A Guided Meditation into the Tarot  

~taken from Llewellyn's Tarot Calendar for the year 2000~

A guided meditation can help you discover new depth and meaning in a tarot card as well as help you connect to the archetypes and the energy of the tarot.  The process is simple: Either have a friend slowly read the following meditation aloud or tape-record it for yourself.

·              First, sit comfortably in a chair, with both feet firmly on the floor and your knees at the level of your hips.

·             Choose any card you have strong feelings about – whether you like or dislike it – or choose a card you’d like to understand better.  

Breathe deeply, three times.

Examine your card carefully for 60 seconds, Notice every detail: Start with the name and number of the card.  Then look at the sky in the card, and let your gaze travel down to the landscape below.  Notice the position of the card, and then shift your attention to the foreground.  Pay attention to every detail.  What colors are most prominent?  What symbols and props do you see? Who is in the card?  How are they standing or sitting?  How are they dressed?  What are they holding?  What expression is on their face?

·              Close your eyes.  See the card in your mind’s eye.  Reconstruct it, remembering every detail.

·            Open your eyes.  Was there anything you missed?  For 30 seconds, study the card once mote.   

·         Close your eyes again, and settle back comfortably into your chair.  Breathe deeply three times.  Relax your arms and hands.  Relax your legs and feet.  Relax your stomach and relax your jaw.

·         See the card again in your mind’s eye.  This time, see it as large as like, filling the landscape in front of you.  Let the borders of the card become a doorway into the card.   

·         Now envision a golden pathway that leads from your feet through that doorway, into the card.  Follow that path and walk slowly and comfortably through the doorway and into the card.

·         Look around.  Notice the view in front of you, as well as to the right and to the left.  You’ll be able to see a panoramic landscape – all that was not visible from outside the card.

·         Keep breathing deeply, and become aware of your surroundings.

·         What do you see?  Hear? Smell?  What do you feel with your sense of touch?

·         What is the weather like?  What time of day is it?

·         Approach the character in the card.  Notice what that person is wearing.  Notice the body language, and notice the expression.

·         That character is expecting you, and that character has something to say to you.  Ask what it is, and listen carefully to the answer.  If you need to ask a follow-up question, you may.

·           That character also has a gift for you.  What is it?

·         Offer your thanks and say a formal goodbye.

·           Turn around.  See the doorway that you used to enter the card, the doorway back to your everyday life.

·           Walk towards the door, back into your life, knowing that you can bring back the sensations and awareness of this card, and that you can return to the card at any time.

·         Step through the doorway, and close the door.

·         Come back to your seat and open your eyes,

·         Consider the following questions and record the answers in your tarot journal:

·         1.       Of all the sensations you experienced, which was the strongest?

·         2.      What was the message you received?

·         3.      What was the gift you received?

·         4.      How do the message and gift relate to your life?