Using Tarot to Sense Energy
A month or so into spirit work as a beginner I realized that I should probably improve my ability to read energy. I wasn’t very skilled with sensing yet but I did just pick up my first ever tarot deck. When learning how to read it, I discovered that the cards were often associated with the four classical elements: fire, water, air and earth. I couldn’t sense the composition of energy but if people were using tarot cards to read the intentions and presence of spirits, I figured that I could use them to determine the presence of the different elemental energies as well. Thus, I created this system of tarot interpretation in order to read for the presence of elemental energy in the energy signatures of the spirits I encountered.
An important thing to note is that this is a very rudimentary system. Energy is much more complex than the four elements and even the elements are more complex than simply their existence within and energy signature. So, to state it more plainly, this is a simplistic system for determining the presence and characteristics of elemental energy. If you hope to become adept at energy reading, you will need to branch out from this and if you’re already adept then this probably won’t help you very much. It was something that I created as a beginner to energy sensing so I figured it could probably help other people who are beginners. I rarely use it nowadays though since I no longer need it so hopefully I haven’t forgot any important details lol.
How it works: Basically, every card is assigned an element(s) based on its characteristics and you do a reading as you would normally do except with the intention of the cards revealing what elemental energy forms are present in the thing that you are trying to decipher. Rather than interpreting the meanings of the cards, you interpret the elemental associations that you assign to them in order to determine what elements are present.It can get a bit complex at some points as I came to three major realizations while formulating and employing this system that taught me about the intricacies of energy as a whole.
Word of Advice: You can use this to practice your psychic sensing of energy by pulling the spread but keeping the cards face down. Then you would psychically read the energy before turning the cards over to see if what they say matches with what you psychically read.
Note: These are based on my personal associations that I use for these readings. You can use them as a starting point but for more accurate results I suggest you work with one deck and find your own associations within it:
🔥 Fire: Wands, Pages, The Chariot, The Tower, Death, Strength, The Sun, The Fool, Aces, Fives, Sixes, Eights
💧 Water: Cups, Queens, The Moon, The Hermit, The Empress, The Star, The High Priestess, Twos, Threes
🍃 Air: Swords, Knights, The Lovers, The Magician, Temperance, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man, Sevens
🌳 Earth: Pentacles, Kings, The Devil, The Hierophant, The Emperor, Judgement, Justice, Fours, Nines
🌎 Balanced: The World, Tens
An important idea to note is that the cards don’t indicate element at equal magnitudes. That is, some characteristics of the cards take priority over others. For example, say you pull the Seven of Cups. Seven indicates the element of air while Cups indicate the element of water, so what is this card saying? Through experimentation and experience, I came to the first realization: the elemental characteristics exist within a hierarchy. The order goes as follows:
Major Arcana > Suit > Court Cards > Aces > Numbers
The presence of a major arcana in the spread indicates a very strong presence of the element it represents in the energy that you are reading. Suits are the next strongest and the more cards in the spread that have the same suit, the stronger the presence of that element. Court cards are next in strength and aces oddly exist at a greater strength than the other numbered cards even though they all denote the same element of fire. The numbers are the weakest indicators of the elements that they represent. Cards where the characteristics match each other in element, take the Eight of Wands for example, are in between major arcana and suit in terms of strength. So in the case of our Seven of Cups, it would primarily indicate the presence of the water element and less prominently, the presence of the air element.
The second realization is that elemental energy does not exist in a single, static, form. The way it moves and works within the energy body can differ greatly. This led to me creating the system of stable energy and chaotic energy in order to explain what I saw. I no longer use this system of stable vs. chaotic outside of these readings for the concepts are too simplistic. However, since this tarot interpretation system can’t account for a lot of the complexities of energy due to the limitations of the medium I believe that they are still valid descriptors of energy when used within this specific practice.
The energy flows calmly and is more subdued. It flows slowly but strongly. Stable energies are good for magic that requires directness, such as enchantments, because the energy can be easily manipulated and controlled. For that reason, it’s sometimes easier to work with stable energies than chaotic. However, they are prone to stagnation which will inhibit energy flow and make it more difficult to employ the energy in one’s magic. Those with high stable energies would need to balance them with some more energizing magic. The elements of earth and water lean towards a more stable energy pattern.
The energy is much more, well, energetic. It flows faster and more freely throughout you. This makes it a lot easier to employ in your magic as it doesn’t take much effort to get the energy moving. Therefore, chaotic energies work very well with magic that require a lot of energy or magic that needs to be done quickly. However, this also means that it’s very easy to become overwhelmed by the chaotic energy or to use too much and exhaust yourself. Someone with high chaos energies would need to do a lot of grounding to keep themselves from accidentally depleting themselves when doing magic. The elements of fire and air lean towards a more chaotic energy pattern.
