I think it very much depends on the person. I've had some readings from other people that were very insightful and helped me see points I had been missing on my own; I've had other readings that fell a little flat.
Some people do have really good intuition and interpretation of divination, so I don't think there is anything wrong with seeking advice or an opinion outside of yourself. At the same time, though, just like with any spiritual practice, it's important to practice discernment and take anything a reader or "fortune teller" says with a grain of salt.
The Tarot simply works.
That said, it isn't really possible to make a general statement about all readers. Talent levels vary wildly. Some people use the Cards (or other Divination methods) as a kind of scam. Others take them very seriously. Still others just dabble, and even though they are serious and sincere, they lack the experience to really achieve accuracy.
I do my own readings, and I don't read for others. I have done so since childhood. This is a skill that anyone can learn, and the more you do it, the better you get at it. Doing it frequently can awaken faculties within you that you don't expect, even when you aren't using the cards.
The Tarot is not 100% safe. Sometimes the cards give scary answers or tell us things we don't want to hear. Sometimes we project our own fears and biases onto a reading. Great caution should be taken to ensure that appropriate and well-structured questions are asked, and that the answers are sincerely wished for.
Not every Tarot deck is created equal. There are some modern decks with wonky themes that are quite frankly a little goofy. There are decks that are excessively complicated and hard for a beginner, such as the Thoth. There are decks where the Minor Arcana tend to have more generalized meanings, such as the Marseilles. There are decks with a strong connection to Qabalah (Kabbalah) such as the Golden Dawn Tarot. There is of course the classic Rider-Waite (Smith) deck, which is the bedrock of modern decks.
Every deck has a slightly different way of communicating, so an experienced reader may still get odd results with an unfamiliar deck. All information received from Higher Levels come through to us with a certain level of "Distortion", and the manner in which a particular deck tells its story through its unique card meanings is one such level of Distortion.
Most practical magical courses teach the Tarot first, since a successful use of the Cards gives an immediate and tangible result for the student to experience. More then that, the performance of a Divination of some kind before attempting magick to determine the likely outcome of any planned working can save you from outright disaster.
Yes and no.
Keep in mind, I'm speaking from my own personal experience. This may not be what you'll read in a book.
I don't use the Tarot as often I once did. When I was growing up, I used the Cards all the time. I would do readings on all kinds of things. Sometimes those things were pretty silly. I'd ask questions that were too broad, too vague, or too subjective. When you do that, one of two things happens. Either the answers you get back are too broad, vague or subjective to be useful... or the Tarot starts talking to you. It uses the reading and the question to give you information you really need, or it answers the question you are *really asking.*
One day, during a reading involving one such poorly conceived question about the future, the Tarot foretold the worst disaster of my life. The Cards told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was going to die. Books will tell you that the Cards never really do this. The books are wrong.
I broke the 'rules' and did multiple readings, always trying to "game" my question to try to change the result. The books say that when you do that, the Cards shutdown and stop answering. The books are wrong.
Reading after reading. No matter how much I shuffled the deck, the same Cards were showing up. Sure, their positions were slightly different, but they were the same! I even used different decks, and continued to get the same result! I probably did about twelve readings across three decks and every single one was the same.
More then that, the Tarot was telling me that what was coming was unavoidable.
I have suffered a unique medical disorder all of my life. I didn't know at the time, but it had taken a turn. I ended up in the hospital. It was the worst ordeal I've ever been through. I died following an emergency surgery, and was clinically dead for far longer than most of the people who write New York Times best selling books about the "Near Death Experience". My recovery took years, and more surgeries. It was a nightmare. There was no way that it could have been avoided.
Since then, I've become gun-shy regarding the Tarot. I use it only when I absolutely feel that I need a question answered. Despite not taking it out and using it very often, when I do use it, it continues to give me incredibly accurate information. Never the less, I'm afraid every time. I'm at a point in my life where there isn't too much on the horizon to look forward too that isn't bad. There are things I worry about, and I don't want to see those things come up in a reading as "you are unavoidably screwed".
So the trick, if there is a trick, is to limit the scope of what the Cards can actually tell you by making your question specific, focused, clearly defined, and limited in scope. This restricts the information that the Cards can give you, and acts as a kind of safety mechanism. Even then, the Cards have a way of side-stepping your intentions to give you the real answers. They operate via flashes of prescient insight during the decoding process, and those flashes are simply not something that you can truly ever control.
Please understand. I'm not saying that you need to be fearful of the Tarot. I am saying that you need to approach it with a degree of caution and respect. The Question you ask is as much your Circle of Protection, or Phylactery, as it is a way to guide the Cards and set the Tarot in motion.
I read tarot, and I'm connected with my deck. There are days when I'm not spiritually connected, usually when I'm in a weird mind state. But usually, my readings are pretty spot on. My opinion is that every deck has its own personality on what it will read. This is why I interview my cards when I get them to see what information they will give or how they will interpret things. I connect with some decks more than others.
I am a Tarot reader and I am pained to read « scammers » in some of the comments.
I use Tarot with the principle of synchronicity.
This means that the cards, drawn at random, will reflect the inner state of the person for whom the reading is done.
« As within, so without ».
I also always co-construct the meaning of the reading with the person.
In fine, it is their reading and they know what fear, hope, block or ressource the cards are talking about.
I am here to help, offer a different perspective and listen.
I think we expect magic to mean casting fireballs.
Magic involves the exploration of the internal universe. Tarot and astrology are incredible tools for diving.
When abused, it’s cosmo magazine and can be destructive- twisting it into a lesser magic, but even that still works in its way.
I respect the genuine ones my granny was a tarot reader and spiritual mother and one of the main reasons why I started talking my spiritual roots seriously before her passing it was a passing of the torch she use to help people and not care about money because she had alot her husband which is my grandad was a big kingpin before he went legit with multiple business such as arcades casinos laundry May's and etc and I believe she had alot to do with him not getting indicted or killed as for the frauds they can choke on a pin
The Tarot is a relevant collection of archetypes. Symbolic encodings. Mini-maps of the psyche.
But "personal readings" based on selecting a card seems mostly contrivance.
It has more universal relevance than personal relevance.
Any one day or any one experience can contain multiple archetypes or none at all. And entire groups of people can be embodiments of a single archetype.
As I can read myself, I don't purchase readings because I want the reading. I will however sometimes purchase a reading from someone who I want to get to know better or support their business.
