Thanks to how they are portrayed in popular culture, anyone who is unfamiliar with tarot cards probably has the wrong idea about them. In movies, there is usually some witch who throws down an ominous card to warn that something very tragic is about to happen.
Most people would agree that God in his all-knowing capacity should be able to predict the future. Probably an equal number are skeptical that humans have the same ability. And since most fortune tellers in the movies do not look like messengers of God, there is an assumption that these people and their cards must therefore be “of the devil”.
Tarot cards do in fact have an uncanny ability to predict likely future outcomes. It is just the reason (along with a general ignorance of how tarot cards work) that makes “God-fearing” people wary of them. To add to the confusion, some people who use tarot cards think that divination is their only function. But this is not so. The fundamental purpose of tarot cards is to access the subconscious mind. And it is in accessing the subconscious mind that we are able to have a clearer picture of “what lies ahead”.
Sweet dreams
Another useful tool for accessing the subconscious mind is dreams. Most people don’t seem to be aware of this, and many people don’t even pay attention to their dreams. One possible explanation is that our dreams often don’t seem to make any sense.
The reason dreams might seem meaningless is because the subconscious mind works very differently from the conscious mind, and uses its own language. More specifically: the subconscious mind uses symbols to express itself, to the frustration of everyone who likes to operate on the principles of “time is money” and “get to the point”.
Happens by Chance
The common perception of life is that most events we experience happen at random. Even though our conscious minds would prefer for one thing to happen over another, we are often frustrated when our efforts to make something happen simply don’t work out. Other times, we are pleasantly surprised by good news that we didn’t expect, or are disappointed by a sudden loss that we didn’t.
What is not recognized is that our subconscious mind plays a significant role in influencing our daily lives. Even when our conscious mind might really desire a certain outcome, our efforts could be thwarted by our subconscious minds in some capacity. For instance, we may consciously deny feelings about a person or event that end up having a direct impact on the outcome. Therefore, the more connected we are with our subconscious minds, the less “surprises” we are likely to have in life.
An Expanded Viewpoint
Another fascinating aspect of our subconscious minds is that they are not separate from each other. While studying dreams, Carl Jung discovered that the dream world uses not only individual symbols, but universal symbols as well. This could only be possible if our subconscious minds have some sort of connection with each other.
To tap into the subconscious mind is therefore to tap into not just one’s own “hidden agenda”, but also the energies of other’s subconscious minds as well. The subconscious is a portal for accessing the energy of how other people really think and believe about an issue, and not merely what they do and say. Due this the subconscious mind’s wider perception, it can more accurately predict future events than can one’s individual conscious mind.
How Sure Are You?
In spirituality, there is this concept of “expanded awareness”. This is the experience of one’s consciousness being aware of more than just one’s own ego. The farther out one’s consciousness is expanded, the more “information” one has access to.
It is likely that famous fortune tellers (such as Nostradamus) were able to expand their conscious awareness to levels that most humans have never experienced. But even these predictions are not 100% accurate. The only way for total accuracy is to expand one’s awareness to match that of God’s awareness. Personally, I don’t think that human beings are capable of doing this.
By accessing the information held within the subconscious, it is possible to predict the most probable outcome for an event. But the caveat is that it is the most likely outcome at the moment that the information is accessed. Therefore, the closer an event is to occurring, the more accurate the prediction will be.
The Luck of the Draw?
Now that we understand the importance of connecting to our subconscious minds, the next question is: exactly how do the tarot cards do that? Logically, shuffling a stack of cards is a “game of chance”. And this is true: but only to the perspective of the conscious mind. The reason that reading tarot cards works is because we are not allowing the conscious mind to control the reading.
For example, if we asked a question and then pulled out the cards that we wanted to see, this would be the conscious mind at work. But by shuffling the cards, we are allowing the subconscious mind to take over and speak to us. The subconscious mind already knows what cards will be pulled, so from the perspective of the subconscious mind, the card selection was not “by chance”.
Tarot for Life
Although much of this article has focused predicting the future, tarot cards have a much wider application than just divination. Tarot cards can also provide insight into what phase of life a person is in, one’s current challenges and opportunities, who or what is blocking one’s dreams, and who or what might be available to provide assistance. The system is a great tool for engaging the subconscious mind to gently guide us through the ups and downs of life, prepare us for what might lie up ahead, and give us a wider perspective on current situations in order to make tough decisions with greater insight and confidence.
Source:
Anthony Louis. Tarot Plain and Simple. Llewellyn Publications. 2018.