Pole dancing can be a practice and a moving meditation that keeps us connected to our intuition and evolving self. It helps us to process life’s drama and angst and celebrate life’s magic and joy.

Dancing awakens and strengthens the right side of the brain, which communicates through intuition. Intuition whispers through feelings, music, images, yearnings and our ‘inner knowing.’

Learning to trust our instincts and intuition in a culture that more commonly associates Oracle with computer software than divine messages is challenging. Tarot and oracle cards can help.

How Tarot and Oracle Cards Develop Intuition

I dipped my toe in the water of divination with a free Goddess app on my first iPhone. Each time I used the app for insight on an issue my rational, devil’s advocate brain chastised me, What are you doing?

via GIPHY

Still it often helped. I bought my first physical deck after reading this passage:

To move our attention from the head to the belly, from the mind to the body, a woman must learn to read the signals and learn to trust them. Otherwise she’ll never be sure of the difference between her intuition and those little fearful voices in her head that tell her to be cautious, careful, stop, don’t and so on. Something needs to validate the intuitive movements along the way; something needs to function as teacher or guide. That something is synchronicity as an active way of life, a path of steady observation and response to the little messages that come from the environment every day: sensations in the body, encounters and events that happen in the outer world, the way things line up in linear time, all the little miracles. A woman might use the systematic oracles like the tarot as helpers in the process of becoming so centered that she eventually has no more need for the outer oracles most of the time. ~ Vicki Noble in Shakti Woman

It’s uncanny how in sync tarot and oracle cards can be with their resonance and guidance. I’ve become much more in tune with my own intuition and to messages and signs received from Nature after years of playing with them. I don’t take them too seriously because Tarot’s roots can be traced back to a card game in Renaissance Italy.

Oracle/Tarot Make Great Dance Partners

The messages received through tarot and oracle are from the higher self/soul or helping spirits. Sometimes as I shuffle the cards while holding an intention or asking a question one or two jump out of the deck with raised hand shouting, Ooh, Me. Pick Me!

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body. And it’s partly the language that we don’t want to show.” ~ Martha Graham

When I pole dance, I gain access to the insights of my body and the wisdom of my soul. It makes conscious blocks conscious. Next steps reveal themselves. I gain clarity and get unstuck.

Oracle and tarot cards can lead to similar shifts. “A tarot reading reveals what is hidden. It does this through the interpretation of symbols that make the unconscious conscious, the profane sacred, and the chance purposeful and meaningful. Ultimately, it is a search for the spiritual source that brings nourishment and renewal.” ~ Mary Greer in 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card

Combing dance with oracle and tarot cards can be particularly empowering. Here are five ways to experiment.

5 Ways to Play with Oracle/Tarot in Pole Dance

1) Dance Song

In a music rut? Have no idea what you want to dance to? Choose a card to inspire your song choice for your next dance.

When I have no songs in mind before heading out the door to class, I’ll pick up a deck, start shuffling and ask: Who wants to play with me in class today? or Who wants to inspire my song?

Other times I’ll be more intentional. Recently, I chose a card from my Goddess deck, my favorite for pole play, asking: Who wants to be my first free dance of the year? I got Aine – Leap of Faith. The card resonated with me because I want to take more leaps/risks/actions without over analyzing. I listened to many songs. Nothing felt right. I did research learning that her name means “brightness, glow, joy, radiance, splendor, glory, fame.” On the night before class I discovered Try Everything (a playful song about taking risks and making mistakes) by Shakira among new releases. It was most my most joyous dance in over a month.

2) Playlist Creation:  Kali to Yemanya ‘Letting Go’ playlist

When you need a theme or focus for a playlist choose one to three cards to create an adventure with music. Sometimes I choose randomly, other times intentionally.

Three years ago when I needed help ‘letting go’ after the studio I danced in for seven years closed, I turned to Kali’s flames of destruction and Yemanya’s golden opportunity.

The playlist took me on a healing dance journey of synchronicity between the music, lyrics, my emotions and experiences with sand and waves as I danced on the beach in sacred ceremony. I wallowed in sadness, surrendered my torch, drowned in my tears and by the end felt refreshed and hopeful. You can read the full story here.

3) Pole Class/Party Theme

Host a party or class where you assign each attendee a card from the deck as their spirit guide for the class. Make it extra-special by giving each attendee the card (or a photo of it) you choose for them.

I attended a party where Salmon (determination) was drawn for me. Salmons swim upstream, sometimes up waterfalls, to spawn. Though one of my strengths is persistence, at the time I was working on a project I felt like giving up on. It gave me hope. At the party, which happened to fall on my birthday, the teacher sat me in the center of the room while the rest of the attendees danced for me. I felt fed by feminine energy in a way I hadn’t since my local studio had closed 18 months earlier. The day I arrived home, I learned the studio was re-opening in a new location in mere weeks.

4) Dance Your Birth Card(s)

Determine your birth or personality/soul card(s). To do this, add up the numbers associated with your birthday. Three options described here.

When I add up mine, I get: 5 + 17 + 19 + 66 = 107

Then 10 + 7 = 17

And 1 + 7 = 8

So, depending on the deck, VIII is Justice or Strength/Courage. And XVII is The Stars.

I discovered this technique recently and look forward to dancing these cards.

A variation of this exercise is to dance your current birthday by replacing your birth year with the current year.

5) Elemental Dance

One of my favorite exercises is dancing as an element—fire, water, earth or air. Recall last winter’s article on dancing with fire.

Another way to explore characteristics of elements with tarot is to separate the minor arcana from the major. Shuffle the deck and challenge yourself to dance as the elemental force you draw.

I drew a card from my Osho Zen deck. I can’t wait to dance water as harmony. I adore the heart and third eye lights. And the dolphins flowing between them. It’s going to be an interesting dance.

Variations: Choose a card from a particular suit if you want deepen your relationship with a particular element.

If you have multiple poles, choose a card from each suit and explore how each card/element changes your dance based on how that element is portrayed.

I hope you these ideas inspire you to create your own activities using tarot and oracle cards. Have a Dance Battle/Conversation between two of the major arcana archetypes. Explore duality by dancing the extreme light and dark interpretations of a card. Dance how it makes you feel. Dance the dominant color. Tell the story of the card. Embody the card. Zoom in on one symbol. Invent a new trick. You get the idea…

Most of all, be willing to be vulnerable. Let go of control; trust your body, your instincts and your intuition.