Symbols are not allegories and not signs: they are images of contents which for the most part transcend consciousness. In more ways than we realise, we are dependent on the messages carried by such symbols, and both our attitudes and behaviour are profoundly influenced by them.

— C.G. Jung

When I began reading tarot, I remember the mix of excitement and frustration. The cards felt alive but every guidebook seemed to silence that spark. I could memorise the meanings yet the readings felt hollow.

After over two decades of reading and teaching divination, I saw the same pattern repeating. Readers were drawing cards but second-guessing every message. They were trying to get it “right” instead of getting present.

That is where the idea for Tarot Aligned was born, out of watching brilliant intuitive people lose confidence because they thought intuition had to be proven or that tarot had to look a certain way. The course framework grew from those observations. It acknowledges the common ways we block connection through over-relying on guidebooks, intellectualising instead of feeling, or expecting the cards to deliver instant answers instead of conversation.

I wanted to build a space where tarot could be approached differently, as a language that belongs to everyone, not a code that must be cracked. A way of reading that encourages dialogue, patience and presence.

Tarot Aligned is not about performing accuracy. It is about cultivating fluency. It is about coming back to the heart of why you read: to listen, to notice, to remember that intuition is not a talent but a relationship.

In October 2025, I decided to make Tarot Aligned available for paid subscribers here on Substack. It was originally taught live over eight weeks, and I’ve since shaped the lessons and activities into a self-paced format you can work through in your own time. Alongside these materials, I’ll be hosting live Tarot Roundhouse sessions for shared practice, reflection and discussion.

A tarot reading is not simply about pulling cards. It is about holding space, tracking patterns and translating symbols into language that feels meaningful and grounded. Every draw is a conversation between what is seen and what stirs beneath the surface.

This first module is about setting that foundation. It will help you find your rhythm, build self-trust and start forming your own symbolic vocabulary. Think of it as tuning your inner instrument before playing.

The structures and prompts shared here come from years of reading, teaching and learning across many traditions. Once you have moved through them, keep these notes close. Revisit them when your practice feels quiet or when you want to return to the essence of why you read at all.

No two readers will ever interpret a card the same way, and that’s the point. These weeks are about discovering how meaning moves through you, not memorising how it should look.

You may find that some prompts or activities resonate more than others. That’s natural. Use what serves, leave what doesn’t, and let your practice evolve in its own timing.

One of the simplest ways to bring tarot into everyday life is through habit stacking which asks you to pair a new, meaningful action with something you already do habitually.

You might pull a card while your kettle boils in the morning, jot a note on your train journey into work, or take five quiet minutes before bed to reflect. These small moments create continuity. They root the practice in the flow of your actual life rather than in an ideal routine that never quite sticks.

Try identifying two or three daily touch-points that already belong to you. Set up a space nearby with your deck and notebook. When free time is short, use quick bullet notes instead of long reflections. At the very least just record the cards you pull - you can always reflect back later and even if you don’t you can look back to spot patterns. A few words are enough to anchor insight and build memory.

If longer stretches of time open up weekly, use them for deeper readings or creative experiments. The goal is steady integration and small, consistent steps that accumulate over time.

Keeping a record of your readings helps transform tarot from a passing experience into a living practice. Writing or noting what you see, feel and understand allows insight to mature over time and reveals the subtle patterns that shape your growth.

You might record readings to:

Each entry becomes part of your dialogue with the cards, reminding you that tarot is not only read in the moment but lived in the days that follow.

Please, for the love of your own sanity, put the guidebooks away.

You can watch the Tarot Blocks video when you have time, but throughout these weeks the task is to trust your own interpretations. When you are learning, guidebooks very quickly become a crutch that dulls your intuition and self-trust.

Self-trust grows through direct experience: noticing, questioning and reflecting on what the symbols evoke in you.

Tarot is not something you memorise.

Much of what passes for tarot education still follows the same schooling model many of us grew up with… learn the right answers and repeat them. But tarot is a symbolic language, and symbols aren’t fixed for any one person in any culture, country or era.

When you draw a card, it activates something living inside you: a memory, emotion, sensation or knowing. That movement is the reading. Your inner response is valid and does not need external evidence or validation.

Logic and learning support intuition, but they never lead it. This course helps you find balance between the two so that you can think clearly, feel deeply and stay curious.

Tarot is a relationship that deepens with attention, honesty and time. There’s no vending machine spitting out answers. If you want a yes or no answer I suggest flipping a coin - yes, that’s divination too!

Every reading is a moment of encounter. The context shifts, the question shifts and your experience shifts. Meaning arises through that exchange.

When you engage only to extract information, the practice quickly dries up. When you approach it as relationship, it becomes a lifelong companion.

The wisdom comes through how you relate to the cards, not how much you can recall. The more you know yourself, your patterns, stories and sensitivities, the more fluent your readings become.

With all that being said, we’re not entirely discarding structure. Frameworks give shape to intuition; they hold the riverbanks strong so the current can flow. There are three basic frameworks that you will find in any tarot deck you pick up whether traditional or modern. They consist of…

Tarot is story. You’re not decoding isolated symbols but following a narrative as it unfolds through images, memory and feeling. The more you build connections across these layers, the more fluent you become in the language of the cards.

You’re not here to copy someone else’s meanings. You’re here to develop your own symbolic vocabulary, one that reflects your experiences, beliefs and creative references.

Over time you can begin layering other systems that speak to you such as astrology, Qabbalah, mythology, alchemy or ancient magical correspondences. Each adds its own dimension and texture. These systems stand on their own, and while tarot can be read beautifully without them, it cannot function without its core structure of numerology, elements and story.

Together, these foundations and the many ways they can be expanded and combined explain why thousands of decks exist, each carrying its own lineage and tone. They are also the reason no two readers speak the same symbolic language and no two guidebooks ever tell the story in quite the same way.

Your role is to explore what resonates and create the mix that supports your path.

The tarot deck is made up of:

In 1909, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck introduced fully illustrated minor cards, making the system accessible as a visual language rather than a code. It invited readers to engage intuitively with imagery, not only intellect. Alongside it sit the traditional Marseille and the Thoth decks and many modern options, each offering their own way of seeing and speaking the symbolic world.

As your relationship with the cards deepens, you’ll find new forms of dialogue opening. Tarot can hold space for:

Each of these uses tarot as a living mirror as a practice of listening, translating and responding.

By the end of this course, I hope you’ll feel comfortable meeting any card without rushing to look it up. You’ll have a few steady touch-points for daily practice, and a growing sense of how your intuition speaks through symbol, pattern and story.

Every reading is a snapshot of the present moment, filtered through your own awareness. What matters most is that you stay in relationship with that awareness - to listen, reflect, and allow meaning to move through you.

Tarot Aligned © Jessica Hart 2025 | littlerituals.co.uk | All rights reserved. Do not distribute.