Hi, I'm writing a short story about a tarot reader and I would really love to hear your experiences. 'These would include: times a tarot reading was completely inaccurate, when one was completely accurate, instances of a weird reading or any interesting stories really.
I had one and the reader said I would die young. Now I don't particularly think 41 is old...but if death is about to take me, he better hurry up because he is rapidly running out of time in which to fulfill the prophecy
Hi, Sarah! I started learning tarot last summer, so I'm still quite new to it, but it's been an interesting journey so far. I mostly read for myself, and my stories reflect that. Hopefully you'll find them interesting and useful. I've never been the spiritual type or believed in anything supernatural, so I wasn't really the type you'd expect to be drawn to tarot. Nonetheless, at some point I just got a strange urge to buy a deck and start exploring it that I still can't quite explain. My first few months of experimenting were interesting; while I knew that the cards were open to wide interpretations, I was impressed at how accurate my readings seemed and how often just the right cards would come up. For instance, when I asked if I should consider having children even though I decided against it years ago, the first card that I pulled, representing the current situation, was The Emperor, known as the Father archetype. When I asked if I should focus more on my music, the reading started with Judgment, the only card whose art depicts a musical instrument —an angel blowing a trumpet (OK, that one was a bit of a stretch, but it really did jump out at me in the moment). After one eerily accurate reading, I have to admit, my skepticism started cracking. I genuinely felt like I was in touch with something that I couldn't explain, and it honestly freaked me out. So I took a deep breath and shuffled my deck, then asked if I was communicating with anything and cut the deck for an answer. The card I pulled was The Hermit. That actually freaked me out even more! Any random, weird card could have been brushed off as "Nope, just random chance," and one of the angel cards like Judgment or Temperance could have been seen as a message of higher guidance, but this was a Major card that explicitly referred to spending time alone for introspection. It was as if the universe had sent me a message to say "This is all you—leave me out of it." Quite unsettling, and something I still think about. Last tidbit. Sometimes the same card will show up over and over again in multiple readings; tarot readers call that a "stalker card," and usually interpret it to mean that there's some particular theme dominating your life that needs to be addressed. For instance, when I moved last year, The Magician kept appearing in my readings; he's a very positive card that indicates I was taking initiative to create a new life. More recently, I've been thinking a lot about dating again and what kind of romantic life I want, and The Lovers have shown up incessantly, including once in 7 consecutive readings. Stalkers are definitely one of the most intriguing aspects of tarot. I hope these help! If you have any more questions, just ask.
Oh yes, just remembered. A lesbian friend says she loves getting tarot readings because they always seem to mention that she's going to meet the man of her dreams, at which point she laughs and walks away.
My experience with Tarot: I have half a dozen Tarot decks, mainly because I like the pictures, but I can tell your "fortune" if you want it told. I can also cast your astrology chart the old fashioned way with ephemerides, read your palm, and make you a borage poultice for your bruises, but I don't have much faith in the magical mysterious efficacy of any of them. People who give effective readings are generally good observers and astute judges of character who pick up clues from the client and guide the client to to his or her own conclusions about the meaning of the cards. If a reader is skillful enough, even a skeptical client will entertain a secret thought of, "What if this is real?" That is not to say I don't think there are gifted people who see further than most of us, but they are few and far between, and generally don't set up shop at holistic fairs giving readings for $50 a pop. I periodically drag out my favorite deck and read for myself, a family member, or a close friend, but in doing so, I'm drawing on conscious and unconscious knowledge of a situation and not magically pulling answers off the cardboard or out of the crystal ball.
I've had two. When I was a student, I predicted someone's death. That person was one of the cleaners at my hall of residence. She was perfectly healthy at the time (at least, she thought so). She died of cancer about 8 months later. I also received a reading that said I would run into someone from my past. I didn't think much of it. I got on the bus after the reading, went into town, got off, walked round the corner and ran into someone very important to me who I hadn't seen for a couple of years who had moved away. I no longer do tarot card readings, and I prefer not to have them in the house.
Hi there! Thank you so much for an informative reply. I wanted to know if there are times when you've read tarot, thought you had the right answer, but it turned out badly?
