Can Tarot really foretell the Future ?

Nikita_

ravenest said:
Nikita ... I think you may have an issue ...

Why cant some of us have a good happy life in a nice place and appreciate it and enjoy it ?

You seem to think that it is a fantasy, and not achievable .... but it is.

One might not be able to predict one's future .... but one can make one's future.

This could be the issue here ... people 'waiting for a future to unfold', when you can forge out and ahead and make a great future for yourself. I did, and no, I didnt come from a rich family or anything like that. I started out with myself , a backpack and an old motorcycle basically.

If you dont believe that .... then it will never happen.
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So, I have an issue because I don't believe that the majority of people live in a Disney fairy tale which is mostly a fantasy ?...Well, looking at myself, and the large majority of people I know and meet every day-also as a tarot reader, among other things-I feel that I can say that it is a fantasy, for 99.9 per cent of us....of course, it can happen-and lucky you, and all those like you who ended up in this dream world-but I don't think you've ended up where you are because you're smarter, because you've been more clever, or fought harder to get what you wanted...whereas others who live in unhappy or even tragic situations have been inept, stupid, weak, or were just sitting down waiting for things to come to them...I could tell you dozens of stories of people who have fought all their lives, and ended up with nothing, in their private or material lives, and not because they didn't try hard enough....honestly, this smugness of yours is typical of all those people who've had it extremely good-for whatever reason, be it luck, effort, whatever-and think that everyone else who hasn't been as successful probably deserved the crap they got....
The 9 of cups guy is the ideal card for that...
And now I'd better stop with the rant, before it gets off track and I get really offensive.
 

Nikita_

Lotus Padma said:
Ditto!

I will mention this, for what it is worth: I have had readings that showed extra happy cards as the outcome, and it set my hair on fire :/ (and by that I mean with trepidation, not joy!)

Let me give you a true example: my dog was badly injured, and I asked if he would heal. He had an injury that some dogs heal quite well from, some not at all. So the odds were split. The cards all came up as Sun, The World, Ace of Wands, etc. When I saw those cards, I immediately shivered with the realization that he would soon be dead. How could I think that, given the happy cards? Because I asked if he would heal; the cards were happy; my gut lurched in a bad way; and sure enough, death has healed him very much. As soon as I saw the cards, I knew it. Call it intuition (hotly debated elsewhere here in the forums!) or foresight or what you will - I just knew the meaning at the moment the cards came out, even if I desperately wanted to believe he would be ok....in any case, the point is, the cards were correct.

I don't know if this is a good enough simile to make anyone understand, but it has been my experience in many readings that the happy cards may be answering something we are not entertaining as a possibility. It may be, for your friend who had three readers give her three happy outcomes, that it is true in a way she does not see yet; that NOT getting the guy was the best possible blessing....! If the question was, will there be a happy ending with this guy, maybe the answer was yes, it is a happy ending - because it is not the right guy for her. So from a tarot point of view, it is a happy ending - perhaps because her true prince was the next man she'd meet, should she be single. (forgive me if I got the question wrong - I have read through the whole thread in a single sitting, and I feel dazed...I cannot exactly paraphrase your question about the querant, beyond does tarot answer accurately every time).

Sometimes, I find, the cards come at something from a very oblique angle. What set my hair on fire with the happy answer for my dog, and for other, assorted happy cards I have had as future predictors in other questions, is that the event will bring a joy of some kind or another, even if it is not immediately apparent. To my heavily injured dog, the cards of joy and healing were a blessing, indeed, as he has been euthanized, and is likely feeling ecstatic as he romps through the Elysian fields, freed of the yoke of injury and pain. (*I* am upset, and do not feel happy, but the cards were about the dog, not me...and about healing, not about "will he live through this?" (and even that is debatable, because many people have many different ideas about the afterlife - I personally believe he lives on, but that is besides the point).

I believe the cards always answer accurately, just perhaps not in a linear fashion, or not in a way we personally understand as readers - at least, not from a face value point of view...Often, it is something only our (disputed) gut can see and understand. (I can cite at least Debra on that, I think? It is not an A + B = C scenario...sorry if I read that incorrectly, Debra!)

Thank you, Nikita, for a question few would ask, and I thank everyone for their fascinating insight! Much to think on....

ETA thinking about it overnight, as some have said here, readings can take a long time to eventuate; perhaps she will run into this man again at a later date, and it *will* work out for them...and the tarot was seeing farther into the future.
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Well, certainly an interesting angle....though I have to admit, I am perplexed....by the dog example, above all...a skeptic would say that that is really forcing the argument to prove at all costs that tarot was right when it was blatantly wrong...And maybe it was my friend's lucky day when she broke up with him for good; but she was devastated, so I think tarot would have done her a better service by warning her not to expect too much of this relationship, instead of throwing up cards that led her to believe he was the one...cards like the 2 of cups, ace of cups, 10 of pents, 10 of cups...you name it...too good to be true...as it turned out...and yes, of course tarot has its own language, but is that really what happens in these cases ? Or are we stretching the theory to suit the point we are trying to prove ?
 

gregory

ravenest said:
:) I observe (and so do others, there have even been a few threads on AT about it) that many Westerners with lots of goodies are not just only unhappy, but depressed. Its probably one of the biggest medical conditions in Western society, yet people with a 'simpler' life stlye can have an inner happiness regardless of material wealth. As you point out, with humility and appreciation.
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Lord that is so true. I was struck by this big time both in India and in Africa.

And ALL the research shows that the highest levels of happiness are achieved in those societies with the least income gap between richest and poorest. People are happier in a society where almost no-one has much than in a society where quite a lot of people have far more than others and some people have obscenely much more than those who have least - and that does include the fact that the richest in those societies aren't particularly happy. It's true what they say - money can't make you happy - even if it can help some by allowing you to eat...

