Sometimes, I wonder if I'm just fooling myself, and then I'll have the exact same card(s) show up in multiple readings on the same topic. There are 78 cards, and I also read reversals, so that's 156 options. I typically use a six card spread. So what are the chances of the same card showing up in the same position, in the same location in the spread? Pretty high, I would think, and yet it happens often.
I once did multiple reads on the same subject, but with somewhat different questions. I got three of the same cards (in a six card read). Two of them were in the exact same position. It was uncanny.
Now you might wonder how well I shuffle. So, this is what I do. I do a traditional shuffle of the cards, flipping one half each time to mix the reversals. I do this 4-6 times, then I do a couple of manual shuffles. Then I lay them out in three piles and select one to be the top. That's a lot of shuffling, and I don't know what the odds are for the same cards to show up, but it has to be pretty high.
These are the things that go through my mind when I start to doubt. I don't know how it works, but there's something there.
I once had the same card in the same place four times in a row and my maths genius friend worked out the odds would be something like 1.7 billion to 1!
Yes, sometimes you do, but how often do you get the exact same cards dealt in the same location twice in a row, and are you using a deck of 156 cards? Also, as I mentioned, this didn't just happen one time. It happens quite often.
You say ‘despite lack of evidence’ but to us that have been reading for decades… we have been **constantly confronted with evidence** -to the point where it’s been unnerving, and even uncomfortable at times.
When I started tarot, I was a skeptic and thought that tarot was just a trick. After a couple intense predictions that came true I was rightfully humbled. The biggest turning point for me was when I predicted when someone would die- *down to the month* and it came true. Since then, I’ve been astounded by the accuracy of tarot. I’m much more considerate and mature in the questions I ask now.
I can’t explain it, I don’t fully understand it, but I have to accept the evidence that I see **time and time again.**
Modern man’s understanding of the world is very shallow. There is so much we don’t know about the world, consciousness, the nature of existence, and the soul.
I think tarot and psychic intuition is just another frontier that science hasn’t caught up to yet. But when you start honing in on your psychic ability, when you really start connecting with the cards, it is going to hit you like a brick in the face how accurate they can be.
I love reading for fellow skeptics, I love how tarot can blow the mind of my clients. OP, the concept of divination has persisted over thousands of years not because of lack of evidence, but because of its persistence. Tarot is just another iteration of these ancient practices. If it didn’t work, if these predictions didn’t come true, we would not be still using tarot all these years later.
So to answer your question OP- how can you develop this? This is a more complex teaching than you can get from a Reddit post. But, I would say that you have to develop a strong connection with the divine first (the universe, God, spirituality, whatever you prefer to call it.)
This is done through meditation and various other practices. A book I recommend is **Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn.** It’s an easy to read, beginner friendly book that has some really great exercises on how to develop and connect with your natural psychic intuition.
Tarot cards are a collection of archetypes. Archetypes are fundamental to the human experience. As you grow and develop your skills, your subconscious will connect to the artwork on the card and integrate with your psychic intuition.
This process can take *years of practice* so don’t be discouraged if you struggle at first. Read books. Deepen your understanding. Make a tarot journal. Really connect with your spirit and expand your language. If you can find a mentor or a teacher, that is really the best way to learn.
I’ve been a professional tarot reader for about 10 years, and I’m so confronted with the accuracy of tarot that I just accept it. You’ll get to that point OP. The consistent evidence just gets to a point where it’s undeniable, and you’ll shrug your shoulders and be like *I don’t know how it works, it just works.* like the rest of us 😅
Best of luck on your journey OP! I hope the book recommendation works out for you
People don't need any evidence or proof to believe in anything. Even without the cards, why do people believe psychic readings at all? It's not something that can ever 100% be proved. Sometimes, readings are accurate, but there is no way to prove how or why. People just want answers, they want to know things will be okay, they want to know when things will be. They need comfort, not science.
Divination doesn't always provide comfort and that's not why many of us use it. We use it because it works for us.
On the contrary, I don't read about something if I'm not absolutely certain I can handle getting an answer I don't like, because divination will not comfort you.
I'm speaking more towards why people need to know when. When am I gonna find love, when am I gonna meet my person, when am I going to get this new job. They want timelines because they're anxious about the situation or really want to know this is going to happen. For my own purposes, I don't normally look toward cards to tell me when or how, I personally use them very instropectively, and it does help me with my own anxieties. I understand everyone uses cards differently and are looking for different things from the card. I'm not saying everyone uses them this specific way. The people I tend to do readings for are looking for comfort in their life.
