This is important.
Tarot is not the universal oracle you probably think it is if you’re a believer in tarot. It’s not necessarily the objective truth (even when it seems to make perfect sense), and it’s not necessarily a sign of what you should do.
I’ve realized from the tarot readings I’ve had done, both personal ones and electronic ones, that what the cards actually reflect is the “energies” you send out at the moment the card selection is determined. This includes your unconscious beliefs about the situation, which is why the readings can seem to make sense. But, while the subconscious mind is very wise and connected, the subconscious take on the situation isn’t always correct.
One experience I had (but not the totality of everything that led me to the above realization) was the time my friend and I were using an online, automated tarot reader and sending each other links to our results, and he sent me a bunch of links in a way to tarot readings that were strikingly similar. I mentioned to him how similar they seemed, and he said that he had been focusing hard to project the same energy/thought when initiating the readings to see if it would give similar results.
Inb4 ‘Tarot is bunk, there are no magical or psychic forces in the universe, therefore this essay/”realization” is meaningless.’: my actual, practical experience with tarot trumps your baseless/axiomatic preconceptions/physicalist bias.
Inb4 “You interpret your experiences how you do because of cognitive biases such as confirmation bias, and the fact that the tarot card meanings are just vague enough to apply to anybody. This is how people in general become convinced tarot works, just like with astrology.”: no; actually, that’s an assumption used to maintain a narrow-minded, mechanistic worldview. You imagine that those principles could theoretically account for such beliefs, so you assume that they necessarily are the reasons, because it’s convenient. In reality, those principles are insufficient to account for such experiences and interpretations, but, due to the lack of objective ways to determine the matter one way or another, it’s easy to deny this for someone who lacks general astuteness.
