PODCAST · health
The Tarot Diagnosis
by Shannon Knight
Hey there! I'm Shannon - a licensed psychotherapist in private practice who also happens to love tarot. Each episode I work to demystify tarot and explore its connections to mental and emotional health while implementing its inherently helpful tools to better understand ourselves and those around us. Join me as I unravel common struggles related to our behavior, thought patterns, emotions, and relationships while pulling cards to facilitate growth and to help create the life and relationships we all desire.
Episodes
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Who are You Around Other People: A Collective Tarot Reading
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m pulling cards for our collective monthly tarot reading for October and this month, we’re exploring the psychological space between who we’ve been and who we might be becoming. For this October tarot reading, I’m revisiting a spread I originally created...
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When to Pull Clarifying Tarot Cards & When you Shouldn't
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis podcast, I’m exploring tarot clarifiers and a question I don’t think we ask often enough: Why are we pulling clarifying cards if we already understand the card in front of us? This episode came about unexpectedly after I pulled the Seven of Wands during my...
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The Courage to Become: A Monthly Tarot Reading
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m back with another collective monthly tarot reading, and for September, I’m exploring The Courage to Become, which is a four card tarot spread I originally created around identity, existentialism, and the often uncomfortable process of growth and change....
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The Nostalgia Effect: Behind the Scenes of 200 Episodes
In this special episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m celebrating 200 episodes with someone who has quite literally been behind the scenes since the very beginning: my cousin and the podcast’s audio engineer, Anthony DiGiacomo. Anthony and I grew up together - our moms are identical twins, we lived…
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What is Self-Sabotage Protecting you From?
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m exploring self-sabotage through a psychological and therapeutic tarot lens and challenging the idea that self-sabotage means we’re just getting in our own way. We tend to label procrastination, avoidance, staying in unhealthy relationships, overworking,...
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Collective Reading: The Tension of Opposites & Dialectical Behavior Theories in Tarot
In this month's collective tarot reading on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I explore one of my favorite concepts from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): the idea that two seemingly opposite truths can exist at the same time. Inspired by the emotional chaos of Mercury retrograde (but designed to be...
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Why We Seek Love Where It Can't Be found: Tarot & Emotional Investment
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I ask: What actually deserves our emotional investment? This question, inspired by pulling the Ace of Cups and King of Cups, became the starting point for this episode and a much deeper exploration of why we emotionally invest in certain people,...
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The Ugly Phase: A Philosophical Exploration of Disorientation & Tarot
On this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I discuss how I believe we are collectively living through one of the most significant periods of disorientation in modern history. Between political upheaval, personal and collective loss, illness, trauma, and rapid cultural, religious, and spiritual…
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Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: An Archetypal Reflection with Tarot
Personal note before you listen: To be honest, I sat on this episode for weeks. I almost didn’t share it - mainly because it felt too honest, too personal, too vulnerable. And I think there was a part of me that felt guilty. Despite the hesitation, here it is… In this episode of The Tarot...
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Collective Reading: What are you hiding from?
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m pulling for June’s collective tarot reading where I explore a Summer Solstice inspired spread designed to help us step out of the shadows and into the growth of the sun. As we move toward the longest day of the year, I wanted to create a spread that...
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Pillars in Tarot: The Psychology & Space Between Stimulus and Response
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I explore a question that has been lingering in my mind for months: What do the pillars in tarot actually symbolize on a deeper psychological level? Using Viktor Frankl’s famous quote - “Between stimulus and response there is a space…,” I reflect on how…
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Collective Reading and Tarot Spread Workshop
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I walk you through one of my favorite creative tarot practices: building a tarot spread in real time and then using it for our collective month-ahead reading for May! Instead of starting with a pre-made spread, I decided to let the cards guide the...
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The Archetypal Moon & the Psychology of Perception through Tarot
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I explore the Moon archetype through the lens of perception, ambiguity, and psychological insight. I also get super personal about my early experiences as a therapist. This episode was inspired by pulling The Moon after not seeing it in my readings for...
