When life feels cluttered, a good tarot reading can slow down the rush to quick solutions

‘Perhaps the nicest thing about tarot is that the reading helps you practise detachment … And sometimes, your own intuition comes alive with a card that resonates like a hit to the heart.’ Photograph: Fiorella Macor/Getty Images

My first attempts with tarot readings began on a camping trip with a couple of close friends and their friends. It was Christmas before the pandemic and just before the rains.

The ground was so thirsty that the deepest waterholes in the creek were stagnant (and carrying some kind of parasite, we heard later). Snakes coiled near us.