In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I explore why asking better questions might be the most important tarot skill you can develop.

As a psychotherapist, I often joke that I’m a “professional question asker.” It’s half joke, half truth because the arc of a therapy session (sometimes even the arc of an entire therapeutic relationship) can hinge on one well-timed, well-crafted question. And I’ve come to realize the same is true in tarot.

We spend so much time mastering card meanings, memorizing spreads, studying symbolism, and refining interpretations, but if the question we bring to the cards lacks depth, precision, or courage, even the most technically impressive reading can fall flat.

In this episode, I explore:

• Why poorly crafted tarot questions limit insight
  

• How to stop outsourcing your authority to the cards
  

• How Socratic questioning can deepen tarot readings
  

• How vertical arrow questioning (a cognitive therapy tool) applies to tarot
  

I also walk you through a live exercise after pulling the Nine of Swords and the Three of Cups, to show how a surface-level question can evolve into something much more layered, reflective, and transformative.

For example:

• The Nine of Swords goes from “What thoughts are plaguing me?” to “What story am I telling myself when I can’t sleep?”
  

• The Three of Cups moves from “Where do I feel supported?” to “What feels vulnerable about needing other people?”
  

And we explore something that often goes unnamed: tarot is inherently projective. The questions we ask are never neutral. They reveal our fears, our defenses, our comfort zones, and our blind spots. Sometimes, the most powerful question isn’t the one we oh-so-confidently as…sometimes it’s the one we hesitate or even refuse to say out loud.

Ultimately, when we move beyond surface-level meanings and begin crafting deeper, open-ended tarot questions, we shift into deeper states of consciousness - and that’s where tarot becomes not just a tool for “answers,” but a collaborator in our journey towards self-actualization.

If you found this episode helpful, you’ll love The Symposium - my membership community where we practice therapeutic tarot together in spaces like the Reading Room, the Book Club, monthly workshops, and meet ups.

Want more of this type of tarot experience?

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

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If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I explore a concept called “poisoning the well” and how it can inconspicuously shape the way we interpret tarot, often before we’ve even given the cards a fair chance to speak, or ourselves an opportunity to be curious about the card. Poisoning the well can happen when we learn to fear a card before encountering it in its specific context, which makes anything that follows feel threatening, prophetic, or untrustworthy.

In tarot, this shows up when cards like The Tower, Death, The Devil, or the Three of Swords are immediately labeled as “bad” or “painful,” which shuts down curiosity, nuance, and the ability to experience deeper reflection.

I walk through the three psychological patterns that tend to fuel this kind of tarot bias:

• First impressions: Where early fear-based meanings stick even when a card’s position or context suggests something more layered, or not so literal (e.g. Death).

• Confirmation bias: Where we unconsciously look for evidence that supports our fear while ignoring nuance or other contextual factors in a spread.

• Emotional reasoning: Where anxiety or discomfort becomes “proof” that something bad is going to happen, rather than just useful data about what the card is activating in us.

From there, I explore how poisoning the tarot well reduces a card’s meaning, turns tarot into rigid labels instead of reflective tools, and leads to avoidance behaviors like reshuffling, pulling endless clarifiers, or abandoning readings altogether. While these reactions may feel protective in the moment, they ultimately reinforce fear and limit growth. Many of the cards we fear most are the ones pointing directly toward the work we need to do: attachment patterns, boundaries, grief, shame, power dynamics, necessary endings, etc.

I also share a personal story (aka I talk about reading for my very religious sister) about how religious and cultural conditioning can shape tarot fears - poisoning the tarot well, and how rigid narratives around certain cards can feel genuinely destabilizing if they’re never questioned. From there, I offer concrete ways to un-poison your tarot well, including identifying where your card meanings came from, working with somatic reactions instead of avoiding them, asking more specific and grounded questions, and expanding your language around difficult cards through techniques like free association.

Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to let tarot challenge you. When we stop deciding what a card means before we pull it and get curious about it instead, tarot becomes what it’s meant to be: a mirror, an opportunity for philosophical dialogue, and a tool for a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you.

I love when you all leave comments on Spotify or YouTube about your own thoughts on the topic discussed - so let me know your thoughts!

