Tarot as Your Best Friend : A Simple Guide

I recently taught a mini class on self-care with the tarot.

I shared one of my favorite techniques for accessing a powerful and personal sacred space at any time and any where through the tarot. The class started off my early spring teaching season (I’m teaching again in person - yay! - be sure to reserve your spot) but it also got me thinking on other easy self-care tarot techniques that I could share with all of you, my amazing far-flung internet family. Because, apparently, I’m just writing about self-care these days (even my tarotscopes are checking in with me about it). Actually, a lot of folks are writing and teaching and sharing about self-care these days and I love it. It is so much easier to take back the streets and topple empires when you’ve had some lunch ahead of time. I thought about how else tarot can be used as a tool of self care and, thus, the following spread was born.

The Best Friend Tarot Spread is the you-affirming, pep-talk, I-love-all-of-you, empowering, weirdness-adoring and sovereignty-recognizing sort of hug-in-a-spread we all need right now.

It’s also really easy to cast because, bless, I don’t always have the energy after a long day to pull out my cards and tell myself an in-depth story. Which brings me to another element of my self-care tarot magick - ease. Let’s make it easy for ourselves for no other reason than we deserve things to be easy sometimes.

The easy part of the spread comes from the fact that it uses a mad-libs or fill-in-the-blank style interpretation guide which allows the cards to deliver their message as your esoterically-inclined best friend. So let's begin!

Make yourself some tea, coffee, hot cocoa, iced lemonade or delicious drink of choice. Put on something comfortable and find a cozy spot to cast cards. Center yourself and shuffle your deck in the usual way. 

For the Best Friend Tarot Spread you’ll be casting three cards. Instead of the cards answering a particular question, they will be filling in the blank of the following sentence (aka best friend style pep talk):

You have the incredible gift of {card 1}.
Remember to {card 2},
so that you can {card 3}.

Now, you can choose the cards at random or you can turn the deck face-up and choose whichever three cards jump out at you (If choosing face up scares you a bit, you should go for it. Get your vulnerable on and sink into your power). I also suggest only using the Major Arcana for the spread if you’re experiencing some big life feels and need deep support. For those of you on my Magick Mail list, you’ll receive a keyword guide for the Major Arcana next month that you can use to help you complete the sentences.

If you have a friend that needs some cheering up, offering to do this spread for them can be a tender way of showing support. 

That’s it. Sweet, simple, and you-affirming. If you're looking for more tarot inspiration, head this way. Be sure to share the pep talks you received in the comments below and remember to be gentle with your heart - just like your best friend would.