Okay, so this might sound weird but… does anyone else’s synesthesia go nuts with tarot? I’m curious if any other synesthetes are here.
Each tarot card has a distinct color and sometimes even a temperature. For example, The Sun always feels genuinely warm and bright orange-yellow, while The Tower has this sharp, cold, electric blue feeling even before I flip it over. The High Priestess hits me with this cool silk feeling every single time.
I had to actually give away a deck last month because the colors were ALL WRONG. The artist drew The Empress in orange (orange!! she’s obviously deep green!) and it made my brain itch. It can be annoying with some decks but when I have the right deck I feel like I get an extra layer of intuition.
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This doesn’t sound weird at all! For me, it’s mostly texture-based, though, so the Death card feels like wet clay sliding between my fingers, and the Three of Swords is literally sharp. Sort of like touching broken glass but without the pain.
I totally get the wrong colors thing. There’s this gorgeous indie deck I wanted SO badly, but they made the Fool purple. Purple! It physically bothers me because the Fool is supposed to be this light, airy mint green. Ended up sticking with my basic Rider-Waite because at least the yellows are where they should be.
Do you notice if the colors change depending on the reading context? My textures stay pretty consistent, but sometimes the intensity shifts. Like if someone’s asking about a breakup, the Lovers card feels stickier than usual, almost like honey that won’t come off.
Sometimes I know what card is coming before I flip it, just from the sensation building up in my hands.
Wait this is actually a thing? I thought I was just being dramatic when certain cards make my mouth taste metallic. The five of pentacles specifically tastes like pennies, and I hate pulling it, not just because of the meaning either. the taste stays for like an hour after.
When I read for someone, I tell them my impressions come as colors and textures. It’s just how I sense things, and it’s my take. I ask for their own associations so we can find the meaning together, and mine doesn’t drown out theirs. For distance sessions, I’ll hum a note or send a short audio clip that fits the card’s feel, since there aren’t visuals.
I used to see colors with people’s names when I was younger and taught myself to ignore them because no one else seemed to. With tarot, I’ve started listening to those color feelings again. The standard meanings never fit for me, so I read with the colors now.
Ticker tape synesthesia and tarot sounds like a lot to deal with. I get the synesthesia thing, mine’s grapheme-color, so numbers and letters have specific colors for me. It definitely affects how I read cards.
The fours are green in my mind, which kind of works with their stability meaning. But then sixes show up as this dark purple-red color that feels wrong for cards about harmony and balance. I think they should be warmer colors, maybe gold or peach? I have to keep checking myself to make sure I’m reading the actual card and not just reacting to my color associations.
Unfamiliar decks are the worst for this. When the artwork uses colors that trigger my synesthesia, I lose track of what I’m supposed to be reading. A Two of Cups with lots of orange in it just feels wrong when my brain insists twos should be blue.
My synesthesia doesn’t work well with systems that need minimal imagery.
I tried teaching my sister Lenormand and kept confusing her since I’d follow color-feels instead of the strict keywords the system needs. Same thing when my cousin wanted me to learn playing-card cartomancy. It gets… messy when I drift into my color associations instead of traditional meanings.
Now I warn students that black and white decks won’t work in my classes. My niece wanted to practice with a tarot app, but the blue-light filter messed up the colors so much that I couldn’t help her read properly.
I don’t have synesthesia, but my regular deck reader does, and watching them work is fascinating. They’ll hover their hand over the spread and go “this one’s too loud” before even touching the cards.
Sometimes they’ll reorganize the whole reading because the “colors are clashing” even though we can’t see anything different. Their accuracy is honestly scary good.
Synesthesia and psychic abilities get mixed up a lot.
You’re processing the symbolism through multiple senses, kinda like how some people learn better by hearing vs seeing. Your orange Empress reaction is interesting, though. Most synesthetes I’ve met see her as green too, which makes me wonder if there’s some universal color associations beyond just individual wiring.
I get that same feeling when choosing cards, almost like a little zap pointing me to the right one.
Used to think it was just gut instinct, but you’ve got me thinking there might be more synesthetic elements at play. I deal with ADHD too. Tarot’s one of the few things that helps calm my brain down. Something about the visual symbolism gives me the right kind of focus.
I’ve been trying to document which cards trigger which sensations for me. Want to create my own reference system that links these intuitive hits to actual interpretations. The way I read is like connecting dots… I let the symbols and images interact until a story forms. The connections sometimes feel musical to me, like the cards are creating chords rather than individual notes.
Mine’s all sounds. Major arcana are like orchestral pieces and minor arcana are individual instruments.
Reading for someone else is basically composing music in real time. Court cards are vocals which gets REALLY distracting when doing relationship readings because suddenly there’s all these voices overlapping
Synesthesia is pretty cool. I hope you can connect with others who have similar experiences. I had something like this growing up - I’d see people’s names as specific colors, and each color seemed to have personality traits attached to it. Didn’t realize this was unusual until I was about 10.
Had an awkward moment with a classmate when I tried explaining why their name was ‘obviously purple.’ After that, I kept it to myself. These days, I don’t notice it much unless I’m paying attention. Sometimes when I’m painting (picked it up as a hobby recently), those color associations come back. I think synesthesia could definitely add something to tarot reading since you’re already working with visual symbolism.
I don’t have synesthesia myself, but when I work with cards, I can feel different energies from different parts of the deck. Some cards feel almost electric or colorful in my hands, while others have this heavy, grounding quality.
With my favorite deck, I’ll sometimes find myself reorganizing based on these sensations. I deal with the sections that feel most ‘active’ for whatever reading I’m doing. There are definitely times when the energies feel muddled, though. I have to remind myself to step back and just let the cards flow naturally.
It’s like when you try too hard to tune into something and end up creating static instead. I think tarot works with all these different ways of connecting (whether you’re sensing energies, seeing colors, or just following intuition.
I try to stay flexible and not let any one approach become a rigid rule.
I get this too! Each card has its own colors for me. The Empress is warm golds and greens, The Tower has these sharp reds and electric whites.
When I do readings at parties, people find it interesting when I mention the colors. The shades change based on the question and what cards are around them. Like the Three of Cups at a bachelorette party has this peachy-pink vibe, but in a work reading, it’s more muted.
The colors help when I’m doing lots of readings back to back or the lighting’s bad. The High Priestess has this deep indigo thing going on, Death goes from black to purple, and The Sun is just bright yellow. At group readings, I can see how the energy moves between people’s cards. It’s like there’s this light show happening that only I can see.
I get the synesthesia thing. Mine’s tickertape, words and messages scroll through my mind like subtitles when I’m doing readings. It helps me catch intuitive phrases I might miss otherwise.
If you have tickertape too, pay attention to how the words appear visually during your next reading. Sometimes the way they’re ‘written’ in your mind adds another layer of meaning.
Not synesthetic myself, but I design tarot decks, and this thread is making me wonder if we need a deck specifically for this.
Would love to know if there are common color associations across different synesthetes or if it’s completely individual? Like, do most of you see Death as the same color family, or is it random?