How do tarot cards work? It’s a question that many people have. In this blog post, we’ll be discussing how to read tarots and how they can help you make decisions about your life. We’ll also discuss how intuition plays a role in tarot reading, how symbols are used to interpret the meaning of each card, how tarot cards are used for divination, and how tarot cards work for me and my clients in my readings.
Tarot Cards Work Through Divination
Divination is the practice of using tools or techniques to gain insight into future events. Tarot cards are often used to try to predict the future. The belief that many have is that a mystical or magical force will determine which cards are pulled, and the reader will use those cards to tell a story about what might happen in the future.
While there is no proof that tarot cards can predict the future, many people choose to believe that they can see possible paths their lives might take in a tarot reading. I often will do readings for my clients that describe what a future event might be like, or what might happen if a client takes a certain action.
The important thing to remember when using tarot cards for divination is that people still always have free will, and the future can change due to any number of factors. Tarot and all forms of divination are useful for providing insight into possible futures, but those possible futures are never set in stone.
Tarot Cards Work Through Intuition
Another way that tarot cards work is by exercising the reader and/or the clients intuition. Tarot can be considered a tool that allows us access into our intuition and psychic abilities in order understand messages from the universe and how to work with the energy around us.
I find tarot cards to be a gentle way of learning how our intuition works. We all have an inner voice, it’s just how we learn how to hear that voice over time. Tarot gives you symbols so you can see what comes up in your mind when thinking about certain topics or areas of your life.
Here are some steps for how to exercise your intuition using the Tarot deck:
- Stay open minded. Trust whatever thoughts or feelings come up as you pull the cards. Those thoughts and feelings are your intuition!
- Practice meditation regularly. This helps you relax your mind and body, to help you be more open to your intuition.
- Be patient. Getting better at accessing your intuition takes time and practice. Don’t expect instant results!
- Relax, don’t stress yourself out when you are reading for someone else or doing a tarot spread. Stay in the present moment.
- Do not get discouraged if your first few tries are not accurate! The more time you spend connecting with your intuition and honing your tarot skills, the more accurate you will be at reading tarot cards.
Tarot Cards Work Through Symbolism
Tarot cards are split into two major categories: the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana follow a story that begins with 0, The Fool card and goes up all the way to 21, The World. (These represent how we grow as humans from childhood through old age.) The 58 cards in the Minor Arcana are divided into four suits: Swords, Wands (or Rods), Cups, and Pentacles. This adds up to 78 cards total.
While each card has its own traditional meaning, there is significant repeating symbolism throughout all of the cards. For example, whenever you see water in a tarot card, it can represent emotion. Still water can mean calm emotions, while rough water can mean turbulent emotions. There are nature symbols, various insignia, symbolic numbers, animals, colors, people, and even the suits themselves are symbolic.
This wide variety of symbolism allows readers to come up with unique meanings just by pulling the same 78 cards. The symbols and meanings that stand out will change depending on the type of reading, where the card was pulled in relation to other cards, and what the reader and/or client notice the most in the cards.
Symbols are so important in tarot that I based the cheat sheets I use in readings around them. You can download a free copy here: Tarot Elements Cheat Sheets
I hope this has helped you gain a better understanding of how tarot cards work, and how they can help you or others you read for. Tarot’s rich history of symbolism, divination, and intuition make them one of my absolute favorite things in the whole world.
And now for some links! I earn a small commission from Amazon if you click through the links below and purchase something, and this does not affect the price you pay in anyway. I appreciate your support!
Guided Tarot is a great beginners book, with intuitive exercises so you can right away get a feel for how tarot cards work:
The Ultimate Guide to Tarot is also a great beginners book, filled with colorful pictures, example spreads, and insight into how the cards work:
