Perceptions of Tarot

[Tom]

I am reading a Oracle deck book and the author says that Oracles funny scare people the way Tarot Cards do.  She thinks that people perceive the Tarot to be evening and that they are afraid to have readings with them.  Sitting my experience is limited, I can honestly say that I haven't met anyone that felt that they are black magic it evil.

 

What do you think?  I still love Tarot.  

[KiMo]

I recently watched a YouTube video by a tarot reader based in the US, her background and upbringing were devoutly Christian and although she was drawn to tarot cards in her teens (if I remember rightly), her beliefs meant that she became too nervous to use them. She turned instead to angel oracle cards, and to cut a long story short, found herself using the tarot some years later as her beliefs evolved.

 

I think it all depends on where in the world you are, many religions / beliefs and cultures view divination as negative, others don't. The culture in which I was raised, the tarot would have been viewed with skepticism at worst, curiosity at best, but never as 'evil'. My partner, however, was raised in a deeply Catholic culture. He has total respect for the fact that I work with the tarot, and is very curious about it, but still has that nugget of nervousness in the back of his mind owing to his upbringing.

 

[Saule]

I agree with @KiMo. People differ. Even people with the same religion can have vastly different outlooks on tarot depending on where they live.

I grew up in Eastern Europe. In my country, everyone is Catholic. I feel like people cherry pick their beliefs here. For example, homophobia is rife (gay marriage still isn't legal :( ). People will gossip if you have children out of wedlock. But adultery is common, and so is divorce. And tarot isn't seen as evil or bad. In fact, many people are intrigued by it. Our major news site has a daily/weekly column by an astrologist. Some divination people are quite famous here. Many magazines have astrology predictions at the end, just for fun.

My family is one of those bigoted Catholics. When they discovered that I read Tarot, they asked me for a reading! And my mother bought me my first ever tarot deck. I feel lucky that I was never shamed for my hobby by my family. Funnily enough, the only few times that I've been shamed were by my Western ex-boyfriends. Not because they though tarot was evil, but because they thought they were too smart for it. How could I believe some pieces of paper?

From what I've seen, things in USA seem to be way different. They're more conservative.

[Misterei]

21 minutes ago, Saule said:

... Even people with the same religion can have vastly different outlooks on tarot depending on where they live.

I grew up in Eastern Europe. In my country, everyone is Catholic ...  people cherry pick their beliefs here. For example, homophobia is rife (gay marriage still isn't legal 😞 ) ... tarot isn't seen as evil or bad.

 

I grew up Greek American in Greek Orthodox family and it was similar. Folkloric practices such as reading tea leaves or coffee grounds were part of the culture. My grandmother blessed cars before family members took a long drive ... my father rejected religion and went atheist ... but he still gave me my first tarot deck!

@Saule <<...Funnily enough, the only few times that I've been shamed were by my Western ex-boyfriends. Not because they though tarot was evil, but because they thought they were too smart for it. How could I believe some pieces of paper? From what I've seen, things in USA seem to be way different. They're more conservative.>>

 

USA has so many different cultures! If you're in an Eastern Orthodox immigrant community like I was ... fortune telling and the "evil eye" etc. are part of the culture [although maybe it's dying out???] If you're from a liberal hippie family probably your mom did tarot while smoking cannabis };>. But if you're from a Baptist family tarot would be shamed and demonized. From a modern secular family? Mocked as silly superstition. Etc. Etc. Etc.

[KiMo]

1 hour ago, Saule said:

Funnily enough, the only few times that I've been shamed were by my Western ex-boyfriends. Not because they though tarot was evil, but because they thought they were too smart for it. How could I believe some pieces of paper?

Isn't it interesting... This is exactly the reason why I can count on one hand, bar those already in the community and those in my immediate family, the people I've told about my reading tarot. There's such a stigma around it because it's viewed as 'illogical, superstitious woo'. 

[Natural Mystic Guide]

16 hours ago, KiMo said:

There's such a stigma around it because it's viewed as 'illogical, superstitious woo'. 

When I read this, I thought I'm so glad that I don't give a flying f..k what other people think.  But come to think of it, I actually broke off my engagment to an Orthodox Jewish man because of Tarot.  He had a lot of fear about things in general.  He (and many other Orthodox Jews) feel that divination and Tarot are prohibited by Jewish law and evil.  For me, it's part of my mission or my calling in life.  If someone cannot accept that about me I just don't need them in my life.  I do think about him every day, though.

[DanielJUK]

If someone is strongly religious, I don't think it would matter about tarot or oracles, they would be against all fortune-telling generally. It doesn't matter the type.

As lovers of tarot, we have to challenge superstitions about them. Most of them come from religion, who saw card divination as a threat to having regular worshippers who also would give them regular income. It was competition.

We have members of the forum who are strong in every faith and also have divination as part of their lives, we can challenge superstition and dogma about it. There is also a history of many religions and divination as well, there is always a subsect who have it as part of their faith. The historic European decks have a Catholic influence, there is a history of Islamic fortune-telling and many other faiths.

