Why I Use Tarot for Personal Development
And why even the skeptics among you should give it a go.
Like most people, I treasure my Sundays. For good mental and physical hygiene, I find it crucial that I have a whole day to clean, stock my fridge and stretch out my body for a good hour. In my freshly cleaned room, I light some incense, sit down at my desk and take about forty-five minutes with just me, my Tarot cards and the soft scent of sandalwood.
You might be thinking that I’m crazy for buying into the idea that a bunch of cards can predict my future or tell me anything valuable about myself. The thing is, Tarot is a great tool for self-reflection even without the spiritual component.
Tarot cards have no inherently magical, evil or otherwise supernatural qualities. They are nothing more than a tool — the real power comes from you. If you’ve ever read ink blots or played a word association game, you’ll know that people often project onto images their own meanings from whatever context they are in at that moment and find relevant associations. It’s the same concept with Tarot.
The first Tarot decks originated in Europe in the 15th century as playing cards (in Italy, for example, they were used in ‘Tarocchini’.) It was in the 18th century that they began to be used for occult practices. All in all, when considering other forms of divination that have dated back thousands of years, such as Palmistry or Astrology, Tarot is relatively new.
The Tarot deck is designed to refer to the different stages of a life cycle. The Major Arcana is a set of twenty-two cards that take you from birth (The Fool), all the way through to old age (The World), and each card is a step along the path to becoming a well-rounded, enlightened individual. The Lovers refers to finding true love; The Tower refers to when everything comes crashing down around you. The Minor Arcana refers to more mundane moments in a person’s life: finance (Pentacles) for example, or our emotional inner life (Cups). They have numbers that go from ace to ten that refer to stages in those smaller cycles in our lives.
(So, for example, the Ace of Pentacles refers to the beginning of an idea that might lead to financial success, and encourages you to start that new business you’ve been thinking about.)
Using Tarot is an act of self-awareness and reflection. Without reflection, we can’t be a fully rounded and responsible human being. By checking in with myself every week, I can determine what might be going on in my brain right now; what I need to be wary of or fix.
Of course, there is also the premonitory advantage of having the cards warn me in advance of any troubles I might be facing in the week ahead. Let me just say, it’s nice to get a head’s up sometimes so that I can prepare for when things are about to get hairy. But the thing is, you don’t have to ask the tarot those kinds of questions. You can stick to deciphering yourself in the present moment. It can be whatever you want it to be, and that’s the beauty of Tarot.
Tarot is a form of divination that I find to be much more accessible than others. Although it requires study, most of it is pretty self-explanatory due to the illustrations you can read from and how well organised the card system is once you wrap your head around it. Each number means something, and each suit corresponds to an element. Every card in the Major Arcana has an associated Zodiac sign and the number of a Major Arcana corresponds with the card numbers of the Minor Arcana. It is a neat, concise way to untangle the complex events and cycles in our lives and find a way to make sense of them.
The best part is that even if the cards give you bad news, it doesn’t feel like the Devil himself is rising up to taunt you- it feels like you’re being called out by a concerned friend. Even the most negative cards are accompanied by advice that it will give you to change your course, and Tarot practitioners will stress the fact that nothing predicted is set in stone. With some self-reflection, a kick up the arse and a plan of action, you can be prepared to deal with any burgeoning crisis before it even comes about.
I’ve been using them for long enough and seen enough proof of their accuracy that I no longer question whether it’s ‘real’. I have become a lot more spiritual in recent years, and I believe in the power of intuition. The mind is capable of incredible things if you really test it. I don’t see myself as a very woo-woo person, either. I am practical and skeptical (my father’s influence). The thing is, I also don’t dismiss something when I see it working. If it works, then it works, and that’s really all that matters. I don’t have to understand the mechanics behind Tarot to know that it’s helped me be a better person.
There used to be a time when people would accept that there are some things we just can’t grasp. Our perception of the world around us is limited to what our minds can conceive of, and that’s a scary thought. The cult of rationality that has become so ingrained in our culture since the Enlightenment has encouraged the pendulum to swing from religious fanaticism to the worship of science. I prefer this over how things were a few hundred years ago for sure, but I think there’s a balance to be struck.
The feminine has always been regarded as spiritual, emotional and mysterious due to our connections with the moon, both through the more anatomical similarities with the hormone and lunar cycles syncing up and the connotations of night-time as a time of heightened spiritual activity. The masculine is associated with the sun — strong, energetic and rational. The Witch Hunts demonstrated a widespread fear of the spiritual capabilities of women, and to this day occult practices are regarded with nervousness or scorn by most people. The thing is, even if Tarot is relatively new, looking to spiritual practices to better oneself mentally is an age-old art.
Just look at meditation. It has been adopted into our culture ever since its scientific benefits have been proven, but it has been a part of Buddhist practice for thousands of years. I don’t doubt the possibility that Tarot could be adapted into our culture in a sanitized, digestible form in the future to help people work through emotional issues.
Okay, so, I’m going to get real here for a second: I have had a lot of trouble with spirituality since before I came out. Although I’ve flirted with Buddhism and agnosticism since childhood, Christianity has been everywhere from the beginning of my school education and spirituality became synonymous to me with oppression.
However, I’ve learned through dabbling recently in New Age and Occult practices that there are other ways to be spiritual.
Being more spiritual has been a way for me to connect with my feminine side in a world that mocks femininity constantly, and praises masculinity. It has empowered me to take care of my body, my mind, and my space through relearning what ‘sacred’ means to me.
I don’t want to have to feel ashamed about the fact that I believe in the power of Tarot. Instead of mocking people who are turning to spiritual practices to care for themselves, I urge you to think about the fact that yoga is now prescribed by doctors, and at one point in time Westerners laughed at Eastern medicinal practices which turned out to be spot on. Sometimes, science doesn’t have to endorse something for it to become useful or socially acceptable.
At least, it shouldn’t.
