How does Tarot "work", in your personal opinion or experience?

3. "Tarot is undoubtedly a sacred, supernatural tool that taps directly into the Mystery and is guided by divine forces and supernatural energies."

Energy never dies. You better believe there are entities out there. I'm not partial to the higher self idea but not against it either because I'm not a 100% sure. I always like to keep an open mind unless shown different. I do know I have had non material entities contact me that were separate from my higher self. I believe in the divine spark and that everything is connected.

I think I'm mostly around #2. I tend to trust empirical evidence rather than theory, which a lot of science falls into as far as I'm concerned. Years of Zen training has given me an 'experiental' outlook on life. I observe and experience things I can't explain or understand with conscious mind and that's what is interesting about Tarot - it's one of the mysteries of life. My experience of Tarot is that it can be eerily prescient so I believe there is more going on than can explained by logic or theoretical constructs limited by our perceptions and conditioning. The great thing is I don't need to know how Tarot works to have faith through experience that it does.

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I think I'm around 2* I haven't had any personal experience of divinities, guides or sacred elements with tarot. I suspect I might prefer to keep such ideas within dreams, to keep a firm boundary between everyday reality and the other. I have only ever had one perception and sensation of something (supernatural) when awake and that was really unsettling for some time afterwards.

For that something else X factor in tarot, I like the idea that your own consciousness and thoughts do have a presence, (even if extremely tiny) and they occasionally manage to surf along picking up and making connections fleetingly through all the stuff of the universe.

In regards to coincidence, here is an interesting article:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200407/the-power-coincidence

I believe it's #3, but I really do not know (does anyone, really?). All I know is that it works beautifully for me. I do not know how such a complex device such as this smartphone I'm holding works on the nuts and bolts level, but the fact that I can type this message and post it for all of you guys to read is enough for me.

If pressed for a theory though, I'd say that the cards somehow tap into the deep connections between the past, the present, and the future, and that it draws the most relevant strings in the patchwork quilt of space and time to give you the knowledge that you seek. It's like the cards emphasize the absolute interconnection of all temporal things and events, like in the quantum concept of entanglement and the Jungian one of synchronicity, and the very act of shuffling them and drawing from them with the pure intention of seeking information about certain incidents utterly entwines them in the fabric of these events themselves. In the hands of a skilled reader, the cards may then be used to obtain knowledge about these people and events to which it has inextricably been bound with.

I suspect that all three hypothesis you gave might be true, on one plane or another.

Here are my beliefs, though "beliefs" is a strong word, because actually I do not really know. These "beliefs" are what I tend to think about tarot, but I admit that I am not sure. I will use "beliefs" for lack of a better word.

I believe that tarot is a wonderful psychological took that taps into the archetypal representations of our collective memory.

I believe that most of the time, the querent knows the answers they seek, on a deep unconcious level - even if they do not realise that they know. So tarot (or pendulum, or other type of divination) is a way to tap into this unconcious inside knowledge, and to bring it to the concious surface.

I also believe that synchronicity is a thing : the right card will show up when you need to see it. Especially if you put the intention of obtaining an answer (I think that intention is very powerful - to the point where you have to beware what you wish for !)

One thing I do not believe, is that tarot can predict the future. Because I do not think that the future is set in stone ; it is the fruit of many things that we have no control over, and also of our actions and intentions that we do have control over. At the very least we can change our actions and intentions, we have that free will ; and that can influence the future.
The energies of people and events can lead the future into a certain direction, and tarot can give insight about the direction it takes ; but it is still possible to act upon this chain of event, it is still possible to change the energies involved, therefore IMO it is possible to change the future - so the future cannot be foretold.
In a way, the act of asking the cards for advice is already a way to influence the future.

