Meditation and Tarot: Connect with the Cards to Develop Your Inner Vision

By Chanda Parkinson

Release Mental Clutter and Elevate Your Readings

With kindness and deep insight, Chanda Parkinson presents a fresh perspective on learning and working with tarot cards. She teaches you how to combine the power of tarot with the art of meditation to deepen mindfulness, cultivate intuition, and unlock your inner wisdom.

Chanda explores the major arcana in depth, showing you each card's correspondences, overall theme, related meditation, and more. She then guides you through the minor arcana suit by suit, sharing meditations and number meanings according to wands, swords, pentacles, and cups. Chanda also supplies meditations for the court cards so you can easily connect them to people in your life.

Based on the classic Rider-Waite-Smith system, this beginner-friendly book features card art from various decks as well as exercises and journal prompts designed to help you improve relationships, solve problems, and understand yourself on a deeper level. Now you can develop a rich, powerful relationship with the tarot through meditation.

"Chanda Parkinson offers a truly fresh perspective on working with and learning the cards. With kindness and insight, she guides us through experiences that combine the power of tarot and of meditation to deepen mindfulness, cultivate intuition, and unlock our inner wisdom."

?From the foreword by Barbara Moore, author of The Steampunk Tarot

• Language: English
• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
• Release date: Jan 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9780738774190

Chanda Parkinson

Psychic Intuitive and Spiritual Mentor Chanda Parkinson utilizes her spiritual gifts, tarot, and astrology to support others through transitions in life with clarity and deep compassion. Creator of the Soul Path Consulting Program, she brings her clients to a place of deep understanding of the intricate nuances of their own soul's path. Author of Meditations for Psychic Development, Chanda is fiercely committed to mentoring others in the discovery of their own spiritual gifts. Visit her online for her blog and other offerings at www.ChandaParkinson.com.

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About the Author

Chanda Parkinson’s rather eclectic background and passions include the arts and music, professional work in the nonprofit sector, owning and operating several businesses, volunteering as a social justice and human rights advocate, and mothering three children. An early life interest in Christian theological studies expanded to include astrology, tarot, Celtic shamanism, folk magic, and witchcraft, which she continues to devour with great fervor. She has been a student and practitioner of psychic development since the late 1990s. Chanda has been a professional psychic intuitive, tarot reader, astrologist and spiritual teacher since 2006. Her greatest joy is witnessing others discovering and stepping into their own natural spiritual gifts. Meditation and Tarot is her second published book.

title page

Copyright Information

Meditation and Tarot: Connect with the Cards to Develop Your Inner Vision Copyright © 2024 by Chanda Parkinson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd., except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

Photography is used for illustrative purposes only. The persons depicted may not endorse or represent the book’s subject.

First e-book edition © 2024

E-book ISBN: 9780738774190

Book design by R. Brasington

Cover design by Shira Atakpu

Editing by Laura Kurtz

Heirophant Tarot card cover art by Elisabeth Alba

Interior art by

Abigail Larson—art from Dark Wood Tarot: 93, 104, 119, 134, 138, 146, 165, 169

Elisabeth Alba—art from The Everyday Witch Tarot: 89, 107, 115, 123, 127, 130, 151, 162

Leeza Robertson—art from Mermaid Tarot: 97, 101, 111, 142, 155, 159

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Parkinson, Chanda, author.

Title: Meditation and tarot : connect with the cards to develop your inner

vision / Chanda Parkinson.

Description: First edition. | Woodbury, MN : Llewellyn Publications, [2024]

| Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: "A book for exploring

tarot as a tool for meditation. Includes exercises and journal prompts.

For tarot users and meditation practitioners of all levels of ability"--

Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023040513 (print) | LCCN 2023040514 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738773957 | ISBN 9780738774190 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Tarot. | Meditation.

Classification: LCC BF1879.T2 P377 2024 (print) | LCC BF1879.T2 (ebook) |

DDC 133.3/2424--dc23/eng/20231127

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023040513

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023040514

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

Other Books by Chanda Parkinson

Finding Your Calm

Meditations for Psychic Development

The Secret Psychic

Dedication

I dedicate this book to those brave souls who have held the tarot torch shining brightly throughout the ages. In deepest gratitude to my beloved mentors Peg Schwandt and Sheri Woxland, who believed in me, and were guiding lights at the beginning of my own tarot journey. May I do your memory and life’s work justice through my continued practice and teaching.

