This is the last article in my series about ‘Connecting with your Tarot cards’. In this article, we are going to look at a very intense and interesting exercise technique where we enter a Tarot card.

This is yet another exercise that will really connect you to your Tarot cards on a very deep level.

This exercise will help you completely immerse yourself into the image of the card, and help you communicate with your inner energies that are a reflection of this card.

So, lets go ahead and find out how to get this exercise going.

Connecting with your Tarot cards requires you to really bond with your Tarot card. In fact, if you’ve noticed, there is a pattern to the four exercises I have discussed in this series.

[singlepic id=30 w=320 h=240 float=left]Journaling requires you to write down your impressions of the card. The Card-A-Day exercise helps you experience the energies of the card on the outer levels. The Storytelling exercise helps you imagine and fantasize and get super creative with the card elements, helping you bridge the gap between imagination and creativity, and imagination and intuition. And this final exercise, the Entering the Tarot card is a very deeply immersive exercise where you will come face to face with and communicate with the different elements of the card.

Thus, you will be putting yourself through the following four stages:

1. Expression (Journaling)
2. Experience (Card A Day)
3. Imagination (Storytelling)
4. Immersion (Entering the Card)

This way, you will really get an all-round connection with your Tarot cards.

Before you proceed, you will also need to select your card. Again, you can either proceed in a straight-line fashion or just randomly select a card for this exercise.

Lets find out what you will need to get this process going for you.

What You Will Need

In order to do this exercise you will need to set aside a bit of time where you won’t be disturbed.

• Switch off your cellphone and put your home phone on voicemail.
• Shut off your e-mail and FaceBook etc.
• Make sure that pets, children, friends and other people etc. won’t disturb you.

In short, make sure that you won’t be disturbed in any way possible.

• Then if you like, you can put on some very light meditative music – something that has no words in it that can distract you.
• You can even light up some incense if that gets you in a meditative zone.
• Make sure you have your notebook, pen / pencil or audio recording device nearby.

You will need to have it handy after you’ve finished your meditation in order to record what you saw and experienced. This is very important because you should record everything right after you have experienced it – so that you don’t leave out or forget stuff.

Entering A Tarot card – The Meditation Exercise

Once you’ve got that set up, here is what you need to do:

• Either lie down or sit comfortably in a chair.
• Once you are comfortable, hold your selected card in front of you and look at it. Look at each and every aspect of the card’s image. Note the colors, the landscape, the scenery, the elements within the picture, the animals, the birds, the people – everything. 
• Now close your eyes, and visualize the card’s image in front of your eyes. This step might take some time for some people – but don’t give up.
  • If you can’t see the picture clearly, look at the card once again for a few minutes and then try visualizing it again.
• Make sure you can visualize all the different things and elements within the card’s picture.
• Open your eyes for a bit, and double check if you’ve got all the stuff correctly.
• Close your eyes, and visualize the card once again.
• Now visualize that the card is getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
• At a point, this card becomes a little bigger than you.
• Now this card becomes a portal or a doorway – you can step right through it and enter the picture.
• Go right in the picture and look around you for a few seconds.
• Experience the sights, sounds and smells of the card: is it warm or cold? Does it smell nice? Do you hear anything? Notice everything.
• Now, slowly start walking towards the person that is there in the card.
• Greet that person, and thank him / her for having you visit.
• Have a little chat with that person – ask him whatever you want to know about the card. Ask him your questions. Clear your doubts.
• Once you’ve had a brief chat with him / her, thank him / her for all the information that he / she has given you.
• Ask him / her if it is ok for you to visit him / her later on.
• Now, turn around and slowly come back to the place where you started.
• See the boundary of the card and step out of it.
• Visualize the card slowly becoming smaller and smaller and smaller till it becomes so small that it fits into your hand.
• Take a few minutes and then slowly open your eyes.
• Take a minute to reorient yourself, and then quickly write down or audio record all that you saw, talked about, heard, and experienced.

