Liz Worth ~ Tarot + Astrology

One of the most common questions I get asked in my tarot classes is, “Should I be pulling a card a day for practice?”

I don’t assign daily draws and sometimes that makes people nervous. The practice has become so common that a lot of newer readers are under the impression that it’s a universal habit.

This isn’t to say I’m against daily draws entirely. I, too, was given the advice to pull one card a day, and did for a good long time when I was first learning tarot. I still have journals that I kept from that period, where I would record my daily card and the thoughts and ideas it inspired within me.

But I also came to see tarot differently as time went on. Which is what happens when you do tarot over a long stretch of time. Your relationship to it changes. You start to see new angles to it. And sometimes your old ways of doing things no longer fit the way they used to.

One of the biggest shifts for me came when I stopped looking at my tarot deck as...

What is the hardest question you’ve had to answer as a tarot reader?

In the time that I’ve been reading for other people, I’ve had my fair share of difficult questions.

Difficult, of course, is subjective.

Some people find questions like, “Is my ex coming back?” challenging because they are yes or no questions with an emotional charge to them.

Others find predictive questions difficult because their tarot reading style is less focused on the future and more on the present.

Tarot readers are always defining the boundaries of their work, and determining the best ways they can use tarot.

When I was starting out as a professional reader, there was a common piece of advice out there to turn down readings that didn’t feel like a good fit for your work.

There have only been a few times that I’ve turned people down, however. Sometimes, clients will come for tarot readings needing a type of support that just isn’t possible through tarot. Or,...

How do you know you’re ready to read tarot for others?

How do you know you’re ready to start charging for your readings?

How do you know you’re ready to accept that invitation to read at your friend’s party, or to give a talk about tarot at your local bookstore?

These are all questions that you will likely have about tarot at some point in your journey. When I started learning tarot, I knew I wanted to be able to read for other people. I didn’t know right away that this was something I wanted to do professionally (that came later), but I did want to be able to give readings that were intuitive, insightful, and accurate.

Knowing where you want to go with tarot, even in the short-term, is important, because it gives you a goal to work towards. When you know what you’re aiming for, you can focus your studies and practices in a way that will build towards that result.

But what often happens along the way is that it can be hard to know when...

A lot of people ask me how I transitioned into professional tarot reading.

Everyone gets here in their own way. For me, the leap happened in 2015 when I was working at a national non-profit.

My five-year work anniversary was coming up later that year. A few of my co-workers had already celebrated similar work milestones that year. We had stood around a grim boardroom with slices of cake sitting precariously on paper plates.

All year, I kept thinking to myself, “I really don’t want to be working here by the time my five-year party rolls around.”

I was burned out and disillusioned, and I knew that I had to get out.

I’d been doing tarot part-time on the side, reading at parties and taking on private clients when I had time. I felt strongly that tarot was something I was supposed to be doing, and I wanted to make more space in my life to offer more readings to more people.

The only problem was that my day job took so much out of me that I had no idea how I would...

When you start reading tarot for other people, you quickly realize that a lot of questions people have revolve around the same few categories:

Work.

Relationships.

Money and security.

Focus and contentment.

And just as often, we can find ourselves asking variations of these same questions when we’re reading on our own.

It’s something that I’ve been asked about a lot over the last few years:

“How can I take my readings deeper? What else should I be asking about?”

And, “What can I do to get my querents thinking differently, too?”

I used to feel the same way.

But I’ve come to appreciate these “mundane” questions, and I encourage you to try to, too.

Because one thing I have come to realize is that these questions are what life is about: No matter what it is we are trying to achieve in our personal lives, many of us share common fears and desires at the end of the day.

Everyone wants to feel love, and be loved.

Everyone needs a...

Before I get into this week’s newsletter, let’s take a moment to check in:

How are you doing?

There is such a whirlwind of energy in the collective right now that it’s been feeling hard, for me at least, to pinpoint where a lot of us are at. It seems many of us are cycling through contradictory bursts of feelings and thoughts moment by moment: Optimistic one minute, worried the next.

Life feels brimming with possibility in so many ways. As people return back to more in-person events and community gatherings and travel plans, there is a sense of gaining momentum. And when there are things to look forward to, life feels OK. Even if the days in between aren’t always easy, anticipation of good things to come is a strong remedy.

But as the pace of life is picking up for many, there are so many stressors, too. I won’t list them all: We are all capable of naming our own worries and fears.

But I wanted to check in. To say hello. To let you know that I am a real...

Tarot and intuition seem to go hand in hand: At least that’s what a lot of us are told when we start working with the cards.

But finding the synergy between an intuitive hit and following the cards as you’ve learned them can be a steep learning curve as a tarot reader.

Maybe you’ve found yourself wondering that very thing: “When should I go with the basic meaning, and when should I go with my first impression instead?”

Sometimes what sits behind this question is the fear of getting a reading wrong by going too off track with your interpretation.

I don’t think there’s a perfect answer or pat solution to this: Sometimes, you just have to be willing to go out on a limb with your interpretation to see if it resonates. Practice, experimentation, and patience go a long way to building your relationship with the cards.

Of course, what works for me may be different for someone else – intuition has its own ways of manifesting within each of us....

I don’t know about you, but I have been caught up in a flurry of activity these last few months. When life feels like it’s just go, go, go, it’s easy to forget to check in with yourself. When there is a lot to do, we can end up in reactive mode sometimes, just going through the motions in order to check off our to-do lists.

But I get out of sorts in all kinds of ways if I don’t take – or make – a little bit of time to get back to my inner compass and see how I’m feeling about my present moment.

Taking that time allows me to reflect on whether I’m spending time on what I intended to. Outside of my tarot business, I’m a writer, and if you do anything creative you’ll know what I mean when I say that writing is (unfortunately) often one of the first things that falls off the radar when life gets hectic.

We owe it to ourselves to pause and ask: Am I forgetting something as I rush throughout the day?

I don’t mean forgetting...

Declaring yourself a tarot reader and officially offering your services can be an exciting and nerve-wracking experience.

Some readers take a long time to come out of the “tarot closet,” as the saying goes, and there can be a number of reasons for that: Lack of support, fear of judgement, or living in a religious community top the list.

But putting your stake in the ground and making tarot a visible part of your life can still be a challenge even if you are supported through the process.

No matter what your beginnings in tarot look like, tarot is a path that will continue to challenge you to define, clarify and uphold your boundaries every step of the way.

It will also push you to realize that you can’t sustain a business off of your social network alone – even if you have friends and family who are eager and excited to support you.

In fact, those close, enthusiastic relationships can bring their own sets of challenges when you start building your profile as...

I’ve recently been inspired by a tarot reader friend who has been doing big, deep-dive readings for himself each week to get a sense of what to prioritize in the days ahead.

I know it’s popular to pull a card a day, but sometimes that can feel like information overload with a lot to take in and not enough time to carry through on all of tarot’s messages.

I like the idea of a weekly tarot pull to set the tone for the week ahead. I find in general that I’m most effective and focused when I start off my week with a clear sense of my top priorities. A lot can happen in the span of a few days, but I can also waste a lot of time if I haven’t clearly identified what I need to be moving forward.

And these days, it feels like there is so much to do: I have new writing projects I want to make space for. I have my new Tarot Study Hall community to build upon. And I have been busy with the little vintage resale business my husband and I started last year.

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