“All of us have a ‘psychic muscle’, but we are taught not to depend on it, and not to use it. However, we can retrain ourselves to use it.” My first Tarot teacher, Sona, said these words to me during our first meeting, when I asked whether someone like me could learn to read Tarot Cards. Those words have stayed with me all my life.

Since then, the Tarot Cards have gently guided me along the path of rediscovering, trusting, and improving my intuitive abilities and strengthening my psychic muscle. Today, let’s talk about how you can also learn to use and strengthen your psychic muscles with the help of your Tarot Cards.

Remember that one weird time when you were thinking about your friend, and then she called you? Or how about that time when you just had a weird feeling about something that you just had to do, and that ended up saving you from a bunch of trouble later on? Or how about the ‘bad’ feeling you got when you met someone new, and then this person turned out to be someone you wish you had never met?

We’ve all experienced situations like that. And to put it technically, these are nothing but bursts of ‘Intuition‘ that kinda warned you in advance about what was going to happen. I suppose another technical term for this would be ‘Prescience‘ (the ability to have knowledge of events before they take place).

I have written about Intuition before, and kinda touched on the topic of how the Tarot cards spark off bursts of intuition while we do readings. And that’s where we talked about the term ‘Psychic Muscle‘.

Some Disclaimers

When I say the word ‘Psychic ’, I don’t mean it in a woo-woo, hokey kind of way. I mean it in a very logical, sensible, understandable and easily achievable way.

And while I am at it, let me also say: I don’t have some weird ESP thing going on in my life. But I do have some of the above-mentioned weird moments off and on, and I have these ‘feelings’ about people most of the time that come true, etc. And I wasn’t born this way – but started to experience more such moments (especially when I need them the most) after I really got into the Tarot cards.

What do I mean by ‘Psychic Muscle’?

Honestly, this term sums up what I am going to talk about. There is no actual muscle in your body that is called a Psychic Muscle. Instead, what we are talking about is actually the Psychic Ability that is going to be strengthened.

The human body has several muscles. If these muscles are used, stretched, and exercised, they stay fit and perform at their best. In fact, over a period of time, good maintenance of these muscles can even increase their abilities.

So is the case with your Psychic Abilities. If you use them, exercise them, and stretch them once in a while, and do this pretty regularly, not only will you get these abilities to work for you, but you will also see an increase in their performance.

So when we combine the whole analogy together, we have the term ‘Psychic Muscle’.

Your ‘Psychic Muscle’ basically talks about your ability to have knowledge of some events or situations before they happen. And yes, we all have this ‘muscle’. All you need to do is exercise it regularly and see the results! Take it from a once-big-time-skeptic who changed her mind once she experienced it; this thing really works!

Tarot Cards and the Psychic, Intuitive Stuff

As I mentioned in my article about Intuition, working with the Tarot cards can be a very good way to spark off the intuitive capabilities that are present within us. The images on the cards can spark off your mind’s visual centers, and let you into the realm of the unconscious mind. Once there, you’re open to receiving this kind of information.

Reading with the cards can also help you learn to trust your ‘gut feelings’ or Intuitive abilities in a more logical manner – because you can more often than not link these intuitive insights to the pictures on the cards.

When you lay the cards out in a spread, you see a lot of cards in front of you. Taken individually, each card tells us something. Together, they form an intricate tapestry of pictures woven to tell a story—a snapshot of a situation from all possible angles, if you will. And this is how these insights or intuitions tell us of a possible situation in that much detail.

So, how does one actually use the Tarot cards to strengthen the ‘Psychic Muscle’?

There are a bunch of exercises that you can do to get the hang of it. Let’s get right down to it then.

Exercises for Your Psychic Muscle with the Tarot Cards

There are a couple of exercises you can do with your Tarot cards which will start sparking off these strange ‘Psychic’ moments in your life.

Psychic Muscle Awakening Exercise: What’s going to Happen Next?

This is a pretty straightforward exercise. For this, you need to have a Tarot card deck handy with you at most times. (Not very convenient, I know). And you need a moment or two alone.

Here’s what you do: just before you go somewhere or do something – like say you are heading out to meet your friends, or you are going to a new place, etc., just do a 3-card reading while asking the cards what is going to happen at the place, or in the situation. Don’t take the cards too seriously for this particular reading. Just make a note of the cards you drew. Because this is a very short-term reading, the cards might be very literal in their story. You’ll get a glimpse, a picture/snapshot that the cards might be trying to show you.

Later, when you have finished the meeting or are done visiting the place you were supposed to go to, see whether the cards and the situation matched up. If required, make a note of it in your journal.

Things might either make sense right away, or may take a while to become clearer. Spend a bit of time with this exercise, and you might notice that you will be able to predict the card you might pull out right before you do the spread, or before you go into a situation or to a place.

Behind the scenes, you are tuning into the energy of your Unconscious mind, and it is revealing things to you a little before they happen.

Psychic Muscle Strengthening Exercise: What’s the Card for this Situation?

This exercise is really intense. You need to really have a decent know-how of the cards’ pictures for this one.

If you need to, spend some time with your deck getting to know the pictures so that you can close your eyes and picture the card in your mind whenever you want.

The next time you go somewhere or do something, here’s what I want you to do: take a mental snapshot of the situation or place, and try to find which card fits it.

This will give you a lot of links between places, situations, and the cards. This is a pretty much in-the-background but ongoing exercise you can do whenever you want. All you need is a moment to yourself.

Over time, you will notice a change. You will start seeing the images of a card or two pop into your mind either a bit before a situation manifests itself, or perhaps a few days in advance.

Sounds spooky? Well, it’s not. It’s just that your mind is now tuning into the Unconscious realm more easily than before. While you were doing the exercise in a very conscious manner, you were actually exercising your Psychic Muscle!

Exercising your Psychic Muscle: What Happens Next?

What happens next is pretty exciting. This powerful energy keeps expanding over into other areas of your life.

Remember, the cards or this kind of Psychic Ability is a direct result of your expectations from it. So if you don’t want to know the day-to-day, regular stuff even before it happens, then your Psychic Muscle won’t bug you that way. It all depends on your frame of mind when you approach this ‘Muscle’.

Personally, I prefer a little bit of the unexpected in my life – except, of course, when it is going to cause me problems. That’s my mindset. So my Psychic Muscle only kicks in when it is required, and the rest of the time, it just remains in the background.

Your Turn

Did you try these exercises to enhance your Psychic Muscle? What effect did they have on you? Do you have some other exercises to help improve the Psychic Muscle? Do you have any experiences about how your intuition showed up in the strangest of ways and at the most opportune times?

I would love to hear about your exercises and experiences in the comments below.