Is a tarot app as good as picking a card?

I think it's a Your Millage May Vary sort of thing. For some people apps are just too impersonal (from what I've read) but you may get something out of using one for reference. Galaxy Tone Tarot for Android has a really nice reference section with the cards that goes into symbolism, astrology etc. I have the Fool's Dog Robin Wood Tarot app and I use it to get the full description of cards and for a quick look up. I've also gotten a lot out of seeing the different spreads that come in the apps and use them outside the app with a physical deck.

Barleywine said:

It's almost totally impersonal, to be sure, but not necessarily invalid if one accepts the notion that pushing a button is not that much different from randomly pulling a card from a "fan."

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Well, I won't accept that notion for sure! [emoji6]

Because after pushing the button there's a process running in your phone which will determine the cards. If you pull real cards from a fan, you're choosing the cards completely yourself.

Whether I'm choosing cards with my own hands or pushing a button on a screen, my thinking is that I'm going to draw the cards I'm 'supposed' to draw...To me, the process running in my phone after I push the button to determine the cards, is not an issue...because I believe I'm going to see the cards I'm meant to see. I mean, I have no idea what to expect anyway, so why would I think that pushing a button is any less significant than pulling the cards from a deck? It really makes no difference to me. In other words, I have no issues with electronic tarot.

I love the idea of apps, that you can take them anywhere with you on your phone and pass time using them to draw cards. But kind of like the disconnect I get from reading a book on a kindle, the apps disconnect me from how the cards feel in my hand.

This is just my own opinion.

I love the feel of turning pages in a book, the smell of its insides, its weight in my hands and the way the words lay across the page. In the same way, I love the feel of the cards, the ability to touch the images, and the way they feel as I shuffle them.

I am a very tactile person, one of those that has to touch everything. My husband says I'm like a six-year old when he goes with me shopping in grocery, book, or clothing stores. Everywhere I go, I love to feel textures.

There are advantages to both. I agree that it is different for everyone.

If someone uses an app your still getting random cards. You still have to read the cards because all an app does is give you "their" meanings of each individual cards. .I have a couple apps but I have to say, I don't do many readings with them but I can see the convenience of them. I mostly use mine to study or work with a deck. Most apps let you put your own thoughts in them so they are great for keeping your journal. But there is something about the physical cards I prefer.

Flames said:

Whether I'm choosing cards with my own hands or pushing a button on a screen, my thinking is that I'm going to draw the cards I'm 'supposed' to draw...To me, the process running in my phone after I push the button to determine the cards, is not an issue...because I believe I'm going to see the cards I'm meant to see. I mean, I have no idea what to expect anyway, so why would I think that pushing a button is any less significant than pulling the cards from a deck? It really makes no difference to me. In other words, I have no issues with electronic tarot.

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Shanachie05 said:

I love the idea of apps, that you can take them anywhere with you on your phone and pass time using them to draw cards. But kind of like the disconnect I get from reading a book on a kindle, the apps disconnect me from how the cards feel in my hand.

This is just my own opinion.

I love the feel of turning pages in a book, the smell of its insides, its weight in my hands and the way the words lay across the page. In the same way, I love the feel of the cards, the ability to touch the images, and the way they feel as I shuffle them.

I am a very tactile person, one of those that has to touch everything. My husband says I'm like a six-year old when he goes with me shopping in grocery, book, or clothing stores. Everywhere I go, I love to feel textures.

There are advantages to both. I agree that it is different for everyone.

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I am backing both of these posts I feel both of these are things I would say, pro and con.

I use my Lenormand app and it is freaking incredibly accurate - but for tarot, for some reason, the apps leave me feeling - randomly generated. I guess it is because I feel like doing tarot is entering a Delphic temple to receive divine instruction, therefore intensely personal and private, whereas the Lenormand, to me, is like asking my best friend for the truth - it will come in a short, shocking punchline, whether good or bad.

So, for me, app + Lenormand = and app + tarot =

ETA Oh, and! I also think, as Ana Luisa does, that apps are amazing if you don't have the funds to buy a new deck - you can buy it for $5 on an app; and also, to have a deck app before you decide to buy, so you don't commit to the wrong deck, and lose money on something you will regret buying.

Anything can work as an oracle if you verbally designate it to do so. Tarot apps as well as anything I want to read with work perfectly fine when I do.

I genuinely find my tarot apps to be just as accurate, and occasionally as scathing, as my ink and paper decks. I still prefer a physical deck and I have waaaay too many, and I still basically always have a deck in my purse anyway, but still. Apps are discreet, fast, and in some apps, you can do freeform spreads. Some apps are also packed with information! The Zirkus Magi app is fantastic. Sometimes apps have really nice spreads that I've ended up using with physical decks. Etc.

I don't find it any more impersonal, and most apps have an option where the cards fan out and you pick one out, if you like that kind of thing. Personally, I skip that step and I just want the app to throw a card at me.

If there are forces out there that govern our divination, I think they are more than capable of tweaking my tech so that I see the "right" card, and in fact I feel like a spiritual entity manipulating an information flow seems a lot more plausible than most methods.

And if there are NOT forces out there that govern our divination and it's all psychological, then app vs paper really doesn't matter much, as we're going to see what we're going to see anyway. The symbolism will be there and our conscious and subconscious will react accordingly.

I do suspect it's highly YMMV, because you probably have to be comfortable with tech to be open to the experience--not just capable of using the tech, but comfortable on a more abstract level.

I also don't believe in cleansing my physical cards, and I don't believe that little stacks of paper printed off and packaged in some factory in China by workers in probably terrible working conditions are somehow inherently sacred objects, so that attitude probably predisposes me to feel comfortable with apps, as well.

I use online means, but I can pick the card myself there, and it is my own chat room where I can shuffle, mix, split decks etc. I am not comfortable with the app picking my cards.

Yes, they can be. I've written a console program and I use an app on my Android phone and it works more or less the same.

Some people may not be able to connect to cards through a screen. They need physical cards to connect... but it is definitely possible to read through electronic means.