Tarot reading is a deeply personal and spiritual practice and for many the journey goes beyond shuffling cards. Enter the realm of herbal magic, where the subtle energies of plants can amplify your tarot experience in ways you never imagined.
I am not a medical professional. Please do your research before Ingesting any herbs or using any essential oils topically.
Herbal Magic: Amplifying Intuition
You can memorize the tarot card meanings but deep, significant messages often come from reading the cards intuitively.
To read intuitively means that the message comes, not from the guidebook, but from how the image or symbols make you feel. The more you practice this skill, the stronger your intuition becomes.
Allowing your mind and body to be still is the first step. It allows you to focus on what you are feeling and brings the intuitive messages through.
Using herbs to calm your nervous system can greatly increase your intuition.
Herbs to Open Your Third Eye
- Jasmin
- PassionFlower
- Blue Vervain
Setting the Mood with Herbal Magic
When preparing for a reading, I pour myself a cup of tea, turn down the overhead lights, turn on the fairy lights, light a candle or two, and burn some incense.
Fragrance plays a huge role in setting the mood. What feeling are you trying to invoke? There is an herb for it.
Whether you want to feel calm, grounded, centered, focused, or energized; the aromatic properties of herbs can help you achieve your intention.
Ways to Use Herbal Fragrance
- Burning them as Insense (Warning: Please research if an herb is safe to inhale for you and your animals before you burn it.)
- Use essential oils in an oil diffuser.
- Add Essential Oils to Alcohol and create a room spray
- Add Essential Oils to a carrier oil and create a perfume
Click here for more information about how scent affects our moods, How Does Scent Affect Our Mood? by Greta Kent-Stoll
Cleansing the Energy
There are many ways to cleanse the energy of a tarot deck.
- Knock on the Tarot Deck three times
- Shuffle the Cards thoroughly
- Place it in the Sun or Moon Light
- Place Selenite, Clear Quartz, or other crystals on or next to the deck
- Smoke Cleanse
It is thought that a deck should be cleansed when you first get it, if others have touched it, if you’ve used the deck to read for others, or if your readings feel off.
When to cleanse a deck and how often is totally up to you. Do it whenever it feels right.
Smoke cleansing is a great way to incorporate herbal magic.
All you need to smoke cleanse is a herb bundle! You can buy these from spiritual stores, online, or make your own using fresh herbs that have dried after bundling.
Light the bundle and blow on it until it gets going. Allow the smoke to waft over all sides of the deck OR, for a deep cleanse, hold each card individually through the smoke.
When finished, put your deck down and put out the herbs by extinguishing them in a fire-safe dish.
You may also want to use the smoke to cleanse yourself or the space.
Herbs to Use for Smoke Cleansing
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Lavender
Enhancing Connection to Nature
Whether you are on an herbal journey or just curious about how to add to your tarot practice, using herbs is getting you one step closer to Mother Nature.
If you are like me, you don’t live in a cottage in the woods. I don’t find myself on the mountainside nearly as much as I’d like to be. However, handling fresh or dried herbs or just smelling their aroma through essential oils helps me connect to their energy. I feel closer to the Earth and all the magical healing it offers.
Work with different herbs in your tarot or herbalist practice and begin to form a relationship with them. It’s quite beautiful to feel like you know them and they know you.
Personalization and Ritual
Experimenting with and Incorporating herbs into your reading in different ways, makes your tarot reading unique and personalized to you.
After you tried drinking lavender tea during your reading and burning sage to cleanse the deck, you may find that you can’t imagine your readings without those activities. They soon become rituals that you can’t do without.
Herbal Magic: Symbolism and Correspondence
Not only do herbs have medicinal properties but they can also have magical correspondence. Herbs have long been tied to astrology and elemental magic.
An herb can have associations with planets and elements and magical properties.
For Example, if you are doing a reading about relationships or a love reading, incorporate herbs that are associated with Venus or herbs associated with Water.
You could drink tea with those herbs, burn incense with those herbs, or charge the cards by keeping the deck near those herbs overnight.
There is no wrong way to use the Magical Properties of Herbs in your Tarot Practice. Experiment and just do what feels right to you.
Books with Magical Herbal Correspondences
Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs.
The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs: Your Complete Guide to the Hidden Powers of Herbs
Enhancing Focus and Concentration with Herbs
For the best reading possible, Consider buying or making an herbal tea to help you focus. You ow it to yourself or the querent to get a clear message. Life can be distracting and it can be easy to veer off topic.
Herbs that help with Mental Clarity
- Gotu Kola
- Rosemary
- Peppermint
- Holy Basil
Summary
From the calming properties of chamomile to the cleansing energies of sage, each herb offers unique benefits that can amplify your tarot practice. Embrace the Herbal magic of nature as you incorporate these herbs into your rituals, empowering your intuition and unlocking new insights in your tarot readings