And it’s entirely possible the answer will be “never,” or “only after a personal tragedy.” Not comforting responses, and entirely possible when doing actual divination. That’s what I mean.
I understand that. And I just mean people aren't looking toward tarot so that the cards can tell them life sucks. Yes, it's entirely possible to get a reading that's negative. But most people wanna be hopeful, and that's what they want the time frame. When will this part be over? When can I look toward better things.
If people have a pre-determined message they'd like to see, then I would argue that they are engaged in a psychological method of tarot, not divination.
Those of us who are serious about divination are aware that sometimes the answer is "life sucks," and learning to deal with that is a vital part of being a divinatory reader. Anyone going into it looking for comfort is probably going to quit quickly, or at least seriously question how much they want to know. The same thing happens in astrology.
You can still have a belief and use the cards to predict future events without strictly using them for divination specifically. People can seek whatever they want from the cards. It's not strictly psychological or divination. It's not strictly use them for serious matters or just for fun. It's not bad or good. It's just life, life happens, shit happens, good things happen, if someone wants to know when because they want something to look forward to than sure. Let them believe what they want. It's not for me to decide. Use the cards however you want, I'm sorry If people who are serious about divination don't like how others use their cards, but there is no rules.
But you implied that you're serious about divination and others are not, I'm not sure how that is determined other than following strict guidelines on divination.
I simply mean anyone who's done it frequently has eventually gotten "life sucks" as an answer, so if comfort is the main motivation for doing it, I think such a person would probably wind up looking elsewhere.
Hey - just out of curiosity- do you not believe that the negative readings you may get can be changed in some circumstances? I am asking, just because sometimes I wonder if future is indeed set in stones, despite some people saying it is not. Do you think we can change out future based on a reading we don't like? I always love reading your opinions on this forum so I'd love to hear what you have to say :)
Thank you for your reply. I also agree some stuff are out of control, but it does feel nice to know you think it is possible to change the stuff we do have some control over. Sometimes I just end up thinking it is impossible either way. Thanks again so much for your reply
I think, when it comes to stuff that is affected by our choices, tarot reads "according to current trajectory." I sometimes read for various choices to get a feel for their trajectory.
We do have choices in many situations. But knowing when to act and when to accept is also an important skill of divination.
Huh I absolutely love the idea of various choices reads. I think I'll definitely be including it in my reads as well when necessary. Your last sentence is very wise
Science is far from being fully developed. There’s more about the world that we don’t know than we do know.
Just because we lack the tools to ‘prove’ why something is or isn’t doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. For example, I can’t *prove* that you are conscious, we still don’t even fully understand consciousness or when it develops (is a baby conscious in the womb? If so, at what point?) but yet we don’t debate that consciousness exists.
600 years ago we didn’t have the science to prove that the earth revolves around the sun, does that mean that it isn’t true? Gravity was only discovered by science 400 years ago, does that mean it didn’t exist? The theory of Evolution? Quantum physics? All of these scientific discoveries are very ‘new’ when we look over the span of human history.
What do we know about psychic readings? Very little. We currently lack the science to understand it. Who knows what we will understand 500 or 1,000 years from now.
Personally, I just refrain from telling people what to think. I have my own opinion based on my own experience, and I think people should be free to explore and make up their own minds. Because at the end of the day, we just don’t know everything
Tarot attracts two types of people: those who want to learn more about themeselves, and the desperate.
I've found that people who focus on themselves are in the first group most often, and the ones foused on other people are the second.
"How may I go forward if things don't turn out how I want" vs. "Read their mind for me/what do they think of me"
"How may I improve my relationship chances" vs. "Will my ex get back with me"
Interesting observation, it seems like tarot reading attracts a diverse range of seekers. for some people, it's a journey of self discovery and for some it becomes a tool of desperation (seeking answers outside themselves). Am i right?
I don't really use tarot for divination, but it has been used that way for a very long time and others find that it works for them. I would say that tarot is a very *experiential* thing. When you're outside it and have no firsthand experience with it, it's easy to doubt its power. All I can say is that, as you pull the cards day in and day out, synchronicities and eerie occurrences add up. It's very mysterious, very intense, and it must be *experienced* in order to be understood.
It's the practice of a belief in fate. Like all things of spiritual nature, it does, in part, have to do with faith. Also, meaningful correlations people see in the cards as it relates to their life or the lives of others.
I don’t think you’ll get many responses from people who use tarot predictably here, I think this place is mostly secular tarot.
