Outcome/Results..do they give false predicaments?

You can't change an outcome that depends entirely on other people, outside events, God/ess. You can influence it if it depends partially on you - but not always enough to change it entirely. You can only change yourself and your actions. That is the limit of human freedom - but many of us don't exercise it anyway.


Let's say I predict that your boss will turn out to be a crook, and this will have some negative effect on you.

What do you do with that prediction?

- "oh rubbish, it'll all turn out ok" and half forget about it?

- "hmm, better keep an eye open, look at the accounts if I can"

- "whoa! I'm out of there. I'm resigning tomorrow!"

Now it is 6 months later and the boss has just been arrested for mass embezzlement and the police has got his close colleagues under suspicion.

Where are you? Which decision did you take? Which was the way in which YOU changed the outcome?

This is a real-case scenario, btw. I shall give you what the querent decided later, after I read a few replies.

I agree completely - it definitely predicts patterns, & POSSIBLE outcomes. I think that few clients would have much interest in a tool that doesn't shed light on where they are going. Seeing such things is what you come to the Tarot for, after all. But they are POSSIBILITIES: that is what must be always kept in mind.

I have to admit I would probably have gone for the safe middle-of-the-road route. But if I had then seen anything that had me worried, I would definitely have been out of there before too much longer, especially IF: I had done or had done for me more than 1 subsequent reading, & they all had had something similar to say. This combined with my suspicions would have taken me out of there, if not "tomorrow", at any rate fairly soon. That's my answer.

infact i read in a book that tarot cannot predict future events rather they should be used as a means of getting insight into a problem. but i wldnt dismiss the fact tht even after reading this i still use tarot as a means to predict future. cos a very famous indian tarot reader once said tht if u believe in destiny u will believe in tarot cards and u pick up the cards u r meant to pick. the 3 aces spread works well for me while predicting future cos i dont need to really read the cards and the answer just comes in either yes or no. And yes tarot does provide us with the wisdom to look deeper into the problem or situation and well one could cme up with a solution or learning themselves with their new found wisdom.

Just another piece of the perspective here

The 'outcome'? No single moment is so independent that it is not attatched to another.
Every moment then contains within it an outcome, if it be looked at it in the context of a result, yet it is continuous, multidimentional and multifaceted. It doesn't stop at the Outcome card - nor does, what preceeds the outcome.

The last card of a tarot reading is not where the story ends or begins. What does it tell us then? What are we reading, interpreting, concluding? A snapshot, a portion, a glimpse, a moment in time? More so what are we looking to obtain from the 'outcome' card in its wholeness? Would any 'outcome' do as long as we thought it was 'positive' or emotionally fullfilling or devoid of pain and learning?

The reply maybe 'I just want to know'. What will 'knowing' do? As Helvetica pointed out 'knowing' ('predictive outcome') may not change someones mind, nor change the reason they make the choices that they do, nor the circumstances which may eventuate in the 'last card' manifesting into reality. But the last card did not say that 'beyond' - (or the continuation of the 'outcome') will provide other options beyond that moment where the last card stops. The subject of the question, in Helveticas senario, 'job', reverberates onwards into many areas of her life and colours, contributes, 'continues' further and far more reaching than the end of the 'outcome' card. To the point of imprinting on her for the rest of her incarnations. What if she had made a different choice based on 'honest'? What if she had not seen the 'honest'? Subjective! The cards were honest, but she was as well - regardless of her expectations to change the situation. The ego in play possibly. What does that then say about them being predictive? If Helvetica had changed her mind and not taken that job, would the experience still be outcome have been 'avoided'? Subjective once more - that did not happen. Can we avoid certain experiences through the wisdom of the Tarot? Does the match of life get rained out and cancelled, only to play a different opponent on a different court in another place in another time on another day?

I sometimes think - without an emotional imprint or judgement we might be left with the experience.

So should the end card be more focused on the 'experience up to that point'?instead of an 'Outcome'? Is the Outcome - the pinnacle of the experience? The pinnacle of the question?

I see a problem when it comes to applying a question at one end, to recieve the brickwall of last card conclusion at the other. As the moments that will make up that experience are as profound as the options which are delivered in between and the choices which glue it all together to create it.

Now what was the question again? LOL!!!

This is just a 'moment' of perspective and isn't conclusive - just a thought - prompted by reading the threads, but very interesting to explore


Many Blessings
Elven x

This was all so interesting to read. I am with those that believe the tarot can be used to predict the future - but like all things - is not set in stone. Absolutely they are to be used as guidance and advice. The tarot can tell you "this relationship you are in is unhealthy and will only get worse unless you do something about it" - that isn't exactly fortune-telling the way we know it - but it is a clear indicator of where things can go.
I forget where - but I read that tarot cards are similar to predicting the weather. Sometimes you get it dead on, other times you are totally off. They read based on present situations and actions. Ultimately, we have the power to change ourselves and our outlook if not the situation or circumstances and in the end that can make the difference.