I have to disagree. Some readers are nothing more than observant people who steer the reading to what they perceive the client wants to hear. In the course of nearly 80 years on this ball of mud, I have known a number of psychic readers, astrologers, tarot readers, and healers who are (IMH) the "real deal." As my mother used to say, "The stars incline, but do not compel." A psychic reading, whether tarot or pure ESP, is nothing more than a snapshot in time that indicates probabilities, based on curent circumstances Nothing exists in a vacuum, and that includes human lives. All lives are affected by all other lives. In any situation, if ONE person with any potential involvement changes direction after a reading has been made ... the reading will probably be invalidated. Does that mean the reading was "wrong"? No ... it was accurate when it was made, but something changed. I don't like most of the tarot decks that are being sold. I have multiple sets of the Rider-Waite deck, which I consider to be the only useful Tarot deck.
With respect, you misunderstood some of what I wrote. Leading a client to his or her own conclusions is not the same as telling the client what he or she wants to hear. It is a way of guiding a person to what they already know deep inside themselves. That is a valuable service. The genuine instances of farseeing or psychic connection I have experienced have been spontaneous and unsought. I don't doubt there are folks who can call it at will, but there are a lot of unscrupulous folks making book off the desperate and incredulous. Excusing predictions that don't pan out with, "Well, they were true at the time they were made," is a useful smokescreen, and I remain a skeptic. I like the old Rider-Waite deck the best, too, though some of the others are beautiful.
Hmm... Depends on what you mean by "badly." I've certainly had readings that I couldn't make sense out of, which could be because they were just random cards or because I wasn't skilled enough yet to understand them, depending on your viewpoint. And my attempts at predictive readings, like "What will the coming month be like?" have been very hit-or-miss, but not bad in any dramatic way. The best I can offer is this. I had a bit of a crush on a friend, but she made it clear that, while she liked me too, we were looking for different things in a relationship, and she'd rather remain my friend instead. Shortly thereafter, I texted her about something, but she didn't respond for several days, and I started worrying that I had pushed her too hard and she had decided to cut me off. So, I did a reading asking whether I had lost a friend, and it was full of dramatic, "negative" cards: Death, The Tower, the Three of Swords, etc. Very ugly. Not an hour later, my friend finally responded to my text, and we picked up our conversation without a problem. She had just been busy, and I had overreacted because I'm neurotic and socially anxious. So, the reading couldn't possibly have been more wrong - but it was perfectly in tune with how I felt when I dealt the cards. And that's been the most fascinating thing about my readings in general: not that they've predicted the future, but that they've helped me understand the present in more depth.
I've gotten to know a few readers over the past few months through a meetup, and I'd definitely agree with that. Whatever else may or may not be going on, there's definitely a lot of plain old human understanding in reading for someone else. The better readers often self-identify as "empaths," which, mystical or not, at least suggests that they're very good at picking up on cues like body language and tone of voice. There are some spectacularly beautiful decks out there, but it does seem like many people treat it mostly as an art project. I bought one from a local artist this Christmas called The Philly Tarot. It's cute and fun, but he admitted that he was still learning about tarot, and even to a beginner like me, it showed. Still, I do use it on occasion, as there's some good stuff in there; Gritty as The Devil is perfection.
My own experience with tarot is pretty shallow so far, but my understanding is that the tarot cards were originally simply used as playing cards and gradually were imbued with esoteric / divinatory significance, which was elaborated by various occultists and fully codified with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and its accompanying explanation. So with that in mind, is it fair to look at the various new tarot decks and deem them less useful than the Waite-Smith deck, seeing as the Waite-Smith deck is little over a century old? Of course I can appreciate why this deck became the standard- the learned esotericist Waite put meticulous thought into the design of each card, and Smith's paintings are a brilliant and elegant execution of those ideas. Nonetheless insofar as this deck was meant to be an expression of a pre-existing tradition, which made use of cards that were not consciously designed for divinatory or occult purposes, it seems a bit unfair to me to expect every deck to conform to this modern standard. Looking at older decks, the artists seemed to be less concerned about adhering to a code of symbols. Moreover the minor arcana are mainly pip cards (like the non-trumps in standard playing cards).
There was a time when I was deeply into the Tarot, and I've found it useful in readings for myself to explore possible ways of looking at a situation. And yes, I was using the Ryder/Waite deck for the most part. Two comments: 1. I've found the Tarot decks to be good as plot generators. Do a reading for a fictional character, and it will suggest ways to guide the action. 2. If you do use a reading in a plot, make sure that it makes sense. A friend of mine wrote a song that had a reference to a casting, in which he wrote: "Three swords from your sorrow Three wands for the toss Three cups for the future" ...although those card don't mean anything like that. Poetic license, I guess.
