Turn Your Daily Tarot Draw into a Powerful Affirmation in 4 Steps

February 20, 2023, BY RU-LEE STORY READ TIME: 5 MINS

When I was just starting to get comfortable with reading tarot cards, I found myself struggling to connect the abstract meanings of a card with the practicality of everyday life. I knew what it was supposed to mean when I drew the Six of Cups in the morning, but how could I apply that meaning when I was drowning in a complicated task at work later in the day?

One of my favorite methods of incorporating my card of the day is by turning my card into an affirmation. It’s a relatively quick and low-effort activity, and the result is a ready-made intention to whisper to yourself when your day gets challenging or unpredictable. For my new book, Your Tarot ToolkitI created three affirmations for every card in a traditional tarot deck. But maybe you’d like to go a step farther than having a prebuilt affirmation from a book–maybe you want to develop your own affirmations. If that’s you, read on!

Step 1: Brainstorm. Grab a notebook, a computer, or a voice memo app, and free-write some of the words and ideas you associate with your card. You can certainly jot down items that resonate from any guidebooks or reference materials you use, but make sure to add some of your own ideas, too. You may associate the card with a person in your life, or a period of time from your past. Even if it seems opposite of the card’s traditional interpretation, it’s worth making note of.

Step 2: What elements of the card do you want to cultivate? Is there an energy that you’d consciously like to invite into your daily life? Is there a person in your orbit who you’d like to spend more time with or learn more from? Is there a memory or even a hurt that the card calls to mind, something that you’d like to make more space for? Make note of anything you can think of.

Step 3: Conversely to step 2, what elements of the card would you like to avoid or work around? Are there more negative, unhealthy, or dangerous aspects to the card that resonate with unhealthy patterns or behaviors in your life? Does the card remind you of someone in your life who you’d like to take a step away from, or build some boundaries with?

Step 4: Now for the fun part—let’s put it all together! Take a look at the list of words, phrases, and ideas you’ve assembled. Do a few of them jump out at you, or feel particularly relevant to your current circumstances? Begin by turning those words or phrases into affirmations. The best affirmations, in my opinion, start with a strong, firm opening. I like using phrases like, “I am,” “I have,” “I believe,” etc. Take a strong opening like that, and pair it with one of the concepts from your list.

A few notes as you craft your affirmations. Like intentions, affirmations work best when they are phrased positively and in the present. To that end, I advise against starting with something like, “I want to” or “I plan to.” If you’re working with an element that you want to cultivate, begin instead with, “I am capable of” or “I will.” Don’t give energy a space to wiggle out of your intention sideways. Be firm and confident in the affirmation you create.

What if you’re working with something you want to avoid? You should resist beginnings like “I won’t” or “I don’t.” Instead, make your affirmation a positive statement of how you will navigate around the potential roadblock. For instance, rather than framing an affirmation as, “I won’t let distractions keep me from working,” you might say, “I am focused and mindful in my work.”

Let’s do a few examples! I mentioned the Six of Cups above, so let’s stick with it. For step one, some traditional Six of Cups words might include nostalgiapastfamily connections, and memory. When I draw the Six of Cups, I always picture my family Christmases/Hannukahs growing up. So I might write down family holidays.

For step two, the Six of Cups encourages me to make regular time for my ancestor worship. It’s also a reminder to be thankful for the incredible, warm family in which I grew up. And as for step three, the Six of Cups can warn against living too much in the past. I want to make sure that I’m living in the moment as much as possible, while still learning and drawing from the past.

Now let’s create an affirmation from all of this! A theme that emerged during my brainstorming was the connection to family and ancestors. That’s what I’m going to work with for our example. Here are a few affirmations I might write:

  • I am connected to my family.
  • I have roots made of love.
  • I believe in my ancestors’ presence.

What if you draw a card that tends to have more negative than positive associations? Take, for instance, the Tower. What affirmations could you write from a card that speaks to crumbling foundations and overturned plans? (And particularly, how might you phrase it in a positive, present-focused way?) Well, the Tower all but demands that we be flexible, patient, and understanding–with ourselves and with others. When you experience a huge shakeup of any sort, it’s more important than ever to practice grace. No one is at their best during these turbulent times of life, and so the affirmations you write could aim to cultivate the energies needed to survive. For example:

  • I can weather ups and downs.
  • I will be gentle with myself when things are difficult.
  • I have more resilience than I know.

