Tarot: Does it work? How?

thinbuddha said:

So, I'm guessing that the vast majority of peeps in here believe in the tarot- it works for you, yes?

So the real question is HOW does it work? What is the mechanism (in your world view) that makes 78 pieces of printed card stock know so much?

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Yes, I believe that tarot "works." But there isn't anything magical about 78 pieces of printed card stock. There can, however, be something wonderful about a conversation between two people who are exploring a question together. A deck of tarot cards is a way into that conversation, a way to look for the answers, a way to explore possibilities.

I don't mean to dismiss tarot cards as something simple, though. I have, on occasion, gotten psychic "flashes" while reading cards for someone, although I do not normally run around calling myself psychic. I find the traditional (i.e. RWS and TdM) tarot images to be very powerful indeed - I cannot explain how it works, how my brain processes those images so that they have deep meaning for me - but the fact is, it does work.

And I agree with Umbrae - I'm not particularly concerned about why tarot works. If there are little invisible tarot demons floating around and determining which cards turn up, I could care less.

Seeing is believing!

For a man from 10,000 years ago most of what is known today is a "bad" dream. He could choose to believe it or not. Is it necessary to see electricity to believe it?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divination said:

Divination is the occultic practice of ascertaining information by supernatural means.

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Where supernatural is what we cannot see or touch or perceive by the 5 natural senses. Everything perceived beyond the 5, considered non-physical (keep changing too) and requires magic to see. Is it true or a dream?

Lot of people believe. Officially (religion) or otherwise .

Tarot is a Divination. A pattern of invisible energies is transmitted through the cards. Encoded. Not necessarily parallel to our dimension. Can we trust our decoding? And what is important: the code or The process??

I gave up worrying about why or how tarot works a long time ago. In the day-to-day, it's not that crucial for me to know. What works for me is that I trust myself, my cards & enjoy interacting with others who want a reading or give me one. I like to help people (not only with tarot) and tarot gives me a tool to do so. I also use tarot for self-discovery - and again, I find it works, it touches the right buttons in me - but then, so does poetry. It is a way of opening a dialogue with what is beyond reason & control (jumptothemoonyea put it well).

But sometimes I enjoy speculating. The last time I had a discussion about "how" it works was with a physicist friend of mine, who takes the view that there is either a statistical answer to that question - or (and we both got excited about that) - it's something to do with Heisenberg's hypothesis that the observer affects the observed. An experiment takes places because there is an experimenter there to observe it. Transferred to tarot, it means that the querent makes the tarot "experiment" work, by asking the question & drawing the cards, and the reader makes the "experiment" work, by contemplating the cards (if reader & querent are the same, the process is folded into one). The analogy has its uses, but it is not perfect: a scientific experiment can be repeated, whereas a tarot reading is different every time.

I can say that I have no idea how it works, but I do know that it works. Most of the time when I do readings for myself the readings are very dead on. How that happens I have no idea, I just know that it does happen. Do spirits affect which card isbeing placed where? That's a possibility. Do I think that perhaps there are other reasons for it working? That's a possibility also. All I know is that it works, and does it really matter how it works as long as it works? To me it doesn't

~Azarial~

Jumptothemoonyea:

THANKS for posting that link "THE PROCESS" !!!

YogaSpider

Being a devout Jung follower, I say, read up all you can on synchronicity. This makes it make sense in a way that appeals both to the intellect & the instinct. It really does make sense to me. This is a principle that even applies to quantum physics these days!

Every now and then I get to thinking there's nothing to it. Then something happens to make me see tarot as valid.

Yesterday I got the Judgement card, using the Crystal Tarot, in the "work" position of a particular spread. I woke up in the night thinking about a current project, and a possible meaning for the Judgement card in relation to it. Today the Judgement card came up in the same position, using the Golden Tarot. It's a six card spread, so I have to wonder, what are the odds? (Not being a mathmatics fan, I haven't calculated them.) The card coming up in the same position this morning seemed like a perfect confirmation of my middle-of-the-night answer.

The more I use tarot, the more I believe. As to how it works--does it matter?

Nevada

sharpchick said:

I believe we are all born with the answers to the questions we will ask about life, but we have managed to very successfully bury them beneath a bunch of other "stuff" that we consciously consider to be more important. Call it an "inner voice," "inner guide," or whatever you like - it's there just waiting to be acknowledged and listened to.

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This is kind of how I understand tarot aswell. We have the answers buried in the subconscious, but the throws of life makes it hard to tune into that most of the time.(I also believe in the collective sub-conscious). Tarot lets me concentrate on an issue, then I can wipe all the questions about right/wrong and if I can trust myself away. And, since everything is made of energy(seeable or unseen), and affected by it, you *make* the cards be in the places they are sub-consciously, and get the answers from the reading then. I think if you can put away all the distrust of yourself, or skepticism of what's happening and be honest with your true self, not letting ego be too involved, then you'll get an honest interpretation of the reading you make.

trinityangel said:

This is kind of how I understand tarot aswell. We have the answers buried in the subconscious, but the throws of life makes it hard to tune into that most of the time

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I see it differently. I don't think we have the answers, buried or otherwise. But we do have the questions, and tarot helps us ask them - and then ask more. Questioning is what life & creation is all about. The day we stop asking questions, we live a moronic & dull life and die a pointless death. I want my last word to be - "why?"

thinbudda

I have several questions for you too ? Do you believe in anything in the way of religion or nature or whatever ?

Have your read Carl Jung or Joseph Campbell ? Did you study Mythology at school ?

Have you ever heard of Archetypal Symbols ?

Also, I am not sure what a "peep" is ?

I am not sure where you are coming from with your questions ?

Are you playing "the Devil's Advocate" or are you sincerley interested ?