Tarot Magic Mini-Course: Lesson 9: Four Weeks with the Aces and Elements

Welcome to Tarot Magic — a revolutionary new way to use the archetypes of the tarot for powerful personal transformation, practical enchantment, and spiritual growth.

In this mini-course, I’m providing free access to selected material in the full Tarot Magic course. If you enjoy this material, please consider signing up for the complete course here.

1. Tarot Magic Mini-Course Main Page
2. Goals of the course
3. Creating sacred space
4. Definitions of magic
5. How Tarot Magic is different
6. The aces and the classical elements
7. The Fourfold Rite meditation
8. Breathing the Elements meditation
9. Four weeks with the aces and elements
10. Tarot altars
11. Tarot Magic at the Crossroads

4 Weeks with the Aces and the Elements

We will work with each element for a full week (one element for seven days straight). Do not understimate the power of what seem like very simple exercises — this can be life-changing and is crucial for the work that follows.

Week 1: Air = Ace of Swords 🜁

Week 2: Water = Ace of Cups 🜄

Week 3: Fire = Ace of Wands 🜂

Week 4: Earth = Ace of Coins 🜃

We will work with the energies of the four classical elements using the following techniques:

1. Fourfold Rite Meditation (daily)
2. Breathing in the Element (meditation/visualization); in morning, before bed, or both. (See instructions in separate lesson.)
3. Daily focus and immersion (card at bedside and desk, image on phone, regular reflection during your day, actual contact with the element, with note taking throughout and integration into your Tarot Journal at end of day). Be sure to use the image of the week’s ace as your phone’s wallpaper — it’s a great way to remind yourself to think about the element.
4. Direct contact with the element
5. Use your Tarot Journal worksheet to take notes about your experiences with the element.
6. If you’re a visual person, consider making a vision board or a Pinterest collection of images for each element.

Setup checklist for the week ahead

For the week ahead:

1. Set the appropriate ace card from your Marseille deck on your the stand you purchased or created) on your bedside table in the morning and evening. If possible, relocate it to your desk or workspace during your workday.

2. Set the image on the card as your home screen and/or wallpaper on your phone. Leave it for the entire week. Every time you pick up your phone, you will see the image — take this reminder to note any aspects of the element around you. For example, during Week 1/Air: If you’re inside, can you feel the slight breeze from your heating or AC unit? Listen to the sounds around you — can you hear a fan or the wind outside? Does it feel fresh or stuffy? If you’re outside, how does the air feel on your skin? Is the wind blowing lightly or steadily? How does it smell? Use the image on the phone as a reminder to think about/experience the element.

Ace of Swords

Ace of Cups

Ace of Wands

Ace of Coins

3. Take notes about all of your elemental experiences and thoughts as you work through the four weeks in your notebook. Please do not omit your note taking! Or use your phone’s notes app.

Daily Practice: Elemental Focus and Immersion

Each week, you will be living in a world that is swarming with a particular elemental energy. Your goal should be to notice the element everywhere you go and in your daily activity. Once you settle into the mindset, it can be revelatory — noticing elemental aspects in even the most mundane activities.

This will be truly eye-opening and boost your creative imagination. I have done it on multiple occasions, and it brings so much new depth and richness to the world. I can’t wait for you to experience it!

1. Wake up, take a moment to contemplate the ace by your bedside. What aspects of its element will your day bring and how can you bring that element to what’s ahead?
2. Do the Fourfold Rite meditation.
3. Immediately follow with the Breathing in the Element Meditation for the week’s specific element.
4. Make sure your phone’s home screen and wallpaper are set to the appropriate ace for the week.
5. You can also write the elemental sigil (see the video)
6. Be prepared to take notes on your experiences.
7. Seek out music that embodies the element, whether in the title, words, instruments (flutes for air, drums for earth), or just how it feels. Compile a running list or playlist if you have streaming music and play during the week. Listen to that music often.
8. Immerse yourself in the element as often as you can — ideally with physical contact, when possible. Take an extra long salt bath during the week of Water/Cups, or dip your toes in a pond. Visit a high place with skin exposed during Air/Swords. Build a small fire or sit quietly before a candle during Fire/Wands. Take a walk in the woods or a park for Earth/Coins, or just take off your shoes and stand in your yard. Stick your hands in a pile of earth. The idea is to feel and experience, not necessarily intellectualize.
9. When you’re doing day-to-day work or consuming entertainment, seek out associations for the element. Is your boss being combative and judgmental, or is a talkative coworker sucking all the air out of a meeting (swords)? Is the fanatical CEO on your favorite TV series embodying aggressive fire (wands) energy?Is the song on the radio making you melancholy (cups)? Walking by a construction crew, can you look down into the ditch they’re digging — how would it feel to be working in the cold, muddy, and dark space down there (earth)?
10. Every time you look at your phone (probably many time during the day), think about the element. How are you experiencing it right then? Take a moment or two to explore your environment and your current thoughts and state of consciousness. Try to make at least one conscious connection with the week’s element.
11. Take notes! If you don’t, you’ll forget. A quick couple of words in your phone’s note’s app or in a notebook will add to your database of associations. If you carry your Tarot Journal worksheet around with you, write them down there immediately.
12. At the end of the day, transfer your notes to your Tarot Journal worksheet. Over the week, you’ll be building your unique set of elemental associations. Notice patterns? Finding any common ways the element appears in your life, or surprises?
13. If possible, do the Fourfold Rite before sleep (bonus: it’s a great way to relax and unwind).
14. Repeat for 7 days total. Congratulations! You’ve immersed yourself in the element and now have a deeper and more magically powerful elemental connection.

