Safely Awaken Your Intuition For Accurate Tarot Readings

Many who practise divinatory tarot reading can struggle to distinguish the quiet voice of true intuition from the clamour of their own thoughts, feelings, and psychic impressions. This guide provides a step-by-step method for discerning this difference.

The Foundation: Distinguishing the Voices

Before you can develop intuition, you must first learn to distinguish it from its close cousin: instinct. They are two distinct faculties that operate on different planes.

The Power of Instinct

When I was a toddler, instinct saved my life. Not my own instinct but that of my father's.

We had been eating on cushions at a riverside restaurant built with wooden decking - there were no barriers to the water.

One moment I was exploring the decking above this water, the next I had fallen in below. Instantly, my father dove to save me against the whirlpool currents that threatened my survival.

He went into that murky water fully clothed and emerged within seconds, my life literally in his hands. His instinct saved my life.

Instinct is a powerful intelligence of the physical body. But it is not mysterious. My father found me without seeing me because his physical brain correctly estimated where I was and then told his body where to go.

The Power of Intuition

We have all had times when a mysterious inner voice told us to do something that had no rational explanation.

Imagine you are driving alone on a motorway. You are supposed to turn left at the intersection, but this inner voice tells you to continue straight. You find this strange but do it anyway because the feeling was compelling. A few minutes later, you turn on the local radio and hear of a large accident in the left lane you would have been in, at the exact minute you would have entered it.

Your intuition just saved your life. Unlike instinct, this event has no physical explanation. It cannot be dismissed as worry, as there was no rational reason to be worried. The only possible dismissal is coincidence, but that provides no explanation for why you would receive the inner voice in the first place. This example is compelling proof of a mysterious faculty that exists beyond the physical senses. That faculty is intuition.

The Core Practice: A Step-by-Step Method

Intuition is a natural ability of the higher mind. Yet if you are like most people, it is not very often at all that such dramatic and undeniable instances of intuitive insight actually occur. In occultism, we say this is chiefly because the higher mind, the vehicle of the intuition, is latent in most people.

So one part of intuitive development is awakening this second mind. Couple this with the issue mentioned earlier of the lower mind's inteference, and we have identified the two main problems that prevent us from reading tarot intuitively.

Step 1: Quieting the Lower Self

The first task is to gain conscious control over the sources of interference. This is not about destroying the lower self, but about training it to be a quiet and willing servant to the higher. This requires discipline and consistent practice.

Practical Exercises:

• Meditation: The foundation of all magical work. Begin with simple exercises. For example, sit comfortably and focus your entire attention on the slow, steady rhythm of your own breath for five minutes. When a thought arises, simply acknowledge it and gently return your focus to the breath. This practice, done consistently, builds the mental muscle needed to control your thoughts.

• Moral Development: The practice of traditional virtues like temperance, fortitude, and justice is essential. A conscious choice to regulate your appetites and emotional responses reduces the power of the lower self. To use a radio analogy, this lessens the ‘static and interference’ that distorts the ‘signal’ of intuition.

• Physical Relaxation: Learn to consciously relax your body. Lie down and systematically bring your awareness to each part of your body, from your toes to your head, and consciously release any tension you find. The goal is to reach a state where the body is so still that its physical sensations no longer distract the mind.

Step 2: Awakening The Higher Mind

Once the lower self is quiet, the second task is to create the conditions for the higher self to be heard. This is not a forceful act, but an aspirational one. It is about turning your attention upwards, towards the Divine.

Practical Exercises:

• The Practice of Earnest Prayer: This is the most direct method. Prayer is not merely asking for things; it is the act of aligning your consciousness with the Divine. Regular, sincere prayer, undertaken with a selfless intention, creates an "attunement" that makes you more receptive to the guidance of the Divine Soul.

• Mystical or Religious Devotion: Regular engagement with sacred texts, devotional practices, or the contemplation of divine principles "inflames the soul with prayer," as the old magicians would say. It creates a powerful upward aspiration that helps to awaken the latent faculties of the higher self.

The Limits of Intuition

The higher mind, being trapped in the matter of the astral realms, means its intuitive insights are distorted. This is especially true when it accesses the astral light (for our purposes: a fragmentary storehouse of all past, present and future) during divinatory tarot reading.

This means that, even with an awakened higher mind, there is an additional practice necessary. It was not mentioned earlier because it is a lifelong practice beyond the scope of direct tarot divination.

This practice is the purification of the soul, also known as theurgy. It is through theurgy that we can break the soul out of its material shackles and lead it towards realms which provide us with truly Divine insight. The Greeks called this the difference between psyche (the individual, mortal soul) and pneuma (the universal, immortal spirit).

Conclusion

The development of intuition, then, is a far more profound practice than is commonly understood. It is not merely a matter of discerning psychic visions from the higher mind from the wishful thinking of the lower. It is the beginning of the journey of knowing thyself.

That ultimate path of theurgy and soul purification requires a dedicated spiritual teacher, which I am not. My role is different. I teach the practical art of divinatory tarot reading. It is a powerful tool, an adjunct to your own spiritual work, that allows you to serve others along your journey.