A Deeply Rewarding Tarot Practice: The Daily Duo Draw!

Hi everyone! I’m so pleased to see my readership grow through this blog, the Facebook page, and on Instagram! I’m getting more requests for readings than I can keep up with but that feels great. I’m definitely experiencing a sense of reassurance both in terms of my own abilities and also in the sense that there are so many in the Tarot community who are seeking a deeper psychological perspective within their readings. It’s so inspiring to see that there are people out there who appreciate this much under-valued aspect of the Tarot! 

I wanted to introduce you all to a practice that I have begun and fallen in love with. I hope you give it a try and see the miraculous possibilities this offers. You’ll begin to see the changes in your life right away!

This technique I’m about to explain is powerfully relevant for the beginning Tarot reader, the Tarot novice, an experienced reader, or really anyone with a desire to explore the Tarot! Give it a try and please let me know how it works for you! 

I call this practice the Daily Duo Draw! 

My Daily Practices: Morning Pages and the Daily Duo Draw

First of all, every morning, without fail, the moment I wake up in the morning-–yes, every morning!–I do two things: I start the coffee and I write my Morning Pages. Some of you may already be familiar with the idea of Morning Pages, which was popularized by the creativity expert, Julia Cameron. I highly recommend all of her books, but you’ll want to start with The Artist’s Way. The idea is that, first thing in the morning, you freewrite three pages (or roughly 750 words) longhand. Just get whatever comes to mind down on the page. Have a conversation with yourself about anything and everything.

By giving yourself permission to fill those pages with whatever runs through your mind, you’ll notice that your thoughts go from a mundane to-do list for the day to quite profound insights in no time. I always feel ready for the day and in touch with my inner intentions, visions, and goals for the day by the time I’ve finished those pages. And that time is something I look forward to every morning. 

But I’ve recently added on to that habit. Immediately after concluding my Morning Pages, I turn to my next practice–the Daily Duo Draw. I choose one of my Tarot decks at random. Well, perhaps not at random, but I let my intuition guide me. Sometimes I feel like a familiar favorite or sometimes I feel like working with a deck with which I’m less familiar. Regardless, this practice is guaranteed to get you more familiar with your decks, with each of the cards, and with your own intuitive way of reading them. 

How Do I Do the Daily Duo Draw?

I begin by shuffling the deck with a completely open mind. This moment always feels good; there’s a sensation of being full of possibility. When I feel ready, I draw a card. Then I resume shuffling. When I feel ready again, I draw a second. Sometimes they are upright, sometimes they are reversed. I always read them how they first appear to me or how they land. You see, more often than not, I don’t need to draw the cards myself. I find that the cards leap out of the deck at the right moment of their own accord. I like to think that they “volunteer” to be part of the daily duo draw. 

Once I have made my draws, I set aside the rest of the deck and focus on these two cards. I look at them slowly, carefully, and intuitively. I look for details I have never noticed before. I try to determine the feel of the relationship between the two of them. 

You may find yourself disappointed with the appearance of a particular card. Maybe it’s a “negative” card or maybe it’s one that you’re less familiar with. Sometimes people get nervous or confused by court cards. You may be tempted to return the card to the deck and draw again. But don’t’! Have faith in the power of randomness (or the intentional consciousness at work behind it) and realize that you might be being asked to give special consideration to a card you’re not excited about. Have faith in the cards and in yourself.

I always get a meaningful message from the Daily Duo Draw. The process has not failed me yet, so make sure to place your faith in the cards or in whatever invisible intelligence is behind them. 

Then, in the same notebook in which I write my Morning Pages, I commit to writing two additional pages (probably somewhere between 500 and 1,000 words) reflecting on these two cards. I look for the overall theme or message that emerges from a careful consideration of each card and the relationship between them. 

Here’s my general procedure, but there are no rules. Follow your intuition. You won’t be doing anything “wrong.” 

First, I think it’s important to start writing even before you are sure that you have anything to say. It’s perfectly fine to start with “I have no idea what these cards mean, but here goes . . .”

