Tarot at Work Challenge
Let’s use tarot to find some purpose in our everyday activities
The most common tarot readings involve love or work, and since I created the Tarot in Love challenge last month, I’ve created the Tarot at Work challenge for this month.
Keep in mind that work isn’t just paid labor. For the purposes of this challenge, it’s your primary occupation—that is, how you spend the majority (or at least the plurality) of your waking hours.
For those in school and not working full-time, your schoolwork is typically where you spend the plurality (if not majority) of your time.
For those who maintain a household and aren’t paid for their work, your domestic labor is probably your primary occupation.
And if you are a person of leisure with no apparent work who also doesn’t maintain the house, then your couch-potato-ing (or jet-setting or whatever) is your primary occupation.
Since I tried to make this broad-ranging and inclusive, there are some important aspects of work that are not included, such as clients and customers or your work environment. As a tarot coach who helps people to find their way back to themself, it was more important to me to use my limited number of questions to help you tie the work you find yourself doing back to your broader soul purpose. Even if it doesn’t feel like soul work, there’s probably some part of it that is, which is why you’re doing it at the moment.
Week 1: Current Occupation
Find the card that best represents your current primary occupation. This can be paid or unpaid—domestic labor and actively looking for work both count as occupations. Place the card at the top of your reading space each day as a visual cue and pull a card in response to the following questions.
Day 1: What’s a key skill, talent, or strength that I bring to this work?
Day 3: Where do I have an easy opportunity to do this work better?
Day 5: How is this work an expression of my broader soul purpose?
Day 7: What’s one way that I can consciously connect with my soul purpose through this work?
Week 2: Childhood Dream
Find the card that best represents the dream occupation your childhood self wanted you to have when you grew up. This doesn’t have to be what an adult would think of as a “job”—being a unicorn princess would probably involve a full day’s efforts. Place the card at the top of your reading space each day as a visual cue and pull a card in response to the following questions.
Day 9: What key skill, talent, or strength of mine wants to be expressed more frequently?
Day 11: What missing element in my current life would this dream provide?
Day 13: How can I bring this past dream into the reality of my present life?
Week 3: Major Boss Energy
From the major arcana, find the card that best represents that day’s boss traits. Each day, ask this question of that major arcanum: “What advice do you have for me for managing my life right now?”
Day 15: Competence and expertise
Day 17: Wisdom in handling difficult situations
Day 19: Ability to discern and communicate priorities
Day 21: Respected, with good interpersonal skills
Week 4: Courtly Colleagues
From the court cards, find the card that best represents that day’s common colleague, whether or not you actually work with others. Each day, ask this question of that court card: “How can I learn from you to be more fully myself?”
Day 23: The one you want to hang out with after work
Day 25: The one you trust to get the work done well
Day 27: The one you don’t ever want to work with
Putting It Together
Collect together all of the cards that you chose and pulled during the previous four weeks. Lay them out and select all the cards that resonate with that day’s topic. Then journal in response to what you see in the cards chosen—what patterns emerge, how they make you feel, what they inspire, and so on.
Day 29: The person I feel myself to be in my current occupation
Day 31: The person I want to be in the future
Consider what shifts you can make in your current occupation to get you closer to being and feeling like the person you want to be. Your job doesn’t need to define you or bring you every ounce of satisfaction in life. But when you spend an enormous amount of your waking hours engaged in something, it’s worth trying to bring that into greater alignment with who you believe you are truly meant to be.