5 Tarot Exercises for the New Year
Happy New Year, tarot peeps!
It’s been a week since we left 2020 behind, and I hope you’re (still?) feeling fresh, hopeful, and ready to tackle whatever comes your way. I’m always a little sad when the New Year arrives because it means the holiday is ending. I usually spend the last two weeks of the year reflecting, pulling cards for the next year, and going back to my cards… It’s such a grounding practice, I always feel really good after all that introspection.
Because I feel like my own practice has benefited me a lot—what with this holiday season being so extraordinary, I thought I’d send some New Year tarot exercises your way to help you usher in this 2021.
Whether you’ve just gotten your first deck, are resolving to spend more time with your cards this year, or just want a distraction from back-to-work vibes (let’s be real, this is all of us), here are some ways you can play with your decks.
The thing I love about tarot exercises for the New Year is that they can help set the tone for the rest of the year. Do them regularly enough and they become an integral part of your spiritual practice too.
Doing New Year Tarot readings for friends and family. Pulling one to three cards for people in your circle—especially those who have no idea how tarot works can be fun. Make it a no-pressure zone and bring your kodigo or little white book if you have to.
My friend Macy messaged me on Jan 1 saying that she tried reading for two people over the New Year, and she was amazed at how the cards resonated with those she pulled for. If reading for others intimidates you, doing a simple New Year pull for people you know can help you get used to helping others interpret the tarot archetypes.
When doing this, remember that the goal isn’t to predict what will happen in 2021: it’s for you to help them find something to focus on as the months unfold. Remembering that you’re not dictating what will happen next will take a load of pressure off!
Setting up a tarot reading ritual. Real talk: resolutions aren’t really super effective and can put a lot of pressure on us. Resolving to pull a card a day for the next 365 days might end up in you just disappointing yourself, but if you make a mindful and intentional declaration to make tarot part of your daily rituals then yo'u’ll be easing the cards into your system a little more organically.
Think first about what you want to commit to. A card a day? A card a week? Pulling 7 cards for all the days of the week every Sunday night? Pulling cards for yourself during the Full and New Moons each month? You decide.
Regardless of how often you want to shuffle your cards, I believe that rituals bring value to us as tarot readers because they help us forge a “relationship” with our cards. They help us work our reader muscles.
I started a 31-Day tarot challenge with my friend Mikko on Instagram in case you want to hop on in or simply use the prompts to inspire your ritual draws. The challenge is for January but you can certainly do it anytime!
Getting into tarot journaling. I used to buy a tiny Moleskine or use the annual Starbucks planner to document my daily tarot draws. I didn’t really make it pretty—it was basically just me and my chicken scratch, documenting my pulls every morning and writing a sentence or two about them. It was always interesting to me to observe which cards I pulled the most, which suits were dominant, and which ones never showed up.
In late 2019, this practice inspired me to create the PM Diary and the stickers that accompany it. Last year was the first time I used the diary and stickers I made and I found it so fun to have a “proper” notebook to document my pulls. I mean, any notebook will actually do and you don’t really need stickers, but if you’re a stationery stan like me then these little accoutrements just make this type of journaling a lot more beguiling.
2020 was the first time I used the PM Diary. I used to scribble chicken scratch in a tiny baby Moleskine but wow what a difference it makes to see things laid out. Not only a sense of accomplishment but it feels like i have an entire annal of interpretations and pulls i can refer to anytime.
Breaking in a new deck. If you’re into tarot deck collecting, then New Year may seem like a good time to unwrap a brand new deck and get to know it. The year I got my 90s Tarot (then called the Illest Tarot), I committed to using it for my daily draws for a full year. I never used to like pip decks before this, but after breaking it in, I can safely say I’m now comfy with non-scenic pips. If you’re a bit of a hoarder, it may be too much to ask for you to stick to one deck for a whole year, so maybe the New Year can just be devoted to unboxing something new.
Alternately, the New Year is also a good time to declare a no spend / no buy moratorium on deck purchases. Because my consumption has greatly dwindled since 2020, I’m actually wondering if 2021 will be the year I actually make zero tarot purchases (probably an unfair declaration since I do create decks). We’ll see.
Learning a new system. Tarot is pretty complex—it offers endless avenues for learning. The New Year can be the year you finally break away from your Rider Waite Smith deck and start learning the Thoth system. It can be the year you finally learn to integrate oracle with your tarot pulls. Or maybe it can be a time for you to figure out numerology. I think that staying curious about tarot and really delving into areas of the practice you haven’t explored before is a pretty cool way to spend your January.
Hope you’ve enjoyed my suggestions and tips! If you have any other ideas, feel free to share in the comments :)
Here’s to finding fun new ways to bring practical magic into our sphere this year.