Tarot for the Skeptic

You don’t need a sense of faith, spirituality or a belief in the nebulous to find a tarot deck useful

Tarot of the Absurd (8 of wands) and Thoth Tarot (Fool) | Personal Photo

On a sunny Saturday afternoon several months ago, I found myself at the monthly meetup of a group of local tarot enthusiasts. I first learned of this group a few years ago — I’d just moved to the area to attend grad school, and it was nice to have a chance to socialize outside of a classroom, to ponder and discuss a common interest that was utterly unrelated to the subjects that took up so much of my focus at the time.

Prior to this particular Saturday, however, it’d been a couple of years since I’d last attended a meetup. As I reconnected with people I recognized, and chatted a bit with those to whom I’d just been introduced, as I listened to a presentation about spreads suitable for romance related questions, and nibbled at lunch, and listened to people around me socialize afterwards, sharing advice — I was struck by a curious observation.

The people around me were a far from homogeneous group: the youngest perhaps a couple years younger than me, the oldest well into retirement; predominantly female, but enough men in attendance to count on one hand, at least; more white than not, but less so than many board game meetups I’ve attended in the area. A few did the tarot thing professionally, but many worked for the government, federal or local, in law firms, in retail and in corporate offices. They gathered out of a shared interest in reading tarot and this interest, it seemed, went hand in hand with a tendency towards belief — if not necessarily in a religion, then in some kind of spirituality, or the unknown, the metaphysical. People around me chatted, recommending books about psychic ability. Someone described attending a workshop about past lives. Others talked about psychic intuition, about karma, about reiki.

I didn’t, of course, get a chance to talk or listen to everyone at this one meeting, nor would I presume to speak for the beliefs or lack thereof of any group of people as a whole. Even so, the experience certainly seemed to echo the common stereotype about the kind of person who is interested in tarot.

The curious observation, then, was this:

That I too, once attended this same group with regularity. That I have been interested in tarot, on and off, for over half of my life to date. That I have a collection of a few dozen tarot decks that most appeal to me, carefully gathered over the years. That I have a stack of books about interpreting tarot cards, some general, some deck-specific. And that, for all the time that I have persisted in all that, this too, has been true:

I do not believe in any religion, in any higher power, in any kind of karmic force.

I do not believe in reincarnation, in past lives, in the possibility of any kind of afterlife.

I do not believe in the existence of any kind of psychic abilities, or in energy work, or good vibes, or the power of prayer.

I do not believe in intuition as anything other the fact that our brains are complex things that sometimes pick up on cues, details, and recognizable patterns faster than our cognitive thoughts are able to process.

I do not believe that reading a tarot deck involves receiving some kind of message from the universe, or a deity, or angels or spirits or our own unplumbed psychic potential.

I do not believe these things because I’ve yet to find any solidly logical reasoning or concrete evidence to convince me otherwise, and because my brain, I suspect, is simply not wired with any kind of inclination or need for faith.

In this particular regard, I suppose I could be called a skeptic. And yet, unlike many who hold similar views, I do not see tarot decks or tarot reading as a scam, or a silly hobby for the credulous. If you are driven by curiosity, by the desire to learn and examine and ponder, it makes sense to question ingrained disbelief as well as ingrained belief. Sometimes you’ll learn that a commonly-dismissed idea is held in low regard for good reason (like homeopathy — please don’t replace medical science with homeopathy). Other times, you might find value in something you never previously thought was worth your time.

Silicon Dawn Tarot (Ace of Wands) | Personal Scan

For many with a more skeptical outlook, a tarot deck has the potential to exemplify this concept: an object and pursuit previously dismissed or overlooked, with the potential to serve as a useful tool in a number of ways. For the creative and the intellectually curious, for those seeking inspiration and new ideas, and those stuck in a rut, and anyone wanting to challenge or exercise their brains, considering self-improvement, attempting to be more mindful and self-aware — tarot just might be worth giving a try.

And how exactly might a person who gives no credence to ideas like divination use a tarot deck? How might it benefit their life?

In Creative Writing: Prose, Poetry, Roleplay

• Writers seeking to practice their craft or get out of a writers-block rut often find writing prompts useful. A tarot deck consists of 78 cards, each with its own distinctive imagery and generally associated keyword ‘meanings’ and interpretation thereof. They can serve very well as writing. A very simple way of doing this: draw a card, open a book or webpage listing associated keywords if you don’t already know them, read those, take a few minutes to examine the card art, and write what comes to mind. The more familiar you are with the cards the more you can expand on this idea.
• Inspiration can likewise be harder to come by when writing longer pieces. Stuck on a plot point in a story? Do a quick spread: a card for idea about the problem, a card for idea about possible solution, a card for unknown problems/obstacles to consider. Consider the cards you draw, see what ideas come to mind. The combination of having both visual cues and conceptual keywords can be handy, as some people are more visual thinkers than others.
• Want or need to write a poem, but coming up short on ideas? Want to expand beyond the themes you usually gravitate towards? Your deck can help: draw two cards — again you can focus on the details of the card art, or on concepts the art represents, or some combination thereof. Some decks like the Thoth have keywords right on the cards themselves, which with poetry especially might be enough to go on no other books/info needed.
• Making a character for a RP and don’t have ideas for their background? Draw a few cards and use your take on those as a basis. DMing and your players just derailed all your plans for the session? Draw some cards to help you decide what happens next.

