Why reading tarot-cards is not JUST bullshit
Ok, before you have a go at me saying “There is no scientific evidence” or “This spiritual stuff gives me the creeps”, hear me out. I am not preaching to you that you must use tarot cards as a way of reflection and in no way am I implying, that tarot is for everyone.
The reason why I write this article is actually because I was, for the longest time, part of the opposite camp. For me, tarot reading was a way for individuals without an academic background to pull money from people’s pockets by selling them something utterly useless.
And if we understand tarot cards as a means for predicting the future, I still firmly stand by these statements. I think there is a grave misunderstanding in how these cards are best used and what they can actually do. But there are many enriching ways to put these cards to practice for your everyday benefit. So the following article will answer some questions that might pop up in your mind when thinking about tarot as a possible source of insights:
- What are tarot cards?
- What grounding from a science perspective is there?
- What can you use them for?
- Is reading tarot cards for me? (+ a little story of how I discovered it)
So let’s jump right in!
What are tarot cards?
First of all, not all sets of cards for spiritual purposes must be true “tarot cards”. There are usually two categories of cards you can buy in a store: real tarot cards and oracle decks.
Tarot cards usually consist of 78 cards, separated into two categories. These cards may have different pictures on them (depending on the author), but usually, they reference the same symbols. They have a rich history, some early mentions date back to 1440, when it was considered a very complicated card game which was probably invented even earlier. Today, any deck that references “Rider Waite” is usually considered to be made according to a “standard” of tarot by a writer of the same name in 1910. These cards are rich in symbolism, have fixed interpretations, and have rich theories behind numbers as well. The meaning in these cards can occasionally be rather dark, which is why people sometimes prefer oracle decks.
Oracle decks are more free and individual. There is a lot of freedom not only in the depiction but also in the choice of symbols and amount of cards that are being used. This is why it is really important that you buy an Oracle deck that comes with a handbook because otherwise, it will be very hard to generate meaningful insights. When buying these decks their content really depends on the author, but if you resonate with a certain topic, I don’t think there is a need to stick to the “original” tarot decks. The cards in these decks tend to favor positive outlooks, which makes them possibly an easier read at the beginning.
I personally got myself an oracle deck called “the Green Witch’s oracle deck”, because for one, I really liked the images and symbols and secondly, it comes with a great handbook and fewer cards to learn. I would also recommend this deck because the images on the cards leave lots of options for image interpretation, which is a good way to start reading cards. They also come with a few primer words on the card and in the handbook there is a basic text describing the meaning of the object in nature AND in the context of card readings. Furthermore, there is a question for reflection for each card, which oftentimes strikes me, because it is so accurate. If you would like to get the exact deck I got, here is the link:
What grounding from a science perspective is there?
Obviously, tarot cards have never been proven to work in an evidence-based way. Most of their legitimacy is derived from their rich history and the fact, that vague readings are definitely going to include a kernel of truth. But they are subject to the eternal issue that the philosopher Karl Popper described as “a lack of falsification”. There is simply no way to prove that the cards are either right or wrong.
But personally, after having done some readings very reluctantly, I have found why I think they are after all connected with psychology. This connection is mainly derived from Freud and Jung’s theory of the subconscious. Both of these important psychologists lived in the late 19th and early 20th century and were founders of the field of psychoanalysis.
Their greatest contribution was the understanding, that there is such a thing as the conscious and the subconscious mind. Jung took it a step further and divided the subconscious into a personal subconscious and a collective subconscious, that all of society or certain cultures share. The connection to tarot cards is, that while we are able to access our conscious mind, there is unconscious knowledge that we need to be made aware of.
This is precisely where the cards come in. They are not there to give us “new” insights, but they might be able to bring forth subconscious knowledge that we couldn’t access before. We might ask a question, that we subconsciously already know the answer to. Only when we draw a card, which by the way could probably be ANY card, do we see what we subconsciously know to be true in front of our eyes.
The card itself does not matter, but it acts like a mirror to our subconscious mind, giving us the chance to feel a sense of validation.
It is as if we seek validation from a friend on a certain challenge. This is also why I genuinely believe that the type of deck you use does not really matter. Furthermore, I think it really doesn’t matter which specific card you pick. There is no “higher force” giving you the right card. It is your own mind that will make the card meaningful to you because it attaches personal meaning to the image in front of your eyes.