Unfortunately, there is no uniform set characteristics of the cards that indicate stability or chaos like for element. However, there is a pattern due to the relationship between the elements and their state that can be used in place of associations. That is, the element of a characteristic usually indicates whether the card is describing a stable or chaotic energy state. For example, Kings denote the earth element and the earth element leans towards a stable state thus Kings denote stability. The King of Pentacles is a very stable card and the King of Wands illustrates the presence of a stable fire element.
Another big indicator of whether an energy is chaotic or stable is its imagery. I won’t tell you what kind of imagery corresponds with which energy state since that’s something you should figure out on your own. I also can’t go into much detail since all decks have different imagery on their cards so there is no conclusive statement that I can make unless we are specifically referring to the deck that I use for these readings. Yes, I can’t stress enough the importance of using only one deck for this system. Decks usually differ a bit in meanings of the cards but if you try to switch up the deck you use for this you’ll quickly find that a lot of the associations cannot be easily carried over, especially in regards to the energy states.
Too much of either stability or chaos can indicate that the subject may be experiencing the malignant effects of either energy state.
Using and Interpreting the Cards
If you’re paying attention, you might be wondering why I said in the previous section that the King of Wands represented a stable fire element and no mentioning of the earth element that the King should indicate. Welcome to the fun part. :^)
You cannot get an accurate reading using only one card. I mean you probably can, or at least I can ehehe, but it’s a lot more difficult so why bother? This medium of energy reading can only account for a simplified understanding of energy-four types and two states-before getting too complex and hard to decipher. Using only one card is extremely pushing it on how much you can simplify an extremely multifaceted subject such as energy.
Three to six cards are usually best. Three cards can cover all that you need to make decent conclusions and feel free to pull three more if you need clarifications. Using above six cards is useful if you’re interested in interpreting more advanced stuff than I’ve described here but if you’re just interested in the basics it gets to be a little too much.
When using three cards, begin with a card that will represent the first element of your subject. Next, pull a card to represent the second element of your subject. Finally, put a card in the center of the last two that will signify how the elements work together within the energy body of your subject. Very simple spread.
Interpret the elements that are present first. Focus more on what Cards 1 and 2 have to say. It’s easiest to follow the hierarchy listed above in the “Elements of the Cards” section and just go down the list. If there is a major arcana then that element is definitely in your subject. If an element only exists within one number of one of the cards then it’s probably not very strong.
If a characteristic of an element is present multiple times, say all of the cards are of the same suit or you get a five and an eight, then that element is probably strong or at least a moderate strength once you consider the characteristics and their hierarchy. For example, if all three cards are in the suit of swords then that indicates the presence of a strong air element since suits are high up on the hierarchy. On the other hand, a five and an eight both indicate the fire element but since they are low on the hierarchy, they would indicate that the fire is only moderately strong if there are no other characteristics in the spread that point to fire.
If you come across a situation where all of the elements seem to be of equal strength in your subject, then there’s two possibilities: the elements are balanced or no elements exist in a strong enough presence. You can usually figure out which possibility it is by observing the strength of the elements according the hierarchy. If the characteristics are high up in the hierarchy then they are usually balanced. Usually in that case there’d be multiple major arcana. If they’re on the lower end, then that denotes weakness in the presence of the elements. In that situation, you’ll normally have number cards that have differing suits. (A situation like that second one usually denotes someone with an under/undeveloped energy system or someone who has an energy alignment with energy forms that exist outside the system of the classical elements).
Don’t forget to look for the absence of elements. If an element is not present in the spread then you can assume that it is not present in your subject.
Interpret the energy state of the elements second. Focus more on what Card 3 has to say. Card 3 is the easiest indicator of stability or chaos because you can usually interpret a relationship such as “the suit of Card 3 corresponds to the energy state of the first element and the name of Card 3 corresponds to the energy state of the second element”. For example, if Card 3 was the Five of Pentacles, it would be saying that the primary element is stable and the secondary element is chaotic.
You can also use the “name” (that is the number or court) on Cards 1 and 2 to see what energy states they are. However, this is only useful if the element that the name corresponds to is not present anywhere else. For example, you pull the King of Cups, the Seven of Wands, and the Ace of Swords. “King” is the only characteristic in the spread that points to the earth element. You can assume that the earth element is weak then but it can also denote that the water element in the subject is stable.
Don’t forget the imagery too. My Seven of Swords always indicated the presence of a chaotic air element because of what I read in the art even though at first glance you may think that it is just indicating a strong air element. Imagery is also important for deciding whether the Major Arcana are chaotic or stable because, spoiler alert, you can’t just use the element that the card corresponds to for determining the energy state. For example, The Devil to me indicates the uncommon chaotic earth element.
So play around with your cards, you’ll soon find that some cards will appear very often and you’ll know right away what kind of elemental energy your subject has. My Seven of Swords appeared probably every time that my subject had a chaotic air element no matter what else they had going on in their energy body.