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The Celtic Cross: A Collective Reading
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I continue my monthly collective-reading tarot series with the classic Celtic Cross spread for April, using the truly stunning and special Earth Magick Tarot. This month’s reading felt intense from the start with multiple Major Arcana appearing throughout...
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The Psychology of the Court Cards: A Psychosocial & Psychoanalytic Tarot Discussion
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I share what happened when I found myself in a creative slump and did what I often encourage others to do…just shuffle the cards and follow what shows up. What surfaced were court cards, which led me back to a recent workshop I created on understanding…
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Why is Everything F*cked? - A Collective Tarot Reading
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m kicking off March with a new series for the pod: a monthly collective tarot reading. A lot of you asked for more frequent check-ins after my 2026 year-ahead reading, and honestly… I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this sooner. So, thank you for...
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The Anatomy of a Good Tarot Question: How to Ask Better Questions for Deeper Readings
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I explore why asking better questions might be the most important tarot skill you can develop. As a psychotherapist, I often joke that I’m a “professional question asker.” It’s half joke, half truth because the arc of a therapy session (sometimes even the...
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Poisoning the Tarot Well: How Fear, Bias, and Conditioning Shape your Tarot Readings
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I explore a concept called “poisoning the well” and how it can inconspicuously shape the way we interpret tarot, often before we’ve even given the cards a fair chance to speak, or ourselves an opportunity to be curious about the card. Poisoning the well…
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Stop Mothering the Tarot: Part tarot analysis, part cultural critique
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I'm exploring something that’s been stirring in me since a recent book club event inside The Symposium: the way we unconsciously project motherhood onto tarot’s female figures. After an insightful conversation in the book club (shoutout to Darcy for…
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Collective Effervescence & the Three of Cups: The Emotional Power of Shared Experiences
In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I discuss an epiphany I had after pulling the Three of Cups. It led me to reflect on the feeling I have when I’m in the middle of a crowd at a concert. Or, back in the day, when I’d wait in line for hours to be front and center of the stage at the…
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A Collective Tarot Reading for 2026: Nervous System Wisdom
In this last episode of 2025 for The Tarot Diagnosis, and I’m offering a collective reading using my annual New Year spread. This reading is for all of us - a shared reflection on what we’re carrying forward, what we’re releasing, and how we can meet the coming year with more awareness,...
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The Year of the Wheel of Fortune
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, I explore 2026 as a Wheel of Fortune year, with The Magician as its companion archetype - an invitation to step into the new year embracing change, adaptability, resilience, and meaningful participation. I keep returning to the idea of finding the center of the...
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Time, Tarot, and the Nervous System
I’ve had “Timekeeper” by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals stuck in my head, and it sent me down a rabbit hole about how we experience time - psychologically, somatically, and through tarot. In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I explore why time isn’t a single, objective thing we all live the…
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The Shadow of Being Seen: Tarot, Psychology, and Writing My First Book
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, I'm taking you behind the scenes of writing my new book, Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow (available for pre-order now, out December 8, 2025!). In this deeply personal episode, I share what happened the day I received my author copies: yes, including the moment I…
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Roots of the Shadow: A pre-release chapter read through of Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, in honor of my upcoming book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow, which releases on December 8, 2025, I’m reading a portion of chapter 2 (Roots of the Shadow) right here on the podcast. In Roots of the Shadow, I dive into the foundations of shadow work through a deeply...
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Celebration to Corruption: The Shadow of the Six of Wands
What if the real root of evil isn’t money, but power? This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, I take a deep, psychologically grounded look at the Six of Wands, a card typically associated with success and recognition, and reframe it through the lens of shadow work, power and control, neuroscience…
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Blindfolds and Closed Eyes in Tarot: What Obscured Vision Really Symbolizes
What does it mean when tarot archetypes are blindfolded or their vision is obscured? In this week’s episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I explore the often over-looked symbolism of obscured vision in tarot - where sight is blocked, avoided, invited or even denied. Inspired by six cards (Two of…
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The Shadow of the People Pleaser: A Tarot Exploration
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we’re exploring one of the most commonly misunderstood behaviors that exist in many of us: people-pleasing. Inspired by real conversations in the therapy room and the archetypal patterns of tarot, I explore people-pleasing through a trauma-informed,...
