Mending from a Tarot "crisis of faith"

I've been reading Tarot for twenty-five years, mostly for myself, but also for family and loved ones. I've also read quite a bit for the Aeclectic community through exchanges.

I think the last time I read was during the summer of 2016. It's ironic -- because I don't even believe in predictive readings per se -- but nothing prepared me for political events in my country in 2016. I had a true Tower experience. My world view was completely turned upside down. And for months now, I've felt that Tarot should have warned me. I've felt as if an old, trusted friend suddenly became unreliable.

It felt like a betrayal.

More accurately, I suppose what I've been going through is more a spiritual crisis than a Tarot one. But Tarot has been a huge part of my spiritual practice. So the two are intertwined.

A friend, yesterday, asked me if I would pull some cards for her. She recently applied for a job and wanted to know what the energies around her were looking like. She's a dear friend and I did the reading for her. The messages flowed forth; I fell back into reading with ease. It felt good.

So maybe it's time to pick my cards up again. I've stopped reading during other times in my life but it was due to being busy and preoccupied, rather than feeling that I could no longer trust myself to interpret messages from Divine Spirit or that Tarot was even valuable.

I know experiences like this are not at all uncommon. If you've felt like this, what was the process like for you of getting back into Tarot? Any tips or advice? Was your Tarot experience / practice different afterwards?

I think, in the end, this could be a huge opportunity for growth. I've become quite involved in activism, finding a voice I never knew I had. As the dust inside myself is settling, and as I'm getting my feet back, maybe I'll be able to embrace these changes within myself and my spirituality. Like anything, it's going to take some time.

Thanks for "listening."

Since you read mainly for yourself, the one question I would ask from a purely predictive standpoint is - apart from the mental and emotional stress the events caused you - to what extent have they immediately affected your life circumstances. I know for me they have yet to "trickle down" into my daily existence, and - unless Social Security and Medicare are taken away and individual taxes aren't reduced - they may never do so. So it seems the extent to which events are "personal" and "physical" and not more abstract sociological currents may dictate how much shows up in self-readings. But of course I don't have a lot of faith in tarot as a psychological diagnostic tool in most situations anyway.

I don't believe in "predictive" tarot. I don't want to think that we can predict what WILL happen. (Does that mean we are stuck with it? Or that we are usually wrong because we changed the future as it got closer?)

No one saw this coming (although I was saying for a long time that I was very much afraid it would--and unfortunately I was right. )

So please don't blame yourself or the cards. They can point, but they can't dictate.

barb

Barleywine said:

Since you read mainly for yourself, the one question I would ask from a purely predictive standpoint is - apart from the mental and emotional stress the events caused you - to what extent have they immediately affected your life circumstances. I know for me they have yet to "trickle down" into my daily existence, and - unless Social Security and Medicare are taken away and individual taxes aren't reduced - they may never do so. So it seems the extent to which events are "personal" and "physical" and not more abstract sociological currents may dictate how much shows up in self-readings. But of course I don't have a lot of faith in tarot as a psychological diagnostic tool in most situations anyway.

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Fair point, Barleywine -- at this time, I have not had a tangible impact on my assets / financial security. Whether or not sociological currents appear in a personal reading is an interesting thread to consider. Thanks for the food for thought.

I use Tarot to inform my activism.
Is it possible that you were drawn to discover your new inner talents so that you could better focus on putting the two together?

Owl Song said:

Fair point, Barleywine -- at this time, I have not had a tangible impact on my assets / financial security. Whether or not sociological currents appear in a personal reading is an interesting thread to consider. Thanks for the food for thought.

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I did a number of readings around the political situation last year and got some reliable results, but none of them were centered on my personal consequences, they were all more broadly focused. If I had asked "What will a Clinton (or Trump, as a separate question) win mean for me personally?" (which would have been the right way to ask it from a self-reading standpoint), I wonder what would answer I would have received that would have been precise enough to rely on.

Hi Owl!

Your post provoked a few thoughts for me. I, admittedly, follow politics far too closely. It's hard to cut back when every day there seems to be some sort of new disaster. That said, the US is extremely divided right now and it also was very much during the election. People's minds were constantly changing, creating a massive amount of mixed energy being put out into the universe. How could your tarot results possibly be reliable on such a grand scale with so many fluctuations and confusion? Also, between the electoral and popular vote, both can be seen as two different kinds of "wins." Even that is still being debated and the president still can't seem to stop talking about it. Perhaps sometimes we don't get a warning because we have to feel the full effect of the Tower without bracing for it. I'm still fairly new to tarot as far as reading for other people but my connection with the cards has never been stronger. However, now that I am aspiring to be a professional, my negative self talk has been really LOUD. That's part of why I joined Aeclectic. I think starting here when you are having a falling out or experiencing doubt is one of the healthiest things you can do!

Ace said:

I don't believe in "predictive" tarot. I don't want to think that we can predict what WILL happen. (Does that mean we are stuck with it? Or that we are usually wrong because we changed the future as it got closer?)

No one saw this coming (although I was saying for a long time that I was very much afraid it would--and unfortunately I was right. )

So please don't blame yourself or the cards. They can point, but they can't dictate.

barb

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I did maybe half a dozen predictive readings about the US election in the months leading up to it, including the night before. They pointed to a Trump win. Much to my horror. I so hoped the cards/myself were wrong.

I know this isn't exactly what the OP is about, but I think it's worth having on the record that the cards did work in a predictive way for me in this case.

Ace said:

I don't believe in "predictive" tarot. I don't want to think that we can predict what WILL happen. (Does that mean we are stuck with it? Or that we are usually wrong because we changed the future as it got closer?)

No one saw this coming (although I was saying for a long time that I was very much afraid it would--and unfortunately I was right. )

So please don't blame yourself or the cards. They can point, but they can't dictate.

barb

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barb,

I absolutely agree with you about future outcomes not being written in stone. That's part of the reason why I realize how irrational my feelings are. I felt let down by something I don't even believe Spirit / the cards can do! The future is fluid. I think the cards can show us the direction energies might be heading in but choices always matter and can change projected outcomes.

Thank you so much for weighing in and your kind thoughts.

AnemoneRosie said:

I use Tarot to inform my activism.
Is it possible that you were drawn to discover your new inner talents so that you could better focus on putting the two together?

Click to expand...

Yes! I love this idea. I was thinking today, after I wrote my post, about how the Star follows the Tower. We can either stay in crisis mode, feeling hopeless and shell shocked, or we can pick ourselves up and move forward.

I hope I can bring some light back with my activism, both to myself and others. I will not give up.

Thank you for your insight, AnemoneRosie.