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I'm exploring something that’s been stirring in me since a recent book club event inside The Symposium: the way we unconsciously project motherhood onto tarot’s female figures.

After an insightful conversation in the book club (shoutout to Darcy for naming it so clearly: “Tarot doesn’t need another mother”), I couldn’t stop thinking about how often cards like Strength, the Empress, and all four Queens get flattened into maternal archetypes.

And of course, we’re not just doing this in tarot. We’re doing this everywhere, all the time.

In this episode, I explore:

• Why the Strength card has become one of my least favorite cards (for now)
  

• How projection and cultural conditioning shape our interpretations of female-presenting figures in tarot
  

• The dangers of turning all gentleness and emotional regulation into compulsory/female/motherly care
  

• What it might mean to view Strength as discernment, regulation, or even female rage instead of caretaking
  

I also talk about the psychological cost of maternalizing every act of compassion and why it limits not only women, but all people across the gender spectrum who wish to express care, leadership, or emotional depth.

This episode is part tarot analysis, part cultural critique, and part personal reflection on how we assign meaning to caretaking and why it matters.

I close the episode by offering a question for your next reading:

In what ways does this card validate me and in what ways does it confront me?

Book Referenced: Talismans and Tarot

Deck used: Tarot Vintage

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this last episode of 2025 for ⁠The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, and I’m offering a collective reading using my annual New Year spread. This reading is for all of us - a shared reflection on what we’re carrying forward, what we’re releasing, and how we can meet the coming year with more awareness, regulation, and intention. At the center of the spread is our 2026 collective year card: The Wheel of Fortune, an archetype that speaks to change, movement, uncertainty, and the reality that life keeps turning whether we feel ready or not.

Throughout the episode, I walk through each card in the seven-card spread and explore it through a therapeutic, nervous-system–informed lens. We begin by looking back at 2025 and naming something to be proud of, which arrives in the form of the Four of Cups which I realize feels like emotional discernment and learning where our energy no longer belongs. From there, the Two of Wands invites us to continue exploring curiosity, vision, and expansion in 2026, especially by gently stepping into our stretch zone rather than pushing ourselves into panic.

As the reading unfolds, the Four of Swords emerges as a key lesson from the Wheel of Fortune itself: sometimes we need to tune out in order to truly tune in. This card becomes the Wheel’s nervous-system companion, reminding us that rest, reduced stimulation, and intentional pauses are what allow us to survive constant motion without burning out. The Five of Pentacles reversed encourages us to stop chasing closed doors and opt out of spaces (social, creative, spiritual, or relational) that no longer offer genuine care or belonging.

We then turn toward what to release as we enter the new year, with The Hanged Man reversed highlighting the trap of endless waiting, over-intellectualizing, or disguising avoidance as patience and spirituality. This card asks us to notice where reflection has turned into bypassing and where it’s time to act, even without perfect clarity. The reading closes with a collective affirmation drawn from The Strength card, which I explore through the lens of titration and nervous-system regulation. Rather than brute force or pushing through, Strength becomes a reminder to manage activation with care and intention.

The affirmation I offer for 2026 based on the Strength card is: “I will move at a pace my nervous system can handle.”

I also talk about turning this affirmation into a sigil-based ritual - a practice I use regularly to anchor insight into daily life. If you choose to pull this spread for yourself using your personal 2026 year card, or create your own sigil or affirmation, I’d love to see what emerges for you!

Thank you for being here, for listening, and for allowing me to hold space at the intersection of tarot, psychology, and mental health. I hope this collective reading supports you as you step into 2026 with more ease, clarity, and self-trust.

Deck used: Tarot Vintage

📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Contact: DeepResonanceSound@gmail.com

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

This week on⁠ The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I explore 2026 as a Wheel of Fortune year, with The Magician as its companion archetype - an invitation to step into the new year embracing change, adaptability, resilience, and meaningful participation. I keep returning to the idea of finding the center of the spinning wheel: not perfect stillness like we’re often led to believe we should be finding, but nervous-system regulation that allows us to observe, reassess, and respond with intention rather than react.