In Self-Reflection, Mindfulness and Meditation, Working Through Personal Issues

• Habits are hard to break. We tend to get in mental ruts, thinking the same unproductive thoughts, focusing on some possible outcomes and instinctively dismissing others. We make assumptions, find it hard to consider certain other points of view. At times we may find it quite difficult at time to recognize our own feelings or desires or fears clearly. An outside perspective is often useful, which is why many people talk about their issues with friends, or ask advice from family, or turn self-help books seeking a new approach. A tarot reading is another option, a way of getting something of a different perspective from yourself, perhaps to trigger you to consider things in a different light. A simple spread is often enough to get the ball rolling: Why am I so upset by this issue? What previous fact/experiences are influencing my outlook? What am I forgetting to consider? If you make yourself write out your interpretations of how each card related to the associated question and to your situation, it can trigger some in depth self-examination on an entirely different level than your regular thought processes.
• Some personal problems are internal, and using tarot cards this same way can be useful for better understanding the things yourself that other people usually can’t help you figure out (a good therapist notwithstanding). Why do I keep self-sabotaging at work? Why am I so anxious about attempting starting this project? What’s holding me back most right now? The process of figuring out how to bridge your own feelings and your knowledge of the objective facts of your situation with the art and generally accepted keywords/meanings associated with the cards in front of you is quite different from how we usually consider these questions, often difficult at first. A stream of thought written reaction might be a useful approach to start.
• If mindfulness and/or meditation exercises are your cup of tea, tarot can be a worthwhile addition to these practices. One option is to use a card as a focus for your meditation exercise. Sit with the card. Focus on it. Put the rest of your thoughts and concerns about whats going on in life aside and focus on what feelings that one card evokes, what memories or thoughts it triggers, the concepts it represents and what that means to you. For those who have really trouble with the clear your mind of all thoughts, think of nothing at all just be in the moment aspect of mindfulness practices, this might be a bit easier.

In Self-Improvement on a Day to Day Basis

• Small changes in your daily routine can be a great way of taking concrete, manageable steps towards larger self-improvement goals. Some people enjoy word/thought of the day type calendars or journals with a daily writing prompts. A tarot deck can be used the same way. Draw a card every morning and spend a couple of minutes looking at the image, looking up or thinking about the meaning/keywords associated with the card. If you have time and inclination, you can do a five or tend minute free association writing session right then in the morning. Otherwise, keep the card in mind during the day, ponder, let your brain make connections between the image, the concepts, and what goes on around you, or what you read, or watch, or the conversations you have. Perhaps write a few sentences of reflection before bed. It can be illuminating to challenge your mind to re-interpret your everyday experience through a new and different lens.
• If you are a visual artist, and are trying to get into the habit of doing your art thing more regularly you can use a similar technique: draw a card, and consider the art and concepts — perhaps do a sketch of the imagery in your own art style, or re-interpret the concept entirely with new imagery, or focus in one part of the image that particularly draws your interest. Alternatively, draw two cards and see how you could combine aspects of the imagery of both into one drawing.
• If you are one of those people who genuinely enjoyed the intellectual challenge of school, and find your current routine less than stimulating, you can use daily tarot card draws to structure intellectual exercises around. How can you relate that card or pair of cards to something you recently read, or something you’ve observed in people around you, or current events, or your own thoughts on human nature, or that interesting scientific article you’ve read? If you have the time and energy, set aside some time each day for this, write a few paragraphs with your thoughts, a mini-essay of sorts. You can journal or blog it if so inclined. If that’s not doable, condense your thought into a thesis statement of sorts, a sentence of two. Write it down in a notebook or word doc somewhere along with the date — in can be quite interesting later to go over these nuggets of thought you’ve collected over time.
• Trying to be more productive? Draw a card, consider how it relates visually or conceptually to a task you need to finish, or an action you’ve been meaning to take. Whatever it is, make dealing with it a goal for the day. If that’s too vague, one idea is to run down the list of question words and see which seems to fit best: Who? A court card focusing on a type of person might bring to mind someone you’ve been meaning to help, or eject from your life. What? A card depicting someone working in a garden might remind you of a task you’ve been putting off, like the need to re-pot your houseplants. Where? Does the image of the chariot make you free-associate with cars, and the trip to the DMV avoiding? How? Perhaps you already know exactly what you NEED to get done today, in which case how the images and ideas the card presents and how those might help you approach the task, or motivate you do get it done.

As with any new interest or hobby, you can get as invested or not as you desire (and have the time/money for), of course. That said, you can get a deck for for under $20 if you aren’t picky, and most come with a small booklet of keywords for interpretation at minimum. You can find more Information online for free. It doesn’t cost much to give it a try — absolutely no interest or belief in the new age or the spiritual required.