Instances of when the tarot was wrong?

Teheuti

A good way to check the accuracy of your cards, especially if you do yes/no readings, is to do readings on the sex of a child for a pregnant woman who hasn't yet gotten a sex determination. You'll get very quick feedback on whether the cards were right or if you know how to interpret them.
 

MaryQC

I always think the cards give us what is going on in the moment, and we can decide what happens - nothing is set in concrete.

I absolutely agree. Some posters have said that they find that the energy of the reader or querent interferes with the cards, but I don't think interference is the right word. The cards *work* by reading energy. They're not designed to read the future, exactly, but rather to read the querent and give predictions and advice based on that. If something doesn't happen the way the cards predict, it's because the situation has changed or the querent has opted not to follow the advice the cards gave--both perfectly normal!
 

SunChariot

Much of the time when my tarot reading was wrong it is because my interpretation was wrong.

BUT one time I told a woman whose boyfriend had left her (they had a child together) that they would not get back together - the cards basically said, "NO WAY" In very emphatic tones. And there was no way to misinterpret the reading.

But they did, and they have another little boy, and to all appearances are quite happy. LOL.

I always think the cards give us what is going on in the moment, and we can decide what happens - nothing is set in concrete.

Exactly. Things (the future) can change after the reading is done.

Babs
 

TinaV

A good way to check the accuracy of your cards, especially if you do yes/no readings, is to do readings on the sex of a child for a pregnant woman who hasn't yet gotten a sex determination. You'll get very quick feedback on whether the cards were right or if you know how to interpret them.

That's a good idea! I have tried that before to "test" my psychic abilities. However, instead of guessing the sex of the child, I am somehow always able to tell that a woman is pregnant before she even knows it herself. I'm not talking about the time when the belly starts to show, but like the very beginning of the pregnancy.

I absolutely agree. Some posters have said that they find that the energy of the reader or querent interferes with the cards, but I don't think interference is the right word. The cards *work* by reading energy. They're not designed to read the future, exactly, but rather to read the querent and give predictions and advice based on that. If something doesn't happen the way the cards predict, it's because the situation has changed or the querent has opted not to follow the advice the cards gave--both perfectly normal!

It sounds so strange though. How can things "change" if you remain passive after a reading? Or not undertake any action because you weren't planning on doing that anyway?

Exactly. Things (the future) can change after the reading is done.

I'm still trying to understand that. I don't see how things can "change" if you aren't doing anything you weren't going to do anyway.
 

TinaV

The best thing I can recommend is to look over readings here on the forum in which a lot of different people offer their interpretation, and then the querent tells what actually happened. Are all the people right? Do the cards always directly relate to the outcome? As far as I can tell: No and No. However, some people's interpretations are much more spot on than others!

I agree with this. I have seen interpretations on this forum that have been very helpful, especially when it comes to cards in certain positions, e.g. representing someone's feelings. l

This was a very interesting post to read. I have two examples were the tarot didn't answer me properly. One was about a job interview, where the cards said yes and I didn't get the job and another was about pregnancy. I asked if I would get pregnant by end of July and the cards were Empress and Queen of Cups. I was sure that it would happen and so far, no baby news. A friend said that my desire to be pregnant had an effect to the cards. If she is right, it makes so difficult to read a thread because you'll never know if the cards show your energy or the outcome!

Well, your question had a double meaning. It was both an if and when question. Maybe the Tarot only answerred the if, and not the when? Or vice versa, in which "pregnancy" represented a different life project you have been passionate about?

For me, I don't notice if the tarot is wrong, because I make a point of only noting the cards, noting the possible meanings and advice, then letting it go. I just relegate the reading to the back of my memory, & live my life - my interpretation at the time may be wrong, see. I may take a picture of the spread, but I don't actually refer back to it. It's not good to fixate on the the readings, IMO. Anyway, when something is destined to happen, there's not much you can do. Then when something happens that corresponds with the tarot reading, suddenly that card comes to mind and, *MINDBLOWN*

Even when the cards don't make sense at first...after the event happens, it's like HOLY SH*T, each and every card in that spread is SPOT ON.

