Too many wonderful replies in this thread have resonated for me to quote them all... But I'm basically in the "Tarot as a tool" category. Sometimes I predict with it, sometimes it helps to analyze feelings and situations, sometimes both, or neither. I don't really fight to pin the Tarot down, like I may have in years before; I view it as an intriguing source of
potential life lessons, and what/who or wherever the 'teacher' of those lessons may be doesn't seem to matter, in the end.
Also, re: AprilShowers & Sztar's earlier posts:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=4736805
I was reminded of a book that they and others reading this thread might find interesting: 'The Sense of Being Stared At' by Rupert Sheldrake. I'd like to share an experience, too, which led to my first reading it, about ten years ago...
I had just taken a shower and was about to get dressed, having seated on the bed to don socks, when I suddenly heard and felt a sort of vibrating inner cacophony, within and around the right side of my head. A second later came a mental 'flash' of my then roommate/FWB's face wearing a strange, creepy expression.
Immediately, I froze, slowly turned my head to the right, towards the intuited energy source... And my eyes fell directly on the shape of a small webcam: 'innocently' hidden, tucked among other desktop items, about three feet away. Sickened as I knew he was watching, I turned it away and then carefully called out his name. Through the door, from the livingroom to my left came the reply. The guarded, anxious tone of his "...What?" confirmed all.
Pretending that I'd simply found a carelessly misplaced cam -- now safely aimed away from harm -- I didn't even mention it. Instead, I benignly reminded him of our having to soon leave for work, quickly finished getting dressed and then waited. Upon hearing him start up the shower, I snuck over to his laptop in the livingroom and saw his media player minimized to the Taskbar. I clicked it open, hit 'Play', and sure enough, there I was -- surreally replaying that whole "event" as
he had seen it. I then maniacally scanned for any more such vids, still finding only the one.
Sooo... DELETED, confronted, etc., etc., etc.. He was visibly shaken and shocked that I'd 'somehow' caught him, insisting that he'd never done it before -- which may even be true, based on how oddly vigilant it seems my senses were then. It was obviously a disturbing experience, but at least later an interesting one, particularly in how that sense of being stared at can apparently even 'work' indirectly, via the wrong end of a webcam.