In a previous post, I shared my thoughts on the importance of keeping a journal and recording your readings when you’re learning your cards.

I was reminded of this when I met with my newest cartomancy student earlier this week. As we discussed his budding practice as a student of Tarot, I asked him if he was recording his card pulls—and he said he wasn’t.

Because he was having challenges remembering certain aspects and qualities of the individual Tarot suits, I asked him if he would commit to keeping a journal and recording his readings. I made the case that the act of repeatedly writing down his readings would help him remember the suits better, as well as allow him to chart his progress as a reader.

I noticed that seems to be a trend with my students, that none were keeping journals and recording their readings prior to my working with them.

So I thought I’d make the case for keeping a journal and/or recording your readings again in this space, as I know a segment of my audience also reads various card systems.

And just as I did in that previous post, I’ll be taking a page from my own cartomancy journal, sharing a recent entry.

Ripped from My Journal (Again): A Daily Draw

I’m working with La Vera Sibilla Italiana (also known as the Every Day Oracle), a system I’ve picked up and put down on and off for a year now. I’ve challenged myself to commit to working with Sibilla throughout the month of August.

The spread I’m using is called the Daily Spread, which I found in the pages of “Gypsy Cards in a New Light” (by Vesna Balaban & Zel El), a book on the Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten, a system that Sibilla evolved from.

It consists of four cards in a line; each card individually represents a six-hour period of the day (totaling 24 hours), with the last card being dubbed the “basic card of the day” (a possible overall tone or theme for the day). You can then pair them up in different ways to offer potential happenings throughout the day.

Now that I’ve given you the set-up, here’s an entry from my journal, dated August 3, 2019.

Date: 8/3/19

Personal Day Number: 11/2

Time: 9:37 am

Deck used: Sibilla/Every Day Oracle

Question: What will I experience today?

Cards drawn: Death, Sick Person, House, Sorrow

Interpretations:

Sick Person appears in the same spot as yesterday (6 am-12 noon). A possible carryover to something that happened yesterday?

Death = ending, completion, finality, termination, closure. Matchstick = smoking, lingering; makes me think of lighting incense. Coffin = box, container, storage

Sick Person = illness, dis-ease, sleep, rest, healing, recovery

Death + Sick Person = end of an illness

House = home, family, building

Sick Person + House = bedroom; sick person at home; healing/recovery + building = hospital

Basic card of the day: Sorrow = shocking, surprising, upsetting news, sadness, upset, disappointment

And that was the entry.

I considered what I wrote. I had planned on being home, as I had some marketing and promotion work that I needed to complete, which I saw as the combination of Death + House.

I wasn’t sick in any way (thank goodness), so I knew Sick Person wasn’t referring to me. Since House was next to it, I considered the possibility it might refer to a family member.

I thought about my brother, as he’s good for telling me after the fact that he was sick (Death + Sick Person being the end of an illness), and I’m always surprised to hear about the situation after it’s passed (Death + Sorrow).

I went about my day, intending on following-up with the cards later, reviewing the actual events of the day.

Following Up: Revisiting the Journal Entry

When the day was over, I returned to my journal to write down the day’s events. Here’s what I wrote happened:

One of my coaching clients sent me a DM (direct message) through IG (Instagram). In it, he let me know that he had been admitted to the hospital on Friday (the first day Sick Person turned up in my daily draw). Of course I was surprised/shocked to get this news.

When I replied to his message, he told me that he was on the other side of what the issue was (Death indicating the problem had “passed”), and that he was being released from the hospital the next day.

For me, it’s important to follow-up with what actually happened and see how the cards related/connected to those events. And, more often than not, the cards can take on new and different meanings, based on your personal experiences.

Wrapping Up: Turning the Page

And that’s how I record my daily readings in my journal.

If you’ve been inspired to record your readings, what will you incorporate into your entry (notice that I include the time and personal day number)? Will you write in an actual journal (I write by hand in a composition book), or will you record your readings electronically?

And if I’m preaching to the choir and you already keep a journal of your readings, what’s your process?

Let me know in the comments section below—I’d love to hear all about it.

​Are you learning how to read the cards for yourself, but finding it challenging? Need help? If you said yes, my Cartomancy Coaching program may be just the thing for you! To learn more about this offering you can check out the service page here.