For the last year, I have been answering questions about art, the Tarot, and other subjects, on a question and answer website called Quora. I have noticed that there have been numerous questions posted about the Tarot that are related, such as; “How Accurate is the Tarot?” “Do Tarot card readings accurately predict the future?” or “Why do so many intelligent people believe in Tarot readings?” For this post I have combined by answers to these and other common questions about the Tarot.
I find that the Tarot is accurate, but I may not use the Tarot in the way that you think.
I am a Tarot designer, an author, and besides reading for clients I have taught thousands of people throughout the US and in many parts of the globe how to read Tarot cards. And I have always found that the cards provide sound advice.The first thing that I tell my students is that I do not recommend using the Tarot to predict the future. From my experience with the Tarot and from observing how others use the cards I do not think that is what happens in a reading.
If we could use the cards to make true predictions they would be fated outcomes that we could not avoid. We find this type of prediction in numerous myths, like the myth of Oedipus in which the oracle tells Oedipus that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Of course, his father and mother are unknown to him and no matter how he tries to avoid his fate, because he does not know who they are, in the end he fulfills the prediction. Tarot card readers do not make fated predictions like this. Even when they say they are predicting the future they make it clear that if something unpleasant is on the horizon the reader intends to help the client to avoid the problem.
Oedipus solving the riddle of the sphynx
Tarot card readings are actually an intuitive examination of the present. In the present we can perceive events that are starting to unfold and we can make informed decisions about how to handle them. But we can also examine the past or look into relationships we are having right now. I feel that the best use of the Tarot is to use the cards to access inner wisdom, a wiser self that I call the Higher Self. If we use the Tarot to access this inner wisdom it will help up to make better decisions in the present. Instead of predicting the future, we can use the cards to help us to create a better future.
This process works because everyone has intuition and the Tarot is a tool for developing intuition. When we shuffle and lay out the cards, they provide a visual story that we can interpret like a dream and we find that the story that we see in the cards has meaning for us or for a client.
Still, we may ask, how do we get the right series of cards to create our story by simply shuffling the cards? I am not sure, but it seems to me that when we are shuffling we are unconsciously organizing the deck so that our story will emerge when we cut the cards. I have found that the unconscious mind is actually more in control of our behavior throughout the day than the conscious mind, and as we said, in the unconscious we know things that we may not be consciously aware of. The cards help bring this information into consciousness. I have also found that the mind is capable of bringing forth information in a way that defies time and space. Because of this, I do not believe that the mind is physical. The brain is only a transmitter for the mind and the mind exists on a nonphysical plane. This is why intuition can exist and why we can use the Tarot as a tool for intuition.
Fortuna from The Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery
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