Tarot and the Jungian Path to Self-Discovery

Tarot cards have been used to bring healing and change in the lives of people all over the world for centuries. Even the famous Rider-Waite Smith tarot deck is often used, and it is full of symbolism. It has been studied by readers for years. The deck has 22 Major Arcana cards and 56 Minor Arcana cards, and they are broken down into four different suits.

The Major Arcana cards show different archetypes, which were conceptualized by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist. The cards show the different steps that the hero goes through and the different characters that he meets along his journey. They are depicted by Joseph Campbell, and people who study tarot cards often follow these things.

Archetypes and the Language of Symbols

Jungian analyst Murray Stein (1998) describes archetypes in Jung’s Map of the Soul as “an innate potential pattern of imagination, thought, or behavior that can be found among human beings in all times and places.” That definition captures exactly how tarot works on a deeper level. At first glance, the imagery in the cards may seem basic, but as you spend time with them, layers of meaning begin to unfold. Symbols start to reveal themselves in ways that go beyond words.

Even though I own over thirty tarot decks, I return to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck almost every time. It speaks to my subconscious through archetypes, much like dreams do. This deck doesn’t just predict events; it opens a channel to the unconscious. I believe tarot can serve as a gateway into the inner world, a belief supported by the work of Carl Jung. Tarot, in this view, becomes a tool for reflection and healing, helping bring unconscious material into conscious awareness.

Tarot as a Tool for Embodiment and Transformation

One of the most meaningful ways I’ve learned to work with tarot is by focusing on the archetypes and what they teach us, not just through prediction, but through personal embodiment. These cards challenge me to see life from different angles and explore new ways of being. It feels like sitting in council with wise, ancient voices who always have something relevant to share.

In that way, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck acts as a trusted companion on the journey of self-discovery. It reflects our personal myths back to us, guiding us through our own unique hero’s journey. As my relationship with the cards deepens, so does my understanding of the psyche. Stein defines the psyche as “an inclusive term covering the areas of consciousness, personal unconscious, and collective unconscious.”  Tarot travels through all three.

The Legacy of the Rider-Waite-Smith Deck

The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot is one of the most iconic decks in the world, published in 1910 by the Rider Company. It was created by A.E. Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, whose contribution has too often gone unrecognized despite her visionary art.

Interestingly, this deck emerged around the same time that Carl Jung was exploring psychic phenomena himself. In 1902, he completed a doctoral thesis called On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena, based on research he conducted with his cousin, a medium. This timing feels synchronistic, two distinct paths, both exploring the unconscious through symbol and intuition.

A Symbolic Story Told Through the Major Arcana

The Major Arcana in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck tells a story. Each card carries themes that foreshadow the next, creating a symbolic narrative that mirrors our own evolution (Perrakis, 2016). These symbols speak to the unconscious mind in a way that bypasses logic. They are both personal and collective. One image may stir different associations in different people, but the archetypal energy behind it is shared.

Just like in dream analysis, tarot can be used to uncover deep truths. The cards act like mirrors, reflecting what we already know beneath the surface, guiding us toward our own inner wisdom.

Confronting Inner Figures on the Path to Wholeness

At Pacifica Graduate Institute, therapist and Jungian analyst Willow Young (2019) spoke of our responsibility to confront the inner figures that control or limit us. In her words: “We have an ethical responsibility to confront inner figures who come controlling us and preventing us from becoming our whole selves. The process of individuation is to speak our own truth at all times when it arises.”

Tarot offers a direct way to engage with those inner figures. The cards don’t just show us outcomes; they show us ourselves. If you’re willing to look honestly, they’ll reveal patterns and unconscious influences that need to be addressed. Jung explained that “complexes behave like independent beings, a fact especially evident in abnormal states of the mind” (Jung, 1989, p. 394). These complexes can skew a reading when the reader or querent is emotionally triggered or overly attached to a certain answer.

