The Tarot Diagnosis

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m back with our collective monthly tarot reading for November, and this month we're exploring grief, ancestral patterns, interdependence, and the emotional complexity of giving and receiving care.

November has always been a particularly grief-stricken month

for me. Last year, I wrote an essay on Substack called Everyone Dies in November, reflecting on the many people I've loved and lost during this time of year. And while November carries a lot of grief, it's also a month when I feel especially connected to nature, ritual, and the people who are no longer here. I tend to move a little slower, spend more time outdoors, and intentionally create space to tend to my own grief.

Because I've been spending so much time thinking, reading, and learning about grief lately, including taking a philosophies of grief class with Jessica Dore, I decided to revisit my three-card Ancestral Baggage tarot spread for November's collective reading.

Pulling Strength, Six of Pentacles, and Queen of Pentacles, I explore the inherited beliefs we've developed around self-sufficiency and independence. I also share why I strongly dislike the Strength card *eye roll*

Strength opens the reading by inviting us to look at the ways we've been conditioned to believe that strength means managing our emotional, mental, and spiritual lives entirely on our own. Drawing from psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott's concept of the holding environment, I explore how our capacity for emotional regulation develops through our personal experiences of being held (literally and metaphorically), supported, and soothed by others. And how many of us have been taught to internalize the belief that needing others was somehow a sign of weakness.

The Six of Pentacles comes in and shifts our attention toward reciprocity and receiving care. I explore the belief that accepting help should come with expectations, guilt, indebtedness, or the threat of losing our autonomy/independence and how those fears become especially pronounced when we're grieving because that’s when we usually find ourselves needing more support than we're accustomed to accepting.

Finally, the Queen of Pentacles invites us to consider what life might look like when we begin to accept experiences of safety and support - especially through the interdependence of the Six of Pentacles. I explore the importance of returning to our bodies, homes, routines, nature, and tangible experiences that nourish us, while still remembering that interdependence doesn't mean we forfeit our autonomy.

Ultimately, this November tarot reading is an exploration of inherited patterns, attachment, grief, emotional regulation, and the movement from self-sufficiency toward interdependence.

If you're interested in exploring grief more deeply through tarot and psychology, I'll be hosting a Grief through Tarot workshop in The Symposium on Monday, November 23rd at 7:30 PM ET/4:30pm PT (I misspoke in the episode and said 5:30pm PT oops) . The workshop will also be recorded if you're unable to attend live. You can learn more about joining The Symposium here.

Exciting Announcement!

It’s here! My 2027 year-long tarot journal is now available (digital version forthcoming). We are stepping into an archetypal Justice year and to accompany Justice is the High Priestess and…The Fool. I had fun playing with numbers this year and decided to SUBTRACT instead of just ADD when it comes to numerology, which is how The Fool found itself amidst these pages. You’ll have to get the journal to see why I decided to subtract and what I think that might mean…

Grab a physical copy of A Year with Justice here!

OR if you'd prefer to download a digital e-book you can download it here!

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Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m exploring the psychology of shame, childhood wounds, and how our earliest experiences shape the way we show up in adult relationships - all through the lens of tarot.

This episode was inspired by Come Closer by psychoanalyst Dr. Galit Atlas, a book I recently devoured in two days and immediately started recommending to anyone who would listen. Atlas explores six childhood wounds and how they influence our experiences of love, intimacy, and relationships. And, naturally, as I was reading, I couldn't stop thinking about which tarot archetypes might represent these wounds.

In this episode, I focus on one specific childhood wound - the ashamed childhood wound (if you want me to explore more of these, please let me know!), and the card that immediately came to mind was the Nine of Wands. I know, not what we might traditionally think about, but I have my reasons, and you’ll have to listen to find out why I chose this card.

The Nine of Wands acts as an anchor as I explore how childhood experiences of criticism, rejection, humiliation, and conditional love can sometimes manifest as perfectionism, hypervigilance, self-criticism, emotional withdrawal, and defensiveness in adult relationships. I also look at the ways we sometimes reject ourselves before anyone else has the opportunity to as a form of self-protection. Think self-deprecating humor or when we point out our own flaws as a way to maintain control over how others perceive us.

And then I get into the fascinating (and painful) contradiction of the ashamed child: desperately wanting connection while simultaneously constructing defenses that make connection difficult.

I also bring in the Empress, but rather than exploring her through traditional maternal or nurturing symbolism, I consider her as an archetype of softness. What might it look like to offer ourselves a little less criticism and a little more tenderness, especially when we're carrying wounds that have made us feel fundamentally unworthy?

Finally, I created a three card therapeutic tarot spread to explore our internalized critical voices, where they may have originated, and what practicing softness with ourselves might look like.

Ultimately, this episode is an exploration of shame, attachment, self-worth, emotional defenses, and the possibility of developing a more compassionate relationship with ourselves. It’s also about discovering that sometimes the voice telling us we're not good enough isn't actually ours.