In this entire exercise, you will essentially have communicated with the energy of the card that resides within your subconscious. As such, this is a very immersive and deep meditative exercise, and can help you forge a very intense connection with your cards.

Show and Tell

Believe me, I have had some really intense experiences with some of the cards that I have entered in such a fashion. Below, I am reproducing the stuff I wrote when I entered The Fool card.

The Fool

It is nice and warm, but a cool wind is also blowing. Not so cool that it would make me shiver, but its nice.

I am at the edge of a cliff and I can see that it’s a real long way down. The air is clear and the day is bright and sunny. Suddenly I feel very exhilarated and scared at the same time. There is a little white dog sitting around and looking at me. Suddenly, the little doggy starts jumping around excitedly.

I turned around to see him (The Fool guy) come out of the cave. He is dressed exactly like he is shown in the card – the funny dress with the pentacles, the laurel wreath with the red feather. And he also has his stick with the bag on it.

He walks up and pets the dog for a bit, and then looks at me.

Before I could say “Hello” or “How do you do”, this guy takes off the bag from the stick and gives it to me.

“Here, hold this,” he says. I am dumbfounded, and I do as I am told. The next moment, he just grabs me by my waist and pulls me close to him. He holds his stick high up and twirls it. It transforms into an umbrella. He then flicks it open.

Holding me close, he just jumps off of the cliff.

I start to scream.

He is smiling.

He keeps on smiling.

Eventually I stop screaming.

We aren’t just falling headlong. The stick-converted-to-umbrella contraption is acting like a parachute. We’re just floating along.

I look around me and then below.

“The trick is not to look down,” he says. I look at him. He is smiling at me.

“Don’t be scared. Look around you. Sometimes, the journey is more fun than the destination.”

I look around.

The scenery is so amazing from up here. Truly, if he hadn’t told me, I would’ve really missed this sight.

I see a little town in the distance and a forest and a whole bunch of fields.

Just as I am beginning to get a hang of it, we slowly land – very softly – onto some really green grass.

He flicks the umbrella again, and it turns back into a stick. I realize I am holding his bag so I start to give it back to him.

“Nah! Its your bag,” he says, “I have mine right here,” and he pulls out another bag from nowhere and plants it back on his stick and starts walking away.

I start to follow him.

He stops and turns around.

“Don’t follow me now. You’re close to your destination.”

Then he points me towards the little town, and says, “See there? That’s where you have to go.”

The whole time I am so dumbfounded and speechless! I just couldn’t open my mouth and speak! (How stupid and weird of me!)

But finally something comes out of my mouth…

“But where are you going?”

“I am going where I am supposed to be going, and you my dear, will go where you are supposed to go. Don’t follow. That’s not what you’re meant to be doing. Find your own way – you always will – and you will always reach where you were supposed to reach.”

I turn back to go towards the city.

“And remember,” he shouts to me, “once you’ve enjoyed the journey, the destination becomes meaningless!”

And off he went!

I began walking towards the town.

Soon the card border appeared and I came out of the card.

It is astonishing to note also that the experience left a very deep impression on me as well. Before this exercise I was always full of doubts about any new thing that I wanted to start. I always questioned myself and thought and planned, but could never really start what I had intended to do. Giving in to such impulses was very, very difficult for a die-hard Capricorn like me.

However, after this meditation, I found it easier to let go of my doubts and ease off on myself. I found that I could easily just plan a few steps ahead (can’t avoid that!) and then just take the leap and begin what I wanted to do.

This Process Was Inspired By…

This book is really amazing for those among us who want to study the cards and read for ourselves as well. You can read my review of this book over here. Chock full of exercises and practical tips, this book really helped me go deep with my understanding of how the cards interact with each other as well.

Your Turn…

Have you tried this exercise? What were your experiences? Did you really get close to this card? Did this process help you connect better with your chosen Tarot card? Are there any other things that you added into the steps to personalize the meditation process?

Please do share your thoughts and experiences and suggestions in the comments section below.