My Tarot Depth Year Practices

Above:  Funny tarot episode on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 2, Ep 4

One of my hobbies is tarot. A couple years ago I was inspired by this post by Benebell Wen about the possibility of a Tarot Depth Year. Like a lot of people who are into tarot, I get easily distracted by new decks and books, and prior to my tarot depth year commitment, I found myself merely skimming the surface of excellent tarot books and decks. 

This idea of a depth year for my tarot practice seemed like a great step not necessarily towards mastery, but being satisfied and engaged with what I do have: breaking a bit of the perpetual cycle of consumption, and deepening my connection and experiences using resources right at my fingertips.

I've done a tarot depth year in 2019, 2020, and now again for 2021. I'm sharing my practices here as I've found it to be quite successful in that I'm entertained, furthering my skills, and just generally enjoying this newish way of engaging with this hobby of mine. While I'm using the example of tarot, I'm sure a lot of my suggestions below could go towards other hobbies like crafting or gardening, etc.

Overall practices

  • The key: I work with just one tarot deck or oracle deck for an entire month so I can really immerse myself in the deck's imagery and general experience
  • I usually pick a few of my tarot books to read or re-read in a year (one book per quarter has been a good target for me) 
  • I personally do a tarot card for every week from my deck of the month, which I frame and put in a place I see often to focus on its lessons and intentions
Pulling cards
  • I might either do a card of the day challenge or just generally pull a card every day
  • If I don't do a card every day, I usually do a new moon spread, full moon spread, and, if applicable, a spread honouring a turn of the wheel of the year (Imbolc spread, Summer Solstice spread, etc)
  • Sometimes I will also create a ritual around the cards!
Study
  • For my deck of the month, I pick out the Majors, each minor suit, Court cards and study  them (i.e. just look at them and jot down any notes or observations that come to mind)
  • As I go through the deck, I will pick out a card or two in particular that caught my eye this time through, and read the definition of one or two tarot books I have other than the guide that comes with the deck (ex, if my DOTM is Tarot in Wonderland, I will read the guidebook's meaning of 5 of Cups, then consult Liz Worth's Going Beyond the Little White Book and Cassandra Snow's Queering the Tarot)
  • A tip: for reading tarot books, set a timed goal. For me, I read 10 mins of my given tarot book every morning first thing before I check my emails, etc
  • Pick an exercise - using my Deck of the Month I will pick a couple exercises to try from a tarot book (and all tarot books suggest exercises, whether it be journalling on certain questions for a given card, visualization exercises, etc)

More on Tarot on the yak occidental

Tarot, Magic, and Racism: A Brief Directory


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