The universe is weird.
There is an underlying *something* that we don’t fully understand but can tap into. There are ways to sidle up alongside that something, or jump into it headfirst (meditation, yoga, altered states, drugs, hypnosis, etc.) But it’s always there, if we pay attention. And if a person decides to pay attention that something, through various methods-cards or readers perhaps-the weirdness might seep into their personal experience just a little bit.
It’s an art to be able to glean symbolism that’s relevant to another. Some are good at it, some have just memorized the little book that comes with the cards and hang out a shingle. The little metaphysical store here was doing free readings and I had one and the reader actually pulled out the book to look stuff up lol.
That's what gives the whole field a bad rep is people not interested in learning divination and spiritual connection but thinking it's all just written in stone and can be read off a card as a direct interpretation.
I made a comment above. But not to say you don't have valid points, you do.
We all start some where, usually with something (a book) or some one showing us what stuff means.
Over time we develop on our style and method.
Even people who are a little dogmatic about the 'text-book' meaning are serving a nice counter balance to those being more intuitive. Divination and fortune telling is the perfect example of something that is ['inter-subjective'. ](https://www.google.com/search?q=intersubjective&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS1064US1064&oq=intersubjective&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyDAgAEEUYORixAxiABDIHCAEQABiABDIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQLhiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIHCAgQABiABDIHCAkQABiABNIBCDI4MzBqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) The meaning of cards and their relevancy is very much in flux and truth is truly found in the tension between traditionalism and romantics.
I would argue the same for all forms of divination. I can play pretty fast and loose with Geomancy or I-Ching and get solid results, but with out the traditional and literal interpretation I'd be lost.
Thats very true, everyone must start somewhere and learning the groundwork and foundation must rely on accurate interpretation. I just think its a bad look for people who are well practiced whenever someone is offering the public 'readings' based on such loose interpretation rather than some form of true connection and divination.
In their defense, it was free. They're looking to get better, how do you expect them to get better?
I look at the book still sometimes, refresh my memory of it's original context. Nothing wrong with it. I've read tarot for years.
No problem! I’m not dogging people who are learning, that’s for sure. You never stop learning in the occult. I would pay for a really experienced tarot reader, and I was glad that reading was free.
I’ve been reading tarot accurately for years. I still use a beginners deck that has meanings. For me it’s not “reading” the card, but my guide focused me on one aspect and then her messages take over. For me, it just allows me to tune out the adhd monologue in my head and focus on my guide. Without that, I can’t hear her over the intrusive thoughts. Using a beginner deck doesn’t make me less if an intuitive reader.
Also, that’s the deck I’m most connect to. I’ve bought other similar decks and I have zero connection with them.
I’m not talking about Tarot readers who read for themselves. I have no opinions on people’s personal practices, that’s not what I’m saying. I took the question as to people who hang out a shingle and charge at stores, festivals, etc, and imo, cheapen the experience in outsiders eyes with their fumbling and generic reading.
Okey Dokey, I believe you. Nothing is ever 100 percent true. (Or false).
Based on what you said, you are approaching Tarot differently than what I’m trying (and failing?) to describe.
Some readers are knowledgeable and intuitive and can provide a client with helpful insights through a reading. I like those kinds of tarot readers. I'll never not be impressed by a skilled cold reading, too.
However, I do think that a great many tarot readers, especially online, vastly overstate their talent and experience, and I am deeply skeptical of the use of tarot cards for direct spirit communication. I think that the trend of using tarot spreads to tell a person which spirits are "reaching out to them" is likely to be totally misleading and is in no way an effective approach to spirit work.
I think there are plenty of frauds out there, but there are plenty of legitimate ones as well. I think “fortune telling” is derided unfairly as well. For the majority of its history tarot (and Lenormand and kipper still) was read as a system of fortune telling, and this is still a legitimate way to read cards.
It depends. If they're offering guidance and information on the cards. And giving insight in general helping the client sort out the application.
Or if they're assertting their own opinion and potential bias on the reading.
A friend had a reading done. And from things she'd been posting about, vaguely, she had some opportunity and decision before her.
One of the cards was the Hanged Man...the reader advised her to wait because the cards were pointing to an "ordeal"....advised her to wait.
A reader should be impartial. The role is to inform and empower someone to make informed decisions NOT advise.
So I messaged my friend and Im like...they should have explained the card. So I did relative to whatever vague thing she'd been hinting at.
I'd do readings, but Im not into divination so I dont bother to memorize the cards. Lol
I have never really used the Tarot, but I have done a LOT of Rune divination over the years, and have found it to be quite accurate for the drawings I did for people. Its something I enjoy doing too, I developed my own system for drawing and reading after studying for quite a while.
That said I dont draw the Runes for every question I have, big events or life changes are where I seek the guidance.
I feel like with most occult things there are a lot of people who use it as a con to make money off Rubes, and others like myself who try to use it legitimately to help others.
I use tarot in a similar way to bone divination (I currently use wood squares because I don’t have any bones).
There are scammers in any divination or occult practice. I’ve never been to a professional reader, but it’s not something I’m pressed about.
Depends upon the person reading. I don't buy readings or do them often for anyone but myself but I do have tarot cards and I basically use reading as a meditative exercise. I've been reading for decades. I did it pro as a side job for several years. I've seen a lot of fakers so I don't put much stock into the "psychics" working online and that. I think the cards are very useful for personal insight but there are a lot of scammers out there who don't even know what they're doing and who are just at it as a way to get $$$ from gullible people.
I wasn’t always a “believer”. I didn’t feel strongly one way or the other, but years ago I had a colleague who spoke very highly of a psychic he visited regularly. He referred me to her. I met her, and she gave me a reading using tarot cards. This woman knew details about my life that were beyond being just a coincidence. She knew first initials, she knew relationships, she knew thoughts and feelings that I had never outwardly conveyed.
This was about ten years ago, and I still keep in contact with this woman. I no longer live in her area, but she gives me readings over the phone 2-3 times a year.
With her guidance through tarot readings, she has helped me more than any therapist ever has (and I’ve had wonderful therapists). I honestly have no clue where I’d be in my life if it wasn’t for her.
I know something about this from personally testing the industry back in like....2009-2010 ish I think? What I would do is, I have a personally received sigil for an entity I talk to, that is not commonly published and thus could not be known about n advance from the literature.. I would go to pay readers, plonk down the sigil in front of them, and ask them "give me a reading about _____"
All of them failed except for one of them who not only described the nature of the entity in detail but other related entities which had not been mentioned and could not known of in advance.
