Is using / studying tarot safe?

gregory

It also occurs to me that, if you're a Christian and a Tarot reader, it would be fun to tell someone who has just told you how evil you are, that you'll pray for them to achieve understanding ...
:lightbulb YES ! Thanks SO much for that. I am saving it for not too far distant use })

Wait - I'm not Christian and she knows I'm not. Never mind; I will mould this so that it WILL work...
 

FLizarraga

I'm afraid to differ with most people here. Tarot is not safe at all. Paper cuts can be quite crippling.
 

nisaba

Also, I have a question about safety. Recently my friend warned me about Tarot. Apparently her mother was a psychic and quite often reading for others involved a 'price', usually someone from her family was getting sick right after.

I certainly would like to avoid anything like that. I wouldn't like to have a problem with forces I can't control. I can't be sure if the story was absolutely real but scared me a bit.

It may sound stupid but is using/studying Tarot safe? (sorry if this question is inappropriate)

Sounds like your friend was the inappropiate one - inappropriately superstitious. A doctor helps many patients get well, then one of their family gets sick. Is there a causal link? An architect designs a house and years later someone living there dies. Is there a causal link?

Perhaps your friend's mother's family got sick at the same rate as anyone else with the same genetic weaknesses, environmental conditions and nutritional status.
 

Tea&Temperance

Studying tarot is quite safe for everything but possibly your wallet, once you start looking at all the gorgeous decks. :laugh:
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So much this.. Aye so much wallet damage..

I remember speaking with my family about whether Tarot was safe. We reached a point of understanding that any tool can be use for good or bad depending on who and how it is used. Like how someone could use quotes from the Bible to put down other people or how a reader could purposefully scare their sitter. Point being its not the tools that aren't safe but rather how the person is using it.
I would say its up to you to decide but as you also said, consider the person who is feeding you this info and your relationship with them.
 

Gwynydd

I think it's perfectly safe. I use mine with the spirits, and that started out in an accidental sort of way. I also use tarot in witchcraft. Nothing bad has ever happened. But no one needs to do anything they don't want to do in tarot.
 

techn1k

Thanks again for reassurance (and black humour - always appreciated ;) I have read several threads on the topic now and have to agree with all of you. It kind of tickles my OCD that there is no consensus about how it works but that's another story ;) It's so easy to plant fear in someone, especially for someone you trust. And that fear can affect quite a lot of areas in your life, often unexpected ones.
 

barefootlife

It kind of tickles my OCD that there is no consensus about how it works but that's another story ;)

I consider this one of the best parts of tarot, because it means everyone of every belief/faith/whathaveyou can use the cards. You can believe that the messages you receive are from God, others can believe that they're the energies of the universe channeled through intuition, or the manifestation of the subconscious mind creating a story out of some pictures on some cards, or the messages of faeries or spirit guides, and none of us are wrong. It's our belief in whatever we believe that makes the cards work. Maybe it's just different ways of saying the same thing. Whatever you believe, the door is open to all.
 

Nemia

Thanks again for reassurance (and black humour - always appreciated ;) I have read several threads on the topic now and have to agree with all of you. It kind of tickles my OCD that there is no consensus about how it works but that's another story ;) It's so easy to plant fear in someone, especially for someone you trust. And that fear can affect quite a lot of areas in your life, often unexpected ones.

Well, there are many things we can't really explain. Love, time, art... there are all kinds of theories and explanations around but it's difficult to nail them to a waterproof definition plus explanation. there are too many factors - aesthetic, cultural, social, emotional, spiritual, historical... so the question "how does it work" is just as complex as the question "how does art work" or "how does play work".

Consensus stuff is IMO less interesting.

And in my experience tarot is not dangerous. All you have to fear is fear itself, i.e., if you're full with superstitious fears of what the tarot might do to you, then you probably won't have a good or easy time working with the cards.

I see them as just another tool to access inner truths and wisdom that are usually inaccessible. Doing so in a non-verbal language, the visual language of colours, shapes, figures, motifs and symbols, is a good way to circumvent our handy phrases that hide our problems, our little narratives that explain why things go wrong in our lives ;-)

By approaching these questions in an oblique fashion, via reflection (just like Perseus could slay the gorgo medusa by watching her mirror image) or peripheral vision (which we use when looking at stars), we can get a better grasp of them.

Yes, the stuff we carry within us is dangerous: fears, anger, all kinds of hidden desires and wishes. But we're also equipped to deal with them: to explain ourselves the past and project into the future. Tarot is just one means to do so.

In my opinion, NOT dealing with these materials and open question is more dangerous than approaching them with a gentle tool like the tarot.

Why gentle? Because with the tarot, you can really choose how deep you go. You can interpret a reading in the "he won't call before Tuesday" style or go so much deeper.

Where we have choices, where are free to decide, we are strongest.

That's my humanistic creed :)