To answer the OP, I’ve never had my tarot read. Pretty boring, I guess, since you need people with some experience around the area to advance your story. However, the idea to use the tarot to BECOME the story is a quirky idea. But besides using tarot to generate the plot, what about using it to create your characters and base their unique personalities around a single reading? In the past, I wrote a story about a psychic reading that was completely inaccurate until it come true. I suppose you can think about whether the tarot reader the OP wants to write about will become a complete fraud or the real deal. It seems like an interesting subject matter either way.
@Sarah Naidoo Lots of members here giving out a broad range of views and experiences on the Tarot. For me I don’t believe in them as a fortune telling aid. I learned to use them and Ruin Stones decades ago. Used in the correct manner they can be extremely helpful. The idea is focusing your mind on the question you wish to ask. This seems pretty straight forward, but the clearer the question the better. By drawing cards and placing them in a specific area the Tarot deck performs some real magic here... It allows you, if you answer truthfully every aspect surrounding your given question. It allows you to see the problems and issues from different points of view other than your own. And this is its true magic in my opinion. It breaks your single train of thought. Both Ruin Stones & Tarot showed me the problem in an exploded format. The question I asked suddenly wasn’t the problem I needed solved. This is important, after many-many draws your questions become sharper. And the answers literally leap off the table at you. The cards or stones drawn on a particular position offer you a random talking point or start that’s all. They genuinely helped me look at problems differently and understand my enemy’s point of view. You must be total honest with yourself when doing this. Most people are not and don’t stick with it long enough for them to be useful. I stopped using them many years as I naturally started to look at issues like a draw. I’ll do party draw tricks from time to time and can shock most people into disbelief. Tony Buzan the inventor of Mind Maps and Lateral Thinking books uses an exact lift of a small tarot deck to help solve business issues. Read the book its exactly the same, once you can see a problem from many different perspectives, you’ll see a solution... From a story point of view, I could easily see a reader manipulating a client into actions against their will. Look at Darren Brown for instance... Just my thoughts... MartinM
That's why I posted that I hope your earlier post was a pun. I got it -- I have a couple of bags of rune stones around here, somewhere.
@sarah Naido I’ve had a glass of red and thought of something similar I wanted to add. The topic is Psychic readings. This is very similar to Tarot, but takes a lot of talent and practice. One of the best I’ve seen is the Seatbelt Psychic. He’s on YouTube and Netflix. Its worth taking a look. He’s a fraud, full stop and was caught out. In fact, all psychics are. The guy uses the premise of you booking an Uber ride. This gives his back-office researchers about 10minutes lead in time before he picks them up. Now here’s my issue with psychics, as long as no money changes hands and they give a positive reading its OK. Watch some of the ride-a-longs... he really does give some peace and comfort to people who have lost loved ones. However, running a stage show with ticket entry or a ‘Church’ is a no. The Magician draws you back paying each time. The audience become addicted to it. The same way Mystic Meg will read your cards every second Thursday for twenty quid. Many people will become hooked and regular customers. Her clients start seeing random events forcing them into Meg’s narrative. You want Meg to be right... Darren Brown on his YT channel shows up a psychic church NY. That’s cringe embarrassing stuff and the girl who had the reading, then shown how it was done tear jerking. This thread as renewed my interest in the cards and will pick up a copy this weekend to have a bit of fun. MartinM (was a tad a drunk writing this, apologies)
Hey there! Your short story idea sounds fascinating! I once had an online tarot reading that was eerily accurate; it gave me chills! On the flip side, there was this one time the predictions were way off. It got me thinking about the mysteries of tarot. For anyone diving into this, I'd recommend trying different readers online to find the one that resonates best with you.
As I recall, the death card in Tarot is supposed to represent change not a physical death. But then I don't remember much about from when I looked at it 30 some years ago.
I grew up with the tarot and it's always funny to me that when reading for myself or anyone else, cards will turn up again and again. Even if I shuffle or use a different deck. I guess the universe wants me to pay attention to the Five of Cups that keeps showing up.