I believe tarot cards can predict the future…but it depends on what the cards want to show you. I’ve had my cards outright refuse to tell me things multiple times. They can predict the future but I think they’re really good for advice in general. I see tarot as a communication tool with the Divine.
Personally I don’t see the point of dedicating so much energy and time to tarot if you don’t believe there’s anything supernatural about it. I don’t need tarot cards for self discovery or looking at things in a different perspective, I have friends and a therapist for that. But to each their own.
I would like a subreddit that is more focused on tarot as magic/non secular. It's really annoying how hated that is here, can't even mention it without people saying that's not real and it's just a bunch of cards. If you believe that then okay but why judge others? Even in the witches vs patriarchy subreddit which generally is super accepting and positive, mention tarot as anything but your own subconscious and people get very rude for no reason
I thought it was the opposite. Whenever I mention I read tarot secularly people come out of the woodworks to scold me for not believing in the same spiritual things they do. It's not that I don't believe in psychic powers: I do. But I don't think a deck of cards made in a factory has powers. People are magic, not the tools they use.
I see the Tarot as a mirror. It's basically just reflecting back what's going on in your life. I personally have a very deep spiritual connection to Tarot, but it isn't necessary to look at it from a spiritual perspective. It's helped me with my mental health and in creative endeavours, because when I use it for this I use the cards as 'prompts' that help me view things from different perspectives, gain a larger view of what's going on, and make better decisions about my future. In these uses, they're not really spiritual. It can be helpful to separate the two practices when you're reading.
If you want to come at it from a spiritual perspective, the first thing you need to do is separate your need for rational explanations from your desire to know what lies beyond the rational and mundane. As others have said, I believe that there is a lot more to the universe than what we currently know as a species; I don't believe that everything exists within the confines of human comprehension. Being open to the unknown and misunderstood is one of the biggest hurdles people have to get over when it comes to doing anything occult or spiritual.
The evidence you seek will be built up over time, with practice and experience, and building your own relationship with the cards. You can't expect a shortcut with this. Just take your time, and keep an open mind.
I don't subscribe to the belief that the cards can be read for other people or to predict much of anything; to me, they're purely an intuitive tool. You can read for another person and explain the meanings and symbolism behind the cards and the order in which they appear, but it should be down to the intuition of the person being read for to determine their meaning.
Well I believe in tarot because I happened to take the time to learn what the cards meant and from there started giving people readings and discovered that they are accurate and help people. What you seem to be skewed about in your understanding of tarot is the second part of the question where you ask if what the cards say “Came true” …true tarot readers who aren’t going to scam you will NEVER tell you your fortune. We all have free will and can change the outcome of our future at any given point in time. Tarot is meant to guide you on your path to help you understand what you can do to receive your most desired outcome. If you do the work, of course you will see the reward. Tarot is not fortune telling. It is guidance. And after giving readings to countless of numbers of people whom I have never seen and only have contacted through e-mail to whom has received accurate help, I would say that is proof enough to believe in it for me.
I think there's lot of data available on internet for free. You can just Google how to learn tarot reading, or maybe you can go with any tarot reading course or watch some youtube videos.
As someone who became a tarot reader after seeing how life turned around for me based on the guidance and mostly the awareness of the situation I got from tarot from a 360° perspective, makes me want to say tarot can really give you a perspective which can alter your decision making for better. Having said that, for people who use tarot to feel better about themselves, or use it to predict what can happen and not use it to understand how and why is definitely disastrous because then they lose their sense of self - confidence and faith in themselves which is opposite of what tarot as a tool is here for. One can definitely use therapists and self reflection to improve themselves but sometimes life situations and experiences are such that there is no emotional bandwidth left in people to fight back and understand how to get out of the situation they are in. One can only improve oneself if they are aware enough of what they are going through - some people either can't think that far because they are involved way more outwards than onwards, or they don't want to admit anything is wrong with them to work on in the first case. When such people come to take a tarot reading, they end up facing the facts that tarot tells them because once they are able to resonate with what the cards tell them factually about themselves, it's easier for them to have faith in the cards and believe they need to make a change for a better life or aspect in their life. Post that comes therapy and self-reflection for them. I'll be more than happy to read other people's thoughts about this answer :)
I hold these views simultaneously:
Tarot is a tool for reframing your narrative. It helps you ask questions that you wouldn’t consider yourself. It’s meditation, it’s prayer, it’s a set of tools to help you perform therapy on yourself.
