Tarot Lori, as the popular GTA tarot card reader Lori Dyan is widely known online, has had the same deck of tarot cards for over 35 years.
“This is the only deck I’ve ever owned. Every reading I’ve ever done, I’ve done on this deck,” said Dyan, rubbing her arms as this realization gives her goosebumps. “It’s my security blanket, my life coach, my oracle. I owe everything to it.”
Dyan has dedicated her new book, ’Big Deck Energy,’ to her precious Rider-Waite-Smith deck. They were the first mass-market tarot cards, designed in England in the early 1900s as metaphysical fervour swept seance-loving Victorians, and illustrated by a woman who received no payment for her now iconic designs.
Dyan had a friend buy the deck for her under the belief that you have to be gifted your first tarot deck. That was actually nonsense, as she then learned from Erica, the witch who mentored her as a spiritually curious teenager. This was in 1980s Calgary, a time and place where there was just one store that sold anything vaguely occult, crystals sharing shelf space with bongs and rolling papers.
In fact, stripping tarot free from superstitious trappings and spooky pseudo-spirituality operate has become the MO for Dyan, who spent many years working in high-level corporate jobs before she turned her tarot-reading “party trick” into a profession.
It’s earned her celebrity fans including Jann Arden, who calls her “intuitive, funny, encouraging and VERY knowledgeable about all things tarot” in a blurb about Dyan’s new book. “‘Big Deck Energy,’ as you can tell by the title, is not the least bit dour or ever too serious. It’s a book that will make you smile, make you think and if you’re anything like me, it will perhaps even help you find your optimism again.”
Dyan calls what she does “woo woo without the cuckoo.” You can see this in the “burn your s—t” rituals that she’s become famous for on Instagram, and that she explored in her first book. Under a full moon, usually in her signature red lip, she leads an international virtual audience gathered to watch as she sets alight pieces of paper that represent burdens her followers want to let go of. Whether it’s truly cosmic or just cathartic is beside the point.
The same goes for tarot cards: rather than some charmed conduit for a supernatural entity to speak to you, they can just be a tool for you to tune into your own intuition, focus your thoughts, nudge you to reflect in a new way.
“I see them all as tools. They’re all different paths to the same destination, whether it’s astrology, psychotherapy,” said Dyan. “It’s trusting yourself, tapping into an energy that’s bigger than yourself. I try not to be didactic or prescriptive, because then I’m positioning myself as some sort of guru. I just want to make this accessible and available to everyone, because I know how much this stuff works.”
She’s referring to the effusive emails and DMs she gets regularly from people who she has either read personally, or who have watched her pull a “card of the day” on IG Stories. “People say, ‘You said this and I can’t believe it happened.’ But it’s not me saying that things will happen. It’s to help you trust yourself. You don’t want to abdicate responsibility to some random lady. You want to empower yourself to make the best decision moving forward.”
She believes tarot cards are built on millennia of collected wisdom around the human experience. The Strength card, for example, she interprets as a reminder of our inner resilience, and our limitless ability to call on it when needed.
“Each of these cards has a different story to tell, based on the archetypes we have been working with forever. The cards tell the story of humanity,” she said. “These cards represent life in pictorial form. It’s tapping into this larger database that we can’t see, but that we are all plugged into.”
We’ve never been hungrier for that collective wisdom, said Dyan, whose following took off during the pandemic and has been growing since. “People are craving it. Our institutions and people in positions of authority have failed us. The divine feminine is rising, the patriarchy is eating its own tail,” she said. “Tarot is low tech, and it’s very personal. You make of it what you want. It’s not forecasting or predicting. It’s offering you the energetic landscape, and saying, ‘Whatcha gonna do?’”
Want to harness a bit of that energy? Here are Dyan’s top DIY tarot tips.
Choose your tarot deck wisely
Dyan said you have to be intentional about this. “Go and get your hands on them,” she said. “Some decks are huge, some are teeny tiny. They have to be comfortable in your hand, because you’re going to have to shuffle them.”
Next, look at the iconography or graphic styles of the various decks of cards. “Do they speak to you? Do they feel good?” You might prefer one with a literal interpretation of the various cards, or find the cat-themed deck has the hairs on the back of your neck rising.
“If something feels good, get it,” she said.
Don’t hyperfocus on what each tarot card means
Dyan’s first deck came with a little booklet that explained the various meanings of the cards. She referred to it at first, but then she lost it—and never looked back.
“Intention is everything. If you want to use these as a tool for self-reflection or a prompt for self-discovery, it’s just getting to know the deck,” she said. “Honestly, just pull a card every day and before you check the booklet, have a look at the card and journal about your first impressions.”
Then, if you like, you can then check the traditional meaning. “See if they align, and if they don’t, that’s okay. Your interpretation of the card is just as important as the deck’s interpretation or my interpretation,” she said. “It’s to your detriment if you don’t allow yourself to say, ‘What does this mean for me?’”
Dyan often said in readings that a card has a “tarot 101 interpretation,” but that she sees it as something different. “There’s no real wrong way to do it.”
Do not fear Death (and other misunderstood tarot cards)
Pulling cards and a skeleton turns up? It’s time to celebrate, said Dyan.
“It is a great card. It’s never about a physical death. No animals, no plants, nothing is dying,” said Dyan of the maligned Death card. “It is transformational change. You see this little sun in the distance, and that signifies change that is positive and necessary.”
The interpretation will be informed by your own personal reaction. “What makes that card gross and yucky for some people is their relationship to change. If you’re into change, it can be great. If you resist it, it can be hard and scary, even though the result is fabulous,” Dyan said. “It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be worth it. Make it easy on yourself by ripping that band-aid off fast.”
Another challenging card is the Ten of Swords, which usually shows a person in a swamp surrounded by swords. “It’s not a bad card. It’s offering you a reframe,” said Dyan. “It’s validating something you already know.”
Swords signify necessary endings, with the promise of something better on the horizon (again, there’s the sun in the distance). “Clear out all the crap so the good mojo has the space to get in.”
As for the Devil card, that’s just a representation of your “limiting self-beliefs,” Dyan said, “the gremlin on your shoulder saying you’re never going to get it because you’re not good enough.”
Ask your tarot cards questions
When Dyan is doing a reading at a big corporate event—like the ones she’s done for organizations like Chanel, TikTok, Pepsi—she’ll always start by asking someone, “What do you need to know right now?”
“The cards always have something to say,” Dyan said, adding that you can be specific. “Even if you ask, ‘What do I need to know about that job offer? Or my person?’ you’ll still get what you need to know—which might not answer your question, but will still resonate.”
Avoid yes or no questions. “It’s not, ‘Is Fred the one?’ It’s ‘What do I need to know about me and Fred?’”
If you’re asking these questions of a tarot card reader, Dyan said that it’s a red flag if they make specific predictions, like, “Your person is around the corner and his name starts with J.” (Looking at you, TikTok tarot readers who promise massive financial windfalls, humongous career success and the love of our lives in every single viral video, just as long as we chime in in the comments.)
If you’re doing readings for friends or other people, Dyan’s advice is to let go of performance anxiety. “Don’t worry about what they think about what you’re saying,” she said. “Then it’s ego, and you’re not serving the person.”
