Living the Cards: How to Make Tarot a Multi-sensory Experience
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Tarot isn’t just a practice or at least, it doesn’t have to be. With a little bit of intention, you can infuse the energy of tarot into every part of your lifestyle. Tarot can become something you live and not just something you do. A Seer doesn’t just pull a card and interpret it. A Seer infuses the energy of her cards into her spirit. She lets her senses attune to the cards themselves. They don’t just speak to her through intellect but through her touch, scent, sound, taste and intuition.
This post is your invitation to embody the tarot as a sensory lifestyle, where each card becomes an experience and not just a message.
Why Tarot Should be Multisensory
Intuition is key when developing your skills as a tarot reader but intuition isn’t just about listening to your thoughts. Your body is a gateway to deeper knowledge and your intuition speaks to you through every part of your body. Intuitive insight can come from textures, flavors, scents and even what you’re hearing in your environment.
Associating sensory clues with card archetypes allows you to go deeper, bringing your personal experiences to your readings for more unique layers of interpretations. It also makes it easier to “feel” a card rather than analyzing it or trying to remember what it means.
You may not fully understand how the sun reflects in your life but you can study something associated with it like lemon essential oil to get a better understanding of how the sun’s energy behaves. Just like the sun, lemon essential oil is bright, joyful and provides clarity.
Or you may pull the sun in a reading and it brings an uplifted sense of hope and renewal to your spirit. Perhaps you’d like to hold onto that feeling once the reading is done? A few drops of lemon essential oil in a diffuser or carrying something bright yellow to remind you of the sun card gives you a way to carry the sun’s energy with you all day long.
Smith-Waite Tarot Deck - Centennial Edition
The Five Senses as Intuitive Channels
Sight:
How your visual environment mirrors a card’s energy (e.g., a cluttered desk while working with The Emperor might feel dissonant while getting organized can help you to channel the Emperor)
Surround yourself with colors, artwork, or symbols that reflect your chosen card
Sound:
Create a playlist for The Star or The Tower—what does it sound like to be in that energy?
Let music help you shift into a new frequency
Scent:
Use perfume or essential oils as energetic anchors (e.g., rose for The Empress, frankincense for The Hierophant)
Light a scented candle or mist your space with intention before a reading or after to anchor a reading’s message
Check out my list of essential oils for the major arcana including a downloadable PDF in the Seer’s Guild vault. Not a member? Join here.
Touch:
Choose textures that embody the card (e.g., velvet for The High Priestess, linen for Temperance)
Even your deck bags, reading cloths or the clothes you wear can become part of the ritual
Taste:
Sip tea that complements your reading’s tone
Consider flavors as emotional anchors—sweet for Cups, bitter for Swords, spiced for Wands, earthy for Pentacles
Botticelli Tarot
Practice Challenge
Choose one tarot card to “live with” this week
Pick one sensory element per day to focus on: How would The Chariot dress? What would The Lovers wear on their skin? What does Justice sound like?
Reflect at the end of the week: How did embodying the card shift your behavior, choices, or mindset?
Comment with the card you’re living this week—or tag @spiritelement with your photos of how you’ve created a tarot-inspired ritual, outfit, or other way to embody the tarot.
Let your senses guide you. Let your life become the spread.
Decks Used In This Article
