Why did the tarot tell me something completely different a year ago?

“Last year, when we did a reading the tarot said I should take this job. At the time I was not sure if I wanted to take it but I also needed a job. However, I am still unhappy, but now we do a reading on this job and it is telling me to leave. Why would tarot give me conflicting advice?”

This is a common yet erroneous and simplistic way of looking at predictions.

There is not one right answer for the future for all time. There isn’t only that one person, that one path, that one thing that was meant to be all along. The idea that we are “meant” for certain things, that someone is sitting up in the clouds storyboarding our life for us is dangerous. This kind of thinking keeps us stuck in relationships, in places, and in jobs that are toxic because we believe they were “meant” for us.

But who is creating that situation that you are “meant” for? Are you creating it? Is some kind of unknown entity telling you how you should live? Who is that person? God? The Universe? The little Gnome at the base of the tree at your Grandma’s house?

And if we miss that soul mate, that perfect job, that one opportunity does that really mean that that’s it? Game over! Since you missed your opportunity, will your life be diminished forever more because you took the wrong turn?

OMG! Not at all!

Here is what I know: the Universe, God, that Gnome — whatever you decide to attribute the ineffable mystery that pervades all things — is crazy generous. Like, honestly, CRAZY generous and far, FAR more creative than you are.

In fact, look back at your life and you will see evidence that this is true. Think about the thing you wanted and did not get. Only with time did you realize that actually you got something much better, something you never could have imagined in a million years. This is what I am talking about.

This isn’t a one-way street. You and that ineffable mystery are constantly talking all the time. Your life is a dance, a conversation, a relationship. It’s a relationship between you as the writer and your mystical editor who helps tighten, define, advise, and give you grammar advice. But, ultimately, you are writing your life.

However, when we believe in this static world wherein there is only one right answer, we keep ourselves from seeing how incredible predictive readings can actually be. Tarot is more like a boost to your conversation with the universe. Rarely does it reveal this “one right future” approach that many people mistake it for.

So, when we get a prediction that changes, we can only see it in light of the path we took, not the other probabilities that existed which influenced the message at that time. Maybe if my client didn’t take the job it would have meant unemployment for the whole year.

Maybe the job she wants to leave will actually play a crucial role in the next step for another job. Perhaps she was put in a holding pattern because the thing that is coming needed time to fall into place. Maybe the job she needs to leave now means that 5 months down the road the job will go through massive layoffs.

That’s the thing. We only pay attention to the message and often do not account for what is not being said. What is not being said is HUGE. It is a mistake to assume that the path taken meant that the advice was wrong or wasted just because we are being given different advice down the road.

When we use tarot for predictive readings, we are only seeing one branch of the tree that is full of so many possible timelines. In a tarot reading, the suggested timeline we are being shown is what the Universe believes will be the best possible path to take at the time. So, when we take it, we do not see all the other alternative paths that are untaken.

This means that a predictive tarot reading is a message from that Mystery that is crunching the numbers in our favor. The Universe is constantly taking into account the incredibly complex interactions of free will, entropy, and chaos from both the perspective of the querent and also the information from all others who may possibly interact, influence, or change the trajectory of the querent.

(And don’t even get me started about how the very act of hearing a reading will absolutely and instantly influence the prediction being given. That is a whole other dispatch for another time.)

Ultimately, humans are messy, inconsistent creatures. The more there are of them, the crazier this prediction business gets. Personally, I would much rather prefer a predictive reading that is capable of shifting alongside the chaotic nature of a life well-lived rather than a static ‘one shot’ kind of tool.

Any tarot reading about tomorrow is ultimately about today. Today, this is what I need to hear about tomorrow. And tomorrow, I may hear something different about the day after that. Tarot is a compass: it is a tool we can use to help us course correct, but ultimately, we are choosing the destination.