The Mechanics of Tarot

There are sooo many books and thoughts about tarot. I really would like to know fellow ATers thoughts on not why tarot works, but HOW. Obviously there are some very experienced readers here, but new readers must also have asked themselves this question: HOW does tarot work? What do you feel you bond with in the cards that help you come up with answers? I know there are different approaches to tarot, like Jungian and some just feel it aids their intuition, but how do you feel it does that? Or does it matter?

I use tarot just as self-reflection and just read for myself, so I know why and how it works for me, I just would love to hear how, not why, others feel it really works for them. How does the "magic" happen when you use the cards?

I think you should run a search here on overthinking. There are many threads.....

I don't think about it.

Nor shall I.

This has been asked many, many, many times. And members who are active here keep answering as best they can. A search-----well, you've heard that line many times, haven't you? LOL ((( ))) Seriously, it really does get tiresome to try to answer the same questions time and time and time again. The answers are invariably the same. The bottom line is, nobody really knows why and how it works, it just does.

I'm sure you'll have people doing their best to answer this, anyway, but it would be really interesting for you to search out some older threads on the question, if you haven't already. I don't have time at the moment or I'd search some out for you. Maybe it gives some of the newer members a good reason to search their own minds for what they really believe makes it work, anyway, and maybe some older members have discovered how it really works after all.

Griz - I didn't actually mean search for THIS answer, if you thought I did; I meant that IMHO overthinking is a Bad Thing and there are actually threads about that ! Saying that thinking too hard blurs things, spoils them......

Gregory and Grizabella

Gregory, you answered my question re your thoughts, you don't think about it and I appreciate that. I'm sure many don't think about how tarot works. I'm just a curious person, so thought about and figured out how it would work for me when I began.

Grizabella, here's the problem with all the information and threads, there's all this information and all these threads. I search A LOT and get the heinous FATAL ERROR because there ARE so many threads.

I posted this thread because I wanted new thoughts. Besides, there are VERY few threads here that have not been repeated often. For those who find the question tiresome, and I'm sure many will, I know they will just ignore. I'm hoping perhaps there are some experienced and new readers who won't mind revisiting this question and sharing their thoughts. I figured I can't be the only one who thought about this question at some point.

No, gregory, you posted just before I did so we crossed, I guess.

And greatdane, I know sometimes the search isn't easy to use. I used to type in too many words and it seems to work better if you use the advanced search and then indicate just titles of threads while also only using maybe one or two key words rather than say, "how does it work?" for a title. It's not totally useful, but sometimes you can get really lucky. In this case, I think I'd just type in "work" or "works" for a title. Even when I do something like that, though, I still get links that don't seem to have anything to do with what I searched on mixed in with what does pertain.

As for me, I'm like gregory---I just choose not to question it or overthink things. It works. That's all I know for sure.

You're right...

You both have points about overthinking. I didn't think about it as overthinking when I began tarot, I just thought about it as thinking. I'm the type of person who questions, just in my nature. Something has to make sense to me, it doesn't have to be a scientific answer or make sense to anyone else, I just ask myself the reason I THINK something is working for me. It's just automatic. I DO appreciate many just don't think about how tarot works and that is obviously a totally valid answer (which is why I put or does it matter in my question).

It's not like there is a right or wrong answer to this question, I just wanted thoughts of anyone who cared to share them. I find it really interesting because since tarot is such a big part of many ATers lives, I figured the question may have come up for them at some point, even if they quickly dismissed it.

Great Dane, I just did a search on "how does Tarot work" and I got over 25 pages of hits. The search function is here.

A lot of people have had a lot of conversations that you'd probably benefit from.

Thanks Nisaba

I wasn't really looking to benefit, just wanted current thoughts on this. I haven't seen much activity regarding this topic in the last few months. There are a lot of posts on some fairly mundane aspects of tarot, or even tarot accessories, every day. When it comes to how people think tarot works for them (not exact science of it, just how people think it works in a very basic, general way), not much lately. Hence...new thread.

<grin> Or you can rejuvenate old threads! That means that when someone comes along searching for a conversation they might have remembered in the future, to see what they (or someone else) actually said or to put a link to it in another post, they will have fewer old threads to trawl through.