The beauty of forming these connections is that you will be able to call on or summon these elemental energies when you need them. More on that later in the course.

Guides for Each Elemental Week

Week 1: For AIR/SWORDS 🜁
Time of day: Dawn

1. When you wake up, look toward the sun. If you can, step outside. Fee the air on your skin.
2. Breathe deeply through your nose, expanding your abdomen first, then your lungs (feel the breath rolling up from your stomach to the top of your chest). Hold for a moment, then let it out through your nose. Do several breaths. Pay attention to the change in your consciousness.
3. Walk outside with as much bare skin as possible (just don’t freak out your neighbors!). Pay close attention to the air/wind on your skin. Breathe in deeply, and imagine the air entering the cells of your skin, filling you with elemental air.
4. Seek out high places or the seashore and stand quietly, breathing deeply. Notice the air around you. How is it different?
5. Collect airy items and place near your Ace of Swords. Feathers are perfect, but anything that reminds you of air — dandelion seed, cotton, light blue colored stones.
6. Listen for hints of air in music, in conversations, and write them in your journal.
7. Seek out airy music (flute and wind instruments). Sing, whistle, hum. Choral music is exceptional for this. Find songs with air in the lyrics, or those that just feel airy and elevated.
8. Notice airy characters in the entertainment you consume, whether books, TV, or movies. Sharp-witted characters, extremely logical aliens like Spock, argumentative or angry/violent people.
9. Burn an incense that pleases you, or use essential oils if incense is not possible. Calmly meditate on the rising smoke. Notice how it affects your consciousness.
10. Play intellectual games (Wordle, crossword puzzles) or watch Jeopardy. Notice how your brain is stimulated and how you feel when you complete a puzzle or win a game.
11. Contemplate the decisions you make, and how you think through them. What kind of thinker are you? Rash, impulsive, or slow and methodical?
12. If you use a knife, pay attention to the process. Lightly and carefully touch the sharp end of the blade and pay attention to the sensation — how does it feel slightly dangerous? Is that a good feeling? Notice how it feels to cut/saw/slice things into smaller pieces.
13. If you’re shopping and you see a knife, pair of scissors, or letter opener that seems like it wants to be yours, make it so!
14. Get rid of possessions or declutter — literally cutting things out of your life. Notice how it feels.

Week 2: WATER/CUPS 🜄
Time of day: Dusk

1. At dusk, have a cool glass of water. Feel it entering you, dispersing, and becoming part of you.
2. Take a bath if you can, or go for a swim in a pool or a natural body of water. As you’re soaking or floating (safely, please), when you breathe in imagine the water entering through your skin and permeating your body, filling you with elemental water. (Do not do this if you have a cold or lung issues). Become water. If you don’t have a bathtub or pool/lake/ocean access, sit or stand in a shower and do the same.
3. Take a walk in the rain. Remember how fun it was to jump in puddles as a kid? Try it again!
4. Collect rainwater or snow in a bowl. Put your hands in this water. Does it feel different than water from a tap? Rub some in the center of the palms of your hands and on your forehead (third eye). Keep a small container of rainwater next to your Ace of Cups and touch a drop to your forehead before going to bed. You may want to keep rainwater in a bottle for future magical work.
5. Play music about water, whether with water lyrics (Have you Ever Seen the Rain? by Creedence Clearwater Revival, for example) or that feels watery or highly emotional to you. Notice the change in your emotions, and how they flow. Create a water playlist.
6. If you need to cry, allow the tears to flow. Taste their saltiness.
7. Buy some spring water, or use water from a well. As you drink it slowly, imagine it permeating your body and carrying elemental water. Focus on the process of drinking.
8. If you use alcohol, have a glass of wine. Notice the change in your emotions and mood as you slowly relish it.
9. Notice watery/emotional characters and situations in the entertainment you consume, whether books, TV, or movies. Watch tear-jerker movies. Why do we enjoy emotions that can be painful?
10. Check your emotions throughout the day and notice how they change, ebb, and flow. If you feel a strong emotion, stop for a moment and notice how your body changes in response.
11. Try a cold shower for as long as you can take it, even for a few seconds. How do you feel when you finish? I take regular cold showers and they help immediately reset my emotional equilibrium — if you find this intriguing, check out the work of Wim Hof.
12. If you’re shopping and you see a beautiful cup, mug, or bowl, buy it and place it next to your Ace of Cups. You may want to use it later in your magical work.
13. When you meditate, take note of your consciousness. Do you feel immersed? Is your consciousness deeper than in waking life? Do you have any sense of mystical connection?
14. Consider giving blood. You will be sharing your life-giving elemental water with someone in need — that’s pure Ace of Cups energy!