Contents

Foreword by Barbara Moore

Introduction

Chapter One: Meditation Basics

Chapter Two: Tarot Basics

Chapter Three: Preparing to Meditate with the Tarot

Chapter Four: Meditation Techniques

Chapter Five: Journal Prompts and Exercises

Chapter Six: Deciphering Messages

Chapter Seven: Sacred Wisdom Embedded in the Tarot

Chapter Eight: Integrating Tarot, Astrology, and Meditation

Chapter Nine: Building a Relationship with Your Tarot Deck

Chapter Ten: Questions for the Tarot

Chapter Eleven: Navigating the Journey of the Major Arcana with Meditation 5

Chapter Twelve: The Minor Arcana

Chapter Thirteen: Meditation and the Wands

Chapter Fourteen: Meditation and the Swords

Chapter Fifteen: Meditation and the Pentacles

Chapter Sixteen: Meditation and the Cups

Chapter Seventeen: Meditation and the Court Cards

Conclusion

Recommended Reading

Foreword

For years we tarot lovers have employed tarot for divination, guidance, and self-discovery. Today people use their cards for journaling, creativity, and problem-solving. And let’s not forget the cards’ original function—playing games. From fortunetelling to fortune creating, tarot seems able to do it all. Since the 1970s, we’ve explored tarot through a psychological lens, which has proved extremely fruitful. In recent years, we’ve discovered that tarot is a natural companion for contemplative practices, meditation among them. Fortunately for us, these two practices—tarot and meditation—have been put into a creative cauldron, blended with experience, seasoned with wisdom, and presented here for the benefit of all. Meditating with the cards helps us learn the cards, ourselves, and the world better.

In this book, Chanda Parkinson offers a truly fresh perspective on learning and working with the cards. With kindness and insight, she guides us through experiences that combine the power of tarot and of meditation to deepen mindfulness, cultivate intuition, and unlock our inner wisdom. Meditating with the cards is a unique method of learning about them. The knowledge gained through meditation is a direct experience with the card itself. Tarot is an organic, evolving expression of wisdom. When we interact with tarot in meditation, we gain something that cannot be gained elsewhere or in any other way. How often can a book promise something that special … and deliver?

Whether you are new to meditation or tarot—or an experienced practitioner in either—the techniques presented here will inspire you to explore new ways in which tarot can enrich your spiritual journey, with both readings and meditative activities. By aligning your inner self with the archetypes and symbols of tarot in this integrative, active way, you will discover new depths of self-awareness and a greater sense of connection to the universe, and, of course, to the cards.

Chanda’s approach is accessible, practical, and relatable with clear guidance for each meditation. In addition to all the necessary meditation- and tarot-related basics, this book also includes other activities—such as how to strengthen your relationship with your deck—which are useful to the beginner and seasoned reader alike. We all know that getting the right answer means asking the right question, and Chanda helps us hone this skill as well. All these elements make Meditation and Tarot a valuable resource for anyone interested in using tarot as a tool for personal growth or for anyone seeking unique experiences with their cards.

Get ready to deepen your meditation practice and unlock the transformative power of the tarot. This is serious and important work, indeed, but let us remember that tarot began life as a game. Playfulness is part of tarot’s DNA for a reason. All work and no play make for a sad, weary spiritual seeker. Expect to have fun along with the revelations. What a journey you are about to begin!

—Barbara Moore

[contents]

Introduction

There exists a magical space of exploration when spiritual practices such as meditation and psychic tools such as tarot merge to the enhanced benefit of the practitioner. It is through this spirit of exploration that we can crack open a greater capacity for depth and meaning in our lives. Blending mystical tools and practices combined with enhanced skill is the true path of the Magician! What a rich pathway that is available to us all.

Meditation is a time-honored practice of calming the mind that lets us feel into our life with clarity. It promotes mental peace and creates a receptive and open space for receiving insights. It reduces stress levels, helps balance the nervous system, and creates a blank canvas on which we create our inner vision.

Tarot cards open us up to a metaphoric world within. Tarot is a psychological and divinatory tool; it guides us to understanding our inner world, behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and choices and helps us realize potential outcomes to life events. Tarot cards alone do nothing without the active engagement and conscious attention of the reader. The cards themselves are pieces of guidance waiting for us to uncover from our intuitive memory. They can point the arrow directly at the problem and offer possible solutions.

