Tarot Cards and Anxiety

Tarot cards have been used by people to help with anxiety. The advice from tarot cards can help people to deal with their mental health condition. There have been a lot of studies that show a relationship between anxiety and tarot cards. People have designed tarot spreads specifically dealing with anxiety.

Can Tarot Cards help with Anxiety?

I’d had my first ever deck of tarot cards for months before I even gave myself a reading and it was only a good few years later when I’d realised they might be able to help with my anxiety. I’ve had anxiety since I was a child and there were so many things that I tried to help me. A lot of the time I was told to repress my thoughts and feelings so that the anxiety didn’t bubble to the surface, but constant nightmares and panic attacks in school told me that that wasn’t the best of ideas. I was very surprised when my first therapist, when I was in university, didn’t laugh when I told him about my beliefs and relationship with spirituality and instead informed me of how helpful being in touch with your religion and lifestyle could be. That night was the first night that I used tarot cards to ask for advice about my anxiety. Not only was the reading entirely accurate, but it really helped me look at my anxiety in a different way.

Since then, I have used tarot to help me cope on the days where my anxiety flares up and I simply don’t know what to do. Anxiety is subjective, it presents itself in different ways for different people. For me, I sometimes wake up with a sudden sense of fear or dread over nothing in particular. Leaving the bed is scary at times, to the point where my partner has had to help me stand up. But sometimes just a simple tarot reading can help calm me slightly. It has happened where my reading has brought up an issue that appeared to be making me afraid from the depths of my subconscious. It is incredibly helpful when you can actually deal with what is influencing your anxiety, or at least being able to see it with clearer eyes. Another good idea is to draw a single card in the morning if you are feeling particularly anxious, this card can act as a reminder of a guardian watching over you or it can give you the simple advice that you need to cope with the day ahead.

How can I integrate tarot into my therapy exercises?

If you are seeing a therapist or counsellor for your condition, then you may have been given some exercises to try and help you gain back your control. Integrating tarot into these if you don’t feel comfortable doing a full tarot reading for yourself. You can even speak to your therapist and see if they have any suggestions for the integrations. One example is using tarot to help with breathing exercises. Gaining control of your breathing is something that I personally have found is essential when you are overcome with feelings of panic. To use tarot with breathing exercises, first, remove the major arcana. Shuffle the cards and every cycle of breath take a new card from the top of the pile. Using one of your senses, I prefer to use smell, imagine the image that you see on the card. Maybe there are different flowers or perhaps some food and try to imagine smelling these things as you breathe in through your nose. Once you get the hang of this you can try and make this exercise a little stronger by trying to imagine a number of things that corresponds to the number on the card that you have drawn.

Why did people choose tarot cards to help with anxiety?

It is and always will be an individual’s choice as to whether and why they use tarot cards to help them with anxiety. However, once the mystical properties of these playing cards were discovered, I think it really was only a matter of time. Modern tarot cards have always been used to seek advice and guidance for things that have happened, are happening and are yet to happen. A lot of this advice is to deal with bad things that are happening and the implication that they could greatly help people suffering with conditions such as anxiety has always been there. Thankfully, anxiety has recently become a lot more well understood which means that people are more open minded to included tarot in therapeutic practices or simply as a daily boost.

Is there any Proof Tarot helps with Anxiety?

So far may think you’ve just read the rambling story of a mad woman, and honestly, I can’t blame you too much if you did think that. But before you dismiss everything you’ve read, there have actually been studies showing the effects that tarot can have on anxiety. As well as this there are countless blogs and stories out there of people with similar stories to my own. I know that this website discusses things that can nay be proved by science, but I still think that it is important and interesting to look at this topic from a psychological perspective. In 2005, Semetsky published a paper about the use of tarot cards in therapeutic practices. She found that not only did discussing tarot readings with clients help them with anxiety, but, that she formed stronger bonds with her patients and felt herself grow as a therapist. Personally, I think that that is pretty amazing. There are lots of other papers and studies looking at the psychoanalysis of tarot and whether or not you believe in their mystical properties, there is no denying the help that they have provided people with.

Are there specific tarot spreads for anxiety?

You don’t have to use a specific spread when asking questions about your anxiety. In fact, even if you don’t ask questions directly relating to your anxiety, the cards may be giving you deep rooted advice to deal with it through all of your readings. However, if you have a problem and purely want to look at your anxiety when doing a reading there are lots of different card spreads that you can use. Personally, I enjoy making my own tarot spreads as it gives me the freedom to ask for specific answers to my questions. If you can’t find a tarot spread that works for you, I would highly recommend looking at developing your own personal tarot spread. Alternatively, you can use one of the ones that I have made.

This is a simple three card tarot spread to help you look at what is making you anxious and to give you some advice on how to deal with it. I hope this spread may help you, even if it just by a little bit. So, here’s what the cards mean.

Card 1 – What is affecting your anxiety? Look at the answer your card has given you, there are usually several meanings so make sure to take them all in. This card will see what or who may be negatively impacting you and causing you to be anxious. The answer in this card will be about your general state of anxiety, unless you as a more specific question. One such question could be “Why is my social anxiety becoming more severe?”.

Card 2 – How are you affecting your anxiety? A lot of people with anxiety may often try different techniques to help them control it. If you are practicing any of these techniques then this card should tell you if they are helping or hindering you, and if so, why that is. For example, I thought that trying to bury the fear and pretend it didn’t exist really hindering me and this tarot reading showed me that.

