How to Set Intentions with Tarot Cards

To set intentions with tarot, you work the deck in reverse: instead of asking the cards what will happen, you choose or pull one card to represent the energy you want to live from, then keep it visible as a daily anchor. It is the difference between consulting the deck and collaborating with it.

I came to this practice sideways, honestly. Years ago, during a stretch when every reading I did for myself was really just anxiety wearing a mystical hat, a mentor told me to stop asking the cards questions for a month and start choosing one instead. It rewired my whole relationship with the deck. Here is how to do it.

Two Ways In: Choosing vs. Pulling

There are two doors into this practice, and they teach different things.

Choosing a card means spreading the deck face-up and deliberately selecting the image that holds what you want to call in. You are in full control. This is the right door when you already know what you need and want a visual contract with yourself.

Pulling a card means shuffling face-down while asking, "What energy should I focus on right now?" and letting the deck answer. This door is for when you are foggy, scattered, or suspiciously certain. The deck has a sense of humor about that last one. I have watched a client ask for abundance energy and pull The Hermit three weeks running. She did not need more hustle. She needed four quiet evenings and a closed door, and the moment she took them, the work question untangled itself.

Use both. Choose when you know. Pull when you don't. And when the pulled card annoys you, pay extra attention, because irritation is usually recognition.

Cards That Hold Intentions Well

Any card can anchor an intention, but some carry it especially well. These are the ones my clients and I reach for most:

• The Empress for abundance, creativity, and rest without guilt
• The Star for hope and healing after a hard season
• Ace of Pentacles for a new financial or work opportunity
• Two of Cups for deepening a love connection
• The Chariot for determination when the finish line feels far
• Strength for courage that stays soft, patience with yourself included
• Nine of Pentacles for standing on your own two financial feet
• The Sun for joy and visible success

Whichever card you land on, put it somewhere your eyes will find it without trying: desk, nightstand, altar, propped against the kitchen window. The card works by interruption. Every glance is a two-second reminder of who you decided to be this week, and twenty tiny reminders beat one grand ceremony every time.

The Weekly Ritual I Actually Recommend

Grand monthly intentions tend to dissolve by day six. A weekly rhythm is short enough to stay honest. Mine looks like this, and I have given it to dozens of clients:

1. Sunday evening: pull or choose one card for the week ahead.
2. Write one sentence: "This week I embody the energy of [card]." Pen and paper, not a mental note. The writing is the commitment.
3. Each morning: thirty seconds with the card. Just look. No analysis required.
4. Each evening: jot one moment from the day where that energy showed up, or where you needed it and missed.
5. Next Sunday: read the week's notes before pulling the new card. This review is where the practice compounds.

The evening line matters more than it looks. It trains your attention to notice the quality you chose, and what you notice, you repeat. That is the honest mechanism underneath intention work: not magnetizing the universe, but pointing your own attention somewhere on purpose. If you already do a daily draw, this folds right into it, and my guide to the one-card daily reading shows how the two practices feed each other.

Intentions on the New Moon

If you want to work with a bigger cycle, the new moon is the traditional moment for planting intentions, with the full moon reserved for release. There is something satisfying about setting an intention in the dark, before anything is visible, the way seeds start underground.

My simple new moon spread, three cards:

• Card 1: What energy is available to me this lunar cycle?
• Card 2: What intention should I set?
• Card 3: What action supports this intention?

Card 3 is the one people skip and the one that makes the whole thing real. If you want the fuller ceremony, candles and all, I wrote a complete guide to new moon rituals with tarot.

Four Rules That Separate Intentions From Wishes

Be specific. "I intend abundance" is fog. "I embody the Empress this week by resting Saturday morning without guilt" is a plan with a card attached. The deck gives you the image. You supply the verbs.

Phrase it toward, not away. "I am done attracting unavailable men" keeps your attention on unavailable men. "I am open to love that is consistent and easy to read" points you where you are going. Attention follows the sentence.

Hold it loosely. Set the intention, then release your grip on exactly how and when it shows up. White-knuckling an intention is just anxiety with better branding, and it tends to strangle the thing it wants.

Act in alignment. An intention without action is a wish, and I say that with love, as someone who spent a year wishing. The card shows you the energy. Your calendar shows whether you meant it. This is the bridge between intention and manifestation, and I go deeper on it in turning intention into real action with tarot.

Working this way changes what the deck is for: a compass you set yourself instead of a weather report about your life. In my experience, that shift alone is worth more than a hundred predictive readings.