How Tarot Cards Work

by Lee Ann Obringer




In most people's minds, "Tarot card reading" means a woman in flowing robes, leaning over a small table in a candlelit room, foretelling impending doom.

But that's not really what Tarot cards are about. In fact, they're not even really meant to tell your fortune or future. According to The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, "The most powerful sources of information come from within; the Tarot aids in coming in contact with one's Higher Self."

But what does that mean? In this article, we'll look at the various ideas about where Tarot cards come from, what they mean and how a deck of cards can possibly tell you anything about yourself. You'll learn why it matters where the cards fall and why you don't have to be a psychic to do a Tarot reading.

Types of Readings

There are actually two different types of Tarot readings: question readings and open readings.

Question Readings

In question readings, you are addressing a specific question. Tarot is not intended to answer specific yes or no questions. Most say it also shouldn't be used to make decisions, but instead should be used as a guide to help you make the decision yourself. For this reason, the way a question is stated is very important. According to Joan Bunning, a Tarot reader and teacher, questions should:
•Keep your options open: If you have the answer before the reading, then you're not allowing the cards to guide your overall decision. Bunning gives this example: Asking how you could encourage your mother-in-law to move out, as opposed to asking how you can get along better with her, is narrowing the scope of the true question by answering it before you even get started.

•Find the best level of detail: Your question should be focused, but not overly detailed. Rather than looking at one particular aspect of a problem, find a way to look more broadly at it. For example, rather than asking how you can make your home life less chaotic, ask how you can better balance kid schedules and adult schedules. That is a focused question. But do not go so far as to ask how you can coordinate baseball, soccer and Cub Scout schedules and still have family time -- that's too detailed. Only include the minimum level of detail needed in order to express what you want to learn from the cards.

•Focus on yourself: If the reading is for yourself, make sure your question focuses on you rather than on someone else who you think may be the root of your problem.

•Stay neutral: In order to stay open to other points of view, your question has to be neutral and not convey a preconceived notion that your view is necessarily the right one. The cards can give you guidance if you ask for it.

•Be positive: Make sure your question is stated in a positive rather than negative way. Instead of asking why a specific event hasn't happened, ask what you can do to help make that event happen.

Open Readings

Open readings address the larger aspects of your life rather than a specific problem area or question. They're usually done when you're entering a new phase of life, such as getting married, graduating from college or starting a family. You can somewhat direct the reading if you have a general area you want to cover, such as your career or health, but that's as specific as the direction gets.


http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/extrasensory-perceptions/tarot-card.htm

I respectfully disagree.

There is one kind of Tarot reading, and that is only finding what seems to be a pattern or meaning in what is actually completely random (or badly random, depending on card shuffling. Much of that is weirdly (statistically) predictable).

Human beings are very good at pattern-finding. It's what kept our ancestors from thinking a wave in the grass was merely a breeze and not a lurking tiger and thus surviving to have many more children who thought the same way.

Human beings are also very good at fraud - It's what allowed some of our ancestors to have children with a lot more mates than the others. The traditional lady with the crystal ball has gone a bit out of style, but the accoutrements of pseudo-legitimacy are still there - Think of the cards themselves. Would a seven of diamonds mean as much as "Death"? Why not? They're both the same card...

There's open-minded, and then there's being so open-minded that your brain falls out*. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. An anecdote here and there does not qualify. Outcomes require mechanisms. "It would have happened anyhow" is a very serious objection.

If the Tarot did predict something, it would be delightful. Imagine all the college counselors talking to high school students about where to go with their lives ("Sorry Harry, you'll be a gangbanger and stabbed to death in prison at 26. Nothing you can do." "Luis? It'll be dropping out of Harvard and making billions in a dotcom for you. I hope you like Ferarris.")

Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

It's fun to play, but it's a game. Never mistake it for anything more than that.

S.

* first said, I believe, by Carl Sagan. Again, not original with me.

No problem

People have different thoughts I am not offended .

Yeah, and when reading for another, you tune in to their energy, well, their Higher Self.
I find reading for myself more difficult, as you want a certain outcome and it's not so easy to remain unbiased.