I also am certain that tarot can predict the future. Not every throw, not every question, but sometimes the river is running so powerfully that it will not be turned.

I have made decisions based on this and have never regretted it. But then, you don't know for certain sometimes what might have been, had you remained.

I have thought about this, and it seems such a precarious balance between free will and what you cannot change. What does it mean when you get a precognitive flash just before the event? It had to happen, right? How far ahead are some events fixed?

The big events, like wars or the Challenger disaster cast long shadows before them. Small events, well, I am sure outcomes change minute by minute.

Physics is no help either. I read a very long learned book, just popularized enough to sell, which said that you could prove mathematically that the universe has collapsed on itself and re-exploded a million times and will do it a million times again. And that the everything, every sparrow's fall, repeats itself exactly! Now if that doesn't make you want to throw up with despair, I don't know what would. It is the ultimate in pre-destiny.

It seems to me that if the tarot can correctly tell what happened in the past, what’s going on in the present, surely it can predict the future. And I do in my professional practice. Always have. Which, I guess, makes me a Fortune Teller, not a Guidance Counselor.
At the exact same time I also believe that it is part of my job to be a counselor and guide. When I read the outcome card in a spread, it’s set around with more fine print than a lawyers contract.
Yes, this is the most probable outcome. At this moment. If everyone involved does nothing unusual for them. If you understand that if I read on it tomorrow, the outcome may be entirely different. Etc, etc., etc. Despite all that, I still have people coming back to me telling me that the “outcome” was spot-on.
I used to tell my clients –and you’ll have to excuse the Drama, I was quite young—that “Fate is fan shaped. You walk into a forest, taking the first path, look up into a tree, and see a tiger’s tail. Or you take the second path, and the tiger sees you first. If you take the third path, you may never know that there is a tiger in the forest at all.”

What I believe, and tell people about “outcomes” is that we are creating our future, every moment. We constantly make choices, which influence the future. But we are also creatures of habit…left to our unthinking, habitual selves, we will do things in the same way, day after day. We will always drive the same route to work, unless we make a conscious decision to go another way. We will always put the same shoe on first, keep the salt on the same side of the stove, encourage or discourage morning conversation from teens,…and so on. Most of that doesn’t affect our lives directly. Sometimes it does—we can avoid—or get into—an accident by varying our route to work on a whim., just as we can brush off our teen-ager’s complaint, or really listen to it, and try to help. Our choices bear consequences.

It’s all about conscious choice. If a client doesn’t like the outcome card enough that she really wants to change it—and is willing to work to make a change-- we can look for the possibilities. We have to consider and answer some questions:
How much of the outcome is in her hands? Where, are the points where she can make different-than-usual decisions? What is the automatic attitude that leads to the same old choices? Then we can lay down card in a “choices” type spread, and see where she could go about doing things differently to achieve the desired result.
Does it work? Yes, some of the time. Sometimes the behaviors or attitudes are just too knee-jerk embedded to change radically at this time. You have to work up to some of this stuff, as anyone knows who has struggled to break a bad habit.

What it does do, every time, is give the client the awareness of making conscious choices in running their own life. That’s very empowering, and a powerful lesson. So. If we want to enough, we can change the future. If we’re willing to work hard at it, it can be done. Not every time…but enough of the time to keep us running our own lives. And yes, I believe that tarot can and does predict the future correctly.
It all depends on what future you choose to make, or are willing to live with.

PlatinumDove said:

For instance, I do a spread with the situation that I'm not making enough money in my work. The outcome says that I will continue getting paid the same amount. Right there, that is a peek into a possible future. If I'm not happy with the amount of money I'm getting I can either a. look for another job that pays more, b. ask for a raise, or c. get a second job.

But, at the time of the reading, I was only complaining, not doing anything active about it. Now, I have a peek into a *possible* future, and if I continue to do nothing, then it will continue the way it is, but if I take that outcome as a *possible* future, then I can do things actively to change the outcome into something that I want more.

Click to expand...

PlatinumDove is sure that you just do a tarot reading on me. That sounds exactly like the sitiation that I am myself. The only difference is that working two jobs and still no makig enough money.


I think tarot can help find some answers that looking for and help point in the right direction for help. I think depends what future looking at for yourself.

I do not believe that the Tarot cannot predict the future. On many occasions in my spreads, events have unfolded card by card. It is almost scary how right they have been. If Tarot cannot predict the future, why is it that they always seem to be doing just that?

-Static