Take your time and begin writing about each card one at a time. What do you know already about the card’s standard interpretation? What symbols jump out at you? What is the feel of the card? What confuses you about the card? What are the emotions shown by the figures in the card? Who are the characters and what are they doing? What’s the story of the scene?

After I’ve examined it myself, I then might feel the need to turn to some Tarot references to see what others have written about the card. If the deck came with a guide book by the designer or artist, I always turn to that one to gain some insight on their intention and vision behind that particular card. Sometimes I refer to general references like Rachel Pollack’s Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom. If the card appears reversed, I will consult Mary K. Greer’s Complete Book of Tarot Reversals. Again–and this is always the key!–follow your own intuition. Go with what you “feel like.”

After considering each card in turn, then, in your writing, begin to shift to imagine what the two cards are saying together. The idea is to synthesize a singular message from the relationship between the two cards. What do they seem to be saying to each other? Are there any symbols or themes that seem to appear in both? Is there a way in which the two cards together could form a complete sentence that makes sense to you and feels like a coherent message? Do they both seem to be addressing aspects of a situation in your life at the current moment? If the two cards seem contradictory, how can we reconcile them? Don’t doubt that they appeared next to each other for a reason. There is always a meaning to be found. 

Sometimes more than one possibility for an overall meaning will emerge. That’s fine! But the more you write them out in your notebook, the more it’s likely, at least in my own experience, that one meaning will begin to seem more pronounced and reelevant. On this post, I’ve included some photos of duos I’ve actually drawn, along with a summary of what I wrote about them. 

We are writing to discover the meanings that were intended for us. Our unconscious minds know what we need to hear. By being relaxed, opening up blank pages, and just writing, we invite our conscious minds to hear the brilliant, magical, and miraculous messages that we need to hear. This practice makes it possible to synthesize wisdom from the cards, from our own unconscious, and from whatever transcendent force guides the “randomness” of the cards. 

“By being relaxed, opening up blank pages, and just writing, we invite our conscious minds to hear the brilliant, magical, and miraculous messages that we need to hear. This practice makes it possible to synthesize wisdom from the cards, from our own unconscious, and from whatever transcendent force guides the “randomness” of the cards.”

Why draw two cards?

I actually got the idea of drawing two cards every day from T. Susan Chang when she appeared on one of my favorite podcasts, This Jungian Life. Chang is a Tarot expert I greatly admire. She is the author of several amazing reference books, of which The Tarot Deciphered is an absolute favorite of mine! Tarot Correspondences is another brilliant work of hers. Taking her idea and integrating it into my already established practice of Morning Pages, I have come to firmly believe in the power of writing about the cards. 

But I didn’t just take Chang’s suggestion of drawing two cards at face value. I have come to believe that two is the perfect number for this practice. Essentially, two is the simplest number that is still greater than one. The power of the Tarot is not necessarily in the meanings of individual cards taken alone. I think that the most powerful, helpful, and insightful messages from the cards come from how the archetypal images in the cards relate, respond, and interact with each other. Each card drawn in any spread helps to inform how we understand the cards around it. And so, if we are drawing two cards, we can let the meanings and your own intuitive impressions of each shed light on how to read the other. Two allows us the chance to draw a more comprehensive and complex message without being overwhelmed. It’s perfect for a daily practice. 

“Two allows us the chance to draw a more comprehensive and complex message without being overwhelmed. It’s perfect for a daily practice.”

What are the benefits of the Daily Duo Draw? 

You may find numerous ways that the Daily Duo Draw will positively impact your Tarot interpretation skills and your life but there are two principal benefits. 

Gain practice reading the cards. Whether you’re a total novice or an experienced reader, we all can benefit from the practice of interpreting the cards, particularly by drawing out meaning from the relationship between cards. By spending a significant amount of time contemplating and writing about each card, as well as trying to synthesize a message out of more than one, you will become more intimately familiar with each card, especially ones that you may have avoided focusing on if you were just memorizing meanings from a book. Thus, you will be expanding your Tarot vocabulary and developing new possibilities of interpretation that will aid you in future readings. In essence, you are slowly befriending each of your cards and each of your decks over the course of time. There’s no better way to become intimately familiar with the meanings, both standard and personal. 