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Tarot Therapy: Tarot as a Transitional Object, Space, & Phenomena
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we’re getting delightfully nerdy. Inspired by a conversation with a dear friend, I explore tarot through the lens of developmental psychology, focusing specifically on Donald Winnicott’s concept of transitional objects, transitional space, and transitional...
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The Devil in Your Relationship: A Therapeutic Tarot Journey
After a rejuvenating break in nature, I'm back…and tarot wasted no time in offering a message that couldn’t be ignored. In this reflective episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I share how three cards - The Devil, The Three of Swords, and The Lovers - kept showing up across multiple decks, pointing to…
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Archetypal Neuroscience: The Dopamine & Serotonin of Tarot
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I pulled two seemingly contradictory cards (the Knight of Wands and the Seven of Pentacles) and found myself reflecting on the very human tension between urgency and patience. At first glance, these archetypes appear at odds: one races forward, fiery and...
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It’s All in the Clouds: A Journey into Tarot Symbolism
When you think of the Wheel of Fortune, you might focus on the wheel itself - the chaos, the symbols, the turning of fate. But what about the soft, billowy clouds that frame the card? In this week’s episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I take a journey into the symbolism of clouds in tarot, exploring...
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Tarot Therapy: Why Changing Our Thoughts Doesn't Work - A DBT Approach
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m unpacking why “just think positive” advice often backfires and offering a more sustainable approach rooted in both Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and tarot. Together, we’ll explore why lasting change doesn’t start with your thoughts, and why it...
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Grief is Proof: Exploring Loss Through Tarot
[TW: Discussion of death, grief, suicide.] This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, I sit down with the Five of Cups and a whole host of other cards, but not in the way we usually expect. Instead of offering a clinical take or a tidy metaphor, this episode is more of a free-flowing love letter to the...
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The Shadow Spiral of the Swords: A Tarot Journey from the Five to Ten of Swords
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, I had every intention of doing a neat little compare-and-contrast between the Five and Seven of Swords. But in true Swords fashion, what began as a tidy intellectual exploration turned into something much more raw, spiraling, and unexpectedly revealing. In this...
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The Abandoned Archetype as the Golden Shadow
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m unpacking the emotional aftermath of the Summer Solstice Summit and diving deep into one of the most powerful psychological and tarot-based concepts I explored there - the Golden Shadow, which I expand on as a type of abandoned archetype. I begin by...
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Judgement & Justice Demystified: A Therapeutic Tarot Breakdown
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m diving into the nuanced and often-confused archetypes of Judgment and Justice (especially for newer readers). Plus, these are two major arcana cards that are especially relevant given the state of the world. Fun fact: this episode was inspired by a...
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The Truth Behind the Two of Cups
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m sitting down with the Two of Cups, but not in the romanticized way we often think about with this card. Sure, this card speaks to connection, mutual care, and being seen, but in this episode, I’m more interested in what is hiding underneath all that...
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Lazy or Liberated? The Four of Swords & Eight of Pentacles go to Therapy
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I invite you to step away from your Eight of Pentacles bench of productivity and join me on the stone slab with the Four of Swords - a card I kept circling back to while creating a workshop on the architecture of stability. After pulling the Eight of...