Exciting Announcement!

It’s here! My 2027 year-long tarot journal is now available (digital version forthcoming). We are stepping into an archetypal Justice year and to accompany Justice is the High Priestess and…The Fool. I had fun playing with numbers this year and decided to SUBTRACT instead of just ADD when it comes to numerology, which is how The Fool found itself amidst these pages. You’ll have to get the journal to see why I decided to subtract and what I think that might mean…

Grab A Year with Justice here! (Please note this journal is also available in pretty much every other country. This link takes you to the US site, but on your home site, just search for the title of the book plus my name and it should pop right up.)

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m pulling cards for our collective monthly tarot reading for October and this month, we’re exploring the psychological space between who we’ve been and who we might be becoming.

For this October tarot reading, I’m revisiting a spread I originally created for my Tarot as a Transitional Object workshop, inspired by psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott’s theories of transitional objects, transitional phenomena, and transitional space. Winnicott was interested in the psychological territory between our internal and external realities, which he viewed as the space where play, creativity, experimentation, and growth occur. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, I think tarot fits beautifully within that space.

Tarot can become a bridge between what’s happening inside of us and what exists outside of us - where we bring our memories, projections, emotions, desires, fears, and relationships to the cards, while the cards still simultaneously exist separately from us. In Winnicott’s language, they are both “me” and “not me.”

Pulling the Hierophant, Three of Cups, and Queen of Wands, I explore what we may be carrying out of September, what October is inviting us to examine, and what we can lean on as we move between the two months.

Representing September, The Hierophant invites us to look at some of the systems, beliefs, expectations, traditions, or rules that we’ve inherited and perpetuated - even when they maybe have outstayed their welcome. Then the Three of Cups turns our attention toward relationships and personal identity. Rather than only viewing this card through its traditional lens of friendship and celebration, I explore it as a kind of relational mirror (ie. who are we around other people?). Finally, the Queen of Wands becomes our bridge between September and October, functioning as a reminder of our personal agency, creativity, confidence, self-trust, and our core Self.

October itself feels like a fitting month for this kind of work: liminal, shadowy, and transitional. I hope the month is treating you well and that you’re giving and receiving all the witchy tarot nourishment!

As always, let me know what cards you pull alongside me, or what came up for you in your own pull.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis podcast, I’m exploring tarot clarifiers and a question I don’t think we ask often enough: Why are we pulling clarifying cards if we already understand the card in front of us?

This episode came about unexpectedly after I pulled the Seven of Wands during my weekly tarot practice and immediately felt my body reaching for the deck again. But I already knew what the card meant and more importantly, I knew what it meant to me. I didn’t actually need more information. Eventually, I realized I was reaching for distance because the card made me uncomfortable and I wanted to get rid of that feeling ASAP.

That moment got me thinking about how often this might be happening in your practice. So, I recorded an impromptu podcast about it.

Throughout the episode, I explore how pulling tarot clarifiers can sometimes become a form of reassurance seeking or avoidance, especially when one clarifier becomes another and another until we finally find a card that gives us the interpretation we were hoping for. I also look at confirmation bias and how pulling more cards can give us more opportunities to find evidence for the narrative we already know/want to believe. Both things to be aware/ cautious of.

But this isn’t an argument against clarifiers - I promise. Clarifying cards can add valuable context to a tarot reading - especially when we’re developing our ability to read cards in relationship with one another. So I’m more interested in what our impulse to pull another card is telling us - versus the act of pulling a clarifier.

I also explore tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty when using tarot. Like what happens when, instead of immediately resolving the tension a card creates, we allow ourselves to sit with it for a moment?

Using my reaction to the Seven of Wands, I walk through how I resisted pulling a clarifier and instead explored my initial defensiveness and discomfort. That shift allowed me to practice dialectical thinking by asking what else could simultaneously be true, without bypassing the initial feelings. This then brought up a fun fact about film composition and how we can apply that to tarot.

Ultimately, this episode isn’t about whether you should or shouldn’t pull tarot clarifiers. It’s more about encouraging curiosity about why you’re reaching for a clarifying card in the first place.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

Grab my FREE Tarot Wheels here.

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m back with another collective monthly tarot reading, and for September, I’m exploring The Courage to Become, which is a four card tarot spread I originally created around identity, existentialism, and the often uncomfortable process of growth and change.

Spoiler: Apparently, September is the month of Pentacles - I’ve been pulling them personally and three of them show up in the reading!

Pulling the Knight of Pentacles, Six of Cups, Page of Pentacles, and Six of Pentacles, I explore who we may be becoming collectively, what frightens us about that transformation, what makes it exciting, and what remaining exactly as we are might ultimately deny us.