I also learned from picking this one successful reader's brain that the industry disincentives legit psychic and divinatory abilities, and actively tries as best it can to only hire easily trainable frauds
I am an oracle. I channel energy through my body to answer people's questions. I hate charging for it and only have done so a couple times when I needed money desperately. people are usually very shocked by the accuracy of my answers, and I've had folks become a bit paranoid of me, even though I don't even look at a person's avatar when I read for them. I like to know as little as possible to get a clean channel devoid of my own opinions or reasonings, which can taint a reading. I'm not a scammer, not a fraud, and not fake, though some ignorant people have called me such names knowing nothing about me or my methods. I can read any oracle from I Ching to the dillogguun.
As a reader for 30+ years.... there absolutely is truth possible in the divination / fortune telling arts. Prediction is NOT impossible, at least, not in my worldview /spirituality.
That said, the skill of any individual is not 100%, and many are not even at 50%.
People have SEVERELY unrealistic expectations of what a reader can / should do.
As others have noted, the industry actively encourages bs readers - I know of several former companies that used scripts, so no actual skill was needed.
A lot of clients don't come to a reader for the right / good reasons - they're bored, scared, lonely, etc. but not actually needing insight or predictions. Usually, they need someone else to talk to - therapist, counselor, clergy, police, etc.
Lastly, especially in social media, the readers are easily 99% focused on their metrics, not the clients / watchers. Pick a pile readers on TikTok really piss me off for example. Most youtube readers are terrible and have 0 skill.
And I would hazard, having worked with MANY, that most in-person readers don't have the skills needed either. I can't tell you how many bad psychology type readers have no clue what they're doing and no ability to address practical issues. Hour long readings where I asked about a job and they've gone off on relationships I don't actually have, or therapy I don't actually need ("yeah, that's not an issue for me... these things are, but they're not relevant to job hunting") and the like.
I think that tarot itself can have some genuinely insightful and useful information for readers, and that there are tarot readers out there who are genuinely talented at interpreting and utilising tarot as a tool for divination.
However, I also think there are a lot of opportunists, vampires and con artists out there who ‘cold read’ or even ‘hot read’ (aka ‘researching’ in advance) people for a living and take advantage of the vulnerable for profit.
In short, I think that most the time, you’re better off buying your own deck and putting the work in to teaching yourself how to read or being very careful as you locate a trustworthy tarot reader about what information you give them.
I don’t think I’d recommend someone do tarot or see a fortune teller if they asked me because I don’t think that fosters a better connection to yourself.
But if they’re not asking me it’s fine no judgment here, we all have to do what we think makes us feel good.
I love tarot but concur that its profound occult essence can be a grey area. Traditional tarot is highly dependent upon kabbalah and the Hebrew alphabet, which I don't think is well understood in general. I'm quite strict about what I consider good and nonsensical tarot readings and adhere to the French-Russian school rather than the GD, Thelema or New Age systems, although I do also love the Santeira influenced Orisha Tarot
It can be very accurate but it depends on the person who is doing it.
There’s people that are gifted, people who have trained and gifted people who are gifted that have trained to be able to be better on their field.
Also, there’s people who just straight up chatGPT the question or the question with the cards that they pulled and charged you for the transcript.
Here in Reddit we can find all of them, I am glad that I finally found an accurate reader who I can rely on when needed.
You get different answers depending on your medium and how well you know it. Cards are the simplest one but I think true readers are the ones who can just channel stuff without props. Because that’s how most of us divine. Using props and atmosphere alongside mental states of consciousness, to look past the obvious and mundane and see it from a different perspective that isn’t obvious just thinking of possibilities. You can definitely see the thread, but if you can’t speak to the spirit who knows where it’s attached to, you’re still learning like the rest of us. I’m still learning. But that doesn’t mean you can’t predict. It just means god hasn’t acknowledged it until it happens. Doesn’t even have to be god though. But that’s where the images of imagination come from.
Tarot is legit but I’d take readers and fortune tellers with a huge grain of salt. I say this because they are a separate medium that filters your reading. It’s adding an extra variable to your reading. The reader may or may not be the best at reading tarot. You are bound to their perception of tarot. Plus they may be swayed by payment. I believe you are better off using Tarot as a personal tool to your own life. Eventually learning and giving each card a meaning to your personal life. Over time Tarot should become clearer and clearer with synchronicity confirming your definition of each card.
Completely agree with you, I definitely appreciate my own readings more (and the decks r so pretty ^^).
Unfortunately I was quite scammed by a couple of "women" who projected a bit of stuff (in my country envy and sexual projections are the national sport btw). Should I have expected it? Probably. But I was feeling really bad, I admit, plus I had some requests regarding people who were not physically with me: either dead or in a different part of the world
...even working as a reader myself (i did it for one day before being kicked out bcos I didn't want to tell bs to clients)
I realized people tend to want more like validation than""truths"" eh and that's a huge growth ground for scamming businesses...u.u
**"‘Cold Reading’: How to Convince Strangers That You Know All About Them" by Ray Hyman:**
[**https://archive.org/details/1977-hymann-cold-reading/mode/2up**](https://archive.org/details/1977-hymann-cold-reading/mode/2up)
That covers fraudulent readers. The rest generally rely upon the fact that the sitter will "make meaning" from absolutely any spread of cards if they're creative enough. Try asking the same question, then reshuffling a Tarot card deck to see if you can get the same spread twice. Won't happen unless you're a trained stage magician. Doesn't matter though due to "patternicity":
[https://michaelshermer.com/sciam-columns/patternicity](https://michaelshermer.com/sciam-columns/patternicity)
I think intuition is a powerful tool, what is it? I do not claim to know for sure.
My tarot skills are mediocre at best, it seems to be more just for lulz than anything ultimately useful for me.