 

There are as many possibilities for tarot card-based affirmations as there are cards and people to draw them! Affirmations are a form of what I call “Tiny Witchcraft.” They are small, low-energy spells of sorts, words you can whisper to yourself as you get ready in the morning or in the midst of a difficult meeting at work. They don’t require any materials, and the time commitment is minimal. As a disabled practitioner, I love this kind of magic, and I hope it can be a useful tool for your toolkit as well! And speaking of toolkits, there are tons more activities and ideas for incorporating your tarot practice into your daily life in my book, Your Tarot Toolkit.

COPYRIGHT 2023 Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. All rights reserved

Excerpts from: Forever: Twin Flames and Twin Souls by Lady Dyanna

Excerpts from: Forever: Twin Flames and Twin Souls by Lady Dyanna

How to Recognize “Forever” and Make it Work

“Forever” begins with The Souls and continues with The Souls. If you doubt that forever is possible, then you have missed seeing a couple who are celebrating their 60th anniversary and are as in love as when they said: “I do”. Forever is not an idealistic journey where there is never an
argument or a disagreement. It has all those things, even horror stories about the difficulties encountered by the couple in the process of trying to come together. Many of the horror stories can be attributed to not recognizing the relationship for what it is and trying to force it into the pattern of previous relationships — even though those old relationships didn’t work out. Twin Soul relationships also entail triumph when that love is finally realized. The Journey to forever can be a difficult one.
It will require you to make some changes: changes in what you believe is possible, changes in what you believe you are capable of achieving, and changes in how you access and live your life. The funny thing about he road to forever is that it requires a revolution in your life many times. It may change who you think you are and show you a brand new exciting person with all kinds of new abilities and new perceptions. To get to this point, you must first accept the fact that the relationship that is causing this shift is different from any relationship you have ever had. It is also very likely to be different from your friends and your parents’ relationships as well.
My students often ask me, “Is my Twin Soul aware of how this relationship is different from all others? Is it affecting them the same way it’s
affecting me?” The answer is: Yes, they are aware of the difference and they are often frightened by the intensity of the feelings coming from you as well as their own intense feelings. This is one of the times when the ego steps in and says, “STOP”. It is here that many find the road to forever becoming very, very bumpy. It is at this point when your partner may do something to push you away.
It is very confusing to have someone who has declared their undying affection for you suddenly stop calling and start avoiding you altogether. This may occur within three weeks, three months or anywhere in the relationship. When the Physical Body’s fear-based emotions mix with the Ego in addition to other peoples’ perceptions of what constitutes a relationship, it will push The Souls aside.
The expectations of one party are that things should continue as they were when The Souls were in place, but that does not happen because Ego does not see the relationship with the same eyes that Soul does. We also tend to bring others’ opinions into the relationship. Unfortunately, they don’t always give good advice that will bring the relationship to fruition.
So what do you do? You still love this person and you can’t stop thinking about them and wanting to spend time with them. Your friends and your family have told you to move on; you are too good for someone to treat you like that — and many of your loved ones have decided they do not like your partner any longer. Despite all the encouragement to move on and meet someone new, you are still thinking of your Twin Soul and trying to sort out what went wrong.
Now your friends start to frown when you mention your Twin Soul. They accuse you of obsessing, which is very unhealthy. What they don’t know is that your soul is maintaining the connection between The Souls. It’s important to know that as you become more spiritually sensitive, you will also become acutely aware of the other person — even when you have not spoken in weeks. No amount of trying to put it behind you is working.
There is another force at work here: it is the force that understands forever. It is not a state of mind or a physical state; it is a state of Soul. So, you think, “Okay, this resembles me and my situation. What do I do about it? Because all the advice I have gotten so far has not changed my feelings for this person. If what I felt wasn’t real wouldn’t it have gone away by now? After all, I have been in other relationships and when they ended I was able to move on. So what’s different here?”