The Knight of Pentacles kicks us off and I end up spending quite a bit of time with this knight, so if you struggle with this card, I hope this is a helpful episode for you. I also explore how in a culture that rewards urgency, immediacy, productivity, and reactivity, this Knight asks us to slow down and be intentional about where we focus our attention. I touch on the importance of responding vs reacting, and why being strategic and willing to tolerate uncertainty may be our own form of resistance.

I also infuse the existential psychology of Rollo May and Erich Fromm, particularly their ideas around courage, freedom, responsibility, identity, and the anxiety that accompanies getting to choose who we want to become. Fromm says that freedom sounds wonderful until we realize it also means that we have to accept responsibility for our choices and I think the Knight of Pentacles is well aware of that.

Next, the Six of Cups brings us directly into our relationship with nostalgia and the safety of familiarity - a cute nod to our 200th episode about nostalgia previously. This card asks us, if we’re becoming something new, how do we make sure we aren’t also just recreating a new version of the past? I explore why familiarity can feel safer than freedom, how nostalgia can pull us toward old identities and systems, and the distinction between being shaped by our history vs repeating it.

The Page of Pentacles then offers us some hope by giving us permission to embrace beginners' energy. We don’t have to know exactly what comes next because how fortunate are we that we get to experiment, question, learn, and participate in the ongoing act of creating ourselves.

Finally, the Six of Pentacles turns our attention toward reciprocity, community, and highlights our individualistic collective culture. This card asks us: what is our hyper-independence costing us? And what would life look like if we embraced individuality without abandoning our communities?

This September tarot reading ultimately became an exploration of identity, existential psychology, community, nostalgia, uncertainty, and the courage to become something we’ve never been before. The cards suggest that it’s about being willing to move toward the future intentionally, remaining curious about what we’re creating, and resisting the noise to pull back from collective support.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this special episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m celebrating 200 episodes with someone who has quite literally been behind the scenes since the very beginning: my cousin and the podcast’s audio engineer, Anthony DiGiacomo.

Anthony and I grew up together - our moms are identical twins, we lived a few blocks apart, went to the same schools, and spent our teenage years immersed in the local music scene. So, naturally, a conversation celebrating the history of the podcast turned into a much bigger exploration of something the two of us talk about all the time: nostalgia.

Nostalgia is such a fascinating psychological and dialectical experience because it holds two seemingly contradictory emotions at once. It can feel comforting and painful, connecting and isolating, joyful and grief-filled all at the same time.

While tarot doesn’t show up right away, I promise we talk cards! For example:

We explore the Six of Cups as the traditional archetype of nostalgia, but I also look at Temperance as a surprisingly powerful representation of what healthy nostalgia requires: allowing ourselves to dip into the emotional waters of the past while keeping one foot firmly planted in the present. We also explore the Knight of Wands and Two of Wands through identity, longing, and the tension between honoring who we once were and continuing to move forward.

Anthony and I also get into the psychology of why nostalgia has become so culturally prominent. We talk about social media, disappearing shopping malls, old video games, concerts, neon signs, the increasingly beige and gray aesthetics of modern life, and anemoia - the experience of feeling nostalgic for a time or place we never actually experienced.

And we also talk about how nostalgia has a very dark, shadow side too. Because memory is inherently imperfect, the past can become romanticized. We can convince ourselves that life used to be better, safer, simpler, or more meaningful while forgetting the painful parts of those same periods. Anthony and I discuss how that vulnerability can be exploited through weaponized nostalgia, including political and cultural narratives that promise a return to an idealized past that may have never have actually existed in the way it’s sold to us.

We also talk about nostalgia and grief and how reminiscing can simultaneously remind us of someone’s absence while helping us maintain a relationship with them after they’re gone.

Ultimately, I think nostalgia asks us to practice being in a kind of dialectical both/and space: How do we honor the past without trying to live there? How do we stay connected to previous versions of ourselves without allowing them to determine who we become next?

And I think that’s part of what celebrating 200 episodes means for me, too. I get to look backward at everything this podcast has become, appreciate the people and experiences that helped create it, and still remain incredibly curious about where we go from here.

On a more personal note to the listeners: Thank you for being here, whether you’ve listened since episode one or just recently discovered The Tarot Diagnosis - knowing you find value here means so much to me. Cheers to the next 200!

Book Referenced: Past Forward by Clay Routledge

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠⁠

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If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m exploring self-sabotage through a psychological and therapeutic tarot lens and challenging the idea that self-sabotage means we’re just getting in our own way.

We tend to label procrastination, avoidance, staying in unhealthy relationships, overworking, turning down opportunities, or repeating painful patterns as self-sabotage. And when we notice ourselves doing these things, we tend to ask the same question: Why do I keep doing this to myself?

But I think there’s a different question that actually might help us better understand our own self-sabotage: What is this behavior trying to accomplish? Or, what purpose does it serve?

