My last post was about tarot cards for Halloween and since then I’ve been thinking about the scary side of tarot and remembered that there are actually people that are afraid of the tarot. There are certain cards that frighten people like Death, the Devil and the Tower, and even tarot decks that others find too dark but there are other folk who are terrified of the tarot itself. Here I am going to look at some aspects of the tarot that frighten people and tell you why they are myths. The tarot is a beautiful tool that can be used to help find guidance from your subconscious. The point of the tarot is to bring light where there is darkness; enlightenment where there is confusion. Of course there are those that can make dark use of any tool, be it the tarot, dreams or even the mundane aspects of our lives, but that is down to those people. The tarot itself has no such inherent darkness. From its beginnings as a game in Europe, to its current embodiment as a tool for fortune telling, there is nothing to fear about the tarot.
Bad News
One of the main fears that have people have regarding the tarot and what prevents these people from getting a reading is that they are afraid they will be shown something terrible. People don’t want to know something bad will happen and back when I was doing face-to-face readings I would hear this a lot from new clients and I would tell them that the cards would only tell them what they were ready to hear. The truth is that bad things happen to all of us and in some cases a tarot reading will reveal aspects that are not entirely pleasant. This is where finding a good tarot reader comes into play or if you are reading for yourself, it is necessary to have the right attitude. Anything that is shown in a reading can be changed, that is fact. In almost cases if you are shown something that is uncomfortable to deal with, it probably means that is exactly what you should be working on trying to change in your life. In this case, the bad news is actually a gift to make the necessary changes in our lives.
Fear of the Future
Then there is the lesser fear of knowing too much about one’s own future and I have to say that I’m one of those people who do not like to know too much about my own future. I like to concentrate on the here and now as the present is where I have the maximum power. This may sound like a strange thing for a reader to say, but if you’ve had a reading from me, you know that the focus of my readings is always on the present too, so my clients can create the futures they want.Another truth is that the future is not written in stone; there is very little we cannot change about the future.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
This fear ties in with the previous two; “What if I make bad things happen in my life because of what my reading says?” A reading is not an action plan; it just shows you the energies that are at play in your life. It is a link to your subconscious to help you see things clearly and sound things out. A reading is never there to remove your choices or to tell you what to do. Believe in yourself, not in a reading because very little is inevitable in life, and it is our choices and actions that shape where we are going.
Gateway to Evil
This may seem like a strange one, but it is true, there are those that believe tarot is a gateway to evil. This may be because their religious believes persuade them of this or just that the portrayal of tarot in movies is linked to evil and bad news. Whatever the reason for this belief, I can tell you it is absolutely not true. I come from a very religious family, and no-one in my family has ever doubted my goodness or that my readings are there to help people. The fact that readings do help people be better people and to make better choices in life would seem to negate the belief that they are a tool for evil.
Demonic Possession
I have a chronic illness and too many times I have had random strangers take it upon themselves to contact me and tell me that I am ill because of my connection to tarot. They feel that I have opened myself up to demonic possession. After all some people believe tarot to be a link to the dark arts and a way to communicate with the Devil. The very fact that I have a medically verifiable illness should abolish this belief. Also, there are sufferers who are mere children and none of them or their family are tarot readers or even had a reading; why do they suffer? No matter how good the intentions of this people it is cruel to accuse ill people in this manner and very ignorant. It reminds me of the days people would be accused of possession and this was later shown to be the illness schizophrenia.
The tarot cards are a tool and like any tool, it is how we use them that is important. This goes from the questions that we bring to the cards, all the way to how we interpret the messages we receive from a reading.