One of the most interesting readings I've ever done, were about what occurrence from a past life is still negatively affecting the current one.
These readings gave a lot of clarity as to why things in the readee's life were happening.
A lot of personal things came up, things I didn't know about these people. All bar one were spot on. One was adamant I was wrong. I let that slide. Could be I was indeed wrong, could be she didn't want to face the music yet.
But I did some 8 or 9 of these readings, so 1 not agreeing ... acceptable to me.

I did some 15 year-readings for 2015. So soon I can ask people whether the readings were correct or not.

I've done so many readings for others over the years, 99.999% spot on, that it is impossible to say it's nonsense.
And most of these people I don't know, often I don't even know their real names (just the nickname they use online).

Which is a wonderful thought, but it's not true. There is no such thing. If you could find such an energy and prove it exists, you'd be in line for about three Nobel prizes, as well as having your name ring down through history having completely revised physics.

No doubt you enjoyed yourself. But when studied carefully, it turns out that most readings are so generic as to be useless (yet agreeable to everyone) and those that are specific are mostly wrong.

We all tend to forget the misses and recall only the hits, and yes, someone will win the lottery in the next few weeks, but that's merely a matter of statistics, not through any energy outside that understood by any competent physicist.



And the outcome you want, either consciously or unconsciously in every reading, is to continue to believe. There is no outcome that will ever make you change your mind.



It is not impossible to say so. I am saying so now. I am saying your statistic is not backed up by facts, that it has not been carefully double-blind tested, and that while you are having fun playing cards I wish you all the best but I beg you please don't go into politics.

Thank you,

S.

PS - Just for grins, I did some math. You claim 99.999% accuracy.
That means you've done 100,000 readings and one was wrong. In order to do 100,000 readings, at half an hour each, at forty hours a week, 52 weeks a year, you've been at this for 24 years completely and resolutely full-time so employed.

I don't believe that, either.

Elementary, m'dear. S.

Just for grins ... 100,000 doesn't exist. It's either 100,00 OR 100.000 ... like a million would be 1.000.000
So I think your math is subject to a little continental confusion here.
If I'm correct your 99.999% would be the same as our 99,999%
As far as I'm concerned, neither suggests that the total is 100.000 (your 100,000).

You obviously live by the head, only believe what science can prove. I don't.
Science is not my god. Science has its use, but it is just a means with lots of limitations, that says whatever is beyond their scope isn't true. To me that is too narrow-minded. But to each their own.

I do have the facts. Not facts that are science-okay, but as I explained, science isn't my god. Science isn't perfect, far from it. You choose to make it your point of reference, which is fine if that works for you.
And yeah, you say it isn't so. BUT ... that doesn't mean you're right :) That's just your opinion.
Which you are entitled to, but I don't like your belittling approach. If you don't understand something, you can still be respectful.

The only one that knows and controls your future is God.

You may be amused to note that in the USA (yeah, we're screwed up here) we use a comma to separate thousands and a period to indicate the decimal point. Therefore 100,000 is 1x10^5 while 100.000 is 1.00000x10^2 . Scientific notation does make a lot more sense, and I should have used it in the first place. Note always significant figures (of which you used five).

If you'll allow a '^' mark to represent 'digits after this until a space or carriage return or line feed shall be considered superscripts and/or mathematical exponents'.



As an aside, what's wrong with one hundred to three decimal places? While it may seem unusual in your profession, not everything is pounds and pence.



Nope. To claim accuracy, what you have done reading with 99.999% (Or 99,999%) accuracy implies that you have done at least one hundred thousand (shall I just write it out instead) readings and one was wrong. Or two hundred thousand and two were wrong. If you have only done one thousand readings and none were wrong, then you cannot claim five figures of accuracy.

This ain't so much science as middle-school math. 4th form, perhaps, to you.



Actually, I tried living by my bollocks for awhile, and you can guess how well that went.

Science is not anybody's god. It is merely a method for looking at what is and trying to understand it through the evidence presented.

The concept 'what is' does indeed include everything that is - And occasionally showing the world that, um, "Actually, that is not, you are merely fooling yourself". I have been fooled, and I will be again, and yet I still apply science to much of what I do. It is not science that fails - It is the people.