 

It's possible people who are beginners or not readers find Oracles less "scary" than Tarot but ultimately they are all cardboard cards with pictures on it, nothing more or less!

[Chariot]

Unfortunately many fundamentalist religions simply won't tolerate anything outwith their doctrines ...either as written or as spoken ...which they believe cover all aspects of righteous living.  Not much you can do about that, but hope they loosen up eventually.  

 

Where we CAN make headway is with the skeptics. Skeptics who assume BECAUSE tarot is just a pack of cards dealt out at random, that it's nonsense to believe they can 'tell' us anything at all.  However—as many experienced readers can attest—when these skeptics get a reading that makes unexpected sense to them, they do often open their minds.  Heck, I started out that way myself. 

It helps to downplay the 'woo' quotient with new skeptic querents—maybe forgo crystals, incense, etc—and try to stick to grounded, everyday topics and sensible analysis.  I always stress to a skeptic that it's not really important to understand HOW and WHY tarot works, only to recognise that it does work. And then I attempt to give them proof.

I usually read for skeptics with my own book of tarot meanings handy. I've handwritten this book myself over the years, and it contains what—to me—are the meanings I can ascribe to each card, upright or reversed.  They may not suit everybody, but they are written down, and I can show the book to my querent, if required.

Once the querent's question has been asked, written down, the cards shuffled and dealt, I explain what each position in the spread is supposed to refer to.  Then I turn over the first card, and read out loud directly from my book.

I remind the querent what the spread position is all about ("this is about what is leaving your life just now," etc.) I ask them if the words I read seem to fit their own situation in any way.  From there, we can start a dialogue—and since what I've given them is what is actually written in the book, they know I'm not making it up as I go along.  I do this with every position, and usually by the end of the reading, both the querent and I have figured out what the tarot is telling us.

It's surprising how well this method works.  And once a skeptic has experienced applying card meanings to their own life, they can easily become converts! 🙂 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Chariot

[legendaryelement]

1 hour ago, Natural Mystic Guide said:

When I read this, I thought I'm so glad that I don't give a flying f..k what other people think.  But come to think of it, I actually broke off my engagment to an Orthodox Jewish man because of Tarot.  He had a lot of fear about things in general.  He (and many other Orthodox Jews) feel that divination and Tarot are prohibited by Jewish law and evil.  For me, it's part of my mission or my calling in life.  If someone cannot accept that about me I just don't need them in my life.  I do think about him every day, though.

 

My journey from an “evangelical” background cost me quite a bit. While trying to save my marriage, I agreed to get rid of all cards, etc. He still became my ex. I miss my best friend, but I was restored to my online community of friends and re-acquired my collection.

 

Tom, I would say the decision to interact/use a given deck (oracle or tarot) comes down to one’s worldview and frame of mind. Certain imagery and symbol sets will draw or repel you ~ and those responses will change over time. Personally, I use decks to research & learn new systems all the time!

[Tom]

I discovered the Tarot when I were very young.  Most people I'd talked to about them were either skeptical or curious.  Then I had a serious health scare, which was eventually was discovered to be of no consequence.  I had fallen into a depression and under the influence of a fundamentalist christian I got worse.  She had convinced me tht there was hidden evil all around.  I got the Scapini Medieval Tarot deck and I got very bad vibes from it.  Eventually sanity prevailed but not until I regretfully had given up my tarot collection. Since I have re-collected all but two decks.  The Scapini deck I never replaced because I still get a negative vibe from it.

 

I am so much beyond that now, I'm not afraid of card reading but look at if as a tool for my spiritual development and those I read for. I'v never looked at them as being a bad thing ever again.  I didn't when I started--I just was going through what I call a dark night of the soul.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Tom
repeating

[KiMo]

On 12/3/2023 at 12:31 PM, Natural Mystic Guide said:

When I read this, I thought I'm so glad that I don't give a flying f..k what other people think.  But come to think of it, I actually broke off my engagment to an Orthodox Jewish man because of Tarot.  He had a lot of fear about things in general.  He (and many other Orthodox Jews) feel that divination and Tarot are prohibited by Jewish law and evil.  For me, it's part of my mission or my calling in life.  If someone cannot accept that about me I just don't need them in my life.  I do think about him every day, though.

I'm sorry that you had to experience that separation, that must have been really painful ❤️

 

I've thought about this often, the fact that I tell myself that I don't really care about what people think of me. But when faced with the reality, I do fear the risk of a community turning its back on me. Not through any kind of hate, fear or distrust, but because I'd be viewed as odd, silly and irrelevant.

[Tom]

@KiMo I'm sorry you worry about that.  People are always going to judge us for something. If they really care about me they will accept me. I won't share my interest in Cartomancy with people I don't think will respect me or understand. 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Tom
Typos