Because a little self-investigation never hurt anybody.
New age ideology is often beaten-down by the self-proclaimed “rational.” In this same way, tarot, crystals, astrology, have all been feminized. Some troubling parallels have been made between women’s’ interest in the occult and the snubbing of these practices. I have been told that tarot is self-centred. I have been told that these practices exist only for vain, self-obsessed women. Why else would they care what these glorified playing cards have to say about their lives, right?
Maybe the reason you don’t like these practices is that it forces you to have a deep empathy towards those around you; it forces you to examine your tiny cog in the universe, to reflect on your actions, to come to terms with yourself. Maybe when you look into yourself, you won’t like what you see.
Or maybe, some people are just natural sceptics: they fear the unknown, they don’t believe anything without deep investigation, or they just enjoy throwing their hands in the air and yelling “bullshit!”
For whatever reason, I’ve never had difficulty in enjoying tarot. I’m neither gullible nor self-obsessed. I’ve just used them as a tool for introspection. They allow me to have deep conversations with myself and to others that receive readings. Still, I feel I’ve been somewhat irresponsible.
I picked up my tarot deck in high school. I was young and desperately edgy. I gave them a good shuffle, cut the deck, had my subjects choose four cards from the eight I drew, and laid them out on a sheer blue kimono that I deemed mystical. It was a parody in every sense, and they loved it. Somewhere in this feigned bravado, they started to believe me. They started requesting readings after breakups, before breakups, in the midst of a breakup (people are stupidly obsessed with love hey?).
I’ve been giving readings for about seven years now. And over these years, I have never learned to properly give a reading. I know so little about the history of tarot, it is almost laughable, if I didn’t find it so deeply troubling. This inquiry acts as an open apology to those I’ve burned with my haphazard readings. It also acts as a deep exploration into tarots origins and modern uses. I just think it’s about time.