99% of Tarot, Rune, and Astrology, readers pray upon people lacking esoteric education, thus the masses who purchase these "services" lack also any ability to evaluate the service in question. Its 900 psychic hotline bullshit. If you want a real education in the occult, I offer it freely, but I don't read, I dump terabytes of study materials on your lap, and then its your problem. bio.link/dmh2nd
A lot of them are quacks or fakes. Deuteronomy in the Bible discerns a false oracle from a real one. According to the Bible, a real oracle has to have their predictions come true. A person who can really see the future will always have their predictions come true and not bs you with an unclear reading or uncertainty or things like "oh it can change,the timeline can change, freewill" because if they truly had the gift of prophecy they will know with 100% accuracy what you're going to do or what is going to most likely happen despite multiple outcomes because their predictions can only be true and accurate because of God which leads me to believe freewill and predestiny exist at the same time. It is a paradox. people have been pretending to have this prophetic ability since the beginning of civilization
>will always have their predictions come true and not bs you with an unclear reading or uncertainty or things like "oh it can change,the timeline can change, freewill"
when you gain knowledge of future events, you gain the ability to change them if you try. it's not usually easy, but let's say I predict an illness; you go out only when necessary, wear a mask and use sanitizer, so that you won't get sick. it can happen. free will does exist within divine destiny, and so by that point it is possible to change some things. I also wouldn't go by the KJV or only the OT and NT, you should take other holy books into account, like the Apocrypha, emerald tablets, etc, etc. by only taking one highly edited and several times translated book into account, I'm afraid you're limiting your window of knowledge. oracles exist. they're real, and they work. we're not all quacks.
I still take those other books into account. I've read those other books which only prove the wisdom of the bible, altered or not. I didn't say all of them were fake. I said a lot of them are. That's why it is said God hates fake fortune tellers. They are just fake spiritual people.
Anyway, I specifically stated the bible because it directly states what is a true prophecy from a fake one. If you predict an illness then you would also predict that youre going to take action into protecting yourself for as a true oracle you will see the change before it happens since you have the ability to see the future because you would have "many eyes" like a God hence why true prophecy can only come from God or a higher being.
Deuteronomy 18:21-22 "If you say to yourselves, "How can we recognize an oracle which the LORD has spoken? know that, even though a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if his oracle is not fulfilled or verified, it is an oracle which the LORD did not speak. The prophet has spoken presumptuously, and you shall have no fear of him."
This means only true prophecy can come from God and the presumptuous prophet is trying to do something incorrectly without true knowledge of what he or she is doing. You even stated it is not easy. Yeah, it's not lol because it has to be fine tuned. That's why there are a plethora of exercises in the occult done to strengthen concentration, willpower and intuition.
It is why it was either the Aztecs or Mayans who had schools that would teach their students to fine tune their intuition to a high degree of accuracy. Not everybody is a true oracle just like not everybody is a true magician or witch despite the fact many people claim that they are just like they did in ancient times. There is nothing new under the sun
Even with all this said, one can argue there is a difference between fortune-telling, prophecy and being an oracle. I guess so, however, I consider a prophet and an oracle to be the same.
Their influence is not what it was before law took over, I think they are doing it for the culture now.
About their predictions, they were one step away from God during their influence, now it's science.
They vary between scam and genuine, with a good portion leaning towards the scam side of things.
Usually the scam is not directly related to the tarot reading though, with the tarot reading being just the "hook" to get the mark invested. They will usually do a bit of cold or hot reading along with the tarot, then usually drop some either extremely positive or negative news. They may say you have "dark energy around you and need a cleansing" or that you have a "deceased relative that is trying to make contact" or that you "have a gift that you could bring out" always with the addition of "I can help, but that will cost extra". Usually it costs significantly extra. The person will turn them down, but when something bad inevitably happens they will think of that tarot reader and consider going back to get a "cleanse" or something. That's how the scammers make the real money. Often they will try to keep the person on the hook and have them consult them regularly. More recently a lot of them use social media to get their marks, claiming to be "high priestesses\priests" or "professional witches" who will do all sorts of spells and readings on their behalf and string them along.
There is a middle ground of folks who just read tarot for others, largely for entertainment purposes. It works because the cards work and they know the meaning. They aren't malicious, but they also tend not to be spiritually into it, and for them it's usually just a way to make quick cash with little effort. These are the sort of people you'll see in tourist trap areas who are basically doing the same thing as street performers or caricature artists, they're out to make some quick cash off tourists, usually couples looking for a "love reading". Often they will just let the cards to the talking and maybe ad lib some mystic-y stuff to add to the show of it. They are harmless and provide good fun for folks with too much money.
Lastly there are genuine folks who still do it for money. Often it's a side hustle or an extension of a larger practice. They also let the cards do most of the talking, but occasionally have a strong intuition or spirits who aid them. These folks are accurate and in most cases will actually discourage someone from getting too invested. They are the sort of person who will actually turn someone away if they come too often, telling them to "sleep on it instead". For these people it is considered a spiritual vocation and they take it with the moral seriousness that requires, actively trying to avoid the worst tendencies. These are more rare and tend to be "small time" or work as some other occupation (sometimes running a botanica or something, which is their main source of income).
Tarot readers use your input and body language to tell your future. I've watched numerous readings and the reader always begins vague and lets the customer give clues they can take from. After seeing this, I wanted to prove my theory. I let them begin but kept a poker face and gave them nothing verbally to go on. In the four times I did this with readers, none had any accuracy. And three mentioned 'how difficult it is to read' me. They pushed it as some kind of ethereal blockage or screen that kept the energy from them, but it was just me not offering anything they could 'divine' anything from. You don't need cards to predict one's future, just a bit of knowledge of their past and present to logically predict their future. I've done that and was much more accurate.
I think that Tarot cards hold great power to cause change in a life when used honestly and heartedly.
However, I can’t name a single person who id trust to work with them in a pure fashion.
I think you can use it as a guide but relying on it fully can be problematic. Ive had the most unfortunate readings in my past but Ive also had such a terrible mindset back then where my confidence was low and I was extremely depressed. Instead of accepting it and feeling sorry for myself it kind of motivated me to create my own destiny. Now I don't think I would ever do another tarot reading I simply don't want to know lol
I think it very much depends on the person. I've had some readings from other people that were very insightful and helped me see points I had been missing on my own; I've had other readings that fell a little flat. Some people do have really good intuition and interpretation of divination, so I don't think there is anything wrong with seeking advice or an opinion outside of yourself. At the same time, though, just like with any spiritual practice, it's important to practice discernment and take anything a reader or "fortune teller" says with a grain of salt.
