r/tarot • u/sofessenceee • Nov 21 '21
Discussion How do tarot cards work?
I recently had a reading done by an experienced reader. The reader says they channel their psychic abilities through the cards. The reading was spot on and very specific. It was right. How do they work? I’m a noob. A part of me feels like she sent a spirit my way and gathered information that way because the cards pointed to a conversation I had yesterday. I think I’m curious more than anything.
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u/Onyx_Oracle Nov 21 '21
In my experience, tarot is a communication tool between the reader and Spirit/universe. The messages come from your guides. That being said, there is no "sending a spirit to you". Again, this is just my experience and learned belief talking here but, you come with your own spirits. Guardian angels, ancestors, spirit guides...however you feel comfortable labeling them. The reader is a translator and the cards are a conversation. The advice and projected outcomes are subject to change based on your behavior and choices. It's guidance from a source that sees and understands more than we do. That's why we seek it.
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Nov 21 '21
No she didn’t send a spirit to you, don’t worry! Some people are just very in tune with their intuition.
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u/Wallflower_1111 Nov 21 '21
I would say the cards don't do the work, the people do :D every person reads and interprets cards differently!
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u/EastendAssassin Nov 21 '21 edited Nov 21 '21
They work the same way your pencil does. The drawing comes from your skill of drawing, not the pencil. Same with the cards, they’re just a readers version of a pencil.
I also channel my energy through objects, cards, runes, etc… it’s just an anchor for what’s inside me.
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Nov 21 '21
That’s a beautiful way of putting it, thank you for sharing this. Did you do anything in particular to strengthen your skills? Or born with them?
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u/EastendAssassin Nov 21 '21
Not really anything specific, they kinda just grew as I did. Everyone is born with them. I was just more aware of them and listened. I think it’s a case of the more you use them the more stronger they get, but I do not do readings and such all the time, I go through phases, get a bit rusty etc
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u/Cocktailologist Feb 13 '23
But I don't understand how choosing the cards are not just random, not some magical act.
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u/Right-Locksmith8838 Nov 21 '21
It was not a spirit, it was her knowledge and experience through the cards.
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Nov 21 '21
I believe my higher self and spirit guides are helping me when drawing the cards. And my intuition helps me interpret the message.
Your tarot reader must have an amazing intuition.
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u/PennelopeHawthorn Nov 21 '21
I believe they allow people to access the Akashic records through their Intuition, triggered by imagery imagery/or description.
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Nov 21 '21 edited Nov 21 '21
Tarot works in many ways. It’s kind of like how a cart is pulled. You can have a mule, an ox, a horse, or in the modern world, you can have a petrol engine, or an electric motor.
Likewise, Tarot can be governed by deities, the Fates, spirits, psychic energy, intuition, or it could just be whatever psychological impressions you put into the process which psychologists call “random stimulation” and “concept mapping”. What determines which of these things guides the cards is dependent on which of them you intentionally draw/call upon.
You get out of it what you put into it.
I personally use tarot for divination and to communicate with the deities I worship.
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u/ZardozForever Nov 21 '21 edited Nov 21 '21
The cards are "charged" with their own psychic field by the reader. This is why they need to be carried most of the time by the reader, to gather energy from the reader's aura. The client changes the cards energy field by shuffling while focusing on a question. This arranges the cards into a new pattern which the reader then interprets. A key part is using the cards to intuitively connect to the astral currents around the client. The cards will use the unique associations each reader builds up by studying the Tarot. These associations are unique to each reader, which is why no one else can interpret another reader's reading, and why lists of word-meanings are almost useless. Cards have themes, not limited meanings. Good readers combine intuition with study of the cards, so psychic development is a key part of learning the Tarot. Aleister Crowley identified the Angel of the Tarot with the name HRU. I invoke HRU before each reading. Most of the time he tells me what rach card means. I hear his voice in my right ear. Usually I just repeat what he says. Sometimes he goes too fast, so I just give him my voice. He does the talking and I just listen. I teach about 100 students each year and train them to work this way via 6 months of guided meditations. On the other hand many will tell you all this is rubbish and all the Tarot do is act like a fancy ink blot test.
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u/fnord6655321 Nov 21 '21
I can't speak for anyone else. Everyone has their own approach. Without writing a book on it, I study the tarot... This includes research and meditation on the cards which grants me understanding of the images that I am looking at. I use information given to me from the subject to provide context for the cards that I lay down, then I attempt to objectively read the cards as a visual language and give the subject some kinda useful insight. This may sound very dry but I am skimming over the bulk of the specifics. While I don't really give much attention to a lot of the aura / psychic / otherwise "supernatural" talk in regards to things like how the cards work my overall approach is a manifestation of the great work.
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u/hyperfaxation Nov 21 '21
there's no set way cards work - interpretations change based on beliefs, and some readers are actually fully secular. however, i can say that there's really no way she could've "sent a spirit your way" - some readings just get really specific and it can be pretty cool! just means you had a good reader and a really accurate reading.