For the rest, I am actually fond of rationality and I am a sceptic, but I am also open minded and I realise that I have to accept the fact that I DO NOT KNOW.
I try to keep in mind that many times, things have a rational explanation, while also accepting that sometimes they might not.
For example :
When cards are flying all over the place when I shuffle a deck, I do not take much notice of it if it is a deck with sleek cardstock that is notoriously slippery to handle. I am more prone to take notice of a flying card when there is no obvious reason for it to fly in the first place.
Or, when I see something strange from the side of my eye, I remember that my peripheric vision is not great so it is probably my eyes that play optical tricks on me. My friend who is used to seeing entities, tell me that it might be ghosts or entities that I see ; and maybe she is right : I do not know.

I do not know for sure how tarot works.
Empirically I see that tarot has helped me in the past, so it is enough for me to trust that it will continue to help me in the future.
But, even if it is just a psychological tool, it is a great one.
And, I am glad to collect decks just for the sake of how beautiful they are - some decks are wonderful collections of 78 works of art ! So, even if just for that, tarot is worth it.

Generally when it comes to anything I am an open minded skeptic. I think Enrique Enriquez states it pretty well with his claim of the tarot ultimately being a device which helps provide imaginary solutions which anyone can learn to use (some better than others). But I also feel that the study of the cards can be a powerful spiritual / philosophical tool in a number of ways which can transcend rationality and while I don't think the cards have magic powers I think they have mystical value in that they are an object which can be studied in a number of ways ranging from empirical to absurdest. While the mechanism, results and goals may be different I don't see the art of the tarot being any more or less mystical than dervishes, zen-archers, the use of prayer beads (or rosary) for meditation, meditating on an icon or any other number of blatantly “mystical” practices used to help gain “spiritual” / philosophical insight.

Padma said:

In the end, I think it might all come down to our ability to listen, and I mean listen really, really closely.

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Can't believe I missed this thread until now. I also think it is a matter of listening really, really closely, but with the subconscious antennae rather than the aural ones. I believe the process to be one of "subconscious induction," in which querents (including oneself when doing self-reading) impart their subconscious foreknowledge of the future to the arrangement of the cards through the steps of shuffling and cutting the deck. (Obviously this has no direct bearing on remote reading, but I don't do that anyway; I see that more as pure psychism between reader and querent, with the cards drawing on the reader's subconscious, not the querent's).

One of the best quotes I've found to explain my understanding comes from Joseph Maxwell:

"Useful though rational perception may be to the cartomant, it is only an adjunct to the gift of vaticination, that is, the faculty of being able to read the information possessed by the enquirer about his past, present and future. Coming events cast a shadow before them; each individual has a presentiment of his own destiny, which may remain latent: the normal processes of consciousness do not include such presentiments.

To understand the presence in every individual of a detailed record of personal consciousness it is necessary to take into account the fact that an individual being exists, as it were, on several planes simultaneously, or is capable of so doing. What is loosely termed the subconscious is actively interleaved with the astral levels; the mental and intellectual processes, emanating from the intelligence, link themselves in a living web to the spiritual levels."

I believe universal energies are reflected in tarot cards. There are definitely patterns involved in the reads that aren't random- that's why I incorporate numerology into my reads a lot, there is always a certain pattern to find, somehow.

Sometimes the reads can astound me- I asked the cards once if I would marry my soulmate, and the king & queens were paired perfectly with their suits in the deck. Cool stuff!

Curious - but don't really care

While I think I'd like to know *how* Tarot works I'm not really sure I'd be satisfied with the answer regardless of what it is. Once that question is answered it limits the potential for other ways of believing they work; thereby limiting those able to really work with it well. It would be limiting for several reasons.

1. Any one answer would indicate that those who are uncomfortable with the answer for personal reasons would not likely read the cards.
2. That answer may also keep someone from trusting what they're seeing in the cards leading them to less accurate reads.
3. Querants who are uncomfortable with the answer would no longer seek counsel (even for fun) with a "reader."
4. Depending on the answer; it would answer other questions perhaps best left to belief.

My take is this, Tarot works in the way you personally believe it works - regardless of what that is. If you can tap in to subliminal self and foreknowledge - awesome! If you have guides that help you - awesome! If it's neither or both or something else - awesome!

For myself, I tend to think that if it's not "all in me" for that particular read - I get help. But I don't always *need* the help so I don't receive it.