Because from a therapeutic perspective, every behavior usually has some sort of function that benefits us. Even behaviors that eventually hurt us may have developed because, at some point, they helped us avoid anxiety, rejection, shame, uncertainty, vulnerability, abandonment, or failure. In other words, what looks like self-sabotage may actually be an attempt at self-protection.

I explore all of this through psychodynamic theory, attachment theory, behavioral psychology, schema therapy, and, of course, tarot. I talk about Freud’s concepts of Eros and Thanatos, repetition of painful experiences, how attachment can make those old, but familiar patterns feel safer than healthier, unfamiliar possibilities, and why avoidance and procrastination work so well in the short term, even though they often create bigger problems later.

And then I bring in The World, the card that completely changed the direction of this episode. I initially resisted seeing The World as a card of self-sabotage, but the protective wreath surrounding the figure helped me recognize something important: sometimes the boundaries we construct to keep ourselves safe become a barrier that prevents us from experiencing something new, and that might end up being exactly what we need for growth.

From there, I explore several tarot cards as different manifestations of self-sabotage and self-protection, including:

•

Four of Pentacles as clinging to familiar identities, relationships, and ways of living

•

Five of Pentacles as rejecting ourselves before someone else rejects us

•

The Devil as remaining attached to familiar beliefs and behavioral patterns

•

Seven and Eight of Cups as the overwhelm & uncertainty inherent in choosing something new

•

Seven through Ten of Swords as an escalating psychological progression of avoidance, limiting beliefs, anxiety, and collapse

•

The Tower as what happens when an old protective strategy can no longer sustain itself

•

Ten of Wands as over-functioning, overachieving, over-planning, and carrying everything ourselves so no one else gets the opportunity to disappoint us

The Ten of Wands ultimately brings me back to what I think is one of the most important ideas in this episode: eventually, the thing that was supposed to protect us can become the thing that burdens us. So rather than shaming ourselves for procrastinating, avoiding, over-functioning, choosing familiar patterns, or seemingly getting in our own way, I’m interested in getting curious about the function underneath the behavior.

Maybe we stop asking: Why am I sabotaging myself?

And instead ask: What is this behavior protecting me from and do I still need that protection?

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this month's collective tarot reading on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I explore one of my favorite concepts from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): the idea that two seemingly opposite truths can exist at the same time.

Inspired by the emotional chaos of Mercury retrograde (but designed to be relevant no matter what's happening in your life) I use my Tension of Opposites tarot spread (below) to explore how we can stop searching for certainty and instead widen our capacity to hold ambiguity, complexity, and contradictions.

Throughout this collective, DBT-inspired reading, I weave together tarot, psychology, parts work, and dialectics as I explore how learning to tolerate emotional tensions can become one of our greatest sources of growth and strength - all through the High Priestess, Empress, Ace of Cups, and Three of Cups.

Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to stop searching for a single "right" answer. Tarot doesn't always ask us to choose between opposing experiences, it often asks what it can look like to hold opposition with curiosity, compassion, and flexibility.

I hope you enjoy this unscripted, nerdy, and compassionate musing of tensions of opposites.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I ask: What actually deserves our emotional investment?

This question, inspired by pulling the Ace of Cups and King of Cups, became the starting point for this episode and a much deeper exploration of why we emotionally invest in certain people, relationships, friendships, jobs, and family dynamics even when those investments leave us feeling depleted.

Drawing from psychodynamic theory, attachment theory, and Parts Work, I explore why we unconsciously recreate familiar emotional patterns - often hoping that this time we'll finally receive the love, validation, consistency, or emotional safety we didn't receive before. Unfortunately, those old wounds can keep us emotionally invested in relationships that repeatedly fail to meet our needs.

In this episode, I take you on an emotionally invested journey into:

•

Why we unconsciously invest in emotionally unavailable people

•

The connection between attachment, emotional investment, and relationship patterns

•

How the King of Cups reflects emotional maturity, identity, and healthy boundaries

•

Why leaving painful relationships often feels like losing part of ourselves

•

The psychology behind the sunken cost fallacy and why it keeps us stuck

•

How intermittent reinforcement strengthens unhealthy emotional attachments

•

Why seeing an ex-partner become emotionally available can feel so devastating

•

The difference between loving someone and organizing your identity around them

I also pull a three-card therapeutic tarot spread (below) to explore the parts of ourselves that remain emotionally invested even after a relationship has stopped nourishing us. Using the Six of Pentacles, Page of Cups, and Two of Wands, I examine the inner child, people-pleasing, self-worth, differentiation, and reclaiming our identity.

Instead of wondering whether someone else will finally change, I invite you to explore what becomes possible when you stop organizing your life around earning their love and begin investing in the version of yourself that has always been worthy of receiving love from anyone.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

On this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I discuss how I believe we are collectively living through one of the most significant periods of disorientation in modern history. Between political upheaval, personal and collective loss, illness, trauma, and rapid cultural, religious, and spiritual change, many of us are finding ourselves in the liminal, and trying desperately to claw out of it.

