Do you keep your Tarot doing a secret?

nisaba said:

If you are under-age, you really have to live by the rules of your household. When you are an adult, you can run your own household, with your own rules.

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Nisaba is right, you do need to obey the rules of the household.

Some people are really frightened of anything occult, and you need to respect that, too. I hope the books don't cause problems.

You know, as an adult, there's a lot of stuff that you keep to yourself. You don't share details of your personal relationships, and some parts of your life are very much separate. Often we work in situations, dealing with clients or students, where respecting confidentiality is important. So you kind of get used to simply not sharing things. You can share about Tarot here, and we're real people, so why share it with those around you? They don't need to know. It's a personal thing, like prayer.

Have you ever tried reading with regular playing cards? It's the same as reading Tarot without the trumps, and you just need to learn to read the pips. It's great practice for thinking about the numbers, and minors-only readings are actually quite good for everyday stuff, when you don't want the big spiritual dramas of the trump cards. This might be a good solution if you do need to stow your decks away.

euripides said:

Nisaba is right, you do need to obey the rules of the household.

Some people are really frightened of anything occult, and you need to respect that, too. I hope the books don't cause problems.

You know, as an adult, there's a lot of stuff that you keep to yourself. You don't share details of your personal relationships, and some parts of your life are very much separate. Often we work in situations, dealing with clients or students, where respecting confidentiality is important. So you kind of get used to simply not sharing things. You can share about Tarot here, and we're real people, so why share it with those around you? They don't need to know. It's a personal thing, like prayer.

Have you ever tried reading with regular playing cards? It's the same as reading Tarot without the trumps, and you just need to learn to read the pips. It's great practice for thinking about the numbers, and minors-only readings are actually quite good for everyday stuff, when you don't want the big spiritual dramas of the trump cards. This might be a good solution if you do need to stow your decks away.

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ok thank you.

andromedastarseed said:

Someone once told me that I should stop doing Tarot/Oracles, believe in God and go to Church. This person is also a raging alcoholic, so consider the source.


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oh brother. they need to work on themselves before telling someone what they should be doing.

violetdaisy said:

Mostly I am a closet reader though. I need a few more people around me on a regular basis who aren't single-mindedly against anything other than the Bible and prayer as a way to communicate with the divine to be more open. It's becoming a reality, slowly.....Perhaps I'll "come out" on world Towel/Tarot day

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I'm the same. I'm a closet reader, my mom, one sibling, partner, and daughter know and stuff. Definitely not my dad, he's a minister, while I'm not afraid to tell him I don't have the energy to discuss it with him, nor do I feel like I have to. He lives in another state so it never comes up.

Sometimes I want to post on social media photos and such of my decks, spreads, etc... but I don't because well I'm just not ready yet. In that regard, I keep my tarot practice a secret because I'm not very confident, and the people on social media that I follow who do openly post, are professional readers and post all this really insightful stuff... so I feel a bit insecure about sharing at this point in my tarot journey.

Also, I will be graduating and on the job market in a few years and should be mindful of what I share on social media- folks in my field are not nearly as open minded as they claim to be.

I'm pretty open about it - to a certain degree. As art historian specialized on Middle Ages and Renaissance, I have a perfectly understandable interest in the history of emblems, symbols and the development of hand-painted vs printed cards. When I teach basic things like Evangelists' symbols, I always mention the World card, and when I show Breughel and Vermeer, I compare them with Temperance. So my students at least know that I know the cards.

My family is super-rational and probably think I'm nuts but I've always been the purple sheep so I don't really mind. They know I love Patience cards, playing cards, Tarot cards, and that I'm really interested in the topic. They don't know how much, and I didn't tell them that I work and earn money with tarot. My mother would think it's degrading and I should rather put my energies into my (non-existing) academic career. So I don't tell her.

My idea of becoming more professional, giving courses and advertising my services openly doesn't get off the ground because I know my mother would be mortified if she knew it's beyond an academic interest. For her and my whole family, that's all bullshit, charlatanerie, the worst kind of exploiting peoples' willingness to believe.

