Drinking the Tea: Card Reading for Spiritual Companioning
In spiritual direction and card-based discernment alike, there's a profound shift when we stop treating the tools, Tarot, oracle, images, even the question itself, as the point, and begin to see them as companions. We move from “reading the leaves” to drinking the tea together.
This movement is not about interpretive authority or even structured layouts, though those have their place. This is about presence. The real magic often happens before the reading begins or without a formal reading at all. The act of sitting together, sipping metaphorical (or literal) tea, is as sacred as the moment of revelation. Maybe more.
In my own Tarot practice, and this extends to any form of contemplative card work, I find that a single card, drawn with attention and held in shared reflection, can be as rich and complete as an entire spread. There’s power in asking: Where do you feel this in your body? What word stands out? Which image unsettles or comforts you? A one-card pull becomes an invitation into lived wisdom, expanding insight.
Seekers often arrive hoping for answers. But what unfolds is a mirror of wisdom they already carry, just waiting for permission to be perceived.
The card helps hold the space, but it is the sipping, far more than the scrying, that builds trust and transformation.
It’s less about divining the future than about making room for the present. Less about providing solutions, and more about lighting gentle fires of self-knowing. What we offer is never a prescription: it’s a hot chocolate for the soul.
Sometimes, the reading happens before the reading. Sometimes, the ritual, the breath, the shuffle, the image, the shared pause, is what reveals the wisdom that’s already waiting. Tarot, like all sacred tools, is not the thing itself, it’s a companion The cards become image-bearing, question-holding, moment-making partner on the spiritual journey.
This post explores three movements that I’ve found especially helpful in using Tarot or oracle cards as part of spiritual direction. I've moved away from divination or prediction, and toward soul witnessing and presence. Each movement is optional. But each, if entered with care, has the power to shift the whole shape of the conversation.
Movement 1: Choosing a Card to Represent Yourself
Rather than starting with a card, layout, or interpretation, sometimes the most powerful opening is simply: Who do you feel like right now?
If using Tarot, invite the seeker to reflect on what is most alive within them at the moment. How would they describe themselves in terms of what is present for them right now? Perhaps they arrived at this moment with a burning question. Perhaps they have a gentle curiosity about their true self or path. Or perhaps they are grappling with meaning or connection.
Who Am I in this Moment?
To begin, invite the seeker into discernment about who they are in this moment. This is a contemplative act that can be deeply illuminating, sometimes even more so than the reading itself.
Before laying out a single card, we can pause and ask: who am I, right now? What archetype reflects my current soul-place? Am I beginning something, nurturing something, letting something go? Which element is stirring in me, water’s emotion, fire’s longing, earth’s groundedness, or air’s clarity? These questions guide us to choose a card that represents our current self, as a truth-telling
Steps and Insights
Ask if they’d like to choose a card to represent themselves (rather than drawing one at random). This gives them agency and insight.1. For example, you might focus on the court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King) of the traditional Tarot deck. In this case, invite reflection on:
What stage of life they feel they are in
Ask them to choose one that feels like it represents who they are in this moment. If using other cards, adjust the below model to fit those cards.
This isn’t about hierarchy or medieval identities. It’s about spiritual season and elemental resonance.
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Are they feeling tender, just beginning something, exploring (Page)?
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Are they in motion, carrying fire or change, pursuing a mission (Knight)?
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Are they sustaining something, consolidating or expanding an already established domain, working with sovereignty, or deepening a skilled role (King)?
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Are they witnessing, reflecting, integrating, aging or saging (Queen)?
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Do they feel most connected to the clarity of Air, the warmth of Fire, the depth of Water, or the steadiness of Earth? If working with other types of cards, you might be looking at associations from other cultures or traditions. Earth/Air/Fire/Water is not the only system of suits/elements!
You might offer some descriptions of the suits and roles, but often, simply placing the cards in front of them and asking Which one feels like you? opens a profound moment of self-reflection.
