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Discussion
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Hi! I’m new to tarot and I think it is so awesome how there is so much diversity in beliefs among tarot users. My beliefs are ever-changing, but I will try to describe how I currently see it and how it works for me. As an animist I do believe that the deck it’s self has a spirit and a personality. How the deck gathers it’s info, I don’t know. I assume it gets messages from the universe, my guides and ancestors, my higher self, and the deck has it’s own input too. The deck is basically the middle man. When I read the cards I like to use my intuition along with my understanding of the card and it’s context. I believe that my interpretation will be a combination of my sub conscious knowing and knowing that comes from other sources. I believe tarot is a powerful tool for self reflection and tapping into the subconscious or higher self, the part of you that knows the answer. I believe tarot can predict the future to an extent. I think it tells what the outcome will be for the path you are on, I don’t believe in fate so I believe that this is not fixed. Depending on the context I may or may not try to change the outcome of things.
I am still figuring out my beliefs around tarot and I would love to hear some more perspectives. How do you believe tarot works? what makes it so accurate? can it really predict the future?
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How do you believe tarot works?
updated 1 year, 6 months ago
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I view tarot as less of a divination tool than it is a self reflection. It’s holding a mirror to your self and asking real questions. The kind of questions that no one else can answer for you. There can be a level of confirmation bias, absolutely, but I find if you ask the enough questions, you’ll get an unbiased answer. Or at least a little more perspective than when you pulled your first card for the reading lol. I also read/interpret tarot cards in the reverse now as well, which I find helpful in finding the questions you ought to be asking. Truly tho it’s just a reflection of yourself… I’m not sure I believe it’s much beyond that tho
Sometimes I ask questions to like Persephone but she has her own separate deck lol.
Tl:Dr, tarot holds a mirror to your soul but it can’t tell the future necessarily
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I personally believe that everything is connected. You are a part of and an extension of how the world works, everything that is happening is a result of everything that has happened, because of this most things says something about other things.
Tarot is just a tool, you can use anything to divinate, all you need is a structure about what the symbols mean that will make sense to you. For me it’s basically that willingness to be in communication with the all that causes divination to work.
We’re constantly in communication with everything around us. That’s how intuition works, at least in my opinion.
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I might piss a lot of people off when I say this, like always, but confirmation bias.
I don’t NECESSARILY believe in the “woo” side of Tarot though I am open to it, but I do believe in the psychological side regarding the subconscious and etc. I also believe that it can “predict” (or rather, guide) the way that people will react due to this bias. I see Tarot more as a glorified inkblot test than something with a spirit.
When the reader interprets the story they see in the cards, and the querent takes that interpretation and translates it into something they’re currently going through in life, that is what the “magic” in Tarot is.
But then again, that’s just what I think. Who am I to stop anyone else from having esoteric beliefs?
(Edited for brevity.)
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I see it like speaking to another person, who gives you advice on how to frame or look at a certain situation from another perspective.
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I believe we are all connected, as stated by others, and we don’t necessarily understand everything, science is a fantastic tool but it can’t explain everything, yet. For me, the tarot taps into ones subconscious, along with a little synchronicity thrown in. I am not a fan of the “woo” factor as there is just a lot of crass commercialism associated with side of the tarot that preys on people’s vulnerable moments.
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This is a long explanation but it doesn’t make sense otherwise:
I thought it was just confirmation bias at first (as I was the teaching assistant for a pseudoscience elective and learned a lot of that side of it). I grew up venezuelan catholic, and knew nothing about it or the spiritual beliefs behind it. I thought it was “Brujeria” and that my parents would be mad if I dabbled in it.
But then I was gifted tarot cards by my partner, and then I started reading cards for other people. There was no way for me, a person who sees spirituality in everything, to not start seeings spirituality in this too lol.
At first, I’d just read the book and look up the common meanings of all the symbols but even by doing just this with not much of my input, it was very accurate. And everyone (including me) would be very shocked and confused at how it was so specific and accurate. I started taking videos and screenshots of people’s thoughts after a reading and now have something tangible that helps me connect. I even read the cards to my dad and things that we wouldn’t have known came up. And the ONLY time someone said it didn’t match is because the cards called out an addiction and unfortunately she was in denial at the time.
After a few months I told my mom I read tarot cards, because I wanted to be open about it and not hide that from her out of fear of disappointing her, and she told me that she actually read tarot cards with my Godmother when she was young and wanted me to read them for her!!! 🤣 she also mentioned that it gets passed on down your line if you do it, but who knows?
These experiences have truly cemented the belief that we are all connected, we are all one (including animals and plants), and we all use random vessels and tools to connect (anything religious, rituals, cards, songs, colors, science, art, literature, sports). Tarot is just one of these tools that help us connect.