When Complexes Interfere with Clarity

There are times when it’s nearly impossible to receive an honest reading, not because the cards are wrong, but because the lens we’re looking through is distorted. According to Jung, “Complexes interfere with the intentions of the will and disturb the conscious performance” (Jung, 1989, p. 393). When a complex is activated, it’s hard to be open to anything that challenges our current narrative. I’ve experienced this both as a reader and as someone receiving a reading.

But once that emotional charge has passed, the cards can be revisited with fresh eyes. That’s when we can finally see the truth they were pointing to all along, where the complex came from, what it’s protecting, and how it might finally be released.

Tarot as a Mirror for Self-Reflection and Spiritual Wisdom

Whether someone views tarot as a form of spiritual divination or simply as a self-reflection tool, its value remains the same. The cards offer a way to see situations from different perspectives. For this reason, it’s important for the querent to stay as objective as possible when looking at the spread. In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, traditional interpretations include both upright and reversed cards, each representing light and shadow qualities.

Shadow is defined by Jungian analyst Murray Stein, as “the rejected and unaccepted aspects of the personality that are repressed and form a compensatory structure to the ego’s self-ideals and to the persona.”  In a tarot reading, shadow can emerge in many ways, either directly through a card’s meaning or through a reaction the querent has to a particular image. Emotional responses to the cards often reveal hidden parts of the psyche, including shadow traits, complexes, or even anima and animus figures.

Understanding the Anima and Animus in Tarot

Stein defines the anima and animus as “the archetypal images of the eternal feminine in a man’s unconscious, or the eternal masculine in a woman’s unconscious, which forms a link between the ego-consciousness and the collective unconscious and potentially opens a way to the self.” But this framework isn’t limited to binary gender. Everyone has both masculine and feminine energies, and how someone relates to them is deeply personal.

Whether someone identifies as cisgender, transgender, nonbinary, or genderfluid, the anima and animus can show up as supportive internal figures for healing and balance. Depending on how someone is feeling in the moment, they might intuitively be drawn to work with one over the other. A helpful way to connect with these energies is through tarot, especially when a particular card stirs up a strong emotional reaction.

Jung’s Relationship with the Anima

Carl Jung wrote in Memories, Dreams, Reflections about how his anima guided him through emotional disturbances and inner unrest. He described turning to her for insight whenever something from the unconscious was triggered. Here’s what he said:

“But the anima … communicates the images of the unconscious to the conscious mind, and that is what I chiefly valued her for. For decades, I always turned to the anima when I felt that my emotional behavior was disturbed, and that something had been constellated in the unconscious. I would then ask the anima: ‘Now what are you up to?” What do you see? I should like to know.’ After some resistance, she regularly produced an image. As soon as the image was there, the unrest or the sense of oppression vanished. The whole energy of these emotions was transformed into interest in and curiosity about the image. I would speak with the anima about the images she communicated to me, for I had to try to understand them as best I could, just like a dream.”
Jung’s words highlight how the inner feminine can serve as a bridge, offering not only understanding but also a shift in energy from distress to curiosity and insight.

Working with the Emperor Card as a Shadow Teacher

For me personally, The Emperor is one of the most emotionally charged cards in the deck. It has revealed aspects of my shadow over time, particularly my relationship with the animus and with power itself. Early in my tarot journey, The Emperor would evoke fear. He reminded me of figures in my life who had abused their authority, mirroring the perpetrator archetype as opposed to the victim.

Traditionally, The Emperor stands for leadership, control, and strength. Some people resonate immediately with his confidence and divine masculine traits. But for me, his energy revealed something I had repressed: my own inner authority and power. I had linked power with danger, associating it with destruction because of past trauma. Over time, though, working with this card taught me that these same qualities, when expressed consciously, can be protective, grounded, and wise.

The Emperor became a teacher of how to use power with intention. His light aspects, being a protector, a decision-maker, and a builder of structure, helped me reclaim parts of myself I once rejected.