What is different is that in the past, you have experienced “soul mate” relationships. These are journeys with others that walk the same path as your soul for a time. When the path splits to go separate ways, there is a time of missing that person — or, in some cases, a sigh of relief that the person has moved on. The relationship you are now experiencing is called a Twin Soul/Twin Flame relationship. It is One Soul that exists in two different bodies. Your Souls are seeking a reunion to continue the “forever” that began when they first separated into two bodies.
So, what do you do with this information? Try to explain it to your friends and they will think you have really lost it and are just making up excuses for your obsession. Perhaps I can help you understand the steps along the journey to forever. It does require work with a part of your being that up until now you rarely thought about.
You must now figure out how to work with your soul to achieve the relationship that you both really want. And, if truth be told, your ex-partner wants this too. If the relationship is rocky, it’s apparent your partner is currently too controlled by Ego to go about fixing it with you.
When your Twin Soul retreats, chances are Ego has convinced your partner that the differences between you are so glaring — from “looks to friends to lack of common interests, etc.” — that there’s just too big a gap and it will never work. At times like these, friends and family are probably busy bolstering your partner’s ego, and leaving The Soul and heart out of the decision making.
Your Twin Soul relationship worked for a while before Ego reasserted itself and before family or friends told you what you should be doing in the relationship. It worked. And it worked really well, in fact: You both were happy and very much in love.
Unfortunately, when Ego forces The Souls aside to take control again, it needs someone to tell it how to deal with this unique relationship. Ego has limited capacity for love or for anything that requires deep commitment. It then starts to demand the relationship take on the characteristics of an ordinary physical relationship, often demanding tangible proof of love.
Ego is not happy with the happiness and the emotional satisfaction of being together. This usually starts the arguments because one partner feels
unnecessarily pressured and the other feels that if physical proof of affection is not shown, then by the “normal” standards it means they are not loved. What happens now is that the soul-based relationship is being derailed because Ego and outside influence has stepped in and taken control of a situation they know nothing about.
As a counselor looking at a Twin Soul relationship in this predicament from the outside, it almost looks like deliberate sabotage. What you had when things were good was much deeper than the ordinary relationships most people experience, and you would like to experience it again —without the painful side, of course. How do you accomplish that?
Especially since you and your Twin Soul may not even be speaking to each other at the moment.
To pursue this relationship with the intense soul connection intact, you must first acknowledge that your Twin Soul relationship is different from all the others you have had. Now you can and should start to handle it differently. First, the main person in this relationship is not your ego. It isn’t even your bodies, but your Souls.
It is the connection between The Souls that will put the relationship back on track. Now it is time for you to cultivate a personal relationship with your own soul. Think of it this way: You have an acquaintance that is good friends with someone you want to get to know, so you are going to need a bit of third party assistance here. Who better than the person that knows them best? That’s right, you talk to your partner’s Soul.
Most people perceive their souls as a weak, small part of their lives. In truth, the physical being is just a small part of the soul. We have spent a great part of our lives allowing Ego to direct our lives, but inTwin Soul relationships, Ego is definitely out of its league.
Ego is a pseudo guidance system created by our interaction with family, friends, teachers and all of those people who have expectations for our lives. Ego does not become a problem in our lives until it no longer cares what those people who have expectations of us think. It starts to run amok and then we get branded ‘egotistical’. It is at this stage in the journey to finding forever that you will find Ego getting in the way a lot because it compares this relationship to all the others you have had and to all the ones around it. Quite frankly, because your soul-based relationship is not acting at all like those ordinary ones, Ego will insist that it be dismissed. It is time for the first change, and that is the switching of who guides you through this relationship.
Ego must be replaced with your Soul who can then introduce you to the subtle connections and ways of communicating with your Souls’ partner. As you proceed to see the relationship through Soul’s eyes, you will also realize that the rest of you could use a bit of an overhaul as well.