They’re the reason I started believing that the “God” I thought I knew is actually just all of us, everything, all connected, with no time or space. And again tarot cards are just a tool we can use in this manifestation of that, to connect.
Edit: fixed some errors!
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I agree with a lot of what you said. I’m spiritual and I truly believe tarot was my calling – it called on me way before (I wasn’t ready) so I kept denying it.
I got my first deck last year and I’ve noticed a difference in who I am as a person. I’m a lot more calm and stable. I’m not afraid to deal with my emotions and or uncomfortable situations. I communicate with my ancestors – *tribe* that includes loved ones that I have lost, angels, spirit guides etc.Tarot has forced me to stay in the present. Sometimes I get lost in my own decks because I’m in the present moment and enjoying it.
I do believe that each deck holds its own personality too! I took my time with my first deck – because I was still scared (was holding onto some childhood beliefs). So there was some tension lol until I spent a week with my RWS deck. I didn’t open it. I slept with it. Carried it around with me everywhere I went so she could get familiar with me. Once that was established – the gates of everything opened up.I now have 3 decks and I plan on getting more. I incorporate all of them with my daily readings and they’re for different things too. I have one deck that’s specifically Goddess energy etc.
I cannot imagine my life without tarot now. The power that comes from within is just invigorating!
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I am big into the “woo” of tarot as a polytheistic animist, have been reading for 20 years, and absolutely believe that my decks have “personality” or “consciousness” of their own. I feel like reading with any given deck feels very much like I am having a conversation of sorts with the “intelligence” that is contained within the cards themselves. I also believe that my higher powers and other esoteric intelligences are able to have conversation with me using the deck as a facilitator or translator, but a majority of the time I feel like it is just me and my cards having a heart-to-heart either for myself or for the person asking me the questions. I wouldn’t say that any given “intelligence” within a tarot deck can predict the future with perfect clarity, but they do seem to have quite a lot of insight to offer as to the likeliness of any given outcome based upon the energy and nature of the questions posed to it.
I won’t speak for everyone that this is some kind of universal reality of tarot. As with any other tool, it can be used in a number of situations and ways generally to suit the needs of the individual using the tool. Some use the tarot as a tool for psychology like a Rorschach (inkblot) test (as others here have stated) and that is just as valid as the esoteric approach.
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I believe that tarot helps us make sense of the world around us. I see it as a way of stepping back, and getting a new perspective on the situation.
I’m looking at my current path and how to grow? Nine of Swords and The Magician. Have I been struggling so long that I don’t see a way out? How can I build confidence and learn to help myself? To me, it’s just a tool to help me sort through my conscious and subconscious.
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I think you have a wonderful outlook on tarot. Your grasp of animism is spot on.
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“To know that you do not know is the best. To think you know when you do not is a disease. Recognizing this disease as a disease is to be free of it.” Lao Tzu
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I’m looking at my decks so different now after reading this. They are like middlemen with their own personalities. Also love your ideas on fate and it not being set in stone.
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I find tarot hard to ignore when the same cards pop up over and over. When early in the day I will ask my guides to show me a certain card and then that evening that specific card comes out of the deck. And I don’t pull my cards I always let them flip out so I know they are specifically tarots voice and messages to me. They can be harsh messages that I don’t want to hear but when it comes from tarot it makes me look inward and deeper reflect. So biased? Idk but more so like a trusted messenger who will always tell me the truth.
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I use tarot as a “picture book” of a system of signs and symbols that spirits (including my own) use to communicate messages
And yes, fate is absolutely not set in stone. The messages I get are about things that could happen given the right circumstances, not what is preordained
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I feel Tarot has a certain “intelligence” and “language” of its own.
Does Tarot know the answers to my questions?
Or is it getting the answers from my higher mind? Or spirit guides or angels or ancestors? Or the spacetime continuum?
I don’t know. I suspect all are valid in one way or another.
At this point, there have been thousands of Tarot decks made and read by thousands of people over the past 500 years. (records show Italian fortune tellers were divining with Tarocchi cards by the 1500s)
Anyway … I fbelieve Tarot has an “egregore” or “intelligence” that speaks to us in a language of numbers and statistical improbability. We notice when cards defy statistical odds to slap us in the face with their message.
I just did a reading for a client and got 3 twos in a 10-card spread. It doesn’t strain the fabric of the universe or anything … but it’s notable enough to say *this is tarot’s number language talking to me.*
We’ve all had stalker cards … the card that shows up again and again in multiple readings / multiple decks or other such statistical anomalies that hint at a “ghost in the machine”.