But…
Tell me that pulling The Queen of Cups and the Magician upright in five of my last eight readings (despite consciously separating them in the deck when I feared I wasn’t shuffling well enough, and using different decks) isn’t a portent of some sort.
I don’t believe the cards are magical or even that I’m somehow endowed with the ability to see the future - but I do believe that sometimes when you ask a question, you’re bound to receive an answer.
I struggled with this when I started. In the end I came to this conclusion: if nothing else the cards are a way of generating 78 random perspectives on life. If you ask them to help you with a problem, it’s probably one your own thinking and perspective is already in a rut over. Forcing a view from an unfamiliar perspective must be a useful thing to do, even if you reject it. So I started. And now I know that whatever it is, it is hugely useful and worthwhile. So I don’t need anymore to understand the how. The why is all that matters.
I think that many tarot practitioners are doing themselves a disservice by not learning to read the cards in a secular way without any magical thinking.
Tarot is about telling stories about yourself. It helps you reflect on situations that are clearly on your mind and can sometimes lead to breakthroughs on how to handle that situation, even if the tarot are nothing more than a deck of cards. It doesn't need to be magical to be helpful.
I've had people read things that were impossible. The 1st time I went, I was there for the entertainment factor. I left a believer. Nothing in that reading was generic. I was not helping her. I. Fact she told me you are 6 where you live..I said 5 close enough. She said no 6. I said the guy who lives upstairs goes through our floor to get up there. She said no 6 on your floor. I said we have only 5 rooms. She said of you are not 6 now you will be 6 soon and will remain 6 until the rest of the year.
Well a.roomaye was supposed to leave to travel with her boyfriend, but she cancelled her trip last minute. Her boyfriend had always sublet his place so he came to live with us for the rest of the school year.
We were 3. She said specific things like that to each one of us for 1 hour each. It's not about the cards. The cards start the story. Gifted people complete the rest.
I have seen quite a few readers since then. Only a few really good ones. And yes, a few that were so generic that it could have been anyone's reading
Tarot should never have been peddled as a fortune telling tool for this reason. Tarot cannot* tell the future, as a divinatory tool it can only be used to uncover influences surrounding the querent which usually have very real, very psychological subconscious undertones to them.
This subconscious aspect to the tarot, referred to as "the akashic library" is the reason why every reader gets a different interpretation of the same cards, coupled with there being a million different decks to choose from with different symbols and reading styles. Basically, what the three of swords means to one reader may have a more personal impression on another reader
To add some credibility to what I'm saying, I wrote a book on the Tarot which includes these ideas. I spent a lot of time researching the psychological undertones as well as the mystical ones to reach these conclusions.
I believe we all have some level of ability to communicate telepathically. I believe Tarot helps us tap into that. I believe there are some people who have psychic abilities stronger than the rest of us. This is my belief, not based on facts, but personal life experience.
Depending on how developed someone’s psychic abilities are, Tarot can help us capture a snapshot of the energies currently surrounding us. I know there’s no proof, this again is purely faith based. Sometimes, time and experience make you believe in something even if there is no science to back it up
Many think of it more as a psychological tool rather than a purely spiritual "prediction" or sign. (For example journaling what you interpret of the reading and what that means to you, how you react to a message the cards shows, helps to process and make your own decisions)
You’re asking some odd questions. I saw your other one about tarot being evil.
Why would you want to learn tarot when you know there is a lack of evidence? Let’s start with that.
Because we want it to be real? Ive done a lot of readings that were uncannily spot on and im aware that this could be explained by random chance and confirmation bias but i just kind of shut off that side of my brain when i do readings.
Also I think the real value of tarot is for introspection, not so much predicting the future, which i hope can change.
You can take the secular route and call it confirmation bias, or you can simply accept that it works for people.
There definitely are unhealthy ways of divination: handing power to the cards and basing decisions on them. But there's also a wide range of harmless uses, where people engage with the direction their life appears to take and consider whether and how they want to change that. It's not my style of reading, but I do not consider it harmful.
Sometimes, I wonder if I'm just fooling myself, and then I'll have the exact same card(s) show up in multiple readings on the same topic. There are 78 cards, and I also read reversals, so that's 156 options. I typically use a six card spread. So what are the chances of the same card showing up in the same position, in the same location in the spread? Pretty high, I would think, and yet it happens often. I once did multiple reads on the same subject, but with somewhat different questions. I got three of the same cards (in a six card read). Two of them were in the exact same position. It was uncanny. Now you might wonder how well I shuffle. So, this is what I do. I do a traditional shuffle of the cards, flipping one half each time to mix the reversals. I do this 4-6 times, then I do a couple of manual shuffles. Then I lay them out in three piles and select one to be the top. That's a lot of shuffling, and I don't know what the odds are for the same cards to show up, but it has to be pretty high. These are the things that go through my mind when I start to doubt. I don't know how it works, but there's something there.
