Six ways to work with Tarot cards that scare the shit out of us

Photo by guille pozzi on Unsplash

On the morning of February 22nd, 2022 around 3am, I sat on our couch with my Tarot deck pressed up against my heart. It was the morning of our daughter’s scheduled c-section, and I was taking a moment to pray and tune in with my deck before we headed to the hospital. I asked my deck a rare future-based question, which was “What does this postpartum period have in store for me?,” and I pulled The Tower. I remember staring at it, willing myself not to know what every part of me knew intuitively, which was that my postpartum period was going to be quite the turbulent initiation – which was correct on all fronts, to say the least. 

I knew (and know) that no Tarot cards are bad, that all of them bring medicine – especially The Tower. I’ve been through so many Tower seasons in my life, and I so wholeheartedly appreciate its gifts. I know that The Tower can be gentle as well as fierce. I knew all of that intellectually, but I was still so frightened of The Tower on that morning. It rippled such fear into me, in fact, that it took over a year to clear out the charged response and hyper vigilance that automatically arose in me when it would pop up in subsequent readings for myself. I was so vulnerable and so worried about how postpartum would be for me mentally and physically, and it just wasn’t the card I wanted to see at that moment. 

I share this because 1) I think it’s important to be honest and transparent as a reader and teacher that I struggle and wrestle with my own stuff related to the Tarot just like you presumably do, and 2) I’d like to share how one can gently navigate periods of fear, worry, trepidation, or even scary associations around Tarot cards – moments when we have a lot of fear about a card, or we pull a card and some major shit goes down in our lives. How can we begin to trust that it’s safe to pull that card again? How do we separate the card from that event? Can we do so at all? 

Here are six gentle, accessible ways to work with Tarot cards that scare the shit out of us: