Can Tarot really foretell the Future ?

Nikita_

Strangely, I find this is the best thread, because it shows every view marching by, like the trumps parade. There's clanging and clashing, but everyone showed up with wonder and expectation.

Yang says, "Give it to me," grasping, willing to ask but unwilling to wait, whereas Yin is off preparing the room for an invisible guest, wondering if it would ever be worthy for whatever is wise.

I guess I'm yang, then. Although I'm a female...
 

Nikita_

Is machine-like (binary) precision the only thing worth trusting?

The next questions include:
* How can we best use possibly faulty predictions?
* How do we evaluate/discover the accuracy of our predictions?
* If desired, how do we improve our predictive abilities (and is it possible or desireable to do so)?
* Should I refuse to make any predictions in my own readings?
* What is the purpose of Tarot readings if fortune/future-telling is not part of it?

I'll get back to you on the first statement in this quote.

As for the questions : have you got any answers as well ? Because they are definitely worth exploring...and I bet we have many different views on these, as well...
 

FLizarraga

One word, really: Duh!
 

tarotbear

My question becomes: Why don't you think Tarot can really foretell the Future?

Two schools of thought in Tarot: 'Tarot is only predictive' and 'Tarot is only intuitive.' Very few readers are 100% one or the other.

My feeling is that the original post/question 'Can tarot really foretell the Future?' is really saying, in effect "I DARE you to tell me why you think Tarot can really predict the Future - because I don't believe it." I see this as intended as a challenge rather than opening an arena for mutual discussion.

I always believe that when anyone posts a 'challenge' as the 'lead-off' question in a thread that they themselves should address what they believe and why in that same initial post. Hopefully I have done this with the many threads that I have launched through the years.

Just my two cents; your mileage may vary.
 

Nikita_

My question becomes: Why don't you think Tarot can really foretell the Future?

Two schools of thought in Tarot: 'Tarot is only predictive' and 'Tarot is only intuitive.' Very few readers are 100% one or the other.

My feeling is that the original post/question 'Can tarot really foretell the Future?' is really saying, in effect "I DARE you to tell me why you think Tarot can really predict the Future - because I don't believe it." I don't see this as intended as an open arena for discussion but rather as a challenge.
I always believe that when anyone posts a 'challenge' as the 'lead-off' question in a thread that they themselves should address what they believe and why in that same initial post. Hopefully I have done this with the many threads that I have launched through the years.

Just my two cents; your mileage may vary.
That was the way you read it, tarotbear...I wasn't challanging anyone to prove anything, just genuinely trying to understand if I'm the only one who has come to have many doubts concerning tarots ability to foresee the future reliably....If I had had an answer or an "agenda", like someone put it, I wouldn't have opened the thread to begin with; I am not in the business of convincing people that tarot cannot do this or that...plus, like I said before, it should be obvious, reading through this thread, that I am totally lost on this issue....if anything, I was just hoping that someone would convince me beyond any reasonable doubt that yes, it can....
 

Nikita_

My question becomes: Why don't you think Tarot can really foretell the Future?

I don't think it can foretell the future RELIABLY because, as I thought I had explained before, empirical evidence, both as a reader and as a client, has shown me that it doesn't. As simple as that.
 

dancing_moon

IMO its a problem that exists more in 'spoiled' cultures.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, ravenest! There might be something to this, sadly. My country is far from 'spoiled', so that could be part of the equation as well.

The next questions include:
* How can we best use possibly faulty predictions?
* How do we evaluate/discover the accuracy of our predictions?
* If desired, how do we improve our predictive abilities (and is it possible or desireable to do so)?
* Should I refuse to make any predictions in my own readings?
* What is the purpose of Tarot readings if fortune/future-telling is not part of it?

This is quite a list. :thumbsup: The last one is, perhaps, the most important one for me right now, along with 'Do we really need reliable predictions of the future?' and 'Does the future even exist?'.
 

huntd04

I believe that the tarot tells the most likely future that will happen at this point. The reason why it is not 100% accurate with readings about the future is because the querent is the master of their own destiny. Let me tell you a story to explain what I am trying to say:

Let's say you visited someone who did a reading on you and over the course of the reading it was revealed that this Sunday at noon you were going to be hit by a car on 2nd Street and die. Well, now you have knowledge of the future so guess what street you are going to be nowhere near at noon on Sunday.

If one knows the future they have the opportunity to change it as the future is not written in stone. That is at least how I think. So if we read about the future we really should not be surprised if the reading doesn't come true. Some tarot books that I have read has made a statement that applies here, "Forewarned is forearmed."
 

Nikita_

I believe that the tarot tells the most likely future that will happen at this point. The reason why it is not 100% accurate with readings about the future is because the querent is the master of their own destiny. Let me tell you a story to explain what I am trying to say:

Let's say you visited someone who did a reading on you and over the course of the reading it was revealed that this Sunday at noon you were going to be hit by a car on 2nd Street and die. Well, now you have knowledge of the future so guess what street you are going to be nowhere near at noon on Sunday.

If one knows the future they have the opportunity to change it as the future is not written in stone. That is at least how I think. So if we read about the future we really should not be surprised if the reading doesn't come true. Some tarot books that I have read has made a statement that applies here, "Forewarned is forearmed."

We are masters of our own destiny...?
You actually know someone who would tell you in a reading that Sunday at noon you will be hit by a car on 2nd Street ?
I honestly don't know which of these two statements I find more puzzling....I don't know where to begin, to comment....well, I think the first one I've already talked about extensively throughout the thread.... the second one...leaves me speechless....