When I’m reading tarot cards for someone in a mental jam, I can feel the visceral release of that energy and jam through emotion with a subsequent freeing of the mind. It sometimes feels like the moment before a baby is born, just at the quickening. The revelations in the cards combined with the calming forces of meditation relieve the pressure those moments birth into reality. In freeing the mind, there is a greater potential to shift the thought process or even a possible course of action, as different scenarios become available. Tarot can alleviate the pressure of the birthing process to bring in new, fresh perspectives. When we remain in our heads still trying to logically sort out a mental jam, we further disconnect from the wisdom receptors in our bodies, which include our five senses and our sixth sense. Our bodies reveal more of the story to us when also engaged in the process. Meditation can serve as the body’s method of relaxing into a more receptive mode. When our intuition is at the ready, our natural receiving mechanisms ignite offering insights and solutions. We are resourcing our multi-sensory organism and this can lend a powerful and grounded approach for life guidance.

You don’t need to be a visual person to enjoy the benefits of a meditative tarot practice. Meditation slows down the body’s biorhythms, putting us in a steady mode for psychic receiving. We all receive psychic information differently because our individual hardwiring is not the same. That hardwiring includes a combination of our internal compass known as our intuition, our third eye activation, our multi-sensory capabilities including our sixth sense, and sensitivities to psychic stimuli. If you are built to feel rather than to receive through visions, your relationship with tarot will unfold through feelings, emotion, intuition, and imagination.

Meditation with the tarot is the way to discover their deeper meanings without the added pressure of sifting and sorting through books and online resources. Removing the information overload will bring you closer to them. In this way, meditation and tarot are highly compatible. Both tools lend the power to visualize, sense, or feel through the quiet spaces of our minds and hearts to reveal important insights. Tarot links us to a greater field of information than meditation alone, and meditation clarifies the meanings of the tarot. They are incredibly compatible practices. During a Tarot Meditation, your consciousness will be opened to the infinite possibilities of each card. You will be guided by your inner wisdom to see things in the cards that you’ve never seen before. You will be open to unique personal experiences sparked by the characters featured on the cards. And when you’ve made this soulful connection with each character, their wisdom will be more accessible.

You do not need any prior experience with tarot cards or meditation to learn and benefit from this book. It’s also perfectly acceptable to keep your rituals simple; lighting a candle and sitting down to shuffle is sufficient. Nothing more complex is needed. Adding crystals and stones or lighting incense or herbs for smoke clearing are ways to expand an already existing practice.

This book centers a beginners approach to reading tarot, including how to think about the cards, different ways to work with them, understanding how the deck is organized, how to meditate and journal with them, make them personal, and use them practically in your life. Some tarot practitioners insist that you read both upright and reversed (that is, when you have drawn the cards that are upside down) interpretations. Reading reversals is a more advanced tarot technique, so we will stick with upright meanings only. My approach has always been drawing cards I am meant to see at that particular moment.

The two things tarot and meditation have in common are that both are tools you can practice and improve over time. Formatting a meditative tarot practice isn’t complicated. Once you’ve handled logistics such as where to meditate, what sort of meditation to use, and what cards to work with and how, we will have you well on your way to a successful practice. This book is designed to calm any fears you may have about your ability to learn and use tarot. You absolutely can do this.

When you know the reasons why you are interested in incorporating tarot into your daily life, you will be able to create a tarot practice that is fulfilling and supportive. Tarot cards become like a good bestie and counselor, helping you get out of your own way, showing you the truth inside your head and your heart, giving you perspective, and yes, sometimes revealing things you aren’t necessarily ready to hear. If nothing else, tarot is honest. It can sink you deeper into your psyche to learn more about what makes you tick and release the clutter in your mind to more clearly see your way forward.

I bought my first deck of tarot cards in 2003, when I was pregnant with my first child. I remember the day distinctly: intense feelings of excitement about what was in store and what sort of learning journey I was about to begin simultaneously overwhelmed me. As I opened the pack and began shuffling the cards, I had a strange sense of familiarity. It was an odd yet comfortable feeling, like meeting up with a long lost friend.

There is no doubt I was intimidated about beginning the road to understanding tarot. However, always a perpetual and avid spiritual learner, I chose to embrace the unknown and surrender. It took time, patience, and plenty of experimentation before I realized the journey to becoming a tarot reader was best approached with one part learning and one part reflection. Devoting hours to memorizing meanings of the cards simply wasn’t going to work. The more I tried to remember what the card meant, the less I could call upon the meaning in my mind during tarot readings. I knew I needed to change something, so I set aside