Tarot Self-Empowerment Techniques: A Tarot Vacation

When doing a Tarot reading for ourselves, we often find that the chatter of our hopes and fears invariably intrudes. Because of this, it is important to find out how we can silence the voice of our rational mind long enough to enable us to hear our intuitive wisdom. To enable you to do that, I have created a variety of non-divinatory techniques for using Tarot cards to empower you to create the future you want. Here is one that I call “A Tarot Vacation.”

Note: Before reading this, you might want to read my introduction to Tarot Self-Empowerment Techniques.

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Do you need a vacation, but you don’t have the time or finances to go on a cruise in the Caribbean, go skiing in the Alps, or just lie in the sun on Waikiki beach? A mini vacation using your Tarot cards may not be the same thing, but it can be fun and relaxing enough to tide you over until you are able to get away for a real vacation.

For this process, you will be choosing several cards using your intuitive reaction to them. Thus, for each choice you should look through your deck, cards face up, as fast as you can, relying on your gut reactions (versus a reasoned analysis) to pull cards that feel right.

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STEP 1: A traveling companion

A vacation is often more fun when you have someone with whom to share it, someone you like and whose company you enjoy. Consequently, the first step is to choose a card that depicts someone with whom you would like to take a vacation. (This step is optional. If you are the type of person who likes to take a vacation alone, ignore this step and all mention of a companion in the subsequent visualization process.)  People often choose a court card for this, but it certainly can be any card in the deck.

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STEP 2: A destination

Next you will need to choose a destination for your vacation, so go through your deck and select one to three cards that suggest a place where you would like to go on a vacation. This may turn out to be a real location, or it can be a fictional or mythical place; it can be a place that existed in the past, it may still exist now, or it could even be a location that does not yet exist.

If you have chosen more than one card as your destination, you can arrange these cards in some order that depicts a scene to you. For example, say you chose the Nine of Pentacles, Three of Wands, and Four of Wands from the RWS deck. You might arrange them in this order: Three of Wands, Four of Wands, Nine of Pentacles. This might depict the following scene:

There is a festival in progress at a castle that is built on a hillside. A short walk from this castle brings you to a cliff overlooking a bay where boats are sailing on sun-glistened water. If you walk a short distance in another direction from the castle, you will come to a lush garden where grape vines grow and a soft breeze brings you the sweet scent of the season’s first crush at a nearby winery.

Note that you also can use this particular step to help you decide where to go on a real vacation if such a choice is up in the air.

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STEP 3: Get acquainted

Before you set off on this Tarot vacation, you will want to get to know your traveling companion better. To do this, first relax as completely as you can. Then closely examine the card that represents your companion. Describe him or her physically and consider what kind of person he or she seems to be. For example, what is his general temperament and personality? Is he excitable, passionate, quick to anger, or romantic? Is he intelligent, witty, charming, or adventurous? What is he thinking right now? What is he feeling?

Then consider how you expect the two of you to interact with each other. For example, will you be traveling as friends, or do you think there will be some romantic interest as well?

Now you are going to do a guided visualization with this card. Once you have put yourself fully into this card, approach the figure in it that you want for a traveling companion. (Do not be concerned if she or he changes appearance from what was originally depicted in the card. This happens occasionally.) Tell him or her where you two are going on vacation, and enter into a conversation about it. For example, you might want to ask her for suggestions as to what to do on this vacation. Or you can ask her if there is anything else she wants to tell you in preparation for going on this vacation together. Your conversation may cover these and other topics.

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STEP 4: Bon Voyage

Now turn your attention to the destination card (or cards) that you chose. If you selected more than one card, choose one of them now to be the primary focus of your trip. Make a careful examination of all the cards you picked, but the focus card will be the one you will initially enter in the guided visualization.

Now do the guided visualization with this card. Once you have successfully entered it, move around the scene and examine anything to which your attention is drawn. As you acclimatize to this setting, imagine your traveling companion joining you, and then continue to explore the scene with him or her. As you see anything or any place of interest, investigate, explore, and experience it. (Remember to travel to the scenery in the other destination cards, if you picked more than one such card.)

As you do all of this, feel free to talk to your companion about what you both are doing. For example, does he or she have any suggestions about other places to explore or other things to do where you are? When you encounter other people, interact with them if you want to. It can be diverting and illuminating to talk to them and to do things with them. They may take you to unexpected places or have interesting comments about where you are and what you are doing. Also, do you see any fun souvenirs that you want to bring back with you? This may be something you find, something you buy somewhere, or a gift from someone you encounter.

When you feel you have seen everything you want to see and done everything you want to do, exit this card as described in my “Tarot Visualization” blog post.

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STEP 5: Thanks for the memories.

This step will help cement the experience of this vacation into your memory, making it seem more real and long lasting.

After you have taken this Tarot vacation, jot down notes about what happened, such as:

• Where did you go?
• What was it like there?
• What did you do there?
• Whom did you meet?
• What souvenirs did you get, if any?

You may also want to consider the significance of any of these things, especially in the context of this experience. Your unconscious mind has just taken you on a little trip, and maybe it tried to give you insights or messages in a symbolic form along the way.

If you are at all artistically inclined, you may want to make a quick sketch of one of the scenes you visited. If you do that, post it somewhere (perhaps on your refrigerator) to remind you of your vacation. Alternatively, you can post the destination card that you chose. Either your sketch or the card itself can be like a postcard that you brought back from your vacation.

Note that you can revisit this vacation spot any time you want to. You may want to explore other parts of the scene that you did not get to see, or further explore areas that you did go to. You can also visit your traveling companion to discuss your experiences on this vacation. To do either of these things, just do another guided visualization into the destination card or the companion card.

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Feel free to modify this procedure as the inspiration strikes. This Tarot Vacation is intended to be enjoyable, so have fun with the process as well. The following are a couple of modifications to the procedure that you might want to consider.

First, in “Step 1: A traveling companion,” I noted that you do not have to chose and include a companion if you tend to be a solitary traveler. However, if you are a very gregarious sort of person, you might want several friends to accompany you on this Tarot vacation trip, instead of just one. In that case, feel free to chose several cards in that step. If you do, you may either repeat “STEP 3: Get acquainted” for each companion, or you can do one all-encompassing visualization to meet and get to know all of your new friends at once.

Next, considering that there often are surprises on a vacation, you can use a Tarot card to add a bit of the unexpected to your Tarot vacation. Before you begin the guided visualization into your destination card, you can randomly deal yourself a card to represent a “surprise” card. Just keep the image of this card in the back of your mind as you set out on this Tarot vacation. Then at some point during the visualization, recall this card and consider it for a moment to see what unforeseen development it adds to your vacation. For example, the Strength card might bring a circus to town in the midst of your vacation, it may mean that a lion will wander into the scene, or it might indicate that you will meet a strong, beautiful woman. Just let the image on this card evoke whatever experience it will, and it can bring an unexpected twist to your Tarot vacation.

The Tarot card images on this post are from my RWS 2.0 deck.

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