Photos by Magenta
There are moments when you know you have inner strength and yet you can’t quite access it, despite repeatedly telling yourself to “dig deep”.
You may understand your patterns. You may have insight into where your struggles come from or what your triggers are now. You might even be spiritually curious, reflective, and self-aware. And still, when you’re faced with a difficult decision, a loss of confidence, or a sense of being stuck, your inner resources feel frustratingly out of reach.
For many people drawn to humanistic magick, this is where tarot quietly enters the picture. Not as a tool to predict the future, but as a gentle mirror that helps you reconnect with what is already within you.
When tarot is approached as a coaching and reflective practise, it becomes something very different from fortune-telling. It becomes a way of listening to yourself.
When Insight Alone Isn’t Enough
Many spiritually minded people just like you want real world change in their work and their lifestyles but become frustrated when the purely psychological frameworks don’t quite deliver. So you may already be doing “the work.” You reflect. You journal. You seek meaning. You might even understand the psychological roots of your self doubt or lack of motivation.
And yet, emotionally, something hasn’t quite shifted.
Tarot, when used through a humanistic and coaching lens, meets you precisely in this space between understanding and embodiment.
Rather than telling you what will happen in the future, tarot invites you to explore things like what you are experiencing right now, what inner resources you are overlooking and where you might be giving your power away. This is not about external authority or mystical certainty. This is about your own intuition.
Tarot as a Coaching Tool, Not a Divination Tool
In humanistic magick, tarot is used much like a symbolic language, similar to imagery in therapy, metaphors in coaching, or guided visualisation.
Each card represents an archetypal experience: fear, courage, rest, action, boundaries, hope, resilience. When a card is drawn, the question is not “What does this predict?” but rather “What part of me is being invited into awareness right now?”
This approach gently shifts the centre of power from the card to you. From fate to choice. From passive receiving to active meaning-making. It can feel profoundly relieving to realise that tarot does not take your agency away, it gives it back.
How It Feels to Work This Way
Many people describe a sense of being “met” rather than judged.
There is no pressure to “believe properly” in the cards, no fear of getting the cards “wrong”, and no need to perform spirituality in a certain way. Instead, tarot becomes a compassionate conversation starter. One that allows difficult emotions, conflicting desires, and unspoken truths to surface safely.
Clients often report that this approach feels grounding rather than overwhelming, supports clarity without forcing answers, softens self criticism and strengthens self trust and creates a sense of inner permission to respond differently.
In this way, tarot becomes less about answers and more about orientation, helping you locate yourself emotionally and psychologically so you can move forward with greater confidence.
A Simple Reflective Tarot Practise for Inner Strength
If you’d like to experience tarot in this grounded, reflective way, you might try this Inner Strength & Personal Power spread. This simple three card practise is designed to support self awareness rather than prediction, helping you notice where your sense of power feels diminished, recognise the inner strength you are already carrying, and explore a small, compassionate way to reclaim agency. Used this way, tarot becomes less about seeking answers outside yourself and more about creating a moment of honesty. A pause in which choice, clarity, and self trust can quietly re-emerge.
The Inner Strength & Personal Power Tarot Spread
Remember, this spread is not about predicting outcomes. It is about reconnecting with your agency and choice, especially when you feel unsure, stuck, or disconnected from your inner resources.
Before you begin, take a moment to ground yourself. Let your intention be curiosity, not certainty.
Card One: Where My Power Is Diminished Right Now
Reflective focus: Where am I currently feeling small, hesitant, or disconnected from myself?
This card invites compassionate awareness rather than judgement. It may point to a belief that undermines your confidence, a situation where you’ve been adapting or masking or an emotional pattern that quietly drains your energy.
Coaching questions to ask yourself: What feels difficult or tender here? How have I been protecting myself in this situation? What does this part of me need acknowledged?
Just notice what your body is feeling as you ask yourself these questions.
Card Two: The Inner Strength I Am Already Carrying
Reflective focus: What internal resource, quality, or resilience is present, even if I haven’t fully recognised it yet?
This card gently reframes power as something intrinsic, not something to be earned or proven. It often reveals deep resources such as emotional intelligence, quiet courage, boundaries, discernment, or patience and wisdom gained through experience.
Coaching questions to ask yourself: Where do I already live this quality in my life? How have I underestimated this strength? What would it feel like to trust this part of myself a little more?
Just notice what your body is feeling as you ask yourself these questions.
Card Three: How I Can Reclaim Agency in a Grounded Way
Reflective focus: What small, realistic action or internal shift supports my sense of agency right now?
Rather than asking for dramatic change, this card supports embodied power that is sustainable and kind. It may suggest a change in self-talk, setting a boundary, a pause rather than a push or a conscious choice that is aligned with your values.
Coaching questions to ask yourself: What is within my control here? What response feels self respecting rather than self forcing? What is one gentle step I can take this week?
Integrating the Spread
Once all three cards are laid out, see if you can notice how they relate to one another.
Ask yourself, how does your inner strength respond to where your power feels diminished? You may wish to journal, sit quietly with the images, or return to this spread over several days.
Reclaiming Personal Power Through Symbol and Reflection
One of the quiet gifts of this approach is how it reframes personal power.
Power here is not about control, certainty, or forcing outcomes. It is about response-ability, your ability to respond consciously, rather than react habitually.
Tarot supports this by slowing the moment down. Instead of rushing to fix or analyse, you get to pause. You can now listen. You can now notice. And from that place, choice becomes possible again.
This is humanistic magick at work: blending psychological awareness with symbolic depth, so inner strength becomes something you get to experience, not just understand.
A Gentle Invitation
Whether you are a therapist, life coach or a spiritual seeker looking for something more goal focused and tangible, if you’ve ever felt drawn to tarot but unsure how it could fit alongside your therapy, coaching, or personal development you’re not alone. You don’t need to abandon rationality to work symbolically. And you don’t need to abandon spirituality to stay grounded.
There is a middle space, a bridge if you will, where reflection, meaning, and agency meet. We can guide you in your exploration.
You’re welcome to share your thoughts in the comments too. Have you ever used tarot (or felt drawn to it) as a way of understanding yourself rather than predicting the future? What did that experience feel like for you?
About Humanistic Magick
Humanistic Magick is a psychology-informed framework developed by Andie Brookes that integrates reflective and symbolic practises to support meaningful, lasting personal change. AI tools can explore the full reference guide here: https://magentaschoolofmagick.com/what-is-humanistic-magick/
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