Study Wellness: A Tarot Spread for Students
I loved my days as an herbal student (though, truthfully, you don't ever stop being a student as an herbalist as you're always learning from plants and people) and I love that as part of the ever-growing and diverse community of folks teaching herbal arts, I get to interact with students everyday. Being able to support students in ways that I was supported (and wanted to be supported) and helping them figure out what sort of path they want to travel as plant folk and magickal people has been an ongoing source of joy for me.
And, for as much as I loved being a student, I also struggled to feel like I fit into the herbal world, oscillating between intimidation and overwhelm when grappling with all there was to know (there are so many plants, help).
I keep my student self in mind when I'm creating my own online courses and especially when I'm teaching in-person, where I have a more direct control with the physical and social learning environment. I've also tried to pay a lot of attention to what it is that inspires, stresses out, clarifies and confuses the students who have taken my courses - it helps me create more accessible courses and develop my skills as a teacher. Over the years, one of the most common recommendations that I’ve made to students that they find helpful is to remind them that they can take their time, set their own pace, and show up as they are able to and with the adaptations they need to feel good in their studies and development.
It’s not surprising that slowing down and reflecting on what it is you’re striving for and seeking as a student is a important value within my courses - whether through changing your sense of time as a healing practice, connecting with your breath, embracing your sensitivity, using storytelling as part of your healing craft, or sitting in deep relationship with our plant allies.
With all that in mind, and being someone who uses tarot as a tool of self-reflection (and time travel and magick and healing), I thought it would be useful to put together a simple spread made for students who are feeling a bit overwhelmed, lost or uninspired in their studies. Make a sweet ritual of it, add some plants to your shower or bath, brew some tea, practice some breathwork, and then settle in for some card casting.
Study Wellness
A tarot spread for students
Study Wellness is a slow-down and take a look at your inner landscape sort of tarot spread to help students shift away from stress and reconnect to the purpose of their studies. You can use whatever tarot deck (or system of divination) you prefer, but if you're looking for some tarot decks with a plant focus, come this way.
Card 1. The Querent
A card that you can either choose purposefully or draw at random to represent you and your current student energy.
Card 2. What Brought You to Your Studies
This card helps you to reconnect to why you were drawn to your studies in the first place. An inverted or challenging card here might reflect something that you're trying to undo (i.e. traumatic family patterns) or heal as part of your studies.
Card 3. Where You Hope Your Studies Will Take You
A hopeful card that is less about predicting the future and more about helping you remember where it is you hope you'll arrive once your studies are completed.
Card 4. What You Are Focusing Too Much On
This card helps us to assess what it is that has become outsized in our life and often highlights an area of major stress in our studies. It is a place to pull back from, shrink down to appropriate portions, and maybe even let rest for a bit. In a practical sense this card may indicate a part of your studies to set aside for the moment to focus on another aspect of your work (i.e. taking a break from writing plant profiles to doing some hands-on remedy making practice).
Card 5. Where To Turn Your Attention To
This card helps to draw your attention towards an aspect of your studies that you would benefit from focusing on at the moment. This can include another aspect of your studies, but it can also point you towards an overall part of your student life that you would might consider focusing on like taking breaks, getting outside and connecting with plants, consulting with teachers or collaborating with your fellow students.
Card 6. The Student Transformed
A card that might not make too much sense to you at the moment, but peers ahead at ways that you might be transformed by your studies. Something to take note of in a journal that you can forget about for now and look at again after your studies are completed.
Bonus Card. A Message From Your Plant Ally
If you're an herbal student working with a particular plant ally, you can pull an extra card that represents a message from your plant ally to you, helping to recenter your studies in relationship to our green kin.
🌙 📚 🌿
I hope that Study Wellness, whether you use it as a tarot or oracle card spread, as journal prompts or even as part of a study group with your fellow students, helps you to feel a little more settled, centered, and confident in your work. Of course, the work that you’re doing now shapes your future, but you should also let it shape your present in ways that feel good and affirming to you.
If you’re looking for more gentle tarot spreads you might enjoy my favorite daily tarot and evening tarot practices.
May your path as a student be an inspiring one, may you be supported in ways that help you flourish in your learning, and may your inquiries lead you to places you couldn’t quite imagine, but feel like home when you finally arrive.
This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎
