Self Healers’ Summer
If this sounds intriguing to you, I want to invite you to my first ever Substack Community Challenge. I’m calling it Self Healers’ Summer and each Thursday for the next 6 weeks I’ll be sharing a post for subscribers with a deep drive into a popular Tarot card (or aspect), a series of journaling prompts related to the imagery and symbolism of the chosen card, reflections tied to nature and the seasons, and a sample pull you can do if you’d like to take it farther. I’ll also be diving deeper and supporting what we learn about what the card(s) show us with RRT perspective and some tips and challenges to ways you may have been thinking about things previously to help you move forward through common stucknesses we encounter when on a healing journey.
All you have to do is make sure you are subscribed to Reclamation by Becka Robinson here on Substack! It’s that simple. Then check your mail or come back and check on Substack for the posts each Thursday. I’ll be turning commenting on to all subscribers for these Thursday posts so you can ask questions, share your insights, encourage and support each other and post any challenges and breakthroughs you have. Subscribe now so you don’t forget.
Share to Win My Favorite Tarot Deck!
I know that a lot of you who are here are under cover. Meaning, you may be experiencing an awakening, deconstruction, or you’ve embarked on a journey of healing from trauma and blocks but you aren’t public about it. And I get it. If you’re still involved in a career, community, or belief that would be threatened by your asking questions it may not be safe for you to share publicly what you’re up to. I thank you for being here and honor your bravery. That being said, I do want to add a social element to things. I’d love to get the word out about the challenge and I need your help to do it. Once you’ve subscribed, share the graphic below on your Instagram feed or stories and tag me. I’ll choose one person at random and announce them in next Thursday’s post to win my favorite beginner’s Tarot Deck!
If you can’t post publicly but you have some friends who you think might want to join, feel free to text or email the graphic. If they do join us, shoot me an email to hello@beckarobinson.com with their name and I’ll add you into the raffle too! Same goes for them! The more the merrier.
This 6 week series is for you if…
You’ve been interested in Tarot but felt afraid or overwhelmed by it
You want to make journaling a habitual practice but feel at a loss for what to write
You feel like your mind is racing and your thoughts are all jumbled up
You need an anchoring summer habit because your schedule is thrown off
You’re on a healing journey and you want to empower yourself to self-evaluate and move through turbulent emotions on your own in between sessions with your therapist or coach
Anything I said about sounded intriguing to you (follow that inner nudge)
Part of your healing journey is learning to trust yourself, your intuition, or your own wisdom after being told you needed others for truth
If you like art and words and want to try something new using those two things
You in? YES! Register now with either the free or paid option by clicking the gold button.
How Does it Work?
In Tarot for Reclamation, we look at the cards as mirrors of what’s going on under our surface. Yes, the cards have their own correspondences, but there’s an element of intuition with this way of doing things.
We set an intention for what we want clarity on, or what we want to process through, we shuffle and pull some cards (sometimes in what’s called “a pull” and has an order and association to each card you pull, other times we pull a single card for a focal point or a series of three to represent past, present, and future), and we allow the interpretations to rise from within us instead of being told to us.
Now, before you click the x button and think I’m bypassing all the history and wealth of symbolism for your own interpretation, I’m not. We’ll combine them. We will use the incredibly rich symbolism of the traditional Rider Waite tarot to inform our unconscious minds. Remember, the concept we are working with is that your unconscious understands and operates in symbols.
Then we will allow unconscious to become conscious through journaling. Here’s where the magic happens. We use the cards as a framework, we give order to the chaos of being human, and in doing so, unconscious is able to communicate in really beautiful ways. TLDR; You already know. You just haven’t realized you know yet.
The experience of this, from my own firsthand practice and feedback from those I’ve taught this method to, is a grounded feeling. It’s not up in the air like divination or looking for guidance from outside of ourselves. It’s like a delicious weighted blanked feeling. It’s deep down, anchoring, bringing us back to US. And allowing the inner wisdom that exists at all times within us the chance to inform us.
I cannot wait to begin! Subscribe now and I’ll see you right back here (or in your inbox if that’s where you consume my substacks) next Thursday. Which is also the summer solstice. Isn’t that perfect?! If you’re a paid subscriber, check back in in a few days for the next installment in my Reclaiming Rituals series all about the summer solstice, also known as Litha, and how you can draw from it’s fiery history to create a more meaningful summertime celebration for yourself or your family. Past Reclaiming Rituals guides have covered Beltane (the shift from spring to summer and a lesson on releasing shame) , Ostara (Easter), and a breakdown of the Wheel of the Year. We’ll continue on into the fall covering Samhain (Halloween) the harvest festivals (so great for reclaiming Thanksgiving to keep the gratitude but release the colonialism) and my favorite and most popular one: Yule/Christmas. It’s gonna be good and if you’re struggling with how to celebrate without religious dogma or nationalism, you’ll love this series! But you’ve got to be a paid subscriber to access it because it’s beefy. It’s got so much that I’m in the preliminary stages of building a book based off of the series! So you basically get first access as I’m workshopping which ideas and rituals and recipes everyone enjoys the most!
Self Healers’ Summer Challenge Questions and Answers
Q: Do I need a tarot deck to be able to participate?
A: Nope! I’ll write the journalling prompts in such a way that you’ll be able to participate based off the card(s) I am teaching on each week. I will include sample spreads though that you can do if you do have a deck and want to expand the self-reflection farther.
Q: Can I use an Oracle deck instead?
A: Not really because oracle decks are not based on the universal archetypes and symbols that traditional Tarot utilizes. However, you could use my method for journaling and reflection after doing pulls to create your own method using your oracle cards!
Q: Aren’t Tarot cards demonic?
A: Respectfully, no.
Q: What if I get a scary card come up? Does it mean I’m going to die?
A: No it doesn’t, I’ll make sure to touch on those so you feel zero fear. Just like Carl Jung didn’t believe shadow was anything to be cast out, the darker cards are not to be feared. Shadows just let us see which direction the light is coming from. They can be beautiful indicators. And also, speak directly to the season you may be in, which can feel very affirming. Tarot has zero toxic positivity. ;)
Q: Can I bring a friend?
A: Yes please do! If you do, and you can’t share my graphic on social media, just email me and let me know your friend’s name and I’ll enter you into the drawing as well!
Q: Is there a way I can still be in the drawing if I can’t share the graphic on my social media?
A: See the question above. ^
xo, Becka
Becka Robinson’s (she/her) degree is in Psychology. She is a Certified Consulting Hypnotist and is trained in mimetic modalities as a way to facilitate healing from traumas both big and small. She grew up in pentecostal evangelical christianity and even served on staff in ministry before leaving at the age of 22 and has been deconstructing and sharing about it ever since. She is a neurodivergent, late blooming queer, artistpreneur and healer living in Central Florida with her husband and two kids pioneering utilizing RRT for people healing from religious trauma and reclaiming their power and agency. You can read more about her work via her website: www.beckarobinson.com. Thank you for being here.