Rewriting History or Rewriting the Future, part 1
Like many people I keep a journal. I may be inconsistent, but throughout my life there has always been a journal either being actively used or gathering dust.
Tarot books almost always expound the benefits of keeping a tarot journal.
But I really don’t know what percentage of tarotists actually do this. Because I do and because I think it’s a great magical tool, particularly for tarotists, I’d love to know if you do or don’t and why. Feel free to leave a comment to that effect.
Until about 8 months ago, all my journaling has been exclusively written. In February, I took a class on visual (or art) journaling. Visual journaling and tarot are a great marriage and I cannot imagine why I haven’t explored this before. There is one practice of art journaling that I found particularly interesting and surprisingly healing.
One aspect of journaling that I don’t like is the dreaded angst-ridden, ridiculous, extreme obsessive writing of which I am later inevitably ashamed. In recent years, I have taken to using an Exact-O knife and cutting those pages out. But through art journaling, I learned a better technique. I use gesso to cover the page(s) and then paint over it. This is not simply a repression or denial of the experience. Instead, I think about what triggered such immature musings, thoughts that didn’t fit with the person I want to be. I think about what thoughts I’d rather have, thoughts that better match my goals. Those are the words and images that I put over the old entry. I’m not rewriting history, but using the present to reconsider the past in order to change my future.
And then I wondered how I could I apply this to tarot readings. What are your thoughts? I’ll share mine next time.
PS I’ve found that I love making a copy of a particular card I’m studying and gluing it in my journal. Here’s a few pages that I’ve done. The first is The Wheel from the The Gaian Tarot; the second is The High Priestess from the Initiatory Tarot of the Golden Dawn.