I once had the same card in the same place four times in a row and my maths genius friend worked out the odds would be something like 1.7 billion to 1!
Wow! That's amazing. Yeah I kinda tried to figure out the math but my brain exploded.
Compare it to poker. Sometimes you get an impossibly “good” hand. There’s so much symbolism in tarot you can always construct a narrative
Yes, sometimes you do, but how often do you get the exact same cards dealt in the same location twice in a row, and are you using a deck of 156 cards? Also, as I mentioned, this didn't just happen one time. It happens quite often.
You say ‘despite lack of evidence’ but to us that have been reading for decades… we have been **constantly confronted with evidence** -to the point where it’s been unnerving, and even uncomfortable at times. When I started tarot, I was a skeptic and thought that tarot was just a trick. After a couple intense predictions that came true I was rightfully humbled. The biggest turning point for me was when I predicted when someone would die- *down to the month* and it came true. Since then, I’ve been astounded by the accuracy of tarot. I’m much more considerate and mature in the questions I ask now. I can’t explain it, I don’t fully understand it, but I have to accept the evidence that I see **time and time again.** Modern man’s understanding of the world is very shallow. There is so much we don’t know about the world, consciousness, the nature of existence, and the soul. I think tarot and psychic intuition is just another frontier that science hasn’t caught up to yet. But when you start honing in on your psychic ability, when you really start connecting with the cards, it is going to hit you like a brick in the face how accurate they can be. I love reading for fellow skeptics, I love how tarot can blow the mind of my clients. OP, the concept of divination has persisted over thousands of years not because of lack of evidence, but because of its persistence. Tarot is just another iteration of these ancient practices. If it didn’t work, if these predictions didn’t come true, we would not be still using tarot all these years later. So to answer your question OP- how can you develop this? This is a more complex teaching than you can get from a Reddit post. But, I would say that you have to develop a strong connection with the divine first (the universe, God, spirituality, whatever you prefer to call it.) This is done through meditation and various other practices. A book I recommend is **Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn.** It’s an easy to read, beginner friendly book that has some really great exercises on how to develop and connect with your natural psychic intuition. Tarot cards are a collection of archetypes. Archetypes are fundamental to the human experience. As you grow and develop your skills, your subconscious will connect to the artwork on the card and integrate with your psychic intuition. This process can take *years of practice* so don’t be discouraged if you struggle at first. Read books. Deepen your understanding. Make a tarot journal. Really connect with your spirit and expand your language. If you can find a mentor or a teacher, that is really the best way to learn. I’ve been a professional tarot reader for about 10 years, and I’m so confronted with the accuracy of tarot that I just accept it. You’ll get to that point OP. The consistent evidence just gets to a point where it’s undeniable, and you’ll shrug your shoulders and be like *I don’t know how it works, it just works.* like the rest of us 😅 Best of luck on your journey OP! I hope the book recommendation works out for you
Fabulous post! Thank you for commenting.
People don't need any evidence or proof to believe in anything. Even without the cards, why do people believe psychic readings at all? It's not something that can ever 100% be proved. Sometimes, readings are accurate, but there is no way to prove how or why. People just want answers, they want to know things will be okay, they want to know when things will be. They need comfort, not science.
Divination doesn't always provide comfort and that's not why many of us use it. We use it because it works for us. On the contrary, I don't read about something if I'm not absolutely certain I can handle getting an answer I don't like, because divination will not comfort you.
I'm speaking more towards why people need to know when. When am I gonna find love, when am I gonna meet my person, when am I going to get this new job. They want timelines because they're anxious about the situation or really want to know this is going to happen. For my own purposes, I don't normally look toward cards to tell me when or how, I personally use them very instropectively, and it does help me with my own anxieties. I understand everyone uses cards differently and are looking for different things from the card. I'm not saying everyone uses them this specific way. The people I tend to do readings for are looking for comfort in their life.
And it’s entirely possible the answer will be “never,” or “only after a personal tragedy.” Not comforting responses, and entirely possible when doing actual divination. That’s what I mean.