I try not to fixate on the cards, but it's hard if you get cards that have seemingly nothing to do with your question, or that give you an answer that seems impossible.

Also I think Tarot shows possibilities which are based on the current situation. So, when a desire prevails the probability that the desired is going to happen is very high if it is in our own control.

I agree with this, but I have gotten cards that refuted my desires before. And then afterwards, they made no sense at all because the thing I wanted to see happen, happened anyway.

And of course readings on the future may "seem" inaccurate if the future changes after the reading was done. The MOST that Tarot can ever do on questions about the future is to show the particular future (amongst many)that you are heading towards at the exact moment in time the reading was done. Any little thing we do differently after the reading has the ability to change the future to another.

What if you don't do anything differently at all? I find it hard to grasp that the future changes despite lack of action.

I don't personally believe that our feelings affect what cards come up. But I DO very much believe that our feeling affect the timing of things and WHEN they happen. My belief is that the cards were accurate at the time the reading was done but that the timing changed afterwards. I don't do many timing readings myself, for that reason, as the timing of things can so easily change. Our feelings themselves can change it. Even if you had specific feelings inside to that reading, that could change the timing of when you would get pregnant.

I don't have any experience with timing in readings. I try to avoid that because I would probably stress out about it. I'm just wondering that if you read about a breakup, and the cards are adamant it's a done deal; how does that energy suddenly change from no contact to being on talking terms again?

Yes, I have found this to be the case in my experience too. In fact, when my brain is foggy the cards will shove aside my question and tell me my brain is foggy.

I think my brain is foggy 99% of the time ha! No, I'm going through a rough time right now with a lot of uncertainties. I'm not sure if I'm even in a position to read cards.

Sometimes they just refuse to answer too, in the sense of literally telling me I am not to give any answer and that the querent is not meant to know what they asked. It is not in their best interest to have the answer. That only happened to me a couple of times, but it does happen.

I remember once telling the querent that, that the cards had said she was not meant to have the answer to what she asked, that is was not in her best interest to know that and that there were life lessons she needed to learn and could only learn them by figuring it out on her own.

She told me 4 other readers had told her the exact same thing. And that she had hoped that I would be different. That just goes to show....when you are not meant to know something you are not going to be told it. LOL

I like that. Maybe I'm not supposed to know anything right now then.

Much of the time when my tarot reading was wrong it is because my interpretation was wrong.

BUT one time I told a woman whose boyfriend had left her (they had a child together) that they would not get back together - the cards basically said, "NO WAY" In very emphatic tones. And there was no way to misinterpret the reading.

But they did, and they have another little boy, and to all appearances are quite happy. LOL.

I always think the cards give us what is going on in the moment, and we can decide what happens - nothing is set in concrete.

Well, they're still together now, but if they ever decide to break up again; does that mean the tarot was right?
 

ThreeNine

"Is tarot ever wrong? Does anyone have any experiences with that?"

Definitely yes! I've had a whole deck "go bad." It was my only deck for over a decade, but I hit a rough patch with the person who gifted it to me and it turned >mean<. No reliability whatsoever. In a way I'm thankful because I'd become complacent about the contemporary Tarot community and it forced me to get new decks (and decks and decks and decks).

I was baffled when it happened because the cards had always been so right-on. I definitely recognized when they went "off."

other thoughts:

Are you "over-consulting"?

Did it happen to start with Mercury retrograde?

Has anyone else put significant energy into your deck?

Have you reset/smudged the deck?

Have you tried multiple decks?

Good luck!
 

yannie

I try not to fixate on the cards, but it's hard if you get cards that have seemingly nothing to do with your question, or that give you an answer that seems impossible.
When that happens to me, I sometimes do another spread to clarify. If the 2nd reading doesn't make sense still, I forget about it. I take that as the universe telling me that I don't have to know, it's not important, "Get on with it!" It's hard, but a process you have to go through.
 

MaryQC

It sounds so strange though. How can things "change" if you remain passive after a reading? Or not undertake any action because you weren't planning on doing that anyway?