Week 3: FIRE/WANDS 🜂
Time of day: Noon

1. At noon, look up at the sun, if possible and if weather permits. Even better, stand outside beneath the sun. Feel its radiant warmth.
2. If possible, build a fire in a fireplace or fire pit. Sit before it quietly. Breathe in the elemental fire, feel it warming your body. Blow on the fire, watching the flames grow and the fire hungrily consumes and transmutes.
3. Light a candle and meditate on the dancing flame, holding your hands out to feel the heat. Watch how the flame consumes and transmutes the wax.
4. Hold your cup of coffee or tea with both hands. Close your eyes. How far does the heat extend into your body? Can you control that heat, maybe pulling it toward your heart?
5. Eat hot, spicy foods if you like them. How does it affect your physiology and mood?
6. If you have the opportunity to do a dry sauna, note how it makes you feel.
7. Listen to fiery music, either songs about fire (Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, for example) or songs that feel fiery to you. Create a fire playlist.
8. Watch documentaries about volcanos, the sun, or firefighters.
9. Look for fiery characters and situations in the entertainment you consume. Why do we enjoy watching dynamic, aggressive characters?
10. If you exercise, notice how your body generates fire/heat.
11. Think of something you’d really like to do, even a simple task. Notice how you rev yourself up or manage your ambition. Then, most importantly, notice how you feel when you complete the task.
12. During sexual activity (solo or with a partner), visualize and feel Wands energy in your genitals and during orgasm.
13. Notice when you feel sexually stimulated. Where is the feeling located? Can you direct that energy to other parts of your body?
14. Look for interesting sticks while you’re hiking or walking. If you find one that seems like it’s calling to you, bring it home and place it next to your Ace of Wands. You may want to carve or decorate later.

Week 4: EARTH/COINS 🜃
Time of day: Midnight

1. At night, before you go to bed, step onto the earth. Feel the immensity of it beneath you. Then, when you get into bed, imagine yourself sinking down into the earth.
2. Sit quietly on the floor or outside on the ground. Feel your connection, feel the gravity holding you down. Sense the enormity of the planet you are part of, and the immensity of gravity.
3. Dig a hole somewhere practical with your hands. Get your hands dirty! Relish the sensation. Explore the earth you’re digging up — feel the bits of vegetation, the crumbliness of the soil (or sand), the bits of rock or other matter. Close your eyes and just feel.
4. Notice when you feel the most comfortable and grounded.
5. Seek out underground spaces. Your basement, a parking garage, a cave. How is it different than aboveground?
6. Seek out earthy music, especially percussive and drum-based music. Play a drum if you have one. Make an earth music playlist.
7. Watch documentaries or entertainment about cave exploration, mining, rock climbing, or geology.
8. Visit a cemetery. Think of all the bodies buried there, returning to the earth. Explore your emotions and sensations: Is it creepy or comforting? Think about how all life returns to the earth, where it is recycled into new life. This is a key lesson of the Death card.
9. Buy some plants or repot your old plants. Sit with them and touch them. Do you feel any sort of connection with the? If so, can you deepen it?
10. Focus on your body. This week is a great time to consider diet and exercise. Consider forgoing meat and animal products for plants this week (many spiritual practices promote the benefits of regular or occasional vegetarianism, going all the way back to Pythagoras). Eat root vegetables — beets, potatoes, turnips, carrots and other foods that grow underground. Go for a walk or to the gymn, and notice the changes in your body.
11. Go to a shop that sells rocks and crystals. Take time to hold them, and find one that feels right for you and buy it. Or, even better, go on a hike in the woods or a park in search or a special rock. Take time to pick up and hold a variety of rocks. One of them will ask you to take it. Take it home and place it next to your Ace of Coins. Later, you can add it to your altar.

> Next Lesson: Lesson 10: Tarot Altars

Michael M. Hughes is a writer, speaker, game designer, and magical thinker. He is the author of Magic for the Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change(coming soon in a revised and updated edition), the Blackwater Lights Trilogy,as well as numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction, and he speaks and teaches classes on magic, tarot, pop culture, psychedelics, and more.

His comprehensive tarot course, The Art and Magic of the Tarot: Foundations, is available here, as well as his most recent course on Tarot Magic.

Michael’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, CNN, The L.A. Times, Rolling Stone, Comedy Central, Wired, Elle,Vox, Cosmopolitan, The Tamron Hall Show, and even the ultraconservative The American Spectator, which wrote: “He may play footsie with the devil, but at least the man has a sense of humor.”

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