Why tarot cards work

At its most basic, tarot tells stories about the cycles of our lives. Shuffling the deck, picking out cards and laying them out in order reveals what different trials and tribulations we might face during any given journey. However, the cards in the major arcana don't necessarily represent us in a given reading; they might represent someone else in our lives, or symbolize more general issues.

Tarot is a complex language, and every reading is different; similarly, every reader and the methodology they use to interpret the way the cards interact is different. They all have told me more or less the same thing, though: Leave the manic pixie dream boys alone, and finish your damn book.

A lot of the time, though, tarot simply brings up more open-ended questions instead of offering answers. During the audience question period, a nervous member asked Jodorowsky to give her a reading. In turn, he asked her to pick a few numbers between one and Still, trying to enter into the vast world of tarot readings, of which there are centuries of literature about, is daunting. My feeling is, I bought my deck and I can read. What if no one buys you a deck? Then you never get to learn how to read!

So in the spirit of inclusivity, I asked Howe to share some of her tips for new members of the tarot club. Her tip? Once you have your question in mind, shuffle the cards in any way you see fit. The cards that pop out and the cards you feel drawn to pull are the ones you should include in your reading. After you have your cards, look at each card individually and try to feel what the card means to you. You can always double-check what you think the meaning of the card is with the guidebook that comes with the tarot deck.

Both meanings are valid. The meanings of each card can then be strung together into a story format to give you the possible answers to your question. Smith can be reached at [email protected].. Chloe Smith is a third-year English and multimedia communications student.

This is her second semester on The Spectator team. In her free time she likes to read, binge watch TV shows, spend time with her dog and listen to music. Top Stories. Wonder women. How to: Hangovers. Book Club. Travis Scott is one of them. How to: Eat in Eau Claire. The Irish were never slaves. Reviewing the most popular Halloween candies of Cancel reply. But rather what do I do with my future? What is the future for? One might argue that even being obsessed with predicting the future is a form of existential privilege, for one, it takes for granted the idea you have a future to begin with.

There are people in this world, namely people of color and those with other marginalized identities, who benefit not from knowing the future, but rather having a decisive role in shaping it. Divination is perhaps better served as a tool that helps us contend with the present by allowing us to imagine a future worth living for. In particular, this is how Black communities have historically used divination in this country.

In contrast to the often trivial obsessions of what scholars and mystics Jade T. Black people have often used spiritual practices for liberation from their present circumstances, and have done tremendous labor to envision and create a future where we actually exist. For Black people, the future has never been promised.

While not new, the idea of constructing our futures has been beautifully embodied in the notion of Afrofuturism , the theoretical underpinning that has not only given rise to countless wonderful pieces of art, like Black Panther, but also the idea of Black Futures Month. Form as function, the act of recreating tarot decks with Black faces is an ontological intervention.

We exist in the cosmos. We exist in spirit. We exist in the future. We exist now. It is powerful for Black people, a people with whom so much of our past and present is still rife with oppression, to sit with the tarot and ask questions of the future.

It is an exercise in our own humanity. Note that the Black Lives Matter movement is an existential dilemma. One way we can reclaim the significance of our lives is to sit with tools that remind us that we will be here another day, another universe, another reality.

Tarot can predict the future, it also reminds us that we deserve futures in the first place.