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Architecture of Stability: Tarot and Financial Wellness with Mimi Cirbusova
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I have a timely and tender conversation with my friend and favorite financial educator Mimi Cirbusova to explore what it means to find stability when the world feels like it’s crumbling. Whether it’s rising rent, global uncertainty, or emotional…
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Damocles: A Jungian-Tarot Psychoanalysis of Sleep Token
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m stepping back into my music-journalist roots (yes, I share a tidbit of my personal lore in this episode haha) and I’m leaning hard on my therapist brain to do something I’ve been dying to do: a Jungian-tarot psychoanalysis of Sleep Token’s new single,...
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Tarot Therapy: The Psychodrama of Tarot & Witchcraft
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m continuing my monthly Tarot Therapy series by exploring a topic I’ve been wanting to discuss for ages: How tarot and witchcraft function as Psychodrama. Specifically, I explore how tarot and witchcraft can be understood and practiced through the lens…
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The Wounded Caretaker: A Tarot Exploration
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast I’m exploring a delicate identity that many people carry without ever naming: the wounded caretaker. Inspired by a social media trend that says, “I probably just needed a hug, so I became a therapist,” this episode takes a deep dive into the lifelong...
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Gaslighting, Over-Explaining, and the Page of Swords in Tarot
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m discussing a tender and often overlooked habit many of us carry: over-explaining. In this episode, I explore the psychological roots of this behavior through the lens of the Page of Swords, an archetype that is curious, alert, and sometimes altered…
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Tending to Our Parts with Tarot
I’m doing something a little different this week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast! I’m re-releasing an episode from a few years ago on Tarot and Parts Work, where I get nerdy about the therapeutic model of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Jungian Depth Psychology through the lens of tarot. I have…
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Tarot Therapy: The Wands & Motivational Interviewing
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m continuing the new Tarot Therapy series, where I explore tarot through the lens of therapeutic theories and modalities. In this episode, I’m nerding out about Motivational Interviewing (MI) and the Suit of Wands and uncovering how the fiery energy of...
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Why is Toxic so Intoxicating? | Understanding Relationship Dynamics with Tarot
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I explore how the brain’s dopamine system drives us to feel intoxicated by toxic relationships. Inspired by conversations with clients, I discuss the science behind intermittent reinforcement and how tarot cards like The Devil and the Two of Swords…
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The Cognitive Magic of Tarot: A Conversation with Dr. Thomas Brooks
This week onThe Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m wading into the intersection of tarot and cognition with Dr. Thomas Brooks, a research psychologist, educator, and tarot enthusiast. Together, we explore how tarot fosters cognitive flexibility, promotes self-reflection, and helps us hold complex...
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Tarot by Omission: What's NOT in Your Spread?
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I am nerding out! I explore the concept of Tarot by Omission: what it means when a particular suit or archetype is missing from a reading, and how that absence can guide deeper self-exploration. To bring this concept to life, I introduce a fictional,...
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Tarot Therapy: Aces & The Stages of Change
This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I am introducing a brand-new series—Tarot Therapy! In this series, I’m returning to the foundation of my work, where I explore tarot through the lens of psycho-therapeutic models and theory. Each episode in this series will dive into a different...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Hey there! I'm Shannon - a licensed psychotherapist in private practice who also happens to love tarot. Each episode I work to demystify tarot and explore its connections to mental and emotional health while implementing its inherently helpful tools to better understand ourselves and those around us. Join me as I unravel common struggles related to our behavior, thought patterns, emotions, and relationships while pulling cards to facilitate growth and to help create the life and relationships we all desire.
HOSTED BY
Shannon Knight
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Tarot Diagnosis have?
The Tarot Diagnosis currently has 202 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Tarot Diagnosis about?
Hey there! I'm Shannon - a licensed psychotherapist in private practice who also happens to love tarot. Each episode I work to demystify tarot and explore its connections to mental and emotional health while implementing its inherently helpful tools to better understand ourselves and those around...
How often does The Tarot Diagnosis release new episodes?
The Tarot Diagnosis publishes regularly with 202 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Tarot Diagnosis?
You can listen to The Tarot Diagnosis on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Tarot Diagnosis?
The Tarot Diagnosis is created and hosted by Shannon Knight.
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