The important thing is to ask good questions and keep an open mind because this allows for things that might seem new to you, to reflect on the card, which are actually parts of your own subconscious mind.
What can you use tarot cards for?
Here I think is where we hit the question of whether tarot cards are a way to predict the future and my honest answer is: Not at all. If anything, they can help you see things that are only a few steps ahead of you, that you already see are on your horizon, but might not want to admit to yourself.
Jumping off the point I made in the previous section, reading cards is more of a reflection of things you already subconsciously know, but of whose presence you are yet unaware. So if you want to reflect on your past, evaluate your current actions, plan for a goal to be achieved, or see through a complicated situation, tarot cards are a great way to do so.
Usually, you will find yourself using cards for the first time when you encounter some sort of a challenge. If we are being perfectly honest, most questions that are asked at an initial tarot reading will be related to relationships in one way or another. But it is a great misconception to think that that is what they are best at. Actually, I find they are great for goal-setting and predicting behaviors and their outcomes. Not because the card knows the future, but because your own intuition does.
Basically, you can face a tarot card with any sort of question, yes or no, or even better an open-ended one. But you can also provide any sort of challenge that you might want to investigate. For questions, it might be sufficient to pull a single card and read it. A card a day in the morning can also be a great way to set an intention for the day or manifest behaviors. If you really want to dig deeper into a topic or open yourself up to new learnings, you should look into spreads.
Spreads can be done freely, but there are heaps of information out there on different spreads that will help to guide your inner voice in telling the whole story or connecting the dots. There is the “past-present-future” spread with three cards, where each card shows you one entity. You can do the same for “problem-action-outcome” or in relationships “you-me-us”. There are also more complex spreads like “the 5 elements”, “the tree”, “the garden gate”, “the wheel of the year” or “the Celtic cross”, which is a specific favorite amongst tarot card readers. All of those come with different card compositions, meanings behind each card, and ways to lay them out. Such spreads might help you to ask the right questions, but essentially you are free to do whatever resonates with you.
Is reading tarot cards for me?
Honestly, I think if you are considering it, I would just recommend you do it. There really is nothing to lose other than maybe a few bucks for buying the cards. I wouldn’t recommend going to others to get your cards read though, because I have only learned to appreciate this practice through doing it myself and tapping into my subconscious.
I want to quickly tell you why I recommend trying it, by illustrating my own story. The thing is, that I was never a big believer in spirituality. I am a catholic, but very far from being deeply religious, and though my native community places high value on religion, I have always seen it as something that tends to disadvantage people at random. Additionally, I pursued a bachelor’s degree in the field of medicine, which added to the sour feeling on my tongue, whenever someone wanted to use “spiritual means” or herbs for treatment rather than trusting doctors.
But then I moved abroad I learned a new thing about myself: I sometimes have emotions that demand to be felt. I realized that living abroad comes with a nice package of anxiety and regular tantrums that I didn’t experience before. There could have definitely been worse symptoms than the ones I was feeling, but I started to realize that I needed something to learn to understand my own emotions and essentially, my subconscious. I had already loved stones growing up, but merely as objects of beauty and appreciated the effects of meditation, but these things didn’t fill my cup anymore.
So I walked into a bookstore one day — Eslite in Kaohsiung, next to the harbor — and found this deck of oracle cards. I was initially drawn to it, mainly because of my own issues in terms of relationships and an obsession with “sorting things out”. So I bought them, while my friend had a good laugh at me. We tried it together and surprisingly, we quite liked it. I kept returning to it and found myself captivated by how much I felt empowered by the readings and how they were such a great way to step back and look at myself from a bird’s eye view.
Essentially, they really helped me sort out my own emotions and not only got me back up after a bad day, but they started to align me on a path of success. Right now I am still in the process of tracking my readings and learning about my cards because I hear that the value of the readings even increases when you reflect on them over time. Additionally, I love writing and have long wanted to tap into the benefits of journalling in general, so this feels like the perfect opportunity.
If you are still unsure of whether you would like to try tarot cards or oracle decks for yourself, I will recommend two videos to watch:
The first one is an introduction to tarot cards in general and the second one is a free way to see if tarot card readings resonate with you. As mentioned, I would recommend just giving it a go, because there really is nothing to lose, but everything to gain…
And if tarot cards aren’t for you, here is an article I recently wrote on learning about yourself from personality tests. Maybe this one can aid you instead:
