Will your emotions/personal bias will affect the cards you draw or interpret?

[simorphor]

Hello everyone,

 

I am still new to tarot (have been learning it for 1.5 year). It seems that my emotions or personal biases will affect the cards I draw or the way I will interpret the cards. For example, when I am in a bad mood, I always pick the bad cards (like Tower, Death). Do you guys have any techniques that I can avoid these situations? 

[Chariot]

Hi @simorphor

That's an interesting dilemma.  I've not experienced this myself ...exactly.  I don't read while I'm in a 'bad mood.'  However, I certainly have read for myself when I was worried or scared about something ...and as long as I was receptive to what the cards told me, I usually got answers that were helpful, and usually reassuring.  (And hey ho, I'm still here in one piece, so they were more or less right to be reassuring!)

What do you think you might do, to counteract this problem you've experienced?  It's probably too obvious to say, 'just wait till you're not in a bad mood any more,' but that might be a sensible way to look at it.   However, if the situation is urgent, that won't work, will it?  Have you attempted any solutions yourself, before now?

I certainly believe emotions and personal biases can get in the way of interpretation—in that you can sometimes 'hear' only what you want to hear, rather than starting the interpretation from a neutral place.  However, I'm not sure if emotions and biases would affect the actual drawing of the cards.  We await insight and developments....

I'm sure other forum members have suggestions, and probably many of them have experienced what you have as well.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Chariot

[DanielJUK]

Firstly. I totally believe that our emotions and personal biases on a situation, influence our interpretations of a reading. That is why it is much harder to read for yourself than others. Some people can never read for themselves. Part of the skill of a good reader I think is being impartial and going beyond these feelings and biases.

 

This scenario though is different, it's about getting actual cards which match this. I don't believe that our feelings and influences choose the cards for us, but this is complicated because people have different beliefs about how tarot works. It's a philosophical question! Some people say it's from them, others random draw, some from a spirit or god, some from ancestors, some from the universe or some unconscious global force. If you believe the tarot works from you then I guess this belief fits.

 

I can only answer this with my personal view about how tarot works and that is that they are just cardboard. We shuffle and draw the cards (which have no special link on them) but the reading comes from us. I believe it comes from beyond us, from the universe or some force outside us, because I have done readings for people with the most amazing information coming up that I didn't know, like how did I get that? So for me, the reading comes from something higher than us, the message just goes through us and our job is to interpret it as best as we can. I said that things can influence our interpretation but I believe the cards are destined. As long as you shuffle well, the cards are from something outside us and we have to work out the message from that point on. So our emotions don't influence the cards that come up, that is the message! This is a bit correlation does not imply causation. We can influence the readings when interpreting, but I don't believe we influence the drawing of the cards and what comes up.

 

Here is the fun twist though 🙂. If we do a reading about a situation we are really angry about, the cards could show we are really angry about the situation.  I first came to tarot during the worst depression spell of my life and at the start of my reading journey, all my own readings had super negative and reversed cards. There was a depressing theme of no hope in the readings. As my depression improved, so did the cards. This wasn't my emotions influencing the reading, it was reflecting my real life at the time. So this is a complicated question really. I don't think you can stop how you are at that time showing up, you can only interpret the readings as neutrally as possible 🙂

[catlover5201314]

hello! i personally don’t read for myself much bc my bias and ego does get in the way !! i only read for myself when i'm differentiated enough and its not an important matter ! i usually ask a friend who also reads or i pay for the service !

 

it does happen to me that sometimes i pull something and its not what i expected or wanted to hear and get frustrated , i dont push tho bc im just not in the headspace to read ! if this happens to u when u are also reading for other ppl thats kinda concerning if ur offering readings i suggest u dig deep into what ur problem is at the root with the specific cards and rly rly understand why u feel that way towards it, whats causing that, and being aware of ur bias is "swaying" the interpretation!

 

when it comes to drawing i've never had a problem with it, i honestly don't know what ppl do before reading cards but personally i ask my guides for assistance and i "draw" by asking questions and taking the card that flies out as the answer , hope that helps a bit..

Edited July 15, 2023 by catlover5201314

[crystalrose]

Yes it will. Sometimes the cards will reflect your fears or your hopes and not the real situation. I find this happens most often when you read repeatedly on the same situations. In these cases, try to take a break or maybe ask someone more objective to read for you. But then again, some questions just can’t be totally solved by tarot and using more conventional means of advice might be appropriate.