Through your soul work, you will learn that you have a lot more control over your life than you thought. Positive thinking can change things for you and open doors that you did not know existed.
Learning to work with your Soul will require you to take some time out to direct your attention to the connection between you and your Soul; to bring the Soul from the back of your life where you have shoved it to the front — where it belongs. Making this connection and getting to know your Soul may be accomplished through the use of meditation and/or affirmations. You may now be wondering how is this going to help you get your Twin Soul relationship back on track. Well, remember The Souls always have a connection and an awareness of each other. They strive to maintain a balance with each other just as they maintain a connection with each other. As you and your Soul connect and remove Ego from having a key part in the relationship, this will also start to occur in the other body/soul connection as well.
The change will not occur overnight. It will take continuous attention to developing the spiritual connection between you and your Soul. Through this attention to your Soul, you can advance to the next level: Allowing the Soul to direct your actions both on a physical and spiritual level when interacting with your partner.
There are two reasons why this is possible. First, The Souls have been together for many lifetimes, so they are aware of what works with each other. Second, they are always connected, so the knowledge of when and how to do something for the optimum effect is being shared by The Souls all the time. Working with your soul, you have an inside intuitive track on what it will take to move things forward.

Forever:Twin Flames and Twin Souls

Excerpts from: Forever: Twin Flames and Twin Souls by Lady Dyanna

Forever:Twin Flames and Twin Souls

Introduction A Short Guide for Soul Based Relationships

Seeking a relationship occupies a great deal of our time. It starts in puberty and continues through a large portion of our adult life until we find the “one”. Whenever I ask someone what they are looking for in a partner, they usually roll out a grocery list of attributes they would like to see in a partner. I wonder if that list will make a difference in keeping the relationship together. What if the person who meets all those requirements in your life has their own grocery list of requirements and you don’t fit it, then what? Will you compromise for someone who doesn’t have it all, but who has the most important things — which rarely ever make the “list”?
If there was a blueprint for finding the correct partner, would we be able to follow it? What if the steps to finding the right partner were laid out for you?
Finding the right partner is both simple and hard. It’s simple because the principles are easy to explain. It’s hard because it requires patience and an awareness of what is really important to make a long term relationship work. I have had people question me about the potential for “forever” in
relationships and even ask how to find the relationship that will last forever. First, it depends on what “forever” really means to you. I have seen many articles concerning Twin Flame relationships and how they work. However, in truth, all relationships that last must have two key ingredients: a spiritual connection and a special kind of love, not just an emotional neediness or a physical attraction — but love. The kind of love that will withstand anger, arguments, humiliation, rejection, financial difficulties, family dislikes, perceived communication issues, and the entire grocery list of requirements. I have noted that a relationship that has these two key ingredients in the foundation can and will stand the test of time, and the test of outside influences both physical and non-physical. On this base stands “forever”.
I am sure you are wondering, “Aren’t those things on my grocery list important? I am pretty sure if my partner is a poor communicator we will have problems.” You could be right, but there are many ways to communicate. We can’t all be talkers — in fact, sometimes the best communications does not use words at all. Sometimes words aren’t necessary to let us know what our partner is feeling. Is it better to have a partner who serves you a candlelit dinner and gives you a hand with the household chores so you can spend time cuddling; or would you prefer the one who says he loves you and sits on the couch watching TV and asking “when is dinner ready”? If your wish-list included words like “communicative, helpful, loving and thoughtful”, you likely overruled three of those because you expressed to your Souls with your thoughts and actions that it was most important to be told that you are loved.
There is nothing wrong with needing to hear those three little words, but if gestures and actions communicate those three little words, perhaps you need to adjust your views on communication. If I look into my partner’s eyes and can see the love there, feel it every time we touch, and in his/her
every action, I would count myself foolish to insist that he or she should say those words to me or else I’ll assume that they aren’t in love with me.
A relationship built on spiritual connections and love does not really need the same props that a purely physical relationship requires. Many of the things that occur in a purely physical relationship have a way of grinding to a halt after the commitment has been made. The important connections
and feelings in a spiritually-based relationship never really stop. The Souls are very good at communication and for the duration of the relationship, the partners are able to maintain all the things that attracted the Physical Bodies to each other initially.
Problems only arise when we try to force the same criteria on a spiritual relationship as we use in a physical one. The spiritual relationship starts with a soul-to-soul connection usually followed by a physical and emotional connection.
What is different is that the Souls have recognized each other and now it is up to the body to be aware of why you are so interested in someone that doesn’t look like your dream date or may not make you swoon immediately.
It is when The Souls are pushed to the side and you try to hold on to what you felt when The Souls were guiding
the relationship that the trouble may begin. Yet, even if you go your separate ways, you find yourself still thinking of this person. You are not obsessing. You have begun the process of “resuming forever”.
Seeking advice from someone who has never had a Soul-based relationship usually reinforces the negatives and assures you that you can forget that person. If you have ever met the “one”, then you will know that forgetting that person does not happen even after 40 years of living separate lives. Many times people do return to that One True Love even after 40-year separations. The Souls will always seek the fulfillment of true love.
“Forever” is: a journey of two souls that belong together. Their Physical Bodies must find the strength, the courage and the perseverance to make it happen. “Forever” is absolutely an achievable event in this lifetime for Twin Souls.