I also unpack key symbols from the Wheel of Fortune that feel especially relevant for the year ahead. Clouds represent the liminal space between the known and unknown, reminding us that not seeing the full picture is often just the nature of change. The snake speaks to shedding skin and renewal, framing downward cycles as preparation rather than punishment. And at the heart of it all is the center of the Wheel, which I liken to the eye of a hurricane - a place of presence and regulation where we learn to stay with discomfort without being consumed by it.

As always, we will go on both a psychological and esoteric journey as we talk about stepping into the year of the Wheel of Fortune.

If you enjoy this episode and are looking for a gentle, creative, and self-reflective tarot journal for 2026, I invite you to explore my latest tarot journal A Year with the Wheel of Fortune.

📚 Pre-order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Contact: DeepResonanceSound@gmail.com

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

I’ve had “Timekeeper” by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals stuck in my head, and it sent me down a rabbit hole about how we experience time - psychologically, somatically, and through tarot. In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I explore why time isn’t a single, objective thing we all live the same way. Instead, our nervous systems, mental health, creativity, grief, and even neurodivergence shape how fast or slow life feels. Plus, tarot gives us language and imagery to work with that reality.

I explore how time is deeply subjective and shaped by the nervous system, noting how ADHD, anxiety, trauma, grief, and even creative flow can dramatically alter our felt sense of time. I also look at how capitalism, calendars, and the constant pressure toward productivity hijack our internal rhythms and distort our perception of urgency.

Through a tarot lens, I consider how the cards function as mirrors for our temporal experience: the Wheel of Fortune becomes a symbolic clock that reflects cycles, seasons, turning points, and the timelines we fear we’ve “missed” or been redirected from; The Hanged Man teaches us the value of a purposeful pause, choosing suspension to gain clarity; Death and the Six of Cups speak to endings, nostalgia, and the bittersweet grief of what we cannot return to; and Judgment paired with the Eight of Pentacles invites us to ask, “Whose timeline am I serving?” - guiding us toward value-aligned efforts and a more conscious relationship with time.

Resources & goodies I mention

• Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - “Timekeeper” listen here.

• Time affluence vs. time famine. Inspired by Dr. Laurie Santos: feeling like you have enough time is a better predictor of happiness than “free time” alone. You can watch her talk here.

• My 2026 Wheel of Fortune Year Journal (monthly essays, daily prompts, and exercises to work with cycles and timing). Grab a digital and physical copy here.

🎴 If you enjoyed this tarot talk, subscribe to The Tarot Diagnosis, follow me on Instagram, and join The Symposium, our tarot + psychology community, for workshops, book club, and reading rooms.

📚 P.S. My new book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow blends psychology, tarot, and therapeutic self-reflection to help you move from shame to awareness and integration. It releases December 8th and is available wherever books are sold.

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Contact: DeepResonanceSound@gmail.com

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

This week on⁠ The Tarot Diagnosis⁠, I'm taking you behind the scenes of writing my new book, Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow (available for pre-order now, out December 8, 2025!).

In this deeply personal episode, I share what happened the day I received my author copies: yes, including the moment I froze and couldn’t open the box. But more than that, I offer a director’s cut of the book itself - reading passages aloud, reflecting on what surprised me as I wrote it, and unpacking the emotional and psychological process behind writing about the shadow being an act of personal shadow work.

Together, we explore:

• What it really feels like to be seen, exposed, and published

• The existential terror of transparencyHow magical tools like crystals became sacred support in therapy

• The Queen of Swords as persona and protector (hello, favorite archetype)

• A real-life case study of shadow integration in therapy

• What Sartre, Jung, Brene Brown, and tarot have in common
  

  
  

And yes, I do a bit of spontaneous exposure therapy by reading straight from the physical book instead of my digital copy (gulp). Spoiler: I also spill the behind-the-scenes tea on publisher recommendations, imposter syndrome, and what it's like to hold your life's work in one trembling hand while clutching herbal tea in the other.

Whether you're a longtime listener or just discovering the podcast, this episode offers a vulnerable look into the creative process, the messiness of being seen, and the transformative power of shadow integration.

📚 Pre-order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!

🌙 Stay Connected With Me

💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠

🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠

👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!

Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Contact: DeepResonanceSound@gmail.com

Music by Timmoor from Pixabay