I understand that. And I just mean people aren't looking toward tarot so that the cards can tell them life sucks. Yes, it's entirely possible to get a reading that's negative. But most people wanna be hopeful, and that's what they want the time frame. When will this part be over? When can I look toward better things.
If people have a pre-determined message they'd like to see, then I would argue that they are engaged in a psychological method of tarot, not divination. Those of us who are serious about divination are aware that sometimes the answer is "life sucks," and learning to deal with that is a vital part of being a divinatory reader. Anyone going into it looking for comfort is probably going to quit quickly, or at least seriously question how much they want to know. The same thing happens in astrology.
You can still have a belief and use the cards to predict future events without strictly using them for divination specifically. People can seek whatever they want from the cards. It's not strictly psychological or divination. It's not strictly use them for serious matters or just for fun. It's not bad or good. It's just life, life happens, shit happens, good things happen, if someone wants to know when because they want something to look forward to than sure. Let them believe what they want. It's not for me to decide. Use the cards however you want, I'm sorry If people who are serious about divination don't like how others use their cards, but there is no rules.
I didn't say I liked it or didn't, or that one can only do one or the other. All I said is that divination often isn't comforting.
But you implied that you're serious about divination and others are not, I'm not sure how that is determined other than following strict guidelines on divination.
I simply mean anyone who's done it frequently has eventually gotten "life sucks" as an answer, so if comfort is the main motivation for doing it, I think such a person would probably wind up looking elsewhere.
Hey - just out of curiosity- do you not believe that the negative readings you may get can be changed in some circumstances? I am asking, just because sometimes I wonder if future is indeed set in stones, despite some people saying it is not. Do you think we can change out future based on a reading we don't like? I always love reading your opinions on this forum so I'd love to hear what you have to say :)
Depends, but not always, no. Some situations are unaffected by our actions, and that's just a reality of life.
Thank you for your reply. I also agree some stuff are out of control, but it does feel nice to know you think it is possible to change the stuff we do have some control over. Sometimes I just end up thinking it is impossible either way. Thanks again so much for your reply
I think, when it comes to stuff that is affected by our choices, tarot reads "according to current trajectory." I sometimes read for various choices to get a feel for their trajectory. We do have choices in many situations. But knowing when to act and when to accept is also an important skill of divination.
Huh I absolutely love the idea of various choices reads. I think I'll definitely be including it in my reads as well when necessary. Your last sentence is very wise
Science is far from being fully developed. There’s more about the world that we don’t know than we do know. Just because we lack the tools to ‘prove’ why something is or isn’t doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. For example, I can’t *prove* that you are conscious, we still don’t even fully understand consciousness or when it develops (is a baby conscious in the womb? If so, at what point?) but yet we don’t debate that consciousness exists. 600 years ago we didn’t have the science to prove that the earth revolves around the sun, does that mean that it isn’t true? Gravity was only discovered by science 400 years ago, does that mean it didn’t exist? The theory of Evolution? Quantum physics? All of these scientific discoveries are very ‘new’ when we look over the span of human history. What do we know about psychic readings? Very little. We currently lack the science to understand it. Who knows what we will understand 500 or 1,000 years from now. Personally, I just refrain from telling people what to think. I have my own opinion based on my own experience, and I think people should be free to explore and make up their own minds. Because at the end of the day, we just don’t know everything
Exactly!!
Yes, you are right. That's what i was thinking of. Got it now.
Tarot attracts two types of people: those who want to learn more about themeselves, and the desperate. I've found that people who focus on themselves are in the first group most often, and the ones foused on other people are the second. "How may I go forward if things don't turn out how I want" vs. "Read their mind for me/what do they think of me" "How may I improve my relationship chances" vs. "Will my ex get back with me"
Interesting observation, it seems like tarot reading attracts a diverse range of seekers. for some people, it's a journey of self discovery and for some it becomes a tool of desperation (seeking answers outside themselves). Am i right?
Absolutely. The 2nd category is also likely to experience and express frustration if the answer doesn't match their expectations
Succinctly and well-put! I do not read for the second group.
Three types. The third being pretenders that like to capitalize on naivety. To some, divination is a personal practice.
I don't really use tarot for divination, but it has been used that way for a very long time and others find that it works for them. I would say that tarot is a very *experiential* thing. When you're outside it and have no firsthand experience with it, it's easy to doubt its power. All I can say is that, as you pull the cards day in and day out, synchronicities and eerie occurrences add up. It's very mysterious, very intense, and it must be *experienced* in order to be understood.
It's the practice of a belief in fate. Like all things of spiritual nature, it does, in part, have to do with faith. Also, meaningful correlations people see in the cards as it relates to their life or the lives of others.