Additionally, the synthetic and interpretive skill that goes into drawing meanings between cards can’t be reduced to memorization or rules. It’s an entirely intuitive skill that simply needs to be developed through practice. You will develop that ability more than you realize by adhering to this practice. It is so exciting to watch your skills develop with regard to these aspects of the Tarot that are very difficult to teach or reduce to a step-by-step process. Additionally, you will develop your intuitive skill of assembling an accurate and coherent narrative between the cards, which is absolutely essential for your readings.

As famed dancer and choreographer (and hero of mine) Martha Graham wrote at the beginning of her autobiography, “I believe that we learn by practice.” As I’m also a dance teacher who owns my own studio, I believe very strongly that some skills are just “feels” that can only be developed by doing. And doing again. And again. Practice! 

Enable self-transformation by getting a powerful message of wisdom at the beginning of your day. Not only will you sharpen your interpretive skills through practice, but you’ll also benefit by having some magical words of wisdom to guide you throughout your day. Especially as you relax your conscious mind and allow meanings to bubble up from the unconscious through the act of writing (the writing is important!), you will draw and synthesize the exact message that you needed to hear on that particular day! 

Either consciously or unconsciously, you’ll carry the resulting message through your day and it will inform your thoughts, your feelings, and your interactions with others, whether you realize it or not. One benefit of this is that long-held habits or beliefs may begin to be questioned in light of the message received from the cards. By making the unconscious conscious through a practice such as this, we can actually begin the difficult and slow but entirely worthwhile process of self-transformation. By integrating timeless wisdom into our lives, we will notice that we slowly change for the better over the long term. 

As a result of both the inherent wisdom within the cards, as well as the possibility of unconscious knowledge being allowed to rise to the surface, the meaning you draw from the cards will never lead you astray. The cards will never lead you into foolishness (the bad kind), or prompt  you to develop an unhealthy attachment, or encourage you into self-sabotage. They simply won’t. Have faith in the emergent wisdom that this practice–and the cards in general–can offer you. They will teach you how to navigate this world and your own internal psyche. 

Do I really have to write about the cards? 

YES! I’ve been asked multiple times: Can’t I just look at the cards and then go about my day? No! The benefits will not be as deep or as transformative if you aren’t writing about the Daily Duo Draw. No matter how carefully you think you’re considering the cards, it is only in challenging your brain to form full and complete sentences that we gain a coherent understanding that can really ensure we’re considering comprehensive meanings. And, it is only by committing those sentences to paper that you are deeply engaging with both the cards in front of you and your own psyche, allowing them to constructively mingle on the page right in front of you. 

As a writing professor (another of my beloved day jobs!), I wholeheartedly believe in the notion of writing as a tool for discovery. We don’t have access to all the brilliant things that are floating around inside our heads, and by allowing our thoughts, feelings, and intuitions, to flow from brain to hand to page, we externalize them enough that we can then meaningfully engage with those aspects of ourselves that we have never previously allowed to have their own voice. For this reason, relaxation is necessary. And writing–the act of doing, of externalizing what is within us–provides the space and voice necessary for the unconscious to reveal itself in unexpected ways. To put words on the page is to invite the unknown and inaccessible to render itself on the page. I find this process so similar to Jung’s process of “active imagination.” It’s definitely worth checking out! 

There really is no substitute for writing in getting in touch with the self. Writing is a way of meeting the cards halfway. 

“There really is no substitute for writing in getting in touch with the self. Writing is a way of meeting the cards halfway. “

Keep in Touch!

In our society, working with the Tarot can be incredibly isolating, so I welcome as many friends with this mutual interest as I can find! It’s also important to me that my writing and my ideas help others, so please reach out and let me know if they do! I’d love to have a conversation and share ideas. Thank you for your interest and your dedication to this magical art form of ours! Never hesitate to reach out!