Secular Uses of Tarot

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word tarot? Enablers on YouTube insisting that your ex is still in love with you? Con artists at the circus? Your weird aunt that’s super chill, but can’t make a decision without asking her cards first?

Whether you believe in psychic powers or not, you’ve likely had an encounter with tarot that was just a little much. Personally, it was the obsessive love readings that turned me off of tarot for quite a long time.

I’ve collected cards since I was a kid. It started off with playing cards that I’d use to do magic tricks, but eventually, my collection grew to also include tarot cards. I didn’t know how to read them; I just thought they were beautiful.

I reached a point where I couldn’t continue to justify buying more cards if I wasn’t going to use them. I’m not that type of collector. The problem though is that I just wasn’t sure if I believed in tarot. I believe in a lot of weird things, but I can come up with explanations for them. Tarot on the other hand… It was just enough to make me question whether I was about to go off the deep end.

So I did what any collector trying to justify another purchase would do- I found a new way of using the cards that works for me. The following are all uses for those gorgeous tarot cards that are completely secular. No woo required!

Subconscious Analysis

This idea looks a lot more like a traditional tarot reading. I like to do a full spread and read the cards, but I don’t stick to the strict meanings prescribed by the book. I don’t believe the cards are telling me the future, but rather are providing a mirror for my subconscious. This means that the exact meanings of the cards aren’t really relevant. As I read through the spread, my mind can project whatever it wants onto the cards. This allows me to better understand my desires and true intentions.

Shadow Work

This is the first secular use for tarot cards that I found. If you don’t know what shadow work is, don’t worry. I’ll be writing another post on this soon. For now, what you need to know is that shadow work is a therapy tool used to better understand the repressed parts of our personalities.

You’ll want a journal for this one. Start by drawing a card. Look at it for a few minutes. Study it. Now write about it. Don’t worry about editing or censoring yourself; just write whatever comes to mind. You might be surprised by what comes out during these free writing sessions.

If you need a bit more structure to get your writing muscles going, there are spreads you can use just for this purpose. Alternatively, you can choose a card and meditate on it for a while.

Decision Making

You know those types of decisions where either outcome is okay? The type you might decide with a coin flip? Try using the cards to make those.

Maybe you’re torn between pizza or Chinese for dinner. Draw a card. An even number could be pizza and an odd could be Chinese. Add in the major arcana cards too and maybe that could be tacos.

Maybe you have 4 choices and use a suit to represent each one. Again you can add in the major arcana for a fifth option.

Plot Generation

This is probably my favorite idea on this list. Each card in the tarot represents a character or a part of a story. This makes it fantastic for developing plot lines and breaking through writer’s block. If you get stuck while writing, just draw a card and run with whatever it says. This also works well with oracle cards.

If you want more tips on using tarot to improve your writing, consider checking out one of these books. (These aren’t affiliate links, just books that I’ve enjoyed or want to read.)

Workout Game

While the previous item was my favorite secular use of tarot, this one might be the most fun. If you’re stuck in an exercise rut, try letting the cards program your workout. (You can also check out more workout routines here.) Here’s how it works:

Pick the four main exercises that you really want to focus on. You’ll assign each of these to one of the four suits (cups, swords, wands, and coins). I like to pick either basic strength movements (pushups, situps, lunges, and squats, for example) or cardio movements (mountain climbers, jumping jacks, squat jumps, and skater lunges), but you can pick whatever you want. When you draw a card, you’ll use the suit to determine what exercise you do and the number to determine how many. I.e. If you draw the four of cups and cups represents jumping jacks, then you’ll do four jumping jacks.

You can ignore the major arcana if you want to keep your workout simple, but I like to assign each of these cards an exercise that I might not want to repeat as much. This might be a plank, weighted lunges, or pull-up negatives.

You can also choose how long you want to work out. You can go for a time limit, pick a certain number of cards, or try to work your way through the whole deck. There’s a lot of room for flexibility and customization here, so have fun with it!

That’s all the secular uses for tarot cards I’ve come up with so far. I hope one of them resonates with you. If you have any other ideas, drop them in the comments!