My husband's family is much more open, they're really interested and look at my decks and ask questions. My children of course know and for them, it's simply a part of who and what their mother is. My eldest son asked me to show my Thoth to his girlfriend because that's "Mama's cards" for him, and reminds him of me. I also read for her and she really liked it. And they're both very rational people, so is my husband, but they all understand cards are not anti-rational but trans-rational, if I may coin a new word

I'm glad I didn't meet religious bigots - I don't know how I would react, probably badly.

blackmoonbee said:

I'm the same. I'm a closet reader, my mom, one sibling, partner, and daughter know and stuff. Definitely not my dad, he's a minister, while I'm not afraid to tell him I don't have the energy to discuss it with him, nor do I feel like I have to. He lives in another state so it never comes up.

Sometimes I want to post on social media photos and such of my decks, spreads, etc... but I don't because well I'm just not ready yet. In that regard, I keep my tarot practice a secret because I'm not very confident, and the people on social media that I follow who do openly post, are professional readers and post all this really insightful stuff... so I feel a bit insecure about sharing at this point in my tarot journey.

Also, I will be graduating and on the job market in a few years and should be mindful of what I share on social media- folks in my field are not nearly as open minded as they claim to be.

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You could always create a "personality" (not necessarily alter-ego, but altered name...etc) to post all of your tarot/divination/esoteric stuff on. I've been considering doing that....

Nemia said:

I'm pretty open about it - to a certain degree. As art historian specialized on Middle Ages and Renaissance, I have a perfectly understandable interest in the history of emblems, symbols and the development of hand-painted vs printed cards. When I teach basic things like Evangelists' symbols, I always mention the World card, and when I show Breughel and Vermeer, I compare them with Temperance. So my students at least know that I know the cards.

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Aha, a "facade of respectability!"

I'm lucky, in my country the majority of people wouldn't label a tarot reader as evil, a devil worshipper or satanist och similar, only maybe think of you as a bit less intelligent for buying into such "supernatural silly stuff"...

I've been open with coworkers and friends for a couple of years now about my tarot interest. Some are a bit curious and think it's interesting/fun, others do the bored "oh hmm ok, I don't really think stuff like that is true/real..." and that's it. So I see no reason keeping it a secret if the subject of spirituality comes up (which it quite rarely does).

My family doesn't know and that's simply because we're not very close and don't talk about personal stuff like that with each other. If they would find me and my tarot business online and ask about it I'd simply say "Yes, that's my hobby, and I prefer to not talk about it more".

I've only met people who found it a bit strange for a "smart woman" like me to be interested in tarot, but never anyone who got offended/scared or anything like that.

Sorry you have to hide your deck like that! It will get better when you get your own place in the future.

Citrin said:

I'm lucky, in my country the majority of people wouldn't label a tarot reader as evil, a devil worshipper or satanist och similar, only maybe think of you as a bit less intelligent for buying into such "supernatural silly stuff"...

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I wonder how many of those Scandinavian "death metal" bands my son used to like (Amon Amarth, for example) dabbled in tarot? I know some of them had a "thing" against churches.

Back in 2006 when I first started and I lived with my parents I was open about my interest to pretty much everyone. My mom thought I was a bit loose in the head but she also went to the store with me to buy my first deck. As for my uni friends, they were fascinated and I ended up doing regular readings for all of them + their moms . But one of the reasons I stopped working with tarot (among others) was the fact that some of them started getting very insistent and dependent on the cards. No matter how many times I told them I could not predict the future they kept calling me and asking for love readings; one even said I had predicted her breakup... it was too much pressure to put on me, so I decided to quit.

(Extra note: since 2006 my mom's side of the family has been getting more extreme and fanatical when it comes to religion, so they never knew I had tarot decks. I'm so so lucky they never had a say in my decisions and my mom has my back 100%, but my grandma would throw a fit and create a scandal if she knew. As things stand, the fact that I don't go to church and I live with my boyfriend puts me into the "cursed" box, this would just make her disown me. She thinks God would curse other members of the family for my decisions.)

Now that I live in another country and I'm reading/studying Tarot again, I am more selective about the people I let in this part of my life. My boyfriend lives with me and doesn't care for spiritual practices, but he's very interested in tarot as an art expression and likes some of the decks I have (his absolute favorite is the Golden Thread Tarot). My brother'a gf knows as well and is getting into it as well a bit, and a friend from work also knows. But I'm very hesitant about letting other people know. If my boyfriend's family spends the night I keep my boxes hidden, and I asked him not to discuss my interest in Tarot with his friends. Part of it, I admit, comes from a place of shame and defensiveness, and the other part is that I want this to be for me, a personal practice, and don't want a repeat of what happened last time: people that I love draining my time and energy with free readings and making me responsible for their decisions.