But…what if we’re not supposed to leave right away? What if there is something to gain from existing in this space of disorientation, so when we do find our way to the other side, we feel better equipped to navigate what lies ahead.

In this episode, I explore the psychology and philosophy of disorientation through the work of philosopher Ami Harbin and consider what happens when we stop trying to rush toward certainty, the next experience, or healing. Rather than treating confusion and discomfort as something to fix, I mirror Harbin’s philosophy and ask whether periods of uncertainty might actually become some of the most meaningful experiences of our lives.

From both a psychotherapeutic and tarot perspective, I examine why cards like The Tower and Five of Cups often invite us to remain in the discomfort instead of immediately searching for solutions and what if grief, disruption, and uncertainty aren't interruptions to growth that need to quickly be remedied, but instead a necessary process for growth.

I also share a three-card "Reorientation" tarot spread for the collective inspired by Harbin's work. Together we explore where we currently feel disoriented, what opportunities for growth exist within that uncertainty, and how these experiences may be reshaping our identities through The Tower, King of Wands, and The Chariot. (Yes, I actually pulled The Tower for card one. And no, I cannot believe it.)

Deck: Earth Magick Tarot

Book Referenced: Disorientation and Moral Life by Ami Harbin

Interview referenced: https://jessicadore.substack.com/p/offering-disorientation-with-ami

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

Personal note before you listen: To be honest, I sat on this episode for weeks. I almost didn’t share it - mainly because it felt too honest, too personal, too vulnerable. And I think there was a part of me that felt guilty. Despite the hesitation, here it is…

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I explore what it means to be an adult child of emotionally immature parents and how tarot can help us understand the roles, defenses, wounds, and longings that form in emotionally unpredictable homes.

This conversation was inspired by my recent re-read of Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson, as well as my own lived experience. I talk about the painful developmental moment when we realize our parents are not all-knowing, all-capable figures, but full, flawed, historically shaped human beings. When moving through the deck, I realized this experience mimicked The Hierophant (reversed) - that unsettling, yet necessary unseating of a caregiver from the archetypal throne of perceived perfection and safety.

From there, I explore how tarot became a safe, symbolic language for me and a tool that helped me piece together fragments of my upbringing, access unconscious material, and create a more coherent personal narrative…without overwhelming my nervous system in the process.

I explore what feels like all the cards in this episode:

•

The Moon

•

The Hanged Man

•

The Devil

•

The Star

•

The Five of Cups

•

The Nine of Cups

•

The Seven of Wands

•

The Eight of Pentacles

I also spend time with the court cards as family roles and survival strategies. The Kings and Queens become emotionally immature parent archetypes: the rigid parent, the volatile parent, the misattuned sensitive parent, and the practical caregiver who confuses provision with emotional connection. The Knights and Pages become the children shaped by those dynamics: the fixer, the family therapist, the old soul, the strategist, the overachiever, the silenced creative child, the emotional caretaker, and the overanalyzer.

Ultimately, this episode is about how tarot can help us see the patterns we inherited without making those patterns the end of our story. If you felt love was conditional, your emotional needs were too much, or that safety depended on managing everyone else’s moods and feelings, this episode offers a gentle but honest reflection on what you endured and what you are still allowed to become.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

Join us at the Summer Solstice Summit - a three day, virtual tarot conference June 26-28. Grab your ticket here and use code TAROTPOD15 to get 15% off! https://www.thetarotdiagnosis.com/summersolstice

📚 Check out my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I’m pulling for June’s collective tarot reading where I explore a Summer Solstice inspired spread designed to help us step out of the shadows and into the growth of the sun. As we move toward the longest day of the year, I wanted to create a spread that examines what we've been avoiding, the fears keeping us stuck, and the growth that becomes possible when we're willing to move forward anyway.

Pulling the Two of Wands, Eight of Swords, and Seven of Pentacles, I explore the psychology of indecision, analysis paralysis, self-doubt, boundaries, and the often unavoidable and uncomfortable reality that growth sometimes means we need to release expectations.

The reading begins with the Two of Wands, a card that challenges us to examine the difference between planning and stagnation. How long have we been researching, preparing, contemplating, and waiting? At what point does preparation stop being helpful and start becoming a means of avoidance, or a false refuge from uncertainty?

From there, the Eight of Swords invites a deeper question: what is actually keeping us stuck? Rather than viewing this card solely as self-imposed limitation, I explore the possibility that some of our hesitation may be rooted in inherited narratives, unconscious loyalties, relational dynamics, or systems that benefited from us staying exactly where we are. It’s unlikely this person blindfolded and binded themselves afterall.

Finally, the Seven of Pentacles offers a different relationship with growth altogether. Instead of demanding immediate transformation, this card reminds us that meaningful change often unfolds slowly through patience, repetition, and sustained effort. This card reminds us to “trust the process,” be present during the awkward growth phase, and be willing to see what transpires on our way to the outcome.

