Tarot Demystified

 

 

The myth that Tarot is connected to any kind of negative spirits or spiritual energy

 

 

There are SO many myths related to Tarot that people really do believe that are just plain untrue. It would be easy to make a list of them with hundreds of items in it. I have even seen many such lists.

 

Really Tarot and divination are some of the more misunderstood things around. 

 

Which is of course why I write this section every month to try to dispel those myths as much as I can. Some are superstitions that people pass on and some are perpetuated by the media....all those books and horror movies that try to paint Tarot in a scary AND therefore inaccurate light.  And to many people who have never come into contact with Tarot in their life in a real way, that is all they know. Maybe the way they portray it may sell more movies, but that does not of course make it accurate.

 

And btw, NO the Death card does not mean someone is going to die. And there literally are NO negative Tarot cards. All Tarot cards have a positive side and message. They would not work well as a tool to help people if they didn't. 

Another of those myths is the one I have come here to talk about today. That by using the cards, or even by having someone else read for you that you can somehow open yourself up to some kind of negative energy that is going to somehow haunt you afterwards. That once you let the genie out of the bottle things could get out of control and you won't be able to get him back in. That may make good fiction and sell a few movies but nothing in that has anything to do with reality.   NONE of this is true or has anything to do with what Tarot is about and how it works.

 

This myth comes in many forms. I think most readers have heard a number of variations of it. I had a friend who BEGGED me when I started out to PLEASE not get involved in Tarot because it was Voodoo don't you know and it could harm me or others. There are all kinds of variations on this theme, All kinds of negative energy that people imagine that can harm you through the cards. NONE of it is true.  

What is true then? I can tell you what I know from 10 years as a reader, and from talking to thousands of other readers in all that time as well.  Some who have been reading as long as 30 or 40 years. In my experience, and in that of many others, Tarot ( and divination in general) are very gentle, loving, supportive things. In all my years as a reader (and believe me I have done tons of readings) I have never had a reading that had an energy that was not caring, loving and kind and gentle. Not once in all that time. And I have never heard a real story about someone accidentally contacting anything negative or accidentally contacting anything at all.

 

Tarot is a tool to help people. And that is what it does. Whatever we need in the way of help, that can be given as words, Tarot can be and do that. It can offer comfort, understanding, support, wisdom, loving energy, humour at times, direction, answers, strategies....( I could go on for hours there, but do not want to bore you to tears, :-) )

 

I have never in all my years as a reader accidentally contacted any kind of energy I did not mean to or anything negative. Yes, of course, if there is a worry or problem in the querent's life the cards will talk about it. But they always, in my experience, talk about it in a positive supportive, kind, loving, problem-solving way.   

I have, in all my years as a reader, talked to many many many other readers and compared notes. And I have never heard of any other readers accidentally contacting any negative energy either. And especially not of unleashing anything at all of any kind. And I can tell you I have discussed it with more than 1000 readers (and other topics) at least over the past 10 years. 

 

So there you go, I don't believe that it is at all, in any way, possible to connect to something negative with your cards. It certainly cannot just happen accidentally just because you pull out a deck of cards. Just cannot happen.  

Does Tarot connect to anything? Do we connect to anything when we read? Those are the questions that no one knows the answer to for sure.  Different readers have different views on this part. As readers, we all know that the answers are coming to us from somewhere. Where that is exactly, we all have different answers to that.

 

But no, you can't accidentally open some kind of floodgate, or accidentally contact something negative.  

What Tarot is for me, that in my mind, heart and soul I feel sure about...is that it does in fact answer anything we need to know. And that says to me and shows me that we (all of us) live in a life and universe that WANTS to help us to succeed, to be the best we can, and to feel better if we just ask. IT tells me that we are not alone. That when we don't know what the best thing to do is we can ask. When we are afraid to make the wrong move we can ask. When we feel scared we can ask for comfort and for advice on why we need not be. When we don't understand, we can find the answers. When we.... (again I can go on forever, but will try not to) :-)

 

What I see and experience of Tarot is that to me it feels like proof that we are not alone and can have help (kind, caring help) with anything we need at anytime, to be, do, feel, and become all that we can be. And that, to me, is the truth of it.  

Coming next month: the role of the querent in the reading