Why is my Tarot Deck lying to me?

My concern for my girlfriend whether or not she was pregnant or not was growing.

She missed her "." , and I was panicking because an event took place about a month ago that I really wouldn't want to get into detail about (if you can see where I'm going here..)

Anyways, I asked the cards if I should be concerned or not. The first card to pop out of the deck was the empress, the next the Queen of Pentacles, and the next the King of Cups upside down.

Now, I know what the first two cards mean ... and I was extremely worried that infact my girlfriend WAS pregnant. So I decided to take all the minor/court cards out of the deck, and do a Yes/No question. I asked the question, "Is my girlfriend really pregnant?" The first card I pulled, was yet again, The Empress.

The next day, I still had my doubts of her being pregnant, so I consulted the cards one last time before I talked to my girlfriend about getting a pregnancy test. Yet again, The Empress fell out of the deck and the Queen of Pentacles came out, except this time the Knight of Swords reversed also came out.

That night, I went to the local store and bought a pregnancy test. She tried out two of them. Both came back NEGATIVE.

Now, it came to my thinking. WHY would the tarot cards keep giving me signs of pregnancy with The Empress and Queen of Pentacles constantly? Would it be because it KNEW I was thinking about pregnancy? If so, then it really didn't predict anything, nor answer the question I was looking for, it just read my thoughts. I felt as if my Tarot cards are just playing tricks with my mind now and are really just a mirror image of what my mind is thinking, instead of the truth (or answering the question). Any thoughts? Esp. on those King of Cups upside down and Knight of Swords that showed up (both at the end of a 3 card spread).

By the way, for each reading I did it was just a 3-card spread I made up myself, kind of like a story spread, with no real "labels" like spreads have. I just laid out the first three cards without making a spread up. I think I might have just answered my own post and question here, but I want to make sure. And I'd also like insight on which spread to use for this kind of question!

Thanks,
Jeff

Hi Jeff,

First of all, yes/no questions are not the best to ask the cards. It's better to frame questions in terms of energies, or what you need to know, or maybe "how" questions.

Second: Universe time is different from our time. So while your girlfriend may not be pregnant now (and congratulations, since you seem to be very worried about that), that does not mean that she won't be pregnant in the future. And, with all due respect, her pregnancy may not be from you. I say this due to The Empress popping up so much, even with your deck alterations.

Someone on AT said recently that reading tarot implies having a measure of faith. If you did not have faith in the first reading, then doing subsequent readings really wouldn't make much of a difference in your mind.

I've also found through personal experience that your cards know when you don't have faith, and they do things to mess with you (like throw a lot of reversals, or have certain cards to come up a lot). The Empress may be your signal card from your deck, and specially chosen due to your current/recent preoccupations with an unexpected pregnancy.

So the cards are not lying to you; they just may be remarking on an event yet to pass.

I hope this helps.

T.

well...ya may wanna spend some more time with the cards, more time reading the cards and gaining actual experience reading with strangers and such, before you begin to tackle serious personal issues to which you have an attached bias.

Determining pregnancy with Tarot? Thirty five years of reading and I’d never even think of doing such a thing!

This is Tarot. Not medicine, not a lawyer, not a financial advisor.

We don't play make-believe with Tarot. Your deck was not lying. You have deluded yourself.

Edited to add: an Empress Never ever MEANS pregnant. Suppose you start spouting that pregant crap off to someone who's had a condition that prevents pregnancy? Such as normal menopause? Chemotherapy induced menopause? Hysterectomy? To ever state or imply that the Empress = pregnancy is irresponsible.

Sorry to come down so hard on you – but you involved your girlfriend with this idiocy…the life of another! Wake up – get real.

It helps, somewhat. Thanks for the reply so fast!

But I'm still wondering, are you trying to say the deck is mocking me or trying to scare me?

boxxleman said:

It helps, somewhat. Thanks for the reply so fast!

But I'm still wondering, are you trying to say the deck is mocking me or trying to scare me?

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The deck is not alive. It's not mocking you. It's not scaring you. That's you projecting on the deck.

boxxleman said:

It helps, somewhat. Thanks for the reply so fast!

But I'm still wondering, are you trying to say the deck is mocking me or trying to scare me?

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The deck isn't trying to DO anything to you.

You don't have faith in it, so why should it have faith in you? It's simply reflecting the energies you are projecting into it, back to you.