Deck used: Joi de Vivre

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

Join us at the Summer Solstice Summit - a three day, virtual tarot conference June 26-28. Grab your ticket here and use code TTDPOD to get 15% off!

https://www.thetarotdiagnosis.com/summersolstice

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I explore a question that has been lingering in my mind for months: What do the pillars in tarot actually symbolize on a deeper psychological level?

Using Viktor Frankl’s famous quote - “Between stimulus and response there is a space…,” I reflect on how the pillars in cards like the High Priestess, Justice, the Hierophant, and even the Moon might represent more than just duality or balance. I explore the possibility that these pillars symbolize psychological thresholds or liminal spaces where uncertainty, intuition, morality, projection, fear, and meaning live.

I dive into the symbolism of the flowing/airy tapestry behind the High Priestess and contrast it with the heavy, obscuring curtain behind Justice, exploring how these archetypes reflect the tension between flexibility and rigidity. Through a Jungian, somatic, and trauma-informed lens, I discuss how the body often senses something before the mind can, and before the brain can organize it into language, as well as how our desire for certainty can sometimes become a defense mechanism against our discomfort with ambiguity.

From there, I turn toward the Hierophant and explore the psychological impact of inherited systems rooted in religion, morality, culture, authority, and collective meaning-making. I reflect on what happens when external structures override internal knowing, and why the space between the pillars matters so much when it comes to identity, autonomy, and self-trust.

I also explain why I believe the Moon belongs in this conversation, despite its “pillars” technically being towers. For me, The Moon represents what happens behind the pillars: the unconscious terrain we enter when certainty becomes hazy and we are forced to navigate ambiguity without reassurance.

Toward the end of the episode, I create a brand new three card tarot spread inspired by Frankl’s quote.

Pulling the Magician, Six of Pentacles, and Three of Wands, I explore themes of hyper-independence, receiving support, and what becomes possible when we stop trying to survive entirely on our own.

This episode is part tarot symbolism analysis, part Jungian and therapeutic exploration, and part philosophical reflection on what exists in the space between instinct and action.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

Join us at the Summer Solstice Summit - a three day, virtual tarot conference June 26-28. Grab your ticket here and use code TTD15 to get 15% off!

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠ and get access to episode announcements, episode created spreads and photos from the episode!

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I walk you through one of my favorite creative tarot practices: building a tarot spread in real time and then using it for our collective month-ahead reading for May!

Instead of starting with a pre-made spread, I decided to let the cards guide the questions. As a therapist, I’m used to being a professional question asker, so this felt like a natural way to show you how tarot spreads can emerge directly from tarot and the human experience. I pull cards one at a time, listen to what questions they seem to ask, and slowly build a cohesive spread that reflects themes many of us are navigating right now.

The spread that emerged centers around the Ten of Wands, exploring the tension between what we carry that is necessary and what we carry that is unnecessary. From there, the reading moves into questions about avoidance, hyper-independence, emotional curiosity, and the challenge of allowing others to support us. What unfolded was a powerful reminder that many of us have learned to carry everything alone and that learning to receive help can feel just as uncomfortable as letting go of control.

As the reading develops, themes of urgency, over-functioning, emotional avoidance, and survival-based independence show up, but so do strengths like resilience, adaptability, and the ability to move forward even amidst ambiguity. The reading closes with imagery that reflects gradual change and the slow movement toward balance, reminding us that growth is gradual.

This episode is part workshop, part collective tarot reading, and part reflection on what it means to shift from doing everything alone to learning how to give and receive support in healthier ways.

Spread created:

Card 1: What am I carrying that is unnecessary?

Card 2: What am I carrying that is necessary right now?

Card 3: What questions do I need to ask myself about these burdens?

Card 4: Where did I learn to carry everything alone?

Card 5: What strengths or skills have I developed through carrying all of this?

Card 6: What would balance look like if I allowed myself to both give and receive?

Deck used: Mystic Storyteller Tarot

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

Join us at the Summer Solstice Summit - a three day, virtual tarot conference June 26-28. Grab your ticket here and use code TTD15 to get 15% off!

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I explore the Moon archetype through the lens of perception, ambiguity, and psychological insight. I also get super personal about my early experiences as a therapist.

This episode was inspired by pulling The Moon after not seeing it in my readings for quite some time. That experience opened the door to a flood of memories from my early days as a therapist and the powerful lessons I learned about perception, symbolism, and uncertainty from a very dear, late supervisor of mine. I reflect on how working with ambiguous images, sand tray therapy, and expressive modalities shaped my understanding of tarot as a projective and deeply personal experience.

I also share the lasting influence of this former supervisor who taught me the phrase, “the back is always bigger than the front,” a reminder that what we see first is rarely the full picture. This idea mirrors the Moon archetype perfectly: we only see what is illuminated, while so much remains hidden in shadow. When used therapeutically, tarot invites us to slow down, question our assumptions, and sit with uncertainty rather than rushing toward answers or rigid interpretations.