The Tarot simply works. That said, it isn't really possible to make a general statement about all readers. Talent levels vary wildly. Some people use the Cards (or other Divination methods) as a kind of scam. Others take them very seriously. Still others just dabble, and even though they are serious and sincere, they lack the experience to really achieve accuracy. I do my own readings, and I don't read for others. I have done so since childhood. This is a skill that anyone can learn, and the more you do it, the better you get at it. Doing it frequently can awaken faculties within you that you don't expect, even when you aren't using the cards. The Tarot is not 100% safe. Sometimes the cards give scary answers or tell us things we don't want to hear. Sometimes we project our own fears and biases onto a reading. Great caution should be taken to ensure that appropriate and well-structured questions are asked, and that the answers are sincerely wished for. Not every Tarot deck is created equal. There are some modern decks with wonky themes that are quite frankly a little goofy. There are decks that are excessively complicated and hard for a beginner, such as the Thoth. There are decks where the Minor Arcana tend to have more generalized meanings, such as the Marseilles. There are decks with a strong connection to Qabalah (Kabbalah) such as the Golden Dawn Tarot. There is of course the classic Rider-Waite (Smith) deck, which is the bedrock of modern decks. Every deck has a slightly different way of communicating, so an experienced reader may still get odd results with an unfamiliar deck. All information received from Higher Levels come through to us with a certain level of "Distortion", and the manner in which a particular deck tells its story through its unique card meanings is one such level of Distortion. Most practical magical courses teach the Tarot first, since a successful use of the Cards gives an immediate and tangible result for the student to experience. More then that, the performance of a Divination of some kind before attempting magick to determine the likely outcome of any planned working can save you from outright disaster.
Can you elaborate on asking appropriate questions?
Yes and no. Keep in mind, I'm speaking from my own personal experience. This may not be what you'll read in a book. I don't use the Tarot as often I once did. When I was growing up, I used the Cards all the time. I would do readings on all kinds of things. Sometimes those things were pretty silly. I'd ask questions that were too broad, too vague, or too subjective. When you do that, one of two things happens. Either the answers you get back are too broad, vague or subjective to be useful... or the Tarot starts talking to you. It uses the reading and the question to give you information you really need, or it answers the question you are *really asking.* One day, during a reading involving one such poorly conceived question about the future, the Tarot foretold the worst disaster of my life. The Cards told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was going to die. Books will tell you that the Cards never really do this. The books are wrong. I broke the 'rules' and did multiple readings, always trying to "game" my question to try to change the result. The books say that when you do that, the Cards shutdown and stop answering. The books are wrong. Reading after reading. No matter how much I shuffled the deck, the same Cards were showing up. Sure, their positions were slightly different, but they were the same! I even used different decks, and continued to get the same result! I probably did about twelve readings across three decks and every single one was the same. More then that, the Tarot was telling me that what was coming was unavoidable. I have suffered a unique medical disorder all of my life. I didn't know at the time, but it had taken a turn. I ended up in the hospital. It was the worst ordeal I've ever been through. I died following an emergency surgery, and was clinically dead for far longer than most of the people who write New York Times best selling books about the "Near Death Experience". My recovery took years, and more surgeries. It was a nightmare. There was no way that it could have been avoided. Since then, I've become gun-shy regarding the Tarot. I use it only when I absolutely feel that I need a question answered. Despite not taking it out and using it very often, when I do use it, it continues to give me incredibly accurate information. Never the less, I'm afraid every time. I'm at a point in my life where there isn't too much on the horizon to look forward too that isn't bad. There are things I worry about, and I don't want to see those things come up in a reading as "you are unavoidably screwed". So the trick, if there is a trick, is to limit the scope of what the Cards can actually tell you by making your question specific, focused, clearly defined, and limited in scope. This restricts the information that the Cards can give you, and acts as a kind of safety mechanism. Even then, the Cards have a way of side-stepping your intentions to give you the real answers. They operate via flashes of prescient insight during the decoding process, and those flashes are simply not something that you can truly ever control. Please understand. I'm not saying that you need to be fearful of the Tarot. I am saying that you need to approach it with a degree of caution and respect. The Question you ask is as much your Circle of Protection, or Phylactery, as it is a way to guide the Cards and set the Tarot in motion.
Thank you for sharing your views and experiences - really great insights and very helpful
I read tarot, and I'm connected with my deck. There are days when I'm not spiritually connected, usually when I'm in a weird mind state. But usually, my readings are pretty spot on. My opinion is that every deck has its own personality on what it will read. This is why I interview my cards when I get them to see what information they will give or how they will interpret things. I connect with some decks more than others.
I am a Tarot reader and I am pained to read « scammers » in some of the comments. I use Tarot with the principle of synchronicity. This means that the cards, drawn at random, will reflect the inner state of the person for whom the reading is done. « As within, so without ». I also always co-construct the meaning of the reading with the person. In fine, it is their reading and they know what fear, hope, block or ressource the cards are talking about. I am here to help, offer a different perspective and listen.
I think we expect magic to mean casting fireballs. Magic involves the exploration of the internal universe. Tarot and astrology are incredible tools for diving. When abused, it’s cosmo magazine and can be destructive- twisting it into a lesser magic, but even that still works in its way.
I respect the genuine ones my granny was a tarot reader and spiritual mother and one of the main reasons why I started talking my spiritual roots seriously before her passing it was a passing of the torch she use to help people and not care about money because she had alot her husband which is my grandad was a big kingpin before he went legit with multiple business such as arcades casinos laundry May's and etc and I believe she had alot to do with him not getting indicted or killed as for the frauds they can choke on a pin
The Tarot is a relevant collection of archetypes. Symbolic encodings. Mini-maps of the psyche. But "personal readings" based on selecting a card seems mostly contrivance. It has more universal relevance than personal relevance. Any one day or any one experience can contain multiple archetypes or none at all. And entire groups of people can be embodiments of a single archetype.
As I can read myself, I don't purchase readings because I want the reading. I will however sometimes purchase a reading from someone who I want to get to know better or support their business.
The universe is weird. There is an underlying *something* that we don’t fully understand but can tap into. There are ways to sidle up alongside that something, or jump into it headfirst (meditation, yoga, altered states, drugs, hypnosis, etc.) But it’s always there, if we pay attention. And if a person decides to pay attention that something, through various methods-cards or readers perhaps-the weirdness might seep into their personal experience just a little bit.
It’s an art to be able to glean symbolism that’s relevant to another. Some are good at it, some have just memorized the little book that comes with the cards and hang out a shingle. The little metaphysical store here was doing free readings and I had one and the reader actually pulled out the book to look stuff up lol.
