6 things I’ve learned about people from reading tarot cards
It’s all about Sehnsucht
I’m a data nerd and evaluator. I spend my day immersed in scientific research, metrics, and return-on-investment calculations for projects.
I also read tarot cards on the side.
I usually do it for free, for friends, and as a party trick. But I have accepted money from time to time for my services, and I did briefly consider “going pro”.
As a somewhat hard-nosed data junkie, my tarot card hobby seems like a bit of an odd contradiction. But I do believe at least a little bit in the “science” of the tarot.
That doesn’t mean I think that tarot cards can predict your future. For me, the science of the tarot falls into two categories:
Tarot cards help you access your “Higher Self” or your subconscious
They help you to understand your intuition and what you already know at some level. Specific cards and their interpretations can open up avenues of thought within you and jog things to the surface that you didn’t want to fully admit, even to yourself. They give you permission to think differently and connect with different areas of your brain.
It’s possible that quantum physics can come into play in tarot card readings
I won’t pretend I’m an expert on quantum physics, but there’s lots about our universe that we don’t fully understand yet. I do believe that people can have an energy that influences what cards they pick, and that things like spooky action at a distance and quantum entanglement can influence energies. As a data analyst, I try to take an objective view — I count cards, notice patterns, and contemplate statistical likelihood, and I’ve seen things that surprise me.
Some of the basics about the tarot
There’s a wide range of guidance on how to read tarot cards, what spreads to do, what each of the cards means, and whether you do reversals or not. Everyone has their own particular style and set of interpretations.
For the uninitiated, the standard tarot deck is broken into 56 minor arcana cards and 22 major arcana cards. The minor arcana mimic the usual 52-card playing deck with cards Ace through King, with an additional card, the Page (or Princess depending on the deck), in each suit. The suits have different names — Cups, Swords, Pentacles, and Wands — than a normal playing deck.
The major arcana cards reflect the Fool’s journey from card 0 (the Fool himself) to card 21 (the World) and are supposed to represent archetypes in the collective unconscious. The major arcana are the “big” cards that one associates with momentous tarot card readings — Death, The Tower, The Hanged Man, and the like. The number of major arcana in the spread is thought to tell you something about where a person is at in their life, and they certainly do lend themselves to a more interesting reading.
Six things I’ve learned
There are six things that I’ve learned about people from reading cards over the years:
1) I can almost always tell when someone is having an affair or is about to get a divorce.
It isn’t so much about what cards they draw, although sometimes that factors in, but rather their response to the cards. I don’t tell them I think that in the reading, of course. Their path is their own to walk. My readings are more about sharing my interpretation of the cards and leaving the querent to decide what that means for their life.
When someone is having an affair or about to get a divorce, there is an energy about them. They are often feeling very uncertain, or scared, and they are looking anywhere for answers. They so very much want the cards to confirm what they already know in their hearts, and that feeling is palpable. Other major life decisions, such as quitting one’s job, don’t create a similar level of energy in a reading.
2) I can tell a lot about people’s hopes and dreams and general approach to life.
People who are dynamic go-getters with big dreams tend to pick a lot of major arcana, and people who are more passive and don’t want to make a lot of changes in their lives tend to pick mostly minor arcana. I’ve seen it many times, and I can’t explain it.
It’s also in the way that they react to the cards. People who dream big get really excited when they see their cards and ask lots of questions. They spend time considering alternate explanations and possibilities. There is a tangible enthusiasm in the air, and you can tell that they have lots of ideas for their life, or are on the cusp of something that they just want a little push to execute.
In contrast, people who don’t plan to make many changes in their lives, don’t seem to have big dreams, or are perhaps just really stuck, just say “oh yeah, that’s neat” and move on. The possibilities in their cards don’t spark anything in them.
3) Some people can block me from reading anything about them, and it makes me wonder what else they’re hiding.
I don’t encounter active blockers often, because most people who are blockers don’t tend to seek out tarot card readings, but I have had some interesting encounters.
It’s kind of like tarot poker where they’re actively preventing me from seeing any visual cues in their behavior that would help me understand them. But it’s also in the way that they pick the cards, often hurriedly with deliberate carelessness, like they’d rather not pick the cards that they want to pick.
It’s possible that these people are just skeptics to the extreme, but skeptics have a different energy about them. Skeptics either avoid readings altogether or have an attitude of “whatever” about the reading. Blockers are more directly challenging, even if they do so with a smile.
4) The cards can allow emotions to rise to the surface.
I’m sometimes taken aback by the level of emotion, typically grief or sadness, that the cards can evoke in people who are usually more restrained. When I went to a professional tarot card reader, she had a Kleenex box built right into her table.
It makes me realize how much some people hold back and mask their emotions. These people would not likely let loose if I were to ask them a direct question about the subject, but somehow, mediated by the cards, they allow their feelings to surface.
5) People are often looking for serious guidance in their lives.
One of the reasons I gave up charging for doing tarot card readings was because I realized that many people seeking a reading were also looking for real advice and in some cases healing from past trauma.
I’m not a counselor, and I sometimes felt out of my depth in supporting them through the complexity of emotions they were experiencing or helping them to figure out what to do in difficult situations. Taking money set up a whole different feeling of responsibility to them as the querent than doing readings as a party trick, so I decided to go back to just doing it for fun and supporting people as best I can as their friend.
6) Many people want to believe (including me).
Lots of people get excited when they learn I read tarot cards, even folks who are pretty focused on hard data and evidence like me. Ultimately, I think a lot of people want to believe that there is some sort of collective unconscious, divine energy, or fate. They want to believe that perhaps there is a life’s purpose or path that they are meant to follow.
C.S. Lewis referred to this intense notion of longing for something beyond ourselves as Sehnsucht. While Lewis was often referring to longing for God, the word Sehnsucht refers to any deep longing or feeling like there is something missing that would make our lives better or more complete. Many of us feel like we experience glimpses of that alternate reality from time to time, in moments of synchronicity, in books, dreams, or meditation.
People perceive that tarot cards offer the potential to interact with that alternate reality. Even if tarot cards just connect us with our internal compass, we want to believe that compass exists and that it can help us find our path and live the life that we were meant to live.
Overall, I’ve realized how many of us are waiting for permission in some way to live out loud, express our emotions, and make the decisions that we want to make. I would never suggest making dramatic changes in your life based on a tarot card reading. But if the cards allow you to channel that better and permit you to speak your truth, even if just to yourself, I think there’s power in that.