The chosen card becomes a spiritual name tag, a gesture of self-recognition. The chosen card becomes an archetypal mirror, inviting the seeker to honor who they are and what energies are most present for them in the moment.
And from there, the reading, if one happens, has already begun.
Movement 2: Settling in and Meditative Shuffling
“Would it be all right if I just shuffled for a bit?”
Her voice trembled slightly, but her hands were steady on the cards.
“Yes,” I said, “you don’t have to draw anything unless you want to.”
She breathed. Sat back. Shuffled. It became rhythm as the sounds of cards tapped on the table, the shirring of paper slipping past paper, and then snapping into place, repeated. Ten minutes passed.
She never did draw. But something opened.
Shuffling as Prayer
Sometimes, we never draw a card.
The act of shuffling can be its own practice. I’ve watched seekers sink into the rhythm, not ready to pull and grateful for the silence. The shuffle becomes a centering bell, a way to move from anxious mind into contemplative body.
Settling into the practice can be as rich and revealing as the reading itself. The shuffle is more than just preparation, it is prayer, meditation, and alignment.
When we are on Zoom and I'm the one shuffling the cards, I accompany the shuffling with an invitation for them to enter into meditation. When you are in person and your seeker is open to shuffling you might offer an invitation like:
“Take as long as feels good with the shufflin.? Being with the cards in this way is an important part of the practice."
Encourage the seeker to let their hands move while their heart settles. This is an opportunity for them to feel into the sensations present in their body, the movements in their heart, mind, and soul. You can encourage them to notice shifts and emergences as they dwell with the question or topic.
Steps and Insights
During the time of shuffling you can offer quiet prompts:
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What are you noticing in your body right now?
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Is there a word or image you’re holding as you shuffle?
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What are you hoping the cards might help reflect or hold?
I often say: The reading begins with becoming present to what is.
Invite them to breathe, feel into their body, and name (silently or aloud) what is true for them in the moment.
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Encourage visualization: what unseen forces are helping bring these cards into alignment with their truth?
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Trust that the process of sinking into presence is already a form of spiritual direction.
In the act of shuffling, breathing, and asking what is true for us right now, something aligns. The cards become almost secondary, their magic is in the way they give form to the insight we’ve already begun to claim.
Movement 3: Choosing a Layout
Card work becomes spiritual accompaniment through presence, consent, and shared reflection.
Offering different layouts helps the seeker clarify the scope of their question or the sense of their questing.
Once you've settled into your self-knowing and drawn (or chosen) a card to reflect who you are, the next question is: what do you need help seeing? This is where the layout comes in, a structure to help you frame your curiosity, receive insight, or open to mystery.
Choice and Honing
Layouts are not maps showing us answers, instead they're invitations into deeper presence. Always, we begin with choice, offering the seeker options. Let the structure serve the question, not the other way around.
Steps and Insights
- Check in: Might a single card suffice today? Is the "Yes/No" layout resonating? Or the "Know Thyself" layout? Or perhaps a modified Celtic cross? Or perhaps no layout?
- Offer Options: Sometimes, a seeker is drawn to a complexly structured layout, like the Tree of Life. It offers a series of placements, splendor, strength, understanding, mercy, each one a prompt, a doorway.
- Get Creative: Would they like to pull a card today from one place that resonates, say, “wisdom” or “foundation”?
- Allow for Spaciousness: Perhaps for the Tree of Life layout it would serve to draw one card per session, letting each sphere speak across a season of spiritual direction?
- Let go: Or is today a day for simplicity, a single card, no layout, just presence?
Whichever layout is chosen, remember, it’s not necessary to “do the full spread.” In fact, this part of the discernment is asking the seeker what they need.
Offering these options becomes part of the companioning itself. It honors agency and asks for consent. Practicing consent in the logistics of the reading, engenders a practice of consent in the soul-level work of being met and seen.
The deeper shift, always, is from seeking answers to seeking presence. And from presence, comes offering.