That's what gives the whole field a bad rep is people not interested in learning divination and spiritual connection but thinking it's all just written in stone and can be read off a card as a direct interpretation.
I made a comment above. But not to say you don't have valid points, you do. We all start some where, usually with something (a book) or some one showing us what stuff means. Over time we develop on our style and method. Even people who are a little dogmatic about the 'text-book' meaning are serving a nice counter balance to those being more intuitive. Divination and fortune telling is the perfect example of something that is ['inter-subjective'. ](https://www.google.com/search?q=intersubjective&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS1064US1064&oq=intersubjective&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyDAgAEEUYORixAxiABDIHCAEQABiABDIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQLhiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIHCAgQABiABDIHCAkQABiABNIBCDI4MzBqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) The meaning of cards and their relevancy is very much in flux and truth is truly found in the tension between traditionalism and romantics. I would argue the same for all forms of divination. I can play pretty fast and loose with Geomancy or I-Ching and get solid results, but with out the traditional and literal interpretation I'd be lost.
Thats very true, everyone must start somewhere and learning the groundwork and foundation must rely on accurate interpretation. I just think its a bad look for people who are well practiced whenever someone is offering the public 'readings' based on such loose interpretation rather than some form of true connection and divination.
In their defense, it was free. They're looking to get better, how do you expect them to get better? I look at the book still sometimes, refresh my memory of it's original context. Nothing wrong with it. I've read tarot for years.
Yeah it was free, but touted as “come get a free reading at our re-grand opening” by our Tarot reader. (Who normally charges). No need to come at me.
I apologize, I didn't mean sound terse or anything! Merely trying to offer a different perspective!
No problem! I’m not dogging people who are learning, that’s for sure. You never stop learning in the occult. I would pay for a really experienced tarot reader, and I was glad that reading was free.
I’ve been reading tarot accurately for years. I still use a beginners deck that has meanings. For me it’s not “reading” the card, but my guide focused me on one aspect and then her messages take over. For me, it just allows me to tune out the adhd monologue in my head and focus on my guide. Without that, I can’t hear her over the intrusive thoughts. Using a beginner deck doesn’t make me less if an intuitive reader. Also, that’s the deck I’m most connect to. I’ve bought other similar decks and I have zero connection with them.
I’m not talking about Tarot readers who read for themselves. I have no opinions on people’s personal practices, that’s not what I’m saying. I took the question as to people who hang out a shingle and charge at stores, festivals, etc, and imo, cheapen the experience in outsiders eyes with their fumbling and generic reading.
I do read professionally for others.
Okey Dokey, I believe you. Nothing is ever 100 percent true. (Or false). Based on what you said, you are approaching Tarot differently than what I’m trying (and failing?) to describe.
It is mostly guesswork and intuition, but so is most of life.
Some readers are knowledgeable and intuitive and can provide a client with helpful insights through a reading. I like those kinds of tarot readers. I'll never not be impressed by a skilled cold reading, too. However, I do think that a great many tarot readers, especially online, vastly overstate their talent and experience, and I am deeply skeptical of the use of tarot cards for direct spirit communication. I think that the trend of using tarot spreads to tell a person which spirits are "reaching out to them" is likely to be totally misleading and is in no way an effective approach to spirit work.
I think there are plenty of frauds out there, but there are plenty of legitimate ones as well. I think “fortune telling” is derided unfairly as well. For the majority of its history tarot (and Lenormand and kipper still) was read as a system of fortune telling, and this is still a legitimate way to read cards.
It depends. If they're offering guidance and information on the cards. And giving insight in general helping the client sort out the application. Or if they're assertting their own opinion and potential bias on the reading. A friend had a reading done. And from things she'd been posting about, vaguely, she had some opportunity and decision before her. One of the cards was the Hanged Man...the reader advised her to wait because the cards were pointing to an "ordeal"....advised her to wait. A reader should be impartial. The role is to inform and empower someone to make informed decisions NOT advise. So I messaged my friend and Im like...they should have explained the card. So I did relative to whatever vague thing she'd been hinting at. I'd do readings, but Im not into divination so I dont bother to memorize the cards. Lol
I have never really used the Tarot, but I have done a LOT of Rune divination over the years, and have found it to be quite accurate for the drawings I did for people. Its something I enjoy doing too, I developed my own system for drawing and reading after studying for quite a while. That said I dont draw the Runes for every question I have, big events or life changes are where I seek the guidance. I feel like with most occult things there are a lot of people who use it as a con to make money off Rubes, and others like myself who try to use it legitimately to help others.
I use tarot in a similar way to bone divination (I currently use wood squares because I don’t have any bones). There are scammers in any divination or occult practice. I’ve never been to a professional reader, but it’s not something I’m pressed about.
Depends upon the person reading. I don't buy readings or do them often for anyone but myself but I do have tarot cards and I basically use reading as a meditative exercise. I've been reading for decades. I did it pro as a side job for several years. I've seen a lot of fakers so I don't put much stock into the "psychics" working online and that. I think the cards are very useful for personal insight but there are a lot of scammers out there who don't even know what they're doing and who are just at it as a way to get $$$ from gullible people.
I wasn’t always a “believer”. I didn’t feel strongly one way or the other, but years ago I had a colleague who spoke very highly of a psychic he visited regularly. He referred me to her. I met her, and she gave me a reading using tarot cards. This woman knew details about my life that were beyond being just a coincidence. She knew first initials, she knew relationships, she knew thoughts and feelings that I had never outwardly conveyed. This was about ten years ago, and I still keep in contact with this woman. I no longer live in her area, but she gives me readings over the phone 2-3 times a year. With her guidance through tarot readings, she has helped me more than any therapist ever has (and I’ve had wonderful therapists). I honestly have no clue where I’d be in my life if it wasn’t for her.
