How and Why Tarot Works

If you’ve ever held a tarot card in your hands or seen a reader shuffle their deck, you’ve probably wondered how it even worked. What power could be behind those little slips of paper?

There isn’t a definitive answer to this question, but there have been some intriguing possibilities. Knowing what those possibilities are will help you to tap into the power of tarot for yourself.

What Tarot Cards Are

Tarot is a form of divination called cartomancy. Decks of cards are assigned symbolic meanings that are interpreted based on the question and order of placement after being shuffled and laid down. You can ask questions about the past, the present, or the future.

Both cartomancy and tarot are rather new methods of divination. Tarot was likely invented in its most primordial form in the 1300-1400s. That means it’s a form of fortune-telling created after the advent of Christianity and during the rise of the Renaissance.

Themes of fate and free will were philosophical topics during this time as well as interest in esotericism. But most ancient methods of divination, like astrology, still had fatalistic elements attributed to it.

Chance, rather than a fate assigned to someone at birth, is the hallmark of tarot. It can ask questions that pry into unavoidable destiny, but is far more useful and true to form if you approach each reading with the idea you can change it in your favor by acting on the information you receive.

A tarot reading is a tool, not a life sentence.

Tarot Cards Can Be Magical

From everything I’ve researched and encountered, tarot cards have symbolic meanings and aren’t usually supernatural by themselves. They really are just worth the paper they’re printed on.

Since most modern decks are mass-printed consumer products, they’re pretty clean energetically.

But some readers imbue their cards with magical properties. This is different from cleansing cards or channeling spirits through the cards. Some readers actively try to capture magical energy in the cards that last beyond the reading itself.

This can be through spells or ensoulment of the cards. Ensoulment meaning trapping a spirit or a spirit’s energy within the deck.

It’s also possible for spirits or energy to linger in the cards. Really emotional readings tend to cause this. That’s why a lot of readers have a cleansing ritual before or after using their decks – especially if they read for others.

However, the emotional feelings and flirtation with darker spirits in past generations of spiritual exploration have resulted in some vintage decks being suspect. While especially powerful, these decks may be imbued with an additional power newer readers can’t handle.

Tread carefully if you pick up a used deck. And if you’re in an intense emotional state and tarot is new to you, it might be best to skip the reading or ask a professional to do it for you instead.

Universal Energies

While there are some readers who believe that the power of tarot comes from the cards themselves or a spirit using the cards as a bridge, the vast majority believe in some sort of universal energy that guides or underlies the process.

Tarot cards are symbols that help a reader tap into the collective unconscious of humanity or the cosmos itself. Think of it like a language translator, but for life.

This is where the consensus starts to break down, however.

A large minority of tarot readers believe that the cards can only provide internal insight. In other words, the cards serve as a trigger for what you already know.

These readers tend to ask only introspective questions rather than predictive questions for themselves or others. Tarot is about self-discovery for them. It’s not a supernatural process, though it may be an act of spiritual mindfulness.

But the majority of tarot readers believe that the intention you set for the reader will help you to pull information from that collective unconscious. This can be facilitated by spirits and sometimes spirits are invoked, but the true power is in accessing that universal library.

Although not all tarot readers are familiar with this term, the Akashic Records would be the closest term to describe what they’re accessing. There are similar beliefs in cultures going back for millennia, though most tarot readers usually see possibilities rather than a fixed narrative book to read from.

Science of the Multiverse

My personal belief in how tarot works is the multiverse.

It’s important to understand that most spiritual people who refer to the multiverse aren’t physicists and aren’t aware that the multiverse is a hypothesis derived from math rather than evidence.

Still, it seems to mesh with the modern multidimensional understanding of spirituality. To some degree, it mirrors the concept of the Akashic Records, so perhaps the Akashic Records is building upon a natural reality that math suggests is true.

Basically, there are more than nine dimensions. The higher dimensions are small and curled up in our own all around us as vibrating strings. That means we’re interacting with them, but at higher dimensional levels we don’t see in ours.

A three-dimensional globe on a two-dimensional surface like a piece of paper could only be perceived as a two-dimensional circle.

When you shuffle tarot cards, you’re vibrating multiverse strings and accessing other dimensions of reality. This helps reveal answers you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. They’re translated using familiar symbols and our intuition.

But, like the three-dimensional globe turning into a two-dimensional circle, our interpretations using tarot are limited to what can be represented in the cards.

Fortunately, tarot is a complex and nuanced system. Shuffling tarot cards and laying down just three cards has 450,576 possible answers to any question. That’s a lot of specificity.

Power of Intention

A common practice I see in all interpretations of the power behind tarot is intention. Being in a heightened state of focus seems to assist in delivering an accurate reading.

I think that, ultimately, setting an intention activates the possible avenues of interpretation.

• Spirit readers, those who imbue cards with magic or spirits, permit other beings to give answers to their questions.
• Self-discovery readers can be clear about what they’ll respond to in their triggering cards.
• Collective unconscious readers can narrow the possible doors they’ll open in the collective unconscious.
• And multiverse readers, like myself, use intention to vibrate the right set of strings to receive answers.

Being purposeful in setting your intention is usually enough, but many readers do activities like cleansing their cards, lighting a candle, or invoking spirits.

Whatever you choose to believe is the power behind tarot, know that intention will help activate that pathway for you.

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