Tarot is a mirror of our subconscious: it holds the subconscious up so that we can examine it. Sometimes we like what we see in the mirror, sometimes we don't. *Shrug* But the cards don't lie.

And I agree with Umbrae...medical/legal diagnoses are not made with tarot.

BTW: store-bought pregnancy tests are known to give false positives, even if you take ten in a row. You and your girlfriend may want to visit an actual healthcare professional.

T.

Sorry, but I'm still quite new at this whole Tarot thing.

How do I prevent it from NOT projecting myself onto the deck?

Umbrae said:

The deck is not alive. It's not mocking you. It's not scaring you. That's you projecting on the deck.

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That's quite a story!

It seems the cards were both answering your question, and mirroring your feelings. You asked if you should be concerned or not. It seems to me (now that we know what the test results were) that the cards were saying how you might respond if she were pregnant. So, if she's pregnant you'd be in an emotional turmoil (King Cups reversed). You asked again, your stress level was rising and you get Knight of Swords reversed (my initial response while reading your story was a rising panic and "cut and run"). But you turned that reversed card right side up, you went into action to find out the truth.

Face it, you were really concerned and probably not able to distance yourself from the reading. One of the hazards of reading for yourself.

Ahhh, now I get it. That sheds light on everything! Makes more sense to me now!

Now, with all of this information being said..I'm assuming, the Tarot cannot answer yes/no questions. I wasn't sure, but from all of the "fortune telling" and tarot card readings I have had by professionals, they have all told me it can predict the future. So all I was trying to do was find out if she was or not. I guess it's not possible with Tarot, then?

EDIT:

And if it WAS possible, how would I go about doing that? With more of an open mind, or what?

Acacia said:

That's quite a story!

It seems the cards were both answering your question, and mirroring your feelings. You asked if you should be concerned or not. It seems to me (now that we know what the test results were) that the cards were saying how you might respond if she were pregnant. So, if she's pregnant you'd be in an emotional turmoil (King Cups reversed). You asked again, your stress level was rising and you get Knight of Swords reversed (my initial response while reading your story was a rising panic and "cut and run"). But you turned that reversed card right side up, you went into action to find out the truth.

Face it, you were really concerned and probably not able to distance yourself from the reading. One of the hazards of reading for yourself.

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Hi Umbrae

Umbrae said:

well...ya may wanna spend some more time with the cards, more time reading the cards and gaining actual experience reading with strangers and such, before you begin to tackle serious personal issues to which you have an attached bias.

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Often, advice given to those inexperienced with tarot is to read for themselves for practice; and therefore they are bound to tackle personal issues sooner or later. The trick is to gain objectivity. For a few reasons, I'd rather a new reader had their big learning curve/mistakes with their own readings, not a stranger.

Determining pregnancy with Tarot? Thirty five years of reading and I’d never even think of doing such a thing!

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Why not ? If tarot reflects the real world and mundane concerns, pregnancy is part of that world. Tarot can be used for prediction, if one chooses.

This is Tarot. Not medicine, not a lawyer, not a financial advisor.

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And so ? If tarot indicates pregnancy, go buy a stick to pee on to make certain ;-) If it indicates court, go see a lawyer; if it indicates penury, check your credit card bill LOL
But then, I guess, if one has belief/faith in what the cards tell you, you might not need or want that factual/scientific backup ?

Edited to add: an Empress Never ever MEANS pregnant.

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The Empress never ever indicates pregnancy ? Ever ?? You are very certain, and allow no room for other people's experience of that card.

Suppose you start spouting that pregant crap off to someone who's had a condition that prevents pregnancy? Such as normal menopause? Chemotherapy induced menopause? Hysterectomy?

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This is a different issue. In fact, the start of many issues - ethical in terms of prediction, medical, psychological effect on the querent; interpretative issues; experience; etcetc

To ever state or imply that the Empress = pregnancy is irresponsible.

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No, it isn't. It is irresponsible for someone who is regarded as an Eminence Grise on this forum to imply to a novice that a particular card can categorically 'never ever' mean one particular thing ...or that a card only has one interpretation (Death means death, for instance)

Sorry to come down so hard on you – but you involved your girlfriend with this idiocy…the life of another! Wake up – get real.

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It is unclear to me whether he actually involved his girlfriend in his readings or not. If not, then the only person he has disturbed is himself; and as he says, he has learned from this experience - which is surely what matters, in terms of what he does with his tarot in the future.

Boxxleman - sorry to be talking about you like you're not here

ribbitcat