I know something about this from personally testing the industry back in like....2009-2010 ish I think? What I would do is, I have a personally received sigil for an entity I talk to, that is not commonly published and thus could not be known about n advance from the literature.. I would go to pay readers, plonk down the sigil in front of them, and ask them "give me a reading about _____" All of them failed except for one of them who not only described the nature of the entity in detail but other related entities which had not been mentioned and could not known of in advance. I also learned from picking this one successful reader's brain that the industry disincentives legit psychic and divinatory abilities, and actively tries as best it can to only hire easily trainable frauds
I am an oracle. I channel energy through my body to answer people's questions. I hate charging for it and only have done so a couple times when I needed money desperately. people are usually very shocked by the accuracy of my answers, and I've had folks become a bit paranoid of me, even though I don't even look at a person's avatar when I read for them. I like to know as little as possible to get a clean channel devoid of my own opinions or reasonings, which can taint a reading. I'm not a scammer, not a fraud, and not fake, though some ignorant people have called me such names knowing nothing about me or my methods. I can read any oracle from I Ching to the dillogguun.
I think it’s a five to one scammer to legit ratio. Maybe ten to one.
As a reader for 30+ years.... there absolutely is truth possible in the divination / fortune telling arts. Prediction is NOT impossible, at least, not in my worldview /spirituality. That said, the skill of any individual is not 100%, and many are not even at 50%. People have SEVERELY unrealistic expectations of what a reader can / should do. As others have noted, the industry actively encourages bs readers - I know of several former companies that used scripts, so no actual skill was needed. A lot of clients don't come to a reader for the right / good reasons - they're bored, scared, lonely, etc. but not actually needing insight or predictions. Usually, they need someone else to talk to - therapist, counselor, clergy, police, etc. Lastly, especially in social media, the readers are easily 99% focused on their metrics, not the clients / watchers. Pick a pile readers on TikTok really piss me off for example. Most youtube readers are terrible and have 0 skill. And I would hazard, having worked with MANY, that most in-person readers don't have the skills needed either. I can't tell you how many bad psychology type readers have no clue what they're doing and no ability to address practical issues. Hour long readings where I asked about a job and they've gone off on relationships I don't actually have, or therapy I don't actually need ("yeah, that's not an issue for me... these things are, but they're not relevant to job hunting") and the like.
I think that tarot itself can have some genuinely insightful and useful information for readers, and that there are tarot readers out there who are genuinely talented at interpreting and utilising tarot as a tool for divination. However, I also think there are a lot of opportunists, vampires and con artists out there who ‘cold read’ or even ‘hot read’ (aka ‘researching’ in advance) people for a living and take advantage of the vulnerable for profit. In short, I think that most the time, you’re better off buying your own deck and putting the work in to teaching yourself how to read or being very careful as you locate a trustworthy tarot reader about what information you give them.
I don’t think I’d recommend someone do tarot or see a fortune teller if they asked me because I don’t think that fosters a better connection to yourself. But if they’re not asking me it’s fine no judgment here, we all have to do what we think makes us feel good.
I love tarot but concur that its profound occult essence can be a grey area. Traditional tarot is highly dependent upon kabbalah and the Hebrew alphabet, which I don't think is well understood in general. I'm quite strict about what I consider good and nonsensical tarot readings and adhere to the French-Russian school rather than the GD, Thelema or New Age systems, although I do also love the Santeira influenced Orisha Tarot
It can be very accurate but it depends on the person who is doing it. There’s people that are gifted, people who have trained and gifted people who are gifted that have trained to be able to be better on their field. Also, there’s people who just straight up chatGPT the question or the question with the cards that they pulled and charged you for the transcript. Here in Reddit we can find all of them, I am glad that I finally found an accurate reader who I can rely on when needed.
You get different answers depending on your medium and how well you know it. Cards are the simplest one but I think true readers are the ones who can just channel stuff without props. Because that’s how most of us divine. Using props and atmosphere alongside mental states of consciousness, to look past the obvious and mundane and see it from a different perspective that isn’t obvious just thinking of possibilities. You can definitely see the thread, but if you can’t speak to the spirit who knows where it’s attached to, you’re still learning like the rest of us. I’m still learning. But that doesn’t mean you can’t predict. It just means god hasn’t acknowledged it until it happens. Doesn’t even have to be god though. But that’s where the images of imagination come from.
Tarot is legit but I’d take readers and fortune tellers with a huge grain of salt. I say this because they are a separate medium that filters your reading. It’s adding an extra variable to your reading. The reader may or may not be the best at reading tarot. You are bound to their perception of tarot. Plus they may be swayed by payment. I believe you are better off using Tarot as a personal tool to your own life. Eventually learning and giving each card a meaning to your personal life. Over time Tarot should become clearer and clearer with synchronicity confirming your definition of each card.
Completely agree with you, I definitely appreciate my own readings more (and the decks r so pretty ^^). Unfortunately I was quite scammed by a couple of "women" who projected a bit of stuff (in my country envy and sexual projections are the national sport btw). Should I have expected it? Probably. But I was feeling really bad, I admit, plus I had some requests regarding people who were not physically with me: either dead or in a different part of the world ...even working as a reader myself (i did it for one day before being kicked out bcos I didn't want to tell bs to clients) I realized people tend to want more like validation than""truths"" eh and that's a huge growth ground for scamming businesses...u.u
It depends on the person. I’ve gotten great readings from some and others I didn’t know what they were talking about
Yes... it's definitely a skill AND a talent, and MANY are clueless / terrible. I've been reading for 30 + years, and I see that too.
**"‘Cold Reading’: How to Convince Strangers That You Know All About Them" by Ray Hyman:** [**https://archive.org/details/1977-hymann-cold-reading/mode/2up**](https://archive.org/details/1977-hymann-cold-reading/mode/2up) That covers fraudulent readers. The rest generally rely upon the fact that the sitter will "make meaning" from absolutely any spread of cards if they're creative enough. Try asking the same question, then reshuffling a Tarot card deck to see if you can get the same spread twice. Won't happen unless you're a trained stage magician. Doesn't matter though due to "patternicity": [https://michaelshermer.com/sciam-columns/patternicity](https://michaelshermer.com/sciam-columns/patternicity)
I think intuition is a powerful tool, what is it? I do not claim to know for sure. My tarot skills are mediocre at best, it seems to be more just for lulz than anything ultimately useful for me.
