Tarot for Becoming Who You Already Are (Sort Of)
- Suzanne
- Nov 9
- 4 min read
It started, as these things often do, with a mildly existential cup of tea. I’d just finished a reading — one of those sprawling spreads where every card seems to wink at you like it’s in on a cosmic joke you don’t quite get — and I caught myself asking (out loud, because why not), “So… when exactly do I become my highest self?”
The cards, of course, said nothing. Just a very smug-looking Magician and a reversed Eight of Pentacles staring back at me like, “Maybe when you stop asking.”
It’s a funny thing, this idea of self-actualisation — the promise that one day, after enough journaling, shadow work, and possibly reiki-flavoured herbal tea, you’ll finally arrive. You’ll be healed, aligned, confident, glowing, and possibly levitating. Except… tarot has a way of calling that bluff. Because for all its mystical symbolism, the deck isn’t a self-improvement plan — it’s a mirror. And mirrors don’t show potential; they show presence.
That’s the uncomfortable magic of it. Tarot doesn’t really help you “become” anyone new. It helps you remember who’s been sitting there, slightly awkward, slightly brilliant, the whole time — waiting for you to stop trying so hard to evolve and just say hi.
Tarot and the Accidental Art of Self-Actualisation
Here’s the thing about tarot: it never promised to fix you. It’s not a self-help book in 78 chapters or a personality quiz with archetypes instead of Hogwarts houses. Tarot doesn’t really teach you who you are — it just keeps holding up cards until you start recognising the pattern.
Every time you draw, you’re basically saying, “Show me what I already know but keep pretending I don’t.” And the deck, ever the trickster therapist, delivers.
Self-actualisation sounds lofty — a final boss level of personal growth. But in tarot-speak, it’s closer to pulling The Star after The Tower and realising you didn’t actually fall apart, you just misplaced your Wi-Fi for a while. It’s the slow dawning that the point was never perfection, just participation — being in your life, fully, instead of auditing it from the sidelines.
Tarot sneaks you there sideways. The cards don’t say, “Here’s how to actualise yourself.” They say, “Here’s the energy you’re avoiding, the gift you’ve downgraded to coping mechanism, the dream you keep filing under ‘later.’” And in seeing it — really seeing it — you start to edge closer to that whole becoming-your-truest-self business, mostly by accident.
Because self-actualisation, it turns out, isn’t a ladder. It’s more like a loop of The Fool, tripping and learning and trying again, each time a little more unapologetically you.
The Myth of Arrival (and Why Tarot Doesn’t Do Endings)
One of the great cosmic jokes of self-actualisation is that it sounds like somewhere you can get to — a shimmering destination where the plants are thriving, your boundaries are firm but graceful, and you’ve stopped overthinking text messages.
But tarot knows better. Tarot knows there’s no final stop. Even the World card — the supposed finish line — flips back into The Fool the moment you shuffle the deck again. The story doesn’t end; it just changes outfit.
We humans, though, love an ending. We want the spiritual equivalent of a gold star: Congratulations, you’ve unlocked your highest self! But if you’ve spent any time with tarot, you’ll know that as soon as you start feeling smugly “sorted,” here comes The Tower, knocking politely and saying, “Oh, hi. Thought you might like to meet your next lesson.”
That’s the quiet genius of tarot — it refuses to collude with your fantasies of completion. The cards don’t reward arrival; they reward awareness. They nudge you to realise that self-actualisation isn’t something that happens at the end of the story — it’s something that unfolds through it.
Every reading is a reminder that you’re still mid-spread: learning, adjusting, occasionally flipping a reversal into a revelation. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe “becoming your highest self” just means learning how to be comfortable being a work in progress — aware, honest, and occasionally covered in metaphorical glitter.
So, What Does Self-Actualisation Even Look Like (According to Tarot)?
If tarot had a face for self-actualisation, it wouldn’t be a haloed ascended master on a mountain top. It’d be you — sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by half-finished readings, two cold cups of tea, and the vague sense that you’re starting to get it… kind of.
Because in tarot, “actualising” yourself doesn’t mean levelling up until you’re spiritually untouchable. It means you’ve finally stopped auditioning for the role of “better version” and started playing yourself. Fully. Weird bits, contradictions, healing detours and all.
It looks like The High Priestess trusting her intuition even when it makes zero sense on paper. It looks like The Knight of Wands chasing inspiration and occasionally tripping over his own enthusiasm, but laughing about it. It looks like The Empress choosing pleasure and care without needing permission. And yes — it looks like The Fool again, setting off with messy optimism, snacks, and a wildly un-updated to-do list.
Tarot reminds you that becoming who you already are isn’t about constant self-analysis; it’s about letting the cards (and life) show you the parts you forgot were yours. The courage, the curiosity, the joy you keep outsourcing to your “future self.”
So if you want a tarot practice for self-actualisation, try this: Stop asking “Who am I becoming?” and start asking “What part of me is ready to be seen today?”
That’s it. That’s the work. Because the punchline to this whole spiritual sitcom is that your “highest self” was never hiding in the clouds — it’s been here the whole time, sitting next to your deck, waiting for you to draw the next card and finally say,
“Oh. It’s me.”
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