The Dance Between Masculine and Feminine in the Cards

Many tarot cards represent both masculine and feminine energies, and some, like The Fool, The Magician, or the Pages, feel androgynous or fluid. The cards continually remind us of the importance of balance. Through the suits and archetypes, we’re shown where we may have too much or too little of certain qualities, and how to move toward wholeness.

Tarot, in this way, becomes a tool for healing. It helps bring what is hidden into the light, integrating fragmented parts of the psyche into the Self. This ongoing integration aligns with what Jung called the transcendent function, the process that merges conscious and unconscious material.

As Jung wrote in The Transcendent Function, it is “the collaboration of conscious and unconscious data.”  Tarot supports this process by helping us witness both inner conflict and inner wisdom, offering imagery that speaks directly to the soul’s journey.

Tarot as a Bridge Between Worlds

The unconscious needs a way to reach the conscious mind, but it needs a channel, a transmitter. In myth and psychology, this role is often played by a psychopomp, a shaman, or a doula of sorts. A shaman is someone who can walk between worlds, the world of the seen and the unseen, the physical and the spiritual. Within the psyche, the animus can function like that internal shaman. It helps carry messages from the unconscious to the surface, often using symbols we encounter in dreams or in tarot cards.

Tarot cards speak this same symbolic language. The images on the cards can represent archetypes, complexes, anima, animus, or even collective myths. In this way, tarot becomes a conversation between the inner and outer worlds, just as dreams do.

Interpreting Tarot Like Dreams

In her dreamwork teachings, Jungian analyst Willow Young recommends beginning with a simple, humble statement: “I do not know what this means.”

This beginner’s mindset opens the door to discovery. From there, the dreamer makes personal associations with each image and eventually moves into amplification, where symbolic meaning is explored more deeply through cultural and archetypal lenses. Tarot images can be interpreted using this exact process.

Each card pulled during a reading isn’t random. Jung called these kinds of “coincidences” synchronicities, what Stein defines as “the meaningful coincidence of two events, one inner and psychic and the other outer and physical.” When a querent draws a card, that synchronicity often reflects something active in their psyche that’s ready to be seen or integrated.

The Querent’s Voice in the Reading

One of the most meaningful things a tarot reader can do during a session is to pause and invite the querent to share what they see. What feelings come up? Which symbols stand out? What memories or associations arise as they look at the image? This approach allows the unconscious mind to speak, not just through the reader’s interpretation but through the querent’s emotional and symbolic reactions. The card becomes a mirror, and their reaction is the message.

Art as a Path to the Psyche

Swiss depth psychologist Theodore Abt, in his book Introduction to Picture Interpretation: According to C.G. Jung, said: “…pictures become a bridge to the unknown spirit of the psychic background.”

Although he was speaking about artwork made by the individual, this concept can easily be applied to viewing art as well. Tarot cards are artwork. When several people look at the same card, each will likely focus on different symbols and have a unique emotional reaction. These reactions are shaped by their own inner life and experiences, making the image a personal doorway into unconscious material.

Everyday Symbols and the Gateway to the Psyche

In Man and His Symbols, Jung, told the story of a colleague who, while pondering mysterious letters on a train wall, spontaneously accessed deep psychological material through free association. Jung realized at that moment that dreams weren’t the only entryway into the unconscious. He wrote:

“One could begin from Cyrillic letters, from meditations upon a crystal ball, a prayer wheel, or a modern painting, or even from a casual conversation.”

Tarot can serve this same function. It’s a modern symbolic practice; one anyone can use to engage with their inner world. It doesn’t require psychic abilities. What it does require is curiosity, openness, and a willingness to explore.

Tarot as a Tool for Individuation

Just like dream work, tarot is a practice that can guide us along the lifelong path of individuation, Jung’s term for the process of becoming whole. Using tarot through a Jungian lens means starting with openness, moving into personal associations, and then deepening with symbolic amplification. This process can help a person access the unconscious in a meaningful, healing way.

At its core, tarot offers more than answers. It offers insight, reflection, and the possibility of transformation, one card, one image, one inner dialogue at a time.