SELF READING Journals and Why It Is Good For You

The answer is Yes.  I have been keeping my own journal for many years, nearly 3 decades to be precise.  I have often found myself often reflecting how much I have learned about the tarots.  I also noticed the styles of questions and answers differs from yesterday to today.

As a journal, I use a spreadsheet that contains at the top row:

Date - day of reading

• Type of Question - (love, family, money, spiritual...)
• Question - the inquiry or the issue
• The Card - flipped to answer my question
• Meaning - a brief meaning
• Outcome - I usually use the dates, seasons from the cards, return to the question at a different time and review
• Comments - here I enter my comments months or years later

I use formulas and pivot tables, charts to look back at the top 10 cards that populated the most and hot-tick topics that matters most to me.  I review the years to see what mattered to me most at that time.  It's a good way to look back at your life and not only as reading your own cards, but look back at your life where it used to be to how far you have come.

You can journal your readings in whatever way feels most comfortable. There's no right or wrong approach. I personally use my own experiences as a guide, paying attention to tarot advice but ultimately making decisions that align with my own values. I choose to make changes when they feel right for me.

Sometimes when I am in a hurry and don't have the time to type into the journal.  Instead I take pictures of my readings and then go back when I have time and put the information into my journal.  Here is an example of one of my own self-readings done recently where I took a picture and hours later entered the reading into my journal (spreadsheet).

Another suggestion is to always, always, always put down in the journal the deck of cards you are using, whether new or old, it is crucial.  You can see the difference between the personalities of each deck.  If you only have a single deck, that is okay too.  But if you are an avid tarot reader like myself and have gone thru many decks or collects the decks, then it would be a great idea to take note of any changes in decks, as the readings tend to fluctuate.

If anything else, I encourage you to go ahead, start a journal today!