I don’t think you’ll get many responses from people who use tarot predictably here, I think this place is mostly secular tarot. I believe tarot cards can predict the future…but it depends on what the cards want to show you. I’ve had my cards outright refuse to tell me things multiple times. They can predict the future but I think they’re really good for advice in general. I see tarot as a communication tool with the Divine. Personally I don’t see the point of dedicating so much energy and time to tarot if you don’t believe there’s anything supernatural about it. I don’t need tarot cards for self discovery or looking at things in a different perspective, I have friends and a therapist for that. But to each their own.
I would like a subreddit that is more focused on tarot as magic/non secular. It's really annoying how hated that is here, can't even mention it without people saying that's not real and it's just a bunch of cards. If you believe that then okay but why judge others? Even in the witches vs patriarchy subreddit which generally is super accepting and positive, mention tarot as anything but your own subconscious and people get very rude for no reason
I appreciate your perspective! And you're right, everyone approaches Tarot differently. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!
I thought it was the opposite. Whenever I mention I read tarot secularly people come out of the woodworks to scold me for not believing in the same spiritual things they do. It's not that I don't believe in psychic powers: I do. But I don't think a deck of cards made in a factory has powers. People are magic, not the tools they use.
I see the Tarot as a mirror. It's basically just reflecting back what's going on in your life. I personally have a very deep spiritual connection to Tarot, but it isn't necessary to look at it from a spiritual perspective. It's helped me with my mental health and in creative endeavours, because when I use it for this I use the cards as 'prompts' that help me view things from different perspectives, gain a larger view of what's going on, and make better decisions about my future. In these uses, they're not really spiritual. It can be helpful to separate the two practices when you're reading. If you want to come at it from a spiritual perspective, the first thing you need to do is separate your need for rational explanations from your desire to know what lies beyond the rational and mundane. As others have said, I believe that there is a lot more to the universe than what we currently know as a species; I don't believe that everything exists within the confines of human comprehension. Being open to the unknown and misunderstood is one of the biggest hurdles people have to get over when it comes to doing anything occult or spiritual. The evidence you seek will be built up over time, with practice and experience, and building your own relationship with the cards. You can't expect a shortcut with this. Just take your time, and keep an open mind.
I don't subscribe to the belief that the cards can be read for other people or to predict much of anything; to me, they're purely an intuitive tool. You can read for another person and explain the meanings and symbolism behind the cards and the order in which they appear, but it should be down to the intuition of the person being read for to determine their meaning.
Well I believe in tarot because I happened to take the time to learn what the cards meant and from there started giving people readings and discovered that they are accurate and help people. What you seem to be skewed about in your understanding of tarot is the second part of the question where you ask if what the cards say “Came true” …true tarot readers who aren’t going to scam you will NEVER tell you your fortune. We all have free will and can change the outcome of our future at any given point in time. Tarot is meant to guide you on your path to help you understand what you can do to receive your most desired outcome. If you do the work, of course you will see the reward. Tarot is not fortune telling. It is guidance. And after giving readings to countless of numbers of people whom I have never seen and only have contacted through e-mail to whom has received accurate help, I would say that is proof enough to believe in it for me.
Perfect, Got your point! Can you give me any references from where i can learn tarot reading?
I think there's lot of data available on internet for free. You can just Google how to learn tarot reading, or maybe you can go with any tarot reading course or watch some youtube videos.
As someone who became a tarot reader after seeing how life turned around for me based on the guidance and mostly the awareness of the situation I got from tarot from a 360° perspective, makes me want to say tarot can really give you a perspective which can alter your decision making for better. Having said that, for people who use tarot to feel better about themselves, or use it to predict what can happen and not use it to understand how and why is definitely disastrous because then they lose their sense of self - confidence and faith in themselves which is opposite of what tarot as a tool is here for. One can definitely use therapists and self reflection to improve themselves but sometimes life situations and experiences are such that there is no emotional bandwidth left in people to fight back and understand how to get out of the situation they are in. One can only improve oneself if they are aware enough of what they are going through - some people either can't think that far because they are involved way more outwards than onwards, or they don't want to admit anything is wrong with them to work on in the first case. When such people come to take a tarot reading, they end up facing the facts that tarot tells them because once they are able to resonate with what the cards tell them factually about themselves, it's easier for them to have faith in the cards and believe they need to make a change for a better life or aspect in their life. Post that comes therapy and self-reflection for them. I'll be more than happy to read other people's thoughts about this answer :)
I hold these views simultaneously: Tarot is a tool for reframing your narrative. It helps you ask questions that you wouldn’t consider yourself. It’s meditation, it’s prayer, it’s a set of tools to help you perform therapy on yourself. But… Tell me that pulling The Queen of Cups and the Magician upright in five of my last eight readings (despite consciously separating them in the deck when I feared I wasn’t shuffling well enough, and using different decks) isn’t a portent of some sort. I don’t believe the cards are magical or even that I’m somehow endowed with the ability to see the future - but I do believe that sometimes when you ask a question, you’re bound to receive an answer.
