There’s an internet meme I really love that says, “Maybe the day had a shitty you.” It’s a good reminder that our own energy creates a lot of what we experience as being, “outside of us.” Let’s talk about a very simple mental hygiene routine with the Tarot that we can use to keep our energy clean and positive.
The Buddhist Practice of Antidoting
Buddhism has long recognized that positive emotions are good for us and negative emotions are bad for us. There’s nothing revolutionary about that simple fact. Happiness makes us happy and sadness makes us depressed. What a concept!
Buddhism gets even more radical than that, though, and refers to negative emotions as, “poisons.” Constantly feeling the negative emotions – anger, hatred, jealousy, depression – is like drinking poison. It makes us physically, emotionally, and spiritually sick.
And, if we drink poison, we obviously need an antidote, right? So, in the Buddhist practice, if we’re angry about something we meditate on loving/compassion. If we’re jealous of someone, we meditate on feeling good for them. If we’re afraid, we meditate on courage. Any negative emotion has a corresponding antidote.
We can easily tie that thinking into a Tarot practice that helps us to stay balanced and stress free.
A Simple Weekly Tarot Practice
At the start of each week, try doing a short four-card predictive spread:
1. Current Conditions
2. What Needs to Be Done
3. Factors Working Against Me
4. Probable Outcome
For example, imagine the reading comes up like this:
• Current Conditions – Five of Cups (reversed) – recovering from sadness
• What Needs to Be Done – Seven of Wands (reversed) – exhausted after a battle and feeling defensive
• Factors Working Against – Five of Swords – conflict, tension, disagreements
• Probable Outcome – Five of Wands – ego struggles for dominance; hollow victories.
Without diving too deeply into analysis, we can see this describes a week of emotional recovery mixed with potential conflict.
The energy of the week feels charged—lots of fives, lots of challenges.
But remember: nothing the Tarot predicts is ever set in stone. It simply points to the energetic weather we’re about to walk into.
Finding the Antidote
So, how do we antidote this kind of energy?
By becoming as peaceful and non-reactive as possible.
If the cards forewarn us that conflict is likely, we can consciously generate its opposite: serenity, patience, and groundedness. When we carry that peaceful energy into the week, we DON’T blow up at the rude cashier at the grocery store. We DON’T indulge in road rage when someone cuts us off in traffic. We DON’T snap at a co-worker when they say something sarcastic to us.
When we carry those antidoting energies, we rise above the fray.
We stop feeding the poison and instead create harmony wherever we go.
In the same way, if our reading predicts sadness or depression, we can consciously seek out things that will make us happy. If it predicts that we’re going to be scattered, we can do a little extra mindfulness practice.
Turning “Negative” Cards Into Meditation
This is one of the most powerful ways to meditate with the Tarot.
When we pull a card that seems negative, rather than dreading it, we can pause and ask: What’s the opposite of this energy? If this card represents a poison, what’s its antidote?
If the cards suggest sadness or loss, how can we actively cultivate joy?
If they hint at arrogance, how can we practice humility?
If they predict anger or tension, how can we embody calm?
Each “negative” card becomes a mindfulness bell—an invitation to rebalance our inner world.
Empowerment Through Awareness
Instead of thinking, “This is going to be a rough week,” we can say,“This reading is giving me insight into the energies ahead—and tools to shift them.”
This approach gives us agency.
It empowers us to stay in the flow, improve our own energy, and choose how we’ll respond to life’s ups and downs.
No matter what’s happening around us, we’re the ones who have to live in our own minds—and Tarot can help us make that a bright, peaceful place to be.
Just the Tarot 