If you’re a regular visitor on Aquarian Insight the title of this post may surprise you as I am a rather practical sort of tarot reader. Nevertheless, I would like to talk a little about the question ‘Can tarot open a gateway to demonic energy?’ The idea came to me last weekend. After a very long time I managed to have a weekend just to myself, and I decided to give my brain a complete break and I had a horror movie marathon! It was brilliant and just what the doctor ordered, but in one of the movies a character likened tarot cards to a Ouija board and warned about how the cards were a gateway to demonic energy. I would love to just put this down to a one off or the usual misrepresentation of tarot by Hollywood, right up there with the use of the Death card as a portent of impending doom, but this kind of thinking is much deeper and more prevalent than that.
My Own Encounters
My own encounters with this kind of thinking are numerous and some are even rather disturbing. I write on many topics, not just tarot. Before its demise on Squidoo alone I have wrote articles sharing recipes, travel experiences, movie and book reviews, advice on dealing with chronic illness and of course about tarot and divination. On so many occasions I have had people not just comment on my articles but actually seek me out and send me personal messages because they believe they are offering me helpful advice. Some of these messages are written to tell me that I am ill because I write about horror movies and novels, but the majority tell me that my chronic illness has been caused by tarot. Some people even go as far as to say that I am not ill at all but am possessed by a demon because I use the tarot. I wrote a separate post on this a while back titled ME/CFS is NOT Demonic Possession in which I discuss the ways in which these claims make absolutely no sense, especially when we consider that my illness has recently been shown to actually stem from when I was an infant; some eighteen years or so before I even touched a tarot deck. So, what makes people associate the tarot with demonic energy?
The Evil Side of Tarot?
So, how exactly can tarot open a gateway to demonic energy? Like the Ouija board, the cards are seen as a gateway for demonic entities to enter our lives, even our very bodies. It is argued that the only way a tarot reader can give accurate information is because a demon is supplying the answers to gain ones confidence and to make people use the tarot more, thus allowing the demon to take a stronger hold on those using the cards. Even if people do not go as far as to say demons, they do believe that the use of tarot is a dark and negative thing and something that should not be messed with.
This morning before writing this post I did a quick Google search and found dozens of posts in forums detailing the negative experiences people attribute to the tarot or even just the fears that they have about them. Most people did not actually fear the cards themselves, but rather saw the use of them as dangerous. In fact one person collects tarot cards, but stated that he would never use them as it is not safe. I once met someone who had the reverse belief. She asked me for a tarot reading, but said she would not be able to touch the cards, and that if I wanted her to shuffle them, she would have to do so using a pencil to push the cards about. She said she had touched a tarot deck once and it had burned her hand.
Why Are Tarot Cards Seen as Evil?
No doubt the main reason is religious. I grew up in a religious household, and God and the Devil were seen as real things and demonic possession was a real threat. So, I can understand these beliefs. But no-one in my family or even in my extended family, some of whom can actually be considered to be religious fanatics, have ever seen my work with the tarot as dangerous or evil. While it is obvious that some people hold negative beliefs about the cards because of their religious beliefs, this is not the case with everyone. I think the basis for these other beliefs about the tarot lie with the idea that no-one should know too much about their own future or a fear of what that future may bring.
Loading ...So Can Tarot Open a Gateway to Demonic Energy?
There is absolutely no way that I can see someone doing a tarot reading and inadvertently opening any kind of a gateway to a demonic energy. I have been working with the tarot for almost two decades and I have never experienced anything like this. In relation to me being ill, I actually stopped doing the tarot when I first became ill, because I just did not have the energy to do anything. Three different psychics and energy workers, who work with healing people, independently approached me and advised me that they could sense a block in my aura which they believed was being caused by the fact that I had stopped reading the tarot. Note these were not people that I consulted, or even people that I knew particularly well. They were people who moved and worked in the same circles as me and they felt compelled to tell me what they felt. While they acted in the same way, that would be the exact opposite of what the ‘tarot is evil’ brigade would say.
Tarot cards are nothing more than tools. They are laminated pieces of card with images on them. They have no innate badness or even goodness for that matter. It is how they are used that is of crucial importance. The same way a hammer can be used to build a home, or to break one down. I know people who do practice dark arts and they scoff at the idea that a simple tarot reading can call forth demonic entities. I am sure they could use tarot cards in rituals if they wanted to, but the cards would just be a focus for the practitioner’s own intention. In the exact same way they may use a candle or a piece of paper with an incantation written on it. If using the tarot can open a gateway to demonic energy, then by the same inference, so should lighting a candle or writing on a piece of paper, and that is just plain ridiculous.
None of the tarot readers that I know dabble in anything like this and most do not even believe in such things. The majority of tarot readers are good people, trying to help people by using their innate unique gifts. They are spiritually minded people who live in the light and shine so brightly themselves; sharing that warmth and light with others who need it. The cards are often a meditative tool they use to harness their own intuition. Even where readers feel they are being guided, they would point to their higher selves, guardians or angels and never the dark side.
Most of the fears about the tarot come from pure ignorance and exaggeration. I have met so many clients who actually use the cards to access their beliefs in religion and God in a very powerful way. Some people want to know what message God has for them, while others explore their faith and connect more strongly to it. How can the tarot be dark and negative in such situations?
I would say to those who find darkness and negativity that this is just a reflection of what they carry within themselves. If they can lose their fears and allow light and goodness into their hearts, then this is also what they will project out and thus will find in their dealings not just with the tarot, but with people and life in general.
Whether you agree or disagree, share what you think below!
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