If you do a search online for “Energy Readings” you’ll find a wide variety of definitions and approaches. Many psychic practitioners use intuitive or extra-sensory perception to read auras or energy fields and offer interpretation or guidance. Some use the phrase “energy reading” to mean a psychic reading that does not employ cards or other means beyond the practitioner’s own faculties.
In my own practice, an energy reading is a way of describing a single or multiple card Tarot draw which is meant to give us a quick gauge of where to direct our thoughts or energies at the moment. My Daily Draws might be an example, as are the three card or four card spreads that I sometimes do.
These would be distinct from a Tarot reading where we are looking in more depth at a specific question or problem to solve. For instance, if someone came to me asking for a reading involving a significant financial decision, or career advice, or a relationship question, I would be more likely to use a Celtic Cross spread and explore the question in depth from a lot of different angles and aspects. While if someone was simply interested in a reading but didn’t have a specific question or problem or goal in mind, or if time for the reading was limited, I’d probably turn to a quick energy reading for them.
My favorite four card spread is to draw one card for each of the four dimensions of life (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual). An example of a three card spread would be to draw one card each for something to stop doing, something to keep doing and something to start doing – or perhaps a card each for integrity, vocation and community. The classic three carder would be past, present and future.
You can create these sorts of small multiple-card spreads using almost any designation or position meanings that you’d like. Another four carder would be strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis).
For those of us who believe that everything in the universe is connected in some way, it makes sense that a card being drawn (or a coin being tossed, or dice being thrown, or runes, or whatever means might be used) would have some relationship to everything else – and that, perhaps, we can sometimes get a sense of what those relationships are, and how that information might be useful to us.
But even for those with a more strictly rational view of things, the type of reading that I describe above can still be useful. My “Tarot Yoda” (professional card reader and author Vincent Pitisci) writes about Tarot as being similar to the use of conceptual blending for creative problem solving. By introducing a random, unrelated stimulus to the question under discussion we can often come upon extremely helpful (and powerful) ideas and approaches that we would not otherwise have seen or considered.
Whether you accept or are put off by the notion that there are mysterious energies around us which can be examined and interpreted through means beyond the rational mind and five senses, I would encourage you to explore what the Tarot has to offer. You may be surprised at how helpful it can be.