Oops OT. But I actually believe that EVERY possibility there is happens and there are infinite parallel universes. So that even if tarot can accurately foretell events (and I am not convinced of this within a linear universe) we may never be able to see that play out.
 

Padma

Nikita_ said:
Well, certainly an interesting angle....though I have to admit, I am perplexed....by the dog example, above all...a skeptic would say that that is really forcing the argument to prove at all costs that tarot was right when it was blatantly wrong...And maybe it was my friend's lucky day when she broke up with him for good; but she was devastated, so I think tarot would have done her a better service by warning her not to expect too much of this relationship, instead of throwing up cards that led her to believe he was the one...cards like the 2 of cups, ace of cups, 10 of pents, 10 of cups...you name it...too good to be true...as it turned out...and yes, of course tarot has its own language, but is that really what happens in these cases ? Or are we stretching the theory to suit the point we are trying to prove ?
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it's those "too good to be true cards" that make me shiver. With the case of my dog, I felt it meant (especially as he had a few Aces in a row in there, too, as well as the Sun) some kind of karmic rebirth, and a going to join the Sun, as it were...be part of the cosmos. I have had the Sun come up in death scenarios, especially when people ask after their animals, I don't know why that is, or how to explain it, except that the Sun is the Universal Conscience or energy or what have you...it is even worse if the Empress comes up with the Sun for an animal, as it seems the Empress (mother earth) reclaims the animals...

Well, in any case, I was just relating my experience....and not trying to sway anything in your mind, just give you an alternate view. :)

Once, when I was much younger, I drew the Two of Cups for a relationship that was OVER! :p It came up maddeningly over and over again in any of my readings as the final outcome card. 6 months later, we were dating again. I certainly never thought that would happen!

Granted, it did not last more than a few months; just saying, sometimes we cannot see what is further down the road - or the outcome seems improbable - and the tarot will keep insisting - so her happiness with this man may well be a thing to come later. :heart:
 

Nikita_

Lotus Padma said:
it's those "too good to be true cards" that make me shiver. With the case of my dog, I felt it meant (especially as he had a few Aces in a row in there, too, as well as the Sun) some kind of karmic rebirth, and a going to join the Sun, as it were...be part of the cosmos. I have had the Sun come up in death scenarios, especially when people ask after their animals, I don't know why that is, or how to explain it, except that the Sun is the Universal Conscience or energy or what have you...it is even worse if the Empress comes up with the Sun for an animal, as it seems the Empress (mother earth) reclaims the animals...

Well, in any case, I was just relating my experience....and not trying to sway anything in your mind, just give you an alternate view. :)

Once, when I was much younger, I drew the Two of Cups for a relationship that was OVER! :p It came up maddeningly over and over again in any of my readings as the final outcome card. 6 months later, we were dating again. I certainly never thought that would happen!

Granted, it did not last more than a few months; just saying, sometimes we cannot see what is further down the road - or the outcome seems improbable - and the tarot will keep insisting - so her happiness with this man may well be a thing to come later. :heart:
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What you just said about 3 aces in a row reminded me of a reading I did recently where I had the same in the outcome position for someone, when the rest of the spread was awful...it did make me wonder...what did you say that could mean...? Apart from Death ?
 

Zephyros

As someone who himself has suffered and still suffers from depression, I can say that it exists independently of external influences. I had all the reasons to be happy, yet wasn't. At other times I had no reasons, but was. Going back to the topic, my forecasts done with Tarot have indeed been influenced by it, but not in the way most mentioned in threads about it. When you're depressed, your whole understanding and appreciation of the future is different. Readings are not necessarily dark or depressing, but mainly show a lack of vision, since the depressed imagination cannot conceive of a better future. After all, mere answers in a reading are one thing, but no less important is our understanding of the big picture. When you're depressed you don't use Tarot to plan your future, because you don't believe you have one.

So predictions, even if they are spot on and entirely correct, can still be useless or even dangerous. Look how much trouble ol' depressed Macbeth got into, just because of some prophecies that turned out to be correct.
 

ravenest

I might re-focus on the tread title and hopefully return to the topic (since this thread now has over 5,000 views ... ! - and the thread title is most probably what people want to read about ? )

IMO a tarot reading can give advise that allows one to refine and direct, to an extent how one's future will play out.

I personally do not hold the view that Tarot can predict, nor do readings that say, what the future will be. But Tarot holds within it a system of knowledge and application of that knowledge that may be able to improve your life and your ability to make some things manifest for yourself. It may also give you an insight into your nature and 'destiny, dharma, etc .' and how to follow that. Nothing is 'set in stone' , reality is a flexible medium - that means it can change to what we want or think will happen or change away from that.

My readings are based on revealing insight into and development of one's inherent and learnt skills, and maybe suggest things that can be learnt to help a situation. I do not predict what WILL happen.
 

Michael Sternbach

I believe that we do make our own reality, as spiritual teachers have emphasized. The good and the bad... We all have experienced both positive and negative things; personally I see how both always had something to do with my own thoughts and emotions somehow. Another way of saying this is that we are (unconsciously) choosing which of the multiple universes will be ours. It's not a moralistic view; it presupposes that physical incarnation is meant to be lecture time for the Soul. What is it that we are learning over so many incarnations? How to be conscious co-creators!
 

ravenest

Good Morning Michael :)

I believe we take part in making our own reality ... there ARE external forces.

"lecture time for the soul" ????

I believe 'incarnation' is for 'expressions of the soul'.
 
My first reading came to pass!!! Reading as a personal connection