S.

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then He is not omnipotent

Is He able, but not willing?
then He is malevolent.

Is He both able and willing?
then why is there evil?

Is He neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?

(attributed to Epicurus)

To that I'd add:

God knows and controls my future, right, so...

Is God aware and able to prevent the evil that will happen to me?
Then why does evil happen to me?

Is God aware of the evil that will happen to me, but chooses to ignore it?
Then why call not call Him an [south end of a northbound donkey]?

Does God control my future?
Then I do not have free will.

Do I have free will?
If so, then God does not control my fate.

Any questions?

S.


I may be goin' to Hell for that one, but I'll do so because I chose to do so. All the Gods, from Marduk to Baal to Amun and Ra and Kali and JHWH and Ronald Reagan can go jump in a lake. I'll go my own way. Keep in mind your Holy Trinity of the Baby Jesus as written in the Bible is only the latest in a long line of many other gods. I have been touched by His Noodly Appendage, in case you were curious... S.


edited to omit filterd swear words. Hullo, this is an adult community, guys, we can say 'bovine excrement' and 'portal into the female reproductive apparatus' and 'the male instrument that evolution has come up with in order to penetrate the preceding item' if we have to.

Readings are intuitive.

There is a higher energy, as everything is made of energy. Plenty of lower energy.

God is the bulk of energy, thus is the highest energy. The all.

Sheeeeeeeit. Yeah that's what I hear...way too often. You go ahead & trust in him if it works for you but it's still just another opinion.

I have all kinds of tarot cards... and I do believe readings come from your higher self ... meaning no egos ... no drama ... just what these things say ... and believe they can mean many different ways of thinking ... for instants ... you pull a death card ... this does not always mean someone or yourself is going to die ... could mean some feeling in you has changed ... something you do not need to carry anymore like a certain emotion you have about someone or thing ...

an agree ... these tools are much like entertainment ... have not touched them in a while tho...

Energy is the ability to do work. So you are writing:

"There is a higher ability to do work, as everything is made of the ability to do work. Plenty of lower ability to do work.

God is the bulk of ability to do work, thus is the highest ability to do work. The all."

It's even more meaningless when you see it like that.

This thread went from tarot card enthusiasts discussing aspects of reading to random interjections from non believers. I respect the logical mind and skeptics, but this unnecessary banter makes it difficult for tarot users to have a meaningful discussion as most become sidetracked feeling the need to defend their position. This isn't a debate about the validity of tarot, it's a discussion about it's use.

"how tarot cards work"... i think that alone calls for a discussion on their validity... all the god talk doesn't really have a place in the discussion...IMO...

lol, I f**king love this guy. He randomly pops in to destroy perception with science. Though both are reality, I still root for the villain in the movies, so he's ok in my book

oh...sorry. back to the topic. How do tarot cards work. 3 simple steps

1. shuffle
2. deal
3. lie

jk

Totally agree, esp on the god part. But, and I don't mean offense, you often get that on a forum with mostly Americans as many of 'em are so bloody religious. I was really shocked to find some 7 different churches right next to each other in a town in Alabama, and finding out that these 7 weren't even the only ones in that town. Unbelievable ... We didn't even have that kind of over the topness in the Middle Ages

And if ppl can truly access their higher energies through religion (which is what it should be doing), nothing wrong with that. In that sense it doesn't even matter whether you're praying to god or Allah or some pagan God/Goddess.
In essence it doesn't matter what you call the higher power. You can even cal it Al if you like. Or Chevy Chase.

But I do wished the churchies would shut up about it, and focus on what it brings them instead of the revering of ...

Oh, and I happily continue to do Tarot readings, Lenormand readings, and other oracle card readings. And the ppl I read for are usually very happy with 'em :)
How they work... they're just a means to tap in to your inner knowing, your higher self or whatever you want to call it. No big deal. Everyone can do that, just that some have developed that skill a bit more than others.
No magick, no voodoo, just intuition. Not unlike knowing/sensing something is going to happen, or someone is going to call etc.
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Edited it out (too mean )