As I understand it, the potential for future change is one of the reasons a lot of readers won't do readings spanning longer than a month or two. Tarot makes predictions based on the present, but it can't compensate for the butterfly effect.

I'm also not sure it's possible for a querent to be completely passive in a situation. Whatever you do, even if you decided to do nothing, is an active choice that the universe and the people around you will respond to.

For instance, say that you're not sure someone is interested in you, and you decide to let them make the first move. That is itself a choice, and it affects how the other person involved sees you. If you hadn't been backing off before, that's a change. Or say that the tarot advises you to be aggressive in the relationship, but you decide to be passive. The tarot's predictions might be based on that advice, in the way of, "Be aggressive, and you will likely scare them off/make them like you more."
 

SunChariot

I'm still trying to understand that. I don't see how things can "change" if you aren't doing anything you weren't going to do anyway.

My belief on this is that first, the future is not yet set most times we do a reading. It can be changed. The cards can only tell you the most likely outcome, which is not by far the only way things could work out. They do not tell you THE future, just the most likely outcome.

My belief is that you are right. IF you do exactly what you were going to do at the time the reading was done and have the exact same thoughts you would have had anyway, then no nothing will change.

But this is not always the case. Since the cards can only show the most likely outcome, sometimes the least likely outcome will be the one that happens. Let's say the weather says 10% chance of rain today. It is unlikely to rain, but it still may. 10% still means there is a chance that it could happen. It is not impossible for it to do so.

Next, besides what we say or do, a change in our thoughts can be enough to change our future. Different thought patterns can very naturally lead to different futures. If we feel more confident about a situation we will likely react different to it than if we feel it is hopeless to try. If something/anything at all comes along that changes our attitude even slightly that can change the future. Or it may not. Depending on how WE choose to react to this thing. We can choose to take it seriously or to ignore it. That is our choice and which we will choose is not usually known in advance, because we have that free choice at every moment of our lives.

The cards, I believe, can predict what will come into our paths, but not yet exactly how we will react to it, feel about it, and what thoughts it will lead us to have. Because we have free will to react to things as we choose. The thoughts and feelings we choose to have affect outcome. Even thoughts and feelings we are barely aware of can have an effect.

Of course that is hard to know in the end IF we have reacted to a situation exactly as we would have at the time the reading was done or if something has changed in the way we reacted . If we have a reading talking about 3 months from now, we don't really know every single thing we would have done and every thought we would have in that 3 months period, There is no real way to see to judge afterwards if anything has changed.

Classic, maybe oversimplified example how even something as simple as having a reading done can change the future. Someone is worried if they will pass an exam in school. It is important to them and they planned to study hard.

A reading tells them they will pass with flying colours. And they stay out all night and party because the cards told them they will do really well and they think it's a sure thing. They don't do the studying they would have done before they got the reading. Their worry would have caused them to study hard. But having been told they will do well....no worry, no studying and they fail

The reading in this case was accurate at the moment it was done. They WOULD have done really well. BUT the minute they saw the reading, they changed their attitude and that changed the future.

So that is my answer as I see it. That no, IF you do not change a thing that is likely the future that will come. Although it is not 100%. As the cards can only predict the most likely future not the ONLY one that could come. IF you react unusually in any way to something that comes up, eg if you always react one way and this time you go in = the complete opposite direction, the cards may not pick up on it and still give the more likely outcome according to how you usually react. Which will not be accurate.

Also any change it attitude or in the way you think has the potential to lead to a change in the future. If we are going to face something unusual, the cards can only predict how you will react and what that will lead to according to the way you usually react. Based on past experience and on knowing who you are. Readings on the future work BECAUSE we are creatures of habit and tend to react in predictable ways. That is what Tarot picks up on.Usually in fact they do work because we ARE creatures of habit, But sometimes we do something unsual and the cards can't pick up on it. I have even at times have the cards tell me outright that the outcome is not knowable yet and things could go either way.

Those are some of my thoughts on that anyway.

