Question: What do you think of psychics who use tarot cards?
Answer: I’ve received variations on this question a lot. Here is my honest answer.
In junior high school I bought a deck of tarot cards and my aunt gave me a book on how to interpret them. It was way cool. 🙂 I read the book, memorized the many meanings of each card, and proceeded to do readings for friends and family. For each card I turned over, I would read the explanation from the book and then try to apply it to my sitter’s life. As more cards were incorporated, I tried to weave a tale of future, present, and past portents to come up with a prediction of what was going to happen in their life. Sometimes, if they didn’t like what came up, we would just pick new cards. Needless to say, there was nothing psychic going on there.
As I got older, I went to psychics who used tarot cards. I was always very selective about who I went to, using my intuition to pick good psychics. And here is what I discovered. The people who used tarot cards fell into one of two categories:
First, there were the people like my younger self. They had obviously bought cards and a book and memorized the meanings. There was no more intuition going on in those readings than there is in picking toothpaste.
In the second group, I found real psychics who used tarot cards but did not need them. These people could have given a better reading without the cards. The cards, in my humble opinion, limited their natural abilities (clairvoyance, clairaudience, or what have you) by forcing their guidance into neat little categories with preselected meanings. To me, that’s like saying everyone who dreams about cigars is thinking about sex. What if you own a cigar store? I believe tarot cards are simply a crutch for people with real and natural abilities who are possibly nervous about using them or opening themselves up fully to spirit.
Then again, it’s possible real psychics use tarot cards because people expect them to; much like when you go to a doctor with a virus and he gives you antibiotics, knowing full well they won’t help you, but knowing you won’t be happy unless you get a prescription for something. How useful is it when a doctor tells you you’ll be fine in 3-5 days, especially after you’ve paid him a small fortune for his 5 minute diagnosis? No, people want that prescription, right? 😉 I think it’s the same thing in the case of psychics and tarot cards. People expect some drama.
So you’ve got the people who have no business calling themselves psychics who are using crystal balls, tarot cards, pendulums, and other accoutrements of the trade. And you’ve got real psychics using all those things for confirmation or verification of their natural abilities. I say to the real intuitives who are using these devices to try giving a reading without them. I think a card, while it can provide a clue, isn’t nearly as helpful as opening yourself fully to the message that a guide is trying to send you.
But those cards sure are pretty.
Put the cards down and listen, or look, or feel. The message will come. And it will have a fuller and richer meaning than the 5 of Pentacles could ever convey.