To synthesize everything that I’ve discussed so far, here’s an example interpretation of my own energy:
Card 1: Eight of Swords | Card 2: Three of Wands | Card 3: The Emperor
So the first thing I notice is that the third and center card is a major arcana however, while the center card sometimes speaks on the elements present, I know that in this case, it is referring to the energy state and the synergy of the two major elements rather than the earth element. I can make this assumption because 1) experience and 2) neither of the two cards that are more geared towards what elements are present indicate anything about earth. If this spread were to tell me that I have a strong earth element right now, The Emperor would be in the first or second position, not the third.
So let’s look more at what elements Cards 1 and 2 have for us:
Eight and Wands are both indicators of fire, Swords an indicator of air, and Three an indicator of water. Two characteristics, one being a suit, point towards the fire element so I can conclude that fire is the most prominent elemental alignment that I have currently. Also, though I can’t show you, the color scheme of the art of all three cards has a lot of warm colors, yellows and reds. So as you can see, you get more information when looking for connections across the whole spread than just looking at one card. The suit of Swords would indicate that the air element is the next most prominent and the Three would indicate that the water element is present but weak.
As for the energy states, the Eight of Swords is a very chaotic card. Eight is a number of speed and high energy making it the most chaotic of all numbers. The card also contains both fire and air- the more chaotic elements. Even the imagery illustrates the chaos: a woman in bondage as she is surrounded by glistening swords. It’s a rather prickly scene. On the other hand, the Three of Wands is actually a pretty calm card even though there is the presence of the fire element. This card shows control over the chaos, the subject has such a sturdy grip over that elemental energy that the stability and chaos of it are at a perfect balance. Such balance is usually indicative of someone who is experienced with working with that form of energy. This balance can normally be found in cards that have opposing elements, for example fire and water in this case, however cards like that can also indicate a severe lack of control over that elemental energy. You’ll need to look at the imagery and meaning to determine which possibility the card is talking about.
Now onto Card 3, The Emperor. This is a very stable card and it’s also another one that denotes balance as in the image the symbols for all four elements appear. Because I’m familiar with my energy system I know that this card is denoting a much deeper meaning that goes beyond the scope of this post but for our purposes here this card is indicating control and a harmonious union of the elements. Let’s bring it all together: the Three of Wands tells us that the fire element is balanced between chaos and stability and the Eight of Swords tells us that the air element is very chaotic. If one element is balanced and the other chaotic, how can they be in perfect union? Because the balanced fire element influences the chaotic air element. How do I know? First of all, as the most prominent element, fire is bound to affect the others in some way. and since it is balanced and controlled, it does so in a beneficial way. Because of the Eight and the warm-colored imagery, fire is very present on the card that indicates the presence of air energy illustrating that there is a relationship between fire and air energy within my energy body. The Emperor says that the elements are in union and the Three of Wands says that the fire element is controlled, so as the most prominent element that is also well controlled, the fire element most likely controls and balances out the chaos of the air element within my energy body. If one were to read my energy body they’d probably see that my air energy channels exist closely to my fire energy channels and are directed and regulated by the fire energy channels.
Look at how much information we got about my energy alignment without using psychic senses at all!
(If you’re curious, the only thing that I knew about before doing the reading is that fire energy is the most prominent element. Had no idea that it was at such a good balance now. Also I think my deck is spiting me for saying earlier that the Seven of Swords always appears whenever there is a chaotic air element ;>.>).
Interpreting Non-Elemental Energy
The third realization that I came to when using this method of reading energy is that it is not actually limited to the four classical elements. There was a way to read for other forms of energy using tarot cards- it lied within the imagery of the cards. I did the spread for someone once and noticed that all of the cards contained an image of the moon. Even though I was intending to only read for the elemental energy I couldn’t ignore this occurrence. Hesitantly, I ventured that they may have lunar energy in addition to the element I interpreted. Turns out that they were a lunar witch.
It’s rarely as simple as that however. The reason why tarot cards are best suited for elemental energy is because there’s only four (+ balance) energy types and the characteristics that point to them are static. There’s many, many, many non-elemental energy types and it’d be impossible to capture them all within the symbolism of tarot. Instead, you’d have to really decipher the cards’ imagery and meanings and draw plausible connections between them that would provide enough evidence that the cards could be indicating the presence a non-elemental energy type. You’d also need to be knowledgeable enough about different energy types and what could represent them within the tarot in order to draw such conclusions. By the time I figured out the possibility of using tarot in this manner I had already developed my psychic abilities enough to no longer need the cards so I did not pursue this practice.
1. Reversals play no role in this system. I tried to have them indicate chaos vs stability but at that point I had already developed associations for specific cards on that front and it was annoying to read them when they’d end up in a position denoting a meaning that was contrary to what I was used to.
2. The meanings of the cards could probably play a larger role in the system if you want. As I mentioned in the introduction, I created this not too long after I picked up my first tarot deck so it would be a while before my knowledge of the meanings was intimate enough to be able to apply them in this way.
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