In this kind of practice, the cards do not offer a verdict or a prescription. They offer a mirror. A gentle reflection. A story waiting to be explored together. As companions, we are not “reading” for someone. As companions we are making room for what their soul already knows, and may be ready to say aloud. As always, the companion is discerning when and how much observation to offer. We avoid interpretation and offer comfort or invitation. We do not force the experience toward a goal of clarity, but offer company. We offer tissues, snacks, and meaning and connection for the soul, something warm and companionable to let the hidden truths come forward and sit at the table with us.
That’s the tea. Literally and metaphorically.
It’s not just about the cards, or the layout, or the leaves at the bottom of the cup. It’s about what happens when we sit together. When we sip and wonder and listen without fixing.
We don’t just read the tea leaves.
We drink the tea.
Try It: A Mini Practice
Next time you sit with someone (or with yourself) and a deck of cards, try this simplified flow. It contains the three movements, a reading, and a reminder:
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Who Are You Today?
Choose a card that feels like it reflects who you are right now. No need to explain. Just name it. -
Settle & Shuffle.
Spend 3–5 minutes in quiet. Let your hands shuffle. Feel into the sensations in your body, the movements in your heart, mind, and soul. Notice shifts and emergences as you dwell with the question or topic. -
Choose Your Framework (or Layout)
Sense what kind of structure might support you: a layout with multiple cards, a single card in response to a question, or simply silence. Lay Down One (or more) card(s)
If and when it feels right, draw a single card. Sit with it. Let the card lead you to a word, a memory, a gesture, a story. If you chose a layout, pull a second card and after spending time with that card, spend some time letting the cards talk to each other, and interact with the placement they are in. Repeat to fill the frame and then back up to take in the whole picture.-
Sip, Don’t Rush.
Treat this like a conversation with a wise friend, not a quiz with a right answer.
Coda: One Card, One Cup
You don’t need a ten-card Celtic Cross to be a deep companion to someone’s unfolding story. You need presence. A good question. Maybe an image. And a mug.
Whether you're drawing from Tarot, oracle decks, art cards, or simply from your own deep listening, this work is about mirroring someone into remembering themselves.
Sometimes you’ll draw a card.
Sometimes you’ll hold space.
Sometimes you’ll say, “Here. Have some tea.”
And every now and then, you’ll watch someone’s soul peek out, blinking, ready to speak.
Beloved, you are whole, holy and worthy,
Rev. Amy
For Further Exploration
• Greer, Mary K. Tarot for Your Self - A classic in the world of introspective Tarot work. Encourages personal insight and spiritual growth rather than prediction.
https://www.tarotpassages.com/marykgreer.htm
• Arrien, Angeles. The Tarot Handbook - Integrates cross-cultural archetypes, psychology, and spiritual development with the Tarot.
https://www.angelesarrien.com/tarot.html
• Pollack, Rachel. Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom - One of the deepest dives into the layers of Tarot meaning and spiritual reflection.
https://rachelpollack.com/tarot-books/
• Beltaine, Amy. Ethical Tarot Practice: An Evolving Perspective - Explores how tarot can support spiritual direction without slipping into prediction, projection, or appropriation. Offers practical tips and grounded reflection for ethical engagement.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-ethics-of-using-tarot-cards.html
• Matthews, Caitlín. Untold Tarot: The Lost Art of Reading Ancient Tarots - Offers insight into historical approaches to tarot as conversation and presence, not just divination. Grounded in Marseille decks and soulful inquiry.
https://caitlin-matthews.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-untold-tarot.html
• Beltaine, Amy. Ethical Spiritual Companioning: A Foundation of Trust and Integrity – A vital exploration of spiritual direction ethics, including consent, boundaries, and integrity. This underpins the compassionate, consent-based approach to card practice shared in Drinking the Tea.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/03/ethical-spiritual-companioning.html
• Beltaine, Amy. The Heart of Spiritual Direction – An introductory guide to spiritual companioning, highlighting deep listening, sacred presence, and the relational space that sets the stage for contemplative practices like card work.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-heart-of-spiritual-direction.html
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