Using Tarot to Listen to your Psychic Voice-by Dahlia Raine

"Do you want to learn to read tarot cards, but find yourself getting bogged down reading and memorizing books?  Are you feeling frustrated with the way one book is in complete opposition to the next?  Are you having a hard time connecting meanings from one card to the next in a reading, or even getting stuck when you get to certain card positions in particular spread?  If so I can tell you that you aren't alone.  I know when I started to try to read cards I thought I needed to learn every mystical aspect, all of the symbols and ancient meanings.  I poured over books taking notes, I would study one card and research everything I could on it and then reverse it and go through the information again.  Then I would try to read myself, I would try and read friends, I would even try to read strangers, but no matter what I did I felt like I couldn't make all of the information connect.  The readings wouldn't flow and I would inevitable pick that book back up and read those divinatory meanings.  
Then one day I met the right person at the right time and she told me I didn't need those books, I just need to trust and let go.  She reminded me that everyone one is psychic some maybe more connected, or listen to it, or even gave their skill a workout to strengthen it, some may call it a hunch, a gut feeling, intuition, vibes . . . but it doesn't matter that sixth sense is a part of each of us and just like all of our other senses it can be strengthened, studied, and practiced.  So I put down those books, I packed them away to look back at later, they had been read so I had understanding of the basics, but it was time to put down my crutch and build my own muscles.  
I challenge anyone out there trying to read cards, that has poured over books and fought with memorizing meanings to put away your books for a little while.  Instead take out your favorite deck, the one that you can look at the cards and get feelings from or that makes your mind move in a direction.  Start to look at the cards you may only want to look at one or two a day, and see yourself in that card and create your story from that picture.  Who are you, what is going on around you, how are you involved, what lead up to this, how are you moving forward or staying stagnant or even moving backward?
Let this be a time of psychic play, don't worry about right and wrong, just play.  After you create your story write down themes, take a look if you have symbolism you have taken from the imagery of your card.  For instance in your story of the card lets say you took an independent stand for something you believe in and in the card you see a cat and realize you've always thought of them as independent creatures.  Or in your story of the card you were taking a lazy day to relax and give yourself a break and when looking at the card after you see a person in a garden and realize gardening for you is relaxing.  Look at your card whatever deck it may be and notice the images, notice the colors, notice plants, and animals, and stones, notice the sky, if there seems to be movement. . .  Look at the number what do you associate with it?  What suit is it (if your deck has suits) and what do you associate with it.  These symbols were used because they spoke to people, but what an ancient symbol meant to someone of that time may not resonate with your own associations, and your psychic self can't flow when you don't allow it's meanings to come through and try to force someone else's.  Someone else might look at that cat and think of its moody temperament, or see that person in the garden and think of hard work and sacrifice.  I think symbols often carry ancestral meaning but that doesn't mean that each individual connects with every symbol in that way.  
When you feel like playing with your cards begins to flowing a little easier start practicing reading.  Figure on a way you can make it fun and not a test of if your right or wrong.  Pull a couple of cards in the morning and look at them what kind of feel does the day have ahead?  Look at the cards together does a story start to come out of the combination of them or do they feel like separate instances?  Is there a particular symbol, number, color, etc that pops out more then others?  What do you associate with it.  Take some notes on it and put it away.  Go through your normal day and before you go to bed look at what you wrote.  Did it fit with things that happened in your day?  Did you possibly avoid something that was in the cards because you saw it before hand and didn't like the direction?  Make sure to give yourself a pat on the back whenever you find that you have picked up on something, and don't worry if something doesn't seem to fit.  Remember that we are creatures that have freewill, the decisions we make and the way we deal with the world aren't set in stone so often times when some interpretation appears wrong it might be that it hasn't happened yet or that you changed a course of action and then therefore severed away from the path that you saw earlier.  You could have just listened to your psychic voice say "not that way".  
Next, start reading for other people.  Find friends and family that can take it as fun and that don't make you feel like you are being judged.  Remember to play!  The first reading I gave after I put away the books I told the person that I had never done it this way before and that I just wanted to try it out.  I took the pressure off.  I didn't worry that I was going to tell them something wrong or that I was going to sit there blocked and not know what to say, I just told them the story from the images I saw.  I let go of ego.  The reading felt more intense to me and flowed better then it ever did with the books.  And you know what, the person I read for said that it made sense.  Over time of doing this it will flow more easily, that psychic voice wants to come out but sometimes we block it for various reasons.  Sometimes the first step can be the hardest, and there can be times like working on any skill where you feel you move forward by leaps and bounds and times where you feel stagnant waiting for that skill to improve.  
The cards are just a conduit to allow your own psychic voice to come out they aren't the voice itself.  In that respect don't get frustrated if your psychic voice doesn't sing with tarot cards.  Maybe you need a different deck, or maybe your voice needs other mediums of divination like Runes, Ogham, Scrying, Augury, Pendulums, Crystals, or maybe yours doesn't like the tools and just wants you to quiet the mental chatter and listen.  So give your inner judge a lunch break, let the mental chatter take a little vacation, and tell the ego to pipe down for a little while and listen what is your intuition is saying to you.
 
Authors note:  I have been reading cards for over twenty years.  I started like most people wanting the mystical cards to tell me the future, but through my journey I found my psychic voice.  I still find the more I practice and the more I let go of ego and fear the more I can hear that voice.  If you enjoyed this entry and would like to discuss more aspects of the tarot or giving your sixth sense a workout to increase your psychic ability please comment on what area you are interested in looking at.  Some areas I have been thinking about writing on are: To reverse the cards or to not reverse the cards, tarot spreads how to create one that works for you, Psychic play, numbers and their symbolism, Creating a symbol diary, and are you an empath?  If any of those areas or something else in the are of psychic awareness interests you please let me know.  Thanks for reading!"