Card of the day: draw a metaphorical card
Draw one card if you just want to see what state you are in, or all three positions of the layout if you have a specific situation. No sign-up and no preparation.
Draw a card
What is happening
What I see on the card: who, where, doing what. How that resembles my day today
What gets in the way
What in this picture is unpleasant or hard to look at. What similar thing is in my way now
What helps
What here looks like support or a way out. What it suggests about the next step
The three positions are read together rather than separately: what is happening, then what gets in the way, then what to lean on. Write one sentence as the result, or a day later all that stays is a sense that it was interesting. The full walkthrough is in how to read a card.
The cards come from our public decks; all 727 are open in the app, where you can lay more of them into a scheme and save the session.
What a card of the day is
A short practice for noticing what state you are in and what is occupying your head. Not a horoscope and not a forecast: the card does not know what will happen, it shows how you are looking at things today.
It runs on projection: the image has no fixed meaning, and whatever you saw in it you brought with you. The same card reads differently on Monday and on Thursday, and that is the point rather than a fault.
The practice suits a morning entry into the day or a way to stop in the evening. Drawing daily is not required and is even counterproductive: answers start repeating and attention dulls. Two or three times a week is enough.
One card or three
There are three positions on the page, but drawing all three is not the point. It depends on what you came with.
One card when there is no question
You only want to see what state you are in. Draw the first position, answer its question and stop. Five minutes.
Three cards when there is a situation
The positions cut one story three ways: what is happening, what gets in the way, what helps. They have to be read together, otherwise they are three unrelated pictures. About fifteen minutes.
Positions do not expire
Draw one in the morning and come back for the second in the evening: the slots stay open until midnight, and they hold the same cards when you return.
What not to do: draw the third card because the first two were not to your liking. The question of a position is set in advance, and swapping the question after the answer empties the practice. An answer you dislike is the material to work with, see how to read a card.
How to use it
Four steps. Five minutes with one card, about fifteen with three.
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1
State what is on your mind
One sentence to yourself: "today I am deciding whether to talk to a colleague about workload". Without a question the card gives you a nice picture and nothing else.
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2
Draw and look for half a minute
In silence, without explaining. Start analysing right away and you only hear what you already knew.
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3
Answer the question of the position
First what you see literally, then what you felt, then how it resembles your situation. The order matters: start with the resemblance and you get a fit-up, not an answer.
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4
Write one sentence
A single line as the result. A week later a note is more interesting to return to than a memory.
If three positions are not enough, next come layouts by card count and techniques with a ready sequence of questions.
What it is not
Three things people most often assume about a card of the day, wrongly.
Not a prediction
The card says nothing about the future. "What awaits me today" turns usefully into "what do I expect from today and what am I wary of".
Not divination
Metaphorical cards have no lookup table of meanings, and its absence is a condition of the work rather than a gap. The sense appears in your answer.
Not diagnosis
No conclusion about a person follows from the card they drew. There is no norm, no scale and no correct answer.
If an unpleasant card comes up
It happens and it is fine: the pool is shuffled at random, and your reaction says something about you, not about the day ahead being bad.
A strong reaction points at something already touched. Such a card is worked with one question: what exactly is unpleasant here and what in my life does it resemble. If breathing gets harder, the card goes aside and the practice stops; that is not a defeat.
On limits separately: working alone does not suit an acute state, the first days after a hard event, or thoughts of self-harm. In detail on the page about the limits of the method.
FAQ
How do I draw a metaphorical card of the day online?
How many cards take part in the draw?
Do I have to draw all three cards?
Does a card of the day predict how the day will go?
Can I draw a card every day?
Is anything stored?
Lay out several cards
Next: 14 techniques with step-by-step questions, how to read a card, which deck to choose, decks.