When the tarot hints at something dramatic, but nothing much happens...

Padma

Q: What's your message for me today?
A: Death.

Turns out it just meant, "Nah we got nothing to say to you today. Carry on."

Or, "It'll be cloudy and rainy all night tonight so you can't see the stars like you wanted, sorry."

LOL.

I think its about WHY you are using tarot. When i do it just for practice, routine or fun even, even the most dramatic cards can end up meaning small things or simply nothing.
But when i feel that urge to draw cards about a specific theme, the cards are very clear. In such situations, the majors often mean their most obvious and dramatic meaning. (Lovers for love etc).
At least thats my experience...

This is what I believe, as well. It's been my experience that the cards drawn for a daily spread are to be taken very literally - Death for example might just mean resting at home or nothing much going on that day, Tower might mean tripping on something and falling down, Wheel might be taking a round trip on a bus, Fool may be that you are light headed or day-dreamy that day, or will literally be seeing a child with a small dog, and etc.

If it bothers you that majors are coming up in your daily spread, you could always keep one deck for daily draws, with the majors removed, and using only the minors...I often remove majors from my deck when I feel the question is too tied to the mundane of daily life, and use only the minors. :)

As to why they show up, well, the deck only has 78 ways to say something, really...(unless you use reversals - that expands the vocabulary somewhat).

@TiggyCat, that Three of Swords may merely have meant that he felt tongue tied around you, or had conflicted feelings about you, or he hadn't seen you for about three weeks...
 

Aidan

Well, yeah. Just recently, I drew 3 of Swords (not quite so heavy as Tower or Death) as to how a guy would react towards me that I have a great interest in. I saw him at an event, and was prepared for the worst, thinking I'd come away completely heartbroken and shattered, but he was friendly and nothing really happened. People here suggested it may have been relating to how HE would feel, which could make sense. Very uneventful, which I was very relieved by!

Going a bit off topic, now:
3 of swords is not only sorrow and heartbreak, but as well the "mind over emotions" card. So, maybe the card told you, that you thought too much about it, thus creating your sorrow yourself. Just a thought though...
End of off topic ;)
 

WolfyJames

It has happened to me as well to get "dramatic" cards and nothing of severity happened, whether with Majors and Minors cards. I tend to tease my deck by saying they're over dramatic after the fact.
 

dailytarot

The Majors generally tell us about a process in course.

The Death to me was figuring your moment in a whole manner way.

And about The Tower, no matter the cenario... The Tower is a "click".
 

G6

For all the blood splashing I believe the 3 of Swords can indicate rather mundane events.
 

Pachee

I've often wondered about this and had tried to do daily readings as practice before. The problem is I'm rather impressionable and can end up worrying so much about a card that it seems to actualize it and I end up wondering how much the tarot predicts and how much it creates an event. -_-
Though if we're talking about self growth maybe it creates to help you see your patterns. It might be different if I journaled and tracked daily readings and could see a pattern or long term theme unfold, particularly with stalker cards. That way I wouldn't be so averse to daily practice readings (it's been more problem-solution or need-to-know. But with only a shallow and less experiential understanding of each card it ends up being a consuming investigation and down the rabbit hole I go).


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
 

rwcarter

I've often wondered about this and had tried to do daily readings as practice before. The problem is I'm rather impressionable and can end up worrying so much about a card that it seems to actualize it and I end up wondering how much the tarot predicts and how much it creates an event. -_-
Try doing your daily readings in the evening as review of the day instead of as overview of the day to come. That way you don't have to worry about manifesting anything, but instead can see how whatever manifested during the day is reflected in the cards.

Rodney
 

Zephyros

From my experience Tarot can be rather pompous and long-winded when conveying messages. This is true especially for the deck I use, the Thoth, but the same can be said of any deck.

The cards deal in abstract ideas and it is up to us to make sense of them. Because of this, the "energies" that a care may show can be very dramatic even when they aren't. It's like a word having many meanings depending on the context. Even ideas can have different measures.

For example, Death is all around up. Everything from eating up a sandwich to someone actually dying are examples of death, but we certainly don't treat both in the same way. Even actual death may have different weight. A close friend may die, a a goldfish. While both are unfortunate, one you mourn while the other you flush down the toilet.

The Tower can mean either a huge revelation or a small one, but in both cases the, again, energies are the same. Only the intensity is different.
 

Shibiusa

Try doing your daily readings in the evening as review of the day instead of as overview of the day to come. That way you don't have to worry about manifesting anything, but instead can see how whatever manifested during the day is reflected in the cards.

Rodney
Thank you for your tip! It might help! I think I'll try that instead of the daily readings as my practice.

I was doing a journal with my daily readings (and weekly/random readings) to keep track of everything and practice regularly, but I ended up with the same problem Pachee described! Or I could get my hopes up and nothing happened... For example, I once got Ace of Wands, The Lovers and Seven of Cups. A good combination! But nothing happened... It was just another day.
Since my daily readings were turning out so pointless, I gave up on those... They were either dramatically bad or dramatically good. For just a regular day xD
 

Grizabella

I haven't read all the responses so somebody might have already said this, but Death can mean something buried. After all, many do bury their dead. Maybe it's something buried in the person's subconscious or buried under clutter on the table (yeah, it happens like that at my house) or even planting a seed might be a meaning.

I usually look for groupings of cards before I attach a big meaning to Death or the Tower or other majors. The Lovers is a great example---I don't read that one as any big soulmate connection unless one or two other key cards show up.