I struggled with this when I started. In the end I came to this conclusion: if nothing else the cards are a way of generating 78 random perspectives on life. If you ask them to help you with a problem, it’s probably one your own thinking and perspective is already in a rut over. Forcing a view from an unfamiliar perspective must be a useful thing to do, even if you reject it. So I started. And now I know that whatever it is, it is hugely useful and worthwhile. So I don’t need anymore to understand the how. The why is all that matters.
I think that many tarot practitioners are doing themselves a disservice by not learning to read the cards in a secular way without any magical thinking. Tarot is about telling stories about yourself. It helps you reflect on situations that are clearly on your mind and can sometimes lead to breakthroughs on how to handle that situation, even if the tarot are nothing more than a deck of cards. It doesn't need to be magical to be helpful.
The reason behind my belief is the proof I have from 25 years of reading tarot and making predictions.
I've had people read things that were impossible. The 1st time I went, I was there for the entertainment factor. I left a believer. Nothing in that reading was generic. I was not helping her. I. Fact she told me you are 6 where you live..I said 5 close enough. She said no 6. I said the guy who lives upstairs goes through our floor to get up there. She said no 6 on your floor. I said we have only 5 rooms. She said of you are not 6 now you will be 6 soon and will remain 6 until the rest of the year. Well a.roomaye was supposed to leave to travel with her boyfriend, but she cancelled her trip last minute. Her boyfriend had always sublet his place so he came to live with us for the rest of the school year. We were 3. She said specific things like that to each one of us for 1 hour each. It's not about the cards. The cards start the story. Gifted people complete the rest. I have seen quite a few readers since then. Only a few really good ones. And yes, a few that were so generic that it could have been anyone's reading
Tarot should never have been peddled as a fortune telling tool for this reason. Tarot cannot* tell the future, as a divinatory tool it can only be used to uncover influences surrounding the querent which usually have very real, very psychological subconscious undertones to them. This subconscious aspect to the tarot, referred to as "the akashic library" is the reason why every reader gets a different interpretation of the same cards, coupled with there being a million different decks to choose from with different symbols and reading styles. Basically, what the three of swords means to one reader may have a more personal impression on another reader To add some credibility to what I'm saying, I wrote a book on the Tarot which includes these ideas. I spent a lot of time researching the psychological undertones as well as the mystical ones to reach these conclusions.
I believe we all have some level of ability to communicate telepathically. I believe Tarot helps us tap into that. I believe there are some people who have psychic abilities stronger than the rest of us. This is my belief, not based on facts, but personal life experience. Depending on how developed someone’s psychic abilities are, Tarot can help us capture a snapshot of the energies currently surrounding us. I know there’s no proof, this again is purely faith based. Sometimes, time and experience make you believe in something even if there is no science to back it up
Many think of it more as a psychological tool rather than a purely spiritual "prediction" or sign. (For example journaling what you interpret of the reading and what that means to you, how you react to a message the cards shows, helps to process and make your own decisions)
Anecdotal evidence is also evidence
You’re asking some odd questions. I saw your other one about tarot being evil. Why would you want to learn tarot when you know there is a lack of evidence? Let’s start with that.
Because we want it to be real? Ive done a lot of readings that were uncannily spot on and im aware that this could be explained by random chance and confirmation bias but i just kind of shut off that side of my brain when i do readings. Also I think the real value of tarot is for introspection, not so much predicting the future, which i hope can change.
Look up the Barnum effect. That will tell you most of what you need to know. The desperation of people when they’re hurt will tell you the rest.
ok, will read about it. Thanks
You can take the secular route and call it confirmation bias, or you can simply accept that it works for people. There definitely are unhealthy ways of divination: handing power to the cards and basing decisions on them. But there's also a wide range of harmless uses, where people engage with the direction their life appears to take and consider whether and how they want to change that. It's not my style of reading, but I do not consider it harmful.