My "proof" that Tarot is special

This weekend I had a conversation about Tarot with my step-father, which was along the lines of "they're just cards" and "whats the difference between that and poker" and "you actually believe that something is placing those cards?" So it got me thinking:

You know those moments when the cards connect every dot so perfectly to someone's life that it could never just be coincidence? For some, that's their "proof" that something more than cards is at play.

My "proof", is simply that I get a headache when I'm working with my cards for too long.
I've played poker for hours before with friends, I don't get a headache and I think playing poker requires the same amount of brain power than Tarot. I believe that those times when we get tarot burn out, it's because we are working with a tool that connects to something higher. That puts our brains, our spirit, our body in direct contact with something powerful. I'm not surprised that has some kind of side effect, however minor.

Just my two cents. What's your "proof" that Tarot is more?

My proof is that it is too bloody accurate to be written off as mere coincidence I have seen so many "non-believers" have all the colour drain from their faces when I read for them...and it has always been exceptionally on point for me as well. I find other systems hit and miss - not the Tarot. It works!

My 'proof' comes from decades of accuracy, both for myself & others. If I got a headache when I read, I would have quit decades ago. And WHY would you want the blood to drain out of someone's face when you read for them, Lotus Padma? It should be a give & take, a sharing of input, not some woo-woo prediction thing. Maybe you stated it wrong, but that's what it sounded like. The Kiwi, If you research the fact that many psychologists are now using tarot in their counseling sessions, that may help your step-father to accept it. Maybe scientific research would reach him. Why does it work? I dunno. No one does. But I certainly don't think it uses the same brain cells as playing poker.

canid said:

And WHY would you want the blood to drain out of someone's face when you read for them, Lotus Padma? It should be a give & take, a sharing of input, not some woo-woo prediction thing. Maybe you stated it wrong, but that's what it sounded like

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No, no, Canid - I simply meant people who have volunteered for free readings at dinner parties - who are all "that's horsefluff!" and make a big loud show of how dumb the Tarot is...and stalk into the reading all defensive and puffed up...and then I tell them about their mistress, marriage problems, new job application, whatever. In a private room, of course. They tend to go very white when they find the Tarot really is true, and that it works. It (forgive me) always gives me a kick to see non-believing scoffers eat their hat. Sorry. I guess enjoying their shock is a hanging (Hanged man...?) offense. lol!

ETA and to them, it is not a sharing thing - they say nothing at all till the end, if that, and *want* to see me fail. Forgive me if it is a secret pleasure when Tarot beats them at their own game. Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, no "woowoos" here. And my clients are caring, compassionate people with a desire to know. And I truly care about them, and with them, it IS an exchange...

My relationship with Tarot is such that proof doesn't matter. I am fortunate in that neither my income nor my self-esteem has anything to do with Tarot divination. However, strange as it may seem to some, Tarot is a map of the microcosm as well as the macrocosm and the interrelationship between them. It is absolutely without fail in its depiction of these interrelationships.

It cannot, however, produce the winning numbers in the lottery. It is therefore not an instrument which can predict the future, except insofar as it can, with the help of the reader, extrapolate current and past information into future probabilities.

LRichard said:

However, strange as it may seem to some, Tarot is a map of the microcosm as well as the macrocosm and the interrelationship between them. It is absolutely without fail in its depiction of these interrelationships.

It cannot, however, produce the winning numbers in the lottery. It is therefore not an instrument which can predict the future, except insofar as it can, with the help of the reader, extrapolate current and past information into future probabilities.

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Precisely! The amazing thing about tarot is how it seems to have fit every permutation of life and beyond into 78 cards. What is telling some jerk he's having an affair in comparison to that? This is why I'm not that bothered about 'fortune telling'. Tarot is bigger to me than this. I do read for others, but I often feel frustrated when using the cards in this way, because it sometimes seems a frivolous use of the cards. That's why I decline questions which I consider silly, and I never do cold readings where I tell the querent everything he already knows about his own life. Seems little point to it.

Ah yes ... but there is a way of 'reading' the cards that is not 'fortune telling' .

I totally agree with LRichard in that, " My relationship with Tarot is such that proof doesn't matter. I am fortunate in that neither my income nor my self-esteem has anything to do with Tarot divination. However, strange as it may seem to some, Tarot is a map of the microcosm as well as the macrocosm and the interrelationship between them. It is absolutely without fail in its depiction of these interrelationships. "

Some times these interrelatiionships have relevence to people's situation when they need to make an 'informed' choice. A bit like talking things over with a friend when they have a problem or issue and looking at opportunities and outcomes but you are using the cards and the system in them.

I dont read for people who want to know the future. If they insist I tell them, "You are about to pay a very large amount of money to a tall dark and mysterious tarot reader who may not tell you what you want to hear."

They are still pretty special though. Someone challenged me once at my market stall (tarot on the side) that if the cards were real he would get a reading and then straight after that he would get another one and they should be the same cards.

I said, okay lets do it and see what happenes. 11 card reading... same cards appaeared 7 times 3 in the same place ... close ... but it was enough for him to think something else was happening. Never been able to get those results since though ... and that is interesting too ... the 'timing' of the 'coincidence'.

my "proof" is my uncontrollable burst of laughter that comes when I am reading for myself.

I pull out cards so accurate and bizaare that it's like my deck is an old friend telling me things that i know, just don't yet want to admit, thus, i laugh, thank my deck (which is pretty much my best friend) and then ask another question. (i was in Phnom Penh in Cambodia alone for a few days and spent an entire evening with a beer in one hand, tarot deck in the other having long conversations like this with my tarot deck. i honestly feel like we speak to eachother...)

also, as mentioned above, reading for tarot skeptics and watching them be absolutely baffled when it's painfully accurate.

... and more applause for LRichard from me too. Well & succinctly put.

My 'proof of the pudding is in the eating.' And in that burst of laughter at total recognition that hollyelizabeth mentions.

Lotus Padma said:

My proof is that it is too bloody accurate to be written off as mere coincidence I have seen so many "non-believers" have all the colour drain from their faces when I read for them...and it has always been exceptionally on point for me as well. I find other systems hit and miss - not the Tarot. It works!

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I agree with LP, as I fully get where she is coming from about those 'non-believers/poo-pooers of tarot'. Though for me, myself, no proof is required, as LRichard stated.

I can remember one reading for a friend who did not believe in divination and thought it was ridiculous and to prove 'her' point asked me to read her cards. I did, and asked her in the process if her husband and she going to buy a new car. (I don't recall the cards now, but remember getting that from the cards layed out in front of me). "No! of course not!" she replied. So, I told her there was something about a car, and I really felt it was showing a new car.

Well, didn't she go home then and there stood her husband in their driveway beside their BRAND NEW CAR!!!!

She had to call me on the phone and tell me and she said, "Okay. I'm a believer now. You can read my cards anytime you want!"

Yes, I love it when people who poo-poo the tarot and other forms of divination, only to find out that there really IS something to all this.