Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I know/hope people are going to have different views on this. The tarot has become such a huge part of my daily practice and I think we’d all benefit from being mindful about how and why it works. So here’s my take: tarot works by bypassing the logical mind and going straight to our intuitive knowing.
The cards don’t actually “do” anything magical; they’re just a tool that helps us tune into the information that’s already flowing around us. Think about it - we get gut feelings about people, we sense when something’s off, we dream about events before they happen.
If we can access all that information intuitively, why wouldn’t tarot cards work as a focal point for that same channel? Whether you believe it’s psychological projection or universal consciousness, the results speak for themselves.
18 Likes
Deepen Your Tarot Practice Beyond the Cards
Finding meaningful tarot discussions and authentic guidance can be surprisingly difficult. Discover a space where your questions are welcomed and your intuitive growth is celebrated: Start Your Journey
I love how you framed this as accessing information that’s already there. For me, it’s less about the cards having power and more about them being a mirror to your own intuition.
I know people believe different things about this and that’s totally okayas long as we’re all open about the fact that we don’t really know. Anyone who tells me that they know for sure how and why the Tarot works scares me, because they’re claiming to have some knowledge that they can’t really prove.
Like when I pull the Tower, I’m not learning that chaos is coming - some part of me already knows what needs to fall apart. The card just makes it impossible to ignore anymore. Same with positive cards. Pull the Sun when you’re depressed and suddenly you remember that joy exists, even if you can’t feel it yet.
The synchronicity thing gets me though. Why THAT card at THAT moment? I’ve pulled cards that were so specific to situations the person next to me was going through, not even mine.
It’s quantum physics, which is really the same as spirituality when you remove some terminology.
Particles exist in multiple states until observed, right? So maybe the cards exist in all possible states until we observe them, and our consciousness collapses them into the one we need to see.
My grandmother read cards for 40 years and she always said the cards were just ink and cardboard. The magic was in the person reading them, learning to trust what they already knew.
I think Jung had it right with the collective unconscious thing. The cards tap into universal symbols we all recognize on some deep level. The fool’s journey mirrors the hero’s journey, which shows up in every culture’s stories. death, birth, love, conflict - these are human experiences we all share.
The archetypes speak to something primal in us that goes beyond individual psychology
Everything is energy vibrating at different frequencies and the cards hold specific vibrational signatures. When you shuffle the Tarot, you’re literally mixing energies until the right frequencies align with your current energetic state.
I can feel it when I hold different decks - some feel warm, others heavy, some almost electric.
Maybe the cards work because linear time isn’t real. Not in the sense that we understand it. Past present, future all exist simultaneously. We just experience them sequentially because that’s how our brains process reality.
When you read tarot, you’re stepping outside linear time for a second and seeing the threads that connect everything. That’s why future readings can be accurate - that future already exists, you’re just peeking at it
I work in quantum physics and I’ve had a hard time squaring that with tarot originally. Lately, I’ve leaned on a simple analogy: face down, any spot in the spread could be any card, like a superposition.
Schrodinger’s cat is the usual reference. For me, the flip is the measurement. You look, and one option lands while the rest drop away. I also think attention plays a part. Once a card appears, it steers how I read what follows. Maybe I’m jamming physics into a place it doesn’t belong. Could be. It’s just the language my brain defaults to. I’m not trying to prove anything.
I use this as a working habit so I can keep reading without claiming certainty. Still sorting it out. Some days it makes sense, other days not so much.
I believe the Tarot works entirely because of the Akashic records.
Every deck is a portal to them. That’s why even beginners can do accurate readings sometimes - they’re not reading the cards, they’re downloading information from the universal library of everything that has been and will be.
The cards just help focus the connection like an antenna.
So I work with plant medicine ceremonies and tarot reads completely differently in altered states. You can actually SEE the energy threads connecting the cards to the person, to their question, to potential timelines.
The cards become doorways. Not metaphorically. Literally doorways into other realms where information lives. We’re just too stuck in ordinary consciousness to see it most of the time. But the mechanism is always there, whether we perceive it or not.
Sacred geometry in the card designs activates something in our third eye. Ancient mystery schools knew this.
Honestly? I don’t know. And I think that’s okay.
I’ve never had a bad vibe or a worry from working with the Tarot. I know it comes from a place of good and it’s always helped me. In fact, I don’t really know where I’d be at this stage of my life without the Tarot. I’m so incredibly grateful for it in my life.
So wherever it comes from. Our higher selves, another realm, a higher divine being or it’s just simple psychology… it just works. I’m okay with that.
I believe it’s your higher self communicating with your ego self through the cards.
We already know everything we need to know on a soul level, but the human mind creates too much noise. Shuffling a deck is sort of like tuning a radio to the right station. The cards bypass all the mental chatter, fear doubt, and anxiety and let your eternal self speak directly.
We’re not normally able to do that.
I’ve been reading Rachel Pollack’s stuff about tarot and chakras. She connects each Major Arcana card to different energy centers, The Fool with the crown chakra, The Magician using all seven, The Empress with sacral creativity, Strength showing heart chakra compassion. The way the cards match up with our energetic anatomy is pretty interesting.
Been doing tarot for a bit and honestly, I have no idea why it works.
Could be synchronicity, could be projection, could be something else. What I noticed, though, is that the more I try to figure it out, the worse my readings get.
When I just pull cards and say what I see without overthinking, that’s when people say I’m spot on. Maybe some things don’t need explaining.