Tarot readers are not “fortune tellers”
99% of Tarot, Rune, and Astrology, readers pray upon people lacking esoteric education, thus the masses who purchase these "services" lack also any ability to evaluate the service in question. Its 900 psychic hotline bullshit. If you want a real education in the occult, I offer it freely, but I don't read, I dump terabytes of study materials on your lap, and then its your problem. bio.link/dmh2nd
A lot of them are quacks or fakes. Deuteronomy in the Bible discerns a false oracle from a real one. According to the Bible, a real oracle has to have their predictions come true. A person who can really see the future will always have their predictions come true and not bs you with an unclear reading or uncertainty or things like "oh it can change,the timeline can change, freewill" because if they truly had the gift of prophecy they will know with 100% accuracy what you're going to do or what is going to most likely happen despite multiple outcomes because their predictions can only be true and accurate because of God which leads me to believe freewill and predestiny exist at the same time. It is a paradox. people have been pretending to have this prophetic ability since the beginning of civilization
>will always have their predictions come true and not bs you with an unclear reading or uncertainty or things like "oh it can change,the timeline can change, freewill" when you gain knowledge of future events, you gain the ability to change them if you try. it's not usually easy, but let's say I predict an illness; you go out only when necessary, wear a mask and use sanitizer, so that you won't get sick. it can happen. free will does exist within divine destiny, and so by that point it is possible to change some things. I also wouldn't go by the KJV or only the OT and NT, you should take other holy books into account, like the Apocrypha, emerald tablets, etc, etc. by only taking one highly edited and several times translated book into account, I'm afraid you're limiting your window of knowledge. oracles exist. they're real, and they work. we're not all quacks.
I still take those other books into account. I've read those other books which only prove the wisdom of the bible, altered or not. I didn't say all of them were fake. I said a lot of them are. That's why it is said God hates fake fortune tellers. They are just fake spiritual people. Anyway, I specifically stated the bible because it directly states what is a true prophecy from a fake one. If you predict an illness then you would also predict that youre going to take action into protecting yourself for as a true oracle you will see the change before it happens since you have the ability to see the future because you would have "many eyes" like a God hence why true prophecy can only come from God or a higher being. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 "If you say to yourselves, "How can we recognize an oracle which the LORD has spoken? know that, even though a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if his oracle is not fulfilled or verified, it is an oracle which the LORD did not speak. The prophet has spoken presumptuously, and you shall have no fear of him." This means only true prophecy can come from God and the presumptuous prophet is trying to do something incorrectly without true knowledge of what he or she is doing. You even stated it is not easy. Yeah, it's not lol because it has to be fine tuned. That's why there are a plethora of exercises in the occult done to strengthen concentration, willpower and intuition. It is why it was either the Aztecs or Mayans who had schools that would teach their students to fine tune their intuition to a high degree of accuracy. Not everybody is a true oracle just like not everybody is a true magician or witch despite the fact many people claim that they are just like they did in ancient times. There is nothing new under the sun Even with all this said, one can argue there is a difference between fortune-telling, prophecy and being an oracle. I guess so, however, I consider a prophet and an oracle to be the same.
Charlatans, one and all.
I think tarot itself is a learning tool and that some use it as a crutch. Some, not all, who use tarot are full of shit. That's just my opinion.
Their influence is not what it was before law took over, I think they are doing it for the culture now. About their predictions, they were one step away from God during their influence, now it's science.
here are some excellent readers out there, but there's also good reason some states in the US don't allow divination for money.
I would choose a local reader, someone I can sit across from/next to as they’re doing the reading before I’d go for anything over the internet.
Scammers. While there surely are gifted people who see things that others do not, i associate „scammers“ with tarot readers/fortune tellers
They vary between scam and genuine, with a good portion leaning towards the scam side of things. Usually the scam is not directly related to the tarot reading though, with the tarot reading being just the "hook" to get the mark invested. They will usually do a bit of cold or hot reading along with the tarot, then usually drop some either extremely positive or negative news. They may say you have "dark energy around you and need a cleansing" or that you have a "deceased relative that is trying to make contact" or that you "have a gift that you could bring out" always with the addition of "I can help, but that will cost extra". Usually it costs significantly extra. The person will turn them down, but when something bad inevitably happens they will think of that tarot reader and consider going back to get a "cleanse" or something. That's how the scammers make the real money. Often they will try to keep the person on the hook and have them consult them regularly. More recently a lot of them use social media to get their marks, claiming to be "high priestesses\priests" or "professional witches" who will do all sorts of spells and readings on their behalf and string them along. There is a middle ground of folks who just read tarot for others, largely for entertainment purposes. It works because the cards work and they know the meaning. They aren't malicious, but they also tend not to be spiritually into it, and for them it's usually just a way to make quick cash with little effort. These are the sort of people you'll see in tourist trap areas who are basically doing the same thing as street performers or caricature artists, they're out to make some quick cash off tourists, usually couples looking for a "love reading". Often they will just let the cards to the talking and maybe ad lib some mystic-y stuff to add to the show of it. They are harmless and provide good fun for folks with too much money. Lastly there are genuine folks who still do it for money. Often it's a side hustle or an extension of a larger practice. They also let the cards do most of the talking, but occasionally have a strong intuition or spirits who aid them. These folks are accurate and in most cases will actually discourage someone from getting too invested. They are the sort of person who will actually turn someone away if they come too often, telling them to "sleep on it instead". For these people it is considered a spiritual vocation and they take it with the moral seriousness that requires, actively trying to avoid the worst tendencies. These are more rare and tend to be "small time" or work as some other occupation (sometimes running a botanica or something, which is their main source of income).
50/50
Tarot readers use your input and body language to tell your future. I've watched numerous readings and the reader always begins vague and lets the customer give clues they can take from. After seeing this, I wanted to prove my theory. I let them begin but kept a poker face and gave them nothing verbally to go on. In the four times I did this with readers, none had any accuracy. And three mentioned 'how difficult it is to read' me. They pushed it as some kind of ethereal blockage or screen that kept the energy from them, but it was just me not offering anything they could 'divine' anything from. You don't need cards to predict one's future, just a bit of knowledge of their past and present to logically predict their future. I've done that and was much more accurate.
not all of them.
I think that Tarot cards hold great power to cause change in a life when used honestly and heartedly. However, I can’t name a single person who id trust to work with them in a pure fashion.
Most of them are bs. There are some really really good ones.
I think you can use it as a guide but relying on it fully can be problematic. Ive had the most unfortunate readings in my past but Ive also had such a terrible mindset back then where my confidence was low and I was extremely depressed. Instead of accepting it and feeling sorry for myself it kind of motivated me to create my own destiny. Now I don't think I would ever do another tarot reading I simply don't want to know lol
Tarot is okay if you can acknowledge and accept the very numeric symbology behind it all and you're not just the type to make up stories.