Card 3 – Advice for helping your anxiety. This final card is a summary of advice given to you for how to help your situation. Sometimes this can be the trickiest card to read, it can often look like the card isn’t giving you any advice at all and is completely irrelevant. But, just make sure to really look at the card and its meaning. If the card represents a person, maybe you need to act more like this person. Or perhaps it is talking about someone you know, and you should either confide in them or possibly let them go out of your life. Because of the subjectivity of the topic, only you can truly know what they might be referring to.

There is also the single card Anxiety Advice spread, if you feel as though you don’t have enough time to do a full reading and properly interpret the meanings of the cards, this one may be better for you. You should shuffle the deck in the same way that you would for doing a full tarot spread, however there are two ways in which you can draw your card. The first way is to simply pick the card that is at the top of the deck, this is the more objective way to draw your card and the way that most people are comfortable with. The other way is to fan your cards out, on a flat surface is best, then close your eyes and hover your hands over the fanned-out cards. Move your hands slowly above the deck, and simply try to dip into a meditative state and selective the card that your hand simply feels pulled towards. Personally, I like this method because sometimes my question gets jumbled when I’m shuffling, meaning that the top card may not always be the most accurate. This single card is your advice for the day. It may give you guidance by either informing you of a situation you may subconsciously anxious about, such as finances, or it may be advice in the way of telling you how to deal with the situation, such as what attitude or actions you should take to deal with the situation. You can use either of these tarot spreads as a daily reading or just on the days that you feel the most anxious, it’s completely up to you how you choose to utilise these spreads. There is likely going to be some trial and error when using tarot for anxiety, after all as I’ve said, it is a different experience for everyone. You simply have to take the time to find out what works best for you and please try not to get disheartened if your first few readings don’t seem accurate, it takes time to learn how to work with your cards.

Are there specific Tarot decks I should use when asking about Anxiety?

Particularly in recent years, there has been a lot of divergence in the range of tarot cards that are available. Some people prefer to stick to the older ones but personally I love this new amount of variety. It gives you the options to keep the energies in your tarot cards from getting mixed up by having several decks, such as having one deck for romance readings and a separate one for anxiety readings. If you want a specific deck for looking into your anxieties, there is always the Anxiety Tarot by Annie Leue. Of course, you don’t actually need a separate tarot deck for doing your anxiety readings, any deck will work perfectly fine. It is simply personal preference as to whether you use a separate deck. You could also look at oracle card decks that are individual, each deck is designed differently to the tarot deck and there are a lot more oracle card decks that are aimed at specifically tackling anxiety.

What Anxieties can Tarot Cards help with?

If you have an anxiety disorder, you may know that there are different levels of anxiety and more than one type of anxiety. When using tarot cards, there isn’t simply one type of anxiety that can be read. In fact, the more specific you are when asking questions about your anxiety, the better the results that you’ll get. Tarot card readings don’t just help with general anxiety disorder, they also help with social anxiety disorder and panic disorder. You shouldn’t be afraid of picking up a deck for help if your mental health condition is more specialised, the cards are always there to help you.

Can Tarot Cards Completely cure my Anxiety?

Most people who have used tarot cards to help their anxiety will likely tell you that it has worked. However, I don’t know anyone, myself included, that would say their anxiety or depression was completely cured by the use of tarot cards. If you have anxiety or any other mental health condition, using tarot cards for advice is not a substitute for proper treatment and care. For help with your anxiety you can look at a variety of counselling and therapy techniques. Tarot cards are a great accompaniment to these treatments, but they should not replace them. You should also familiarise yourself with the emergency mental health hotlines in your area if you feel like you may be a danger to yourself or others and need to speak to someone.

Can Tarot Cards Induce Anxiety?

Tarot cards have not been designed for readers to induce negativity or anxiety in their clients. However, there are things about tarot cards that can make people anxious whether they have been using tarot cards for years or have never seen a deck before. As tarot cards are spiritual, they tap into the energies of your soul and your subconscious and this unfortunately can bring up some situations that may induce anxiety. For example, I know that I myself have done a reading in which the card reminded me of a sensitive situation that I needed to deal with and I was incredibly anxious after being reminded of it. One thing that people don’t need to be anxious about though is the properties of tarot cards. A lot of people want to use them but are scared that they may be evil artifacts. This is not the case. But if it is something that you are worried about, you can read another one of my articles entitled ‘Can Tarot Cards be used for Evil?’ to familiarise yourself with them.

I have read Tarot Cards for years and they are now making me anxious, what should I do?

As I mentioned earlier, there can be an effect of anxiety from tarot cards due to readings bringing up topics that may be negative in some ways. However, if you don’t think that the messages from the readings are the cause of your anxiety there are a couple of things that you can try. Cleansing your cards is very important and can clear up and of the negative energy clogged up in your tarot deck. I personally am guilty of not cleansing my tarot cards frequently enough and I really do think that it makes a difference and affects the accuracy of my readings. Using tarot cards with negative energy can cause you to feel down or anxious, after all our bodies are just particles vibrating so quickly that we become solid, there is no doubt in my mind that particles of energy can be transferred and change your emotions. I think almost everyone has gotten a bad feeling about a place or a person at least once in their life, that is vibrating energy, and it’s the same when that negative energy is stuck in your tarot cards. So, how do you actually cleanse your tarot cards? There are two main ways to cleanse your cards. One is by holding them in the smoke of burning sage. The other way is to wrap your deck and a crystal of your choosing into something protective, such as a silk cloth, and sleep with them under your pillow. Choosing a crystal that is known for either its positive energy or its ability to dispel negative energy will yield the best results.

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