Throughout the episode, I walk through how perception shifts depending on emotional state, personal history, and nervous system regulation. I explore how two people can look at the same tarot card (or ambiguous image) and have completely different experiences, both of which are valid. Using the King of Wands as a live example, I demonstrate how slowing down and noticing small details can unlock deeper reflection and insight.

Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to work with tarot as a reflective, therapeutic tool - one that helps you explore what lies beneath the surface, honor ambiguity, and stay curious about what you don’t yet understand.

You're Invited!

Join us at the Summer Solstice Summit - a three day, virtual tarot conference June 26-28. Grab your ticket here and use code TTD15 to get 15% off!

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I continue my monthly collective-reading tarot series with the classic Celtic Cross spread for April, using the truly stunning and special Earth Magick Tarot.

This month’s reading felt intense from the start with multiple Major Arcana appearing throughout the spread (six in total omg), the themes that surfaced centered around uncertainty, systemic instability, collective exhaustion, and the deep craving for clarity and truth. The Hanged Man set the tone immediately, reflecting the liminal, upside-down feeling many of us are navigating as we find ourselves caught between the world we knew and the world that is still taking shape.

As the spread unfolds, archetypes like The World, The Emperor, The Devil, and The Sun paint a layered picture of global tension, power structures, and the psychological toll of overstimulation and instability. At the same time, cards like The Lovers and the Two of Cups remind us that our individual choices, relationships, and values still carry meaningful influence, even when the larger systems feel overwhelming and make us feel powerless.

This reading ultimately ends with the Four of Swords as the outcome, which felt like an important reminder: we cannot move forward with strategy or clarity if we stay locked in cycles of chaos, urgency, and overstimulation. Sometimes the most radical act is rest, reflection, and stepping back long enough to regain clear perspective.

In this episode, I explore:

•

A full Celtic Cross tarot reading for April’s collective energy

•

Why The Hanged Man reflects collective liminality and uncertainty

•

How nostalgia and longing for the past show up in times of instability

•

The role of power, control, and overstimulation in modern systems

•

Why personal choice and alignment still matter in chaotic environments

•

How the Four of Swords points to rest, clarity, and nervous system regulation

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

Join us at the Summer Solstice Summit - a three day, virtual tarot conference June 26-28. Grab your ticket here and use code TTD15 to get 15% off!

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I share what happened when I found myself in a creative slump and did what I often encourage others to do…just shuffle the cards and follow what shows up. What surfaced were court cards, which led me back to a recent workshop I created on understanding the Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings through the lens of psychosocial development and Jungian Psychoanalysis.

This episode offers a glimpse into how I move beyond seeing court cards as simple personality types and instead view them as developmental archetypes that mirror real psychological stages across the lifespan.

Drawing from Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, I explore how each court card reflects key human questions like identity, intimacy, contribution, and integration, and how we revisit these stages throughout life rather than moving through them in a linear fashion.

I also introduce Jungian concepts of transformation, showing how the court cards can represent the unfolding of awareness - from early insight to full integration. Along the way, I demonstrate practical exercises and tarot spreads that help translate these theories into meaningful self-reflection.

In this episode, I explore:

•

How court cards connect to Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development

•

Why the Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings reflect evolving life themes

•

How Jungian transformation stages deepen tarot interpretation

•

What court cards reveal about identity, relationships, legacy, and personal integration

•

Sample tarot exercises using the Ten of Swords (reversed) and the High Priestess and the Knight of Swords and Three of Pentacles

Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to see the court cards as more than static figures, and instead as living psychological archetypes that mirror growth, change, and the ongoing process of becoming.

You're Invited! Join us for a rare opportunity to learn from therapists, witches, tarot practitioners, and divination experts during an immersive three-day virtual summit.​

The Summer Solstice Summit is designed to explore tarot, spirituality, and intuitive practices through thoughtful workshops, creative exploration, and meaningful conversation.​

What You’ll Experience:

✨ 14 immersive workshops led by therapists, witches, tarot readers, and divination practitioners
✨ Conversations that explore tarot and witchcraft through psychology, ritual, and creativity
✨ A welcoming virtual community of curious and thoughtful practitioners
✨ Live Zoom sessions with recordings available for 90 days
✨ A chance to win one of three tarot gift bundles

Get your ticket here!

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I’m kicking off March with a new series for the pod: a monthly collective tarot reading. A lot of you asked for more frequent check-ins after my 2026 year-ahead reading, and honestly… I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this sooner. So, thank you for the suggestion!

If you’ve been around my work for a while, you know I don’t read predictively. My relationship to tarot is rooted in its therapeutic components and how archetypes help us access unconscious material, think outside the box, and get curious about what’s happening inside us and around us. So, these monthly readings are meant to offer an invitation for us to think deeper, feel inspired, and spark conversation.

