so you wanna use tarot to explore emotions & grief

hello, friends. today is a big day — my ten-week collective grief container river styx is officially open for enrollment!

to celebrate the launch and also welcome you into this work, i'm hosting a totally free tarot for grief journaling event tonight at 7pm eastern. whether you're eager to dive into a transformative grief practice or are curious about what grief work can look like with the tarot by your side, i've got you covered. (and no, this isn't just for folks who just completed styx & stones or who are enrolling in river styx — all are welcome!)

not sure about grief work just yet? catch up on my recent grief work essay series here. and if you're eager to try it out for yourself, keep reading — i've got some brand new tarot spreads, journaling prompts, and simple exercises for you to explore, right now.

if you've been working with tarot for awhile, you probably already know how many different ways there are to read, process, reflect, and divine with the cards. tarot readings (aka asking the cards a question, mixing the cards up, and then interpreting the cards you draw as an answer) are often the main thing that people think of when they imagine what "working with tarot" can look like, and that makes a lot of sense — it's a very classic, popular way to use tarot.

and, also — if you've been reading my work for awhile, you probably also know that i love sharing journaling questions, creativity prompts, and exercises you can use to do all kinds of other things with tarot. from storytelling and character building to writing, cooking, movement, breathwork, spellwork, connecting with ancestors and deities and stars and planets, and introspection. but one of my favorite things to do with the cards is explore emotions, as they are a wonderful tool for understanding what we feel, why we feel, and what those feelings need from us.

i've done this before, with resources like queens of spirit and archetype medicine (both of which are available on their own or through my hermitage membership program). but i find it most helpful with grief work, as the tarot can be a helpful mirror for our experiences, sensations, and even for our loneliness.

grief can be intimidating to sit with, especially if we are downplaying how intense our feelings are or are scared of how deep and heavy it all feels. the tarot can help us slow down, pay attention, honor whatever comes up, and learn how to listen without judgement.

and whether we're navigating grief or another emotional experience, the tarot can serve as an incredible companion for building a relationship with those emotions — learning to be with them, tend to them, and honor all that they have to teach us.

don't believe me? let's try it out together, right now, with some of the following activities and spreads.

the following are all simply suggestions — you can do all of them, none of them, or some of them. pay attention to which ones feel supportive or appealing, and trust your gut. you can always come back and try more later, or repeat them as needed.

i highly recommend doing a grounding exercise (like breathwork, stretching, or dancing to a favorite song) before engaging with your grief or heavy emotions in this way, and also again afterwards as a way of closing out this work.

1. one of my favorite ways to use the cards for emotions work is this: choose a card from to represent an emotion you're feeling. take some time to reflect on why you chose that card — what it means to you, why it resonates, and what else might be tangled up in that feeling that you are less aware of. then, if you like, shuffle the rest of the deck and pull two more cards from the deck to represent (1) another feeling that's tangled up with the one you know about, and (2) a way to hold space for both feelings. journal away, and see what comes up.
   
2. try out this tarot spread:
   a little feeling / a big feeling / a buried feeling
   
3. journaling questions: what are you feeling right now? do you know where those feelings are coming from? how are your current feelings impacting your choices, actions, words, energy levels, and impacts? when you think about these feelings you've listed, what comes up for you? how have you been taking care of or dealing with these feelings, and how is that working for you? is your goal usually to manage the feelings, to tend to them, or to make them go away?
   
4. try out this tarot spread:
   something you know is impacting you / something you don't realize is impacting you / something that is having a bigger effect than you realize
   
5. archetypes can be incredibly supportive for emotional work. choose an archetype from the deck that you feel really comfortable with, either a major arcana archetype or one of the court cards, and imagine that they are sitting with you or walking with you in a beautiful place that has plenty of privacy. they ask you how you are, really — what would you tell them? how would you explain what's going on for you right now? what feelings or challenges might you share with them? confide in this archetype, and let them hold whatever you're carrying. whenever you've gotten it all out, imagine what they might say to you in response — not advice, but simply acknowledgement. how do you think this archetype would receive your vulnerability? if you like, shuffle up the rest of your deck and pull a few cards to represent (1) how this archetype can help you hold these emotions, and (2) something that this archetype wants you to know right now.
   
6. journaling questions: when you have a heavy or difficult emotion, what do you usually do? how do you respond to that feeling, and how did you learn to do that? when do you notice feelings bubbling up the most, and what relationship do you have with those feelings? what do you appreciate about these emotions, if anything, and what frustrates you about them?
   
7. try out this tarot spread:
   something your heart knows / something your heart needs
   
8. your heavy emotions have longings of their own, and they might not always be what you would expect. take a few minutes to consider a feeling that you have right now that is strong, intense, or challenging for you to navigate. if you like, reflect on this feeling: where it originated, when you tend to notice or feel it, how you're engaging with it, what you feel about it. then, shuffle your tarot deck and ask this emotion what it wants. pull three cards as their answer, and journal about what this feeling is craving — and how you might go about giving this emotion what it needs.

how does it feel to engage with your emotions using the tarot? what comes up for you, and what are you able to access? which activities with tarot cards feel the most supportive for you, and which ones are less appealing?

what i love about working like this is that it's very choose-your-own-adventure — you get to honor your own capacity, engage with what you want (and leave the rest), and can still have a really profound experience that meets you where you are. navigating heavy emotions and experiences like grief is incredibly personal, but for me it's not about forcing yourself to do the hardest shit you can think of, or activating all of your worst trauma and toughest triggers simultaneously. it's instead about learning to listen and be with the feeling, to tend it without trying to fix it, to create intentional containers and care for yourself at the same time.

if you found these exercises useful, if you'd appreciate being in a space with other grievers and folks who are dipping their toes into this kind of work, i'd love to invite you to join me tonight for my free tarot journaling event.

and if you're hungry for more, if you're sick of feeling hopeless and exhausted by the world and want to transmute that grief into real action and lasting hope, river styx is for you.

whether you can join me for either of these experiences or not, i sincerely hope that my writings, tarot spreads, and exercises have helped you feel a little less alone with your heavy feelings, experiences of loss, and efforts to maintain hope these days. you are not alone in your grief, and you are not alone in fighting for a better world.

sending you love, courage, and resilience, friends. thanks for being here, and keep going 🖤

now open for enrollment: river styx is for tenderhearted badasses who want to believe in the future again. if you want to learn how to transmute your grief for the world into bold action and fierce hope — without drowning in overwhelm, helplessness, or fear — then this is the program for you.

this is a ten-week, self-paced, resilience-oriented community grief container that includes:

• original audio lessons (including transcripts) delivered straight to your inbox each week, based on the tried-and-true ten-step framework developed by good grief network’s laura schmidt and aimee lewis reau
• recommended tarot cards to work with alongside your lessons, along with new spreads and accessible exercises for tarot readers of any level
• journaling prompts for personal reflection, introspection, and discovery
• suggested somatic exercises to stay grounded, stable, and present
• a library of resources for creating your own personal support plan
• a private digital discord community for sharing, encouragement, and ongoing support
• accountability tools for helping you continue to show up to the work
• five live zoom meetups for checking in and practicing community building
• lifetime access to course content and our co-created grief community
• the flexibility to engage with lessons based on your own schedule and timeline, along with gentle reminders to honor your capacity and personal needs

the program costs $666 or three monthly payments of $222 — and anyone who pays in full will get an exclusive tarot reading from me during our ten weeks together!

river styx is now open for enrollment — doors close october 3rd, and river styx officially begins with the first email lesson on october 4th, 2026.