Before I try to read for something on the future I do my best to explain this all, how reading son the future work and that they can only at best tell the most likely outcome, but not by far the only one. And that we ourselves can very much affect how things end. It's in our hands.

Babs
 

jenster

My belief on this is that first, the future is not yet set most times we do a reading. It can be changed. The cards can only tell you the most likely outcome, which is not by far the only way things could work out. They do not tell you THE future, just the most likely outcome.

My belief is that you are right. IF you do exactly what you were going to do at the time the reading was done and have the exact same thoughts you would have had anyway, then no nothing will change.

But this is not always the case. Since the cards can only show the most likely outcome, sometimes the least likely outcome will be the one that happens. Let's say the weather says 10% chance of rain today. It is unlikely to rain, but it still may. 10% still means there is a chance that it could happen. It is not impossible for it to do so.

Next, besides what we say or do, a change in our thoughts can be enough to change our future. Different thought patterns can very naturally lead to different futures. If we feel more confident about a situation we will likely react different to it than if we feel it is hopeless to try. If something/anything at all comes along that changes our attitude even slightly that can change the future. Or it may not. Depending on how WE choose to react to this thing. We can choose to take it seriously or to ignore it. That is our choice and which we will choose is not usually known in advance, because we have that free choice at every moment of our lives.

The cards, I believe, can predict what will come into our paths, but not yet exactly how we will react to it, feel about it, and what thoughts it will lead us to have. Because we have free will to react to things as we choose. The thoughts and feelings we choose to have affect outcome. Even thoughts and feelings we are barely aware of can have an effect.

Of course that is hard to know in the end IF we have reacted to a situation exactly as we would have at the time the reading was done or if something has changed in the way we reacted . If we have a reading talking about 3 months from now, we don't really know every single thing we would have done and every thought we would have in that 3 months period, There is no real way to see to judge afterwards if anything has changed.

Classic, maybe oversimplified example how even something as simple as having a reading done can change the future. Someone is worried if they will pass an exam in school. It is important to them and they planned to study hard.

A reading tells them they will pass with flying colours. And they stay out all night and party because the cards told them they will do really well and they think it's a sure thing. They don't do the studying they would have done before they got the reading. Their worry would have caused them to study hard. But having been told they will do well....no worry, no studying and they fail

The reading in this case was accurate at the moment it was done. They WOULD have done really well. BUT the minute they saw the reading, they changed their attitude and that changed the future.

So that is my answer as I see it. That no, IF you do not change a thing that is likely the future that will come. Although it is not 100%. As the cards can only predict the most likely future not the ONLY one that could come. IF you react unusually in any way to something that comes up, eg if you always react one way and this time you go in = the complete opposite direction, the cards may not pick up on it and still give the more likely outcome according to how you usually react. Which will not be accurate.

Also any change it attitude or in the way you think has the potential to lead to a change in the future. If we are going to face something unusual, the cards can only predict how you will react and what that will lead to according to the way you usually react. Based on past experience and on knowing who you are. Readings on the future work BECAUSE we are creatures of habit and tend to react in predictable ways. That is what Tarot picks up on.Usually in fact they do work because we ARE creatures of habit, But sometimes we do something unsual and the cards can't pick up on it. I have even at times have the cards tell me outright that the outcome is not knowable yet and things could go either way.

Those are some of my thoughts on that anyway.

Before I try to read for something on the future I do my best to explain this all, how reading son the future work and that they can only at best tell the most likely outcome, but not by far the only one. And that we ourselves can very much affect how things end. It's in our hands.

Babs

I need to print this out and frame it.

Something I'd like to add myself is this:
When we read for ourselves we obviously care about the issue (duh) which makes it:
a. Very hard to stop at the one reading which is telling us everything we need to know (but we need to know MORE!) and
b. Looking impatiently in our surroundings for signs it is correct. Deciding it's not (for lack of immediate confirmation) and going for another reading thus resulting in our over-reading the issue. Contrary to what a few people have said I think you can't decide or determine if a reading is accurate or not if you don't let a couple of months go by. Not because it takes it that long but because you won't see the picture clearly until then.