For this first collective reading, I’m using one of my favorite spreads: “Why Is Everything F*cked?” Because…well, everything is f*cked.

The spread:

• A card to represent the current chaos
• What have we not considered about this chaos?
• What role do I play in the resolution of the chaos?
• What might await on the other side of the chaos?

In this episode, I explore:

• How the Ace of Pentacles can represent systemic instability and liminality
• Why Death is the card we tend to resist when change is necessary
• What legacy actually means in times of cultural and institutional upheaval with the Ten of Pentacles
• How the Page of Swords reflects collective reframing, discernment, and new language

If you want to see the cards I pulled and the spread laid out visually, make sure you’re on my email list (those subscribers get the images and spread first), or subscribe onSubstack.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I explore why asking better questions might be the most important tarot skill you can develop.

As a psychotherapist, I often joke that I’m a “professional question asker.” It’s half joke, half truth because the arc of a therapy session (sometimes even the arc of an entire therapeutic relationship) can hinge on one well-timed, well-crafted question. And I’ve come to realize the same is true in tarot.

We spend so much time mastering card meanings, memorizing spreads, studying symbolism, and refining interpretations, but if the question we bring to the cards lacks depth, precision, or courage, even the most technically impressive reading can fall flat.

In this episode, I explore:

•

Why poorly crafted tarot questions limit insight

•

How to stop outsourcing your authority to the cards

•

How Socratic questioning can deepen tarot readings

•

How vertical arrow questioning (a cognitive therapy tool) applies to tarot

I also walk you through a live exercise after pulling the Nine of Swords and the Three of Cups, to show how a surface-level question can evolve into something much more layered, reflective, and transformative.

For example:

•

The Nine of Swords goes from “What thoughts are plaguing me?” to “What story am I telling myself when I can’t sleep?”

•

The Three of Cups moves from “Where do I feel supported?” to “What feels vulnerable about needing other people?”

And we explore something that often goes unnamed: tarot is inherently projective. The questions we ask are never neutral. They reveal our fears, our defenses, our comfort zones, and our blind spots. Sometimes, the most powerful question isn’t the one we oh-so-confidently as…sometimes it’s the one we hesitate or even refuse to say out loud.

Ultimately, when we move beyond surface-level meanings and begin crafting deeper, open-ended tarot questions, we shift into deeper states of consciousness - and that’s where tarot becomes not just a tool for “answers,” but a collaborator in our journey towards self-actualization.

If you found this episode helpful, you’ll love The Symposium - my membership community where we practice therapeutic tarot together in spaces like the Reading Room, the Book Club, monthly workshops, and meet ups.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I explore a concept called “poisoning the well” and how it can inconspicuously shape the way we interpret tarot, often before we’ve even given the cards a fair chance to speak, or ourselves an opportunity to be curious about the card. Poisoning the well can happen when we learn to fear a card before encountering it in its specific context, which makes anything that follows feel threatening, prophetic, or untrustworthy.

In tarot, this shows up when cards like The Tower, Death, The Devil, or the Three of Swords are immediately labeled as “bad” or “painful,” which shuts down curiosity, nuance, and the ability to experience deeper reflection.

I walk through the three psychological patterns that tend to fuel this kind of tarot bias:

•

First impressions: Where early fear-based meanings stick even when a card’s position or context suggests something more layered, or not so literal (e.g. Death).

•

Confirmation bias: Where we unconsciously look for evidence that supports our fear while ignoring nuance or other contextual factors in a spread.

•

Emotional reasoning: Where anxiety or discomfort becomes “proof” that something bad is going to happen, rather than just useful data about what the card is activating in us.

From there, I explore how poisoning the tarot well reduces a card’s meaning, turns tarot into rigid labels instead of reflective tools, and leads to avoidance behaviors like reshuffling, pulling endless clarifiers, or abandoning readings altogether. While these reactions may feel protective in the moment, they ultimately reinforce fear and limit growth. Many of the cards we fear most are the ones pointing directly toward the work we need to do: attachment patterns, boundaries, grief, shame, power dynamics, necessary endings, etc.

I also share a personal story (aka I talk about reading for my very religious sister) about how religious and cultural conditioning can shape tarot fears - poisoning the tarot well, and how rigid narratives around certain cards can feel genuinely destabilizing if they’re never questioned. From there, I offer concrete ways to un-poison your tarot well, including identifying where your card meanings came from, working with somatic reactions instead of avoiding them, asking more specific and grounded questions, and expanding your language around difficult cards through techniques like free association.

Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to let tarot challenge you. When we stop deciding what a card means before we pull it and get curious about it instead, tarot becomes what it’s meant to be: a mirror, an opportunity for philosophical dialogue, and a tool for a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you.

I love when you all leave comments on Spotify or YouTube about your own thoughts on the topic discussed - so let me know your thoughts!

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay