Psychic and divination - are they 'tarot myths'?

I think it's odd that so many people pour scorn on "myths" such as you must be given your first deck as a gift, or you should keep it wrapped in silk of a certain colour or you alone must touch your decks, and yet a good number of people in our community believe they are psychic, and a good percentage of people believe tarot can divine the future. These beliefs are not mocked, but the myths are.

In the absence of evidence for any of the things I have mentioned, are they not all about the same level of credibility?

"I think it's odd that so many people pour scorn on "myths" such as you must be given your first deck as a gift, or you should keep it wrapped in silk of a certain colour or you alone must touch your decks, and yet a good number of people in our community believe they are psychic, and a good percentage of people believe tarot can divine the future. These beliefs are not mocked, but the myths are.

In the absence of evidence for any of the things I have mentioned, are they not all about the same level of credibility?"



I buy my own decks and while I can't say for certain because it's never happened, I don't think I'd enjoy a deck someone chose for me as much as one I chose for myself (or one that chose me). So I discount that particular myth.

I don't keep my decks wrapped in silk...and I don't keep them in the original box most of the time. And while i don't really want to put a rubber band around them, I've found that's the easiest way to stash them in my bag when I want to take them with me. (I hear the faint grumbles of 'sacrilege!' in the background. Ha!) The cards work just as well. To me, such rituals reek of card worship. I love the decks I own but I don't worship them.

Most times I don't let others touch the decks but that's not a hard and fast rule. Just a preference of mine. I don't know where their hands have been...

Those things are all rituals. I'm not a strong ritual kind of person.

Not all tarot readers are psychic and not all psychics read tarot or use any other kind of tool. I believe that the cards can help spark a person's intuition. They tell a story. Have I ever had a psychic moment with the cards? Sure, occasionally I get "in the zone" and get hit after hit. I would never call myself psychic, however.

As with all things, you'll find differing opinions on the topic. Do I think Tarot can divine the future? Yes, but with a caveat that the future, since it's not here yet, isn't set in stone and we are able to change the outcome by what we do or don't do.

These things have to do with the reader's internal compass. Something intangible.

Let me ask you...do you meditate? I don't normally, though on occasion if I'm feeling burnt out and need to calm myself I have been known to shut out the world and meditate.

If you meditate, how do you feel afterwards? Enlivened? Refreshed? Totally and utterly focused? That's how I feel when I'm reading the cards. It's as if I'm somewhere else, and yet, completely in the moment.

graspee said:

I think it's odd that so many people pour scorn on "myths" such as you must be given your first deck as a gift...

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Wow, I didn't even know that was a belief held widely enough to have attained the status of "myth"...yet I actually was given my first deck as a gift. About a decade ago. And it didn't speak to me at all, and so it sat in a box, virtually untouched, until my interest in Tarot and related fields of exploration was pretty much lit on fire a couple of months ago. I then dug that first deck out of the depths of the box I'd dumped it in back when the millennial rollover was still a fresh event...and it still didn't speak to me. It seemed pessimistic and self-serious, and it also didn't provide much at all in the way of background images on the cards, which is part of what I wanted. I ended up buying myself a trio of new decks to play with, and while one of them surprised me by leaving me kind of lukewarm upon getting it home, I'm in love with one of the others, and in deep and intense like so far with the last one.

The two I don't currently use are still in their original boxes, and the one I love is in a silky-type scarf I found for it with a design I like (and I did this not because I was afraid various spirits and powers that be and the deck itself would be offended if I didn't, but just because it made me feel good about the message I was sending by taking the time to go out and find a wrapping that I liked and that seemed respectful)...and then the final deck is still in its original box, but only until I start using it more regularly (it's the Tarot of the Sephiroth, and I feel like I need to get a better handle on the Tree of Life stuff before I really get busy on that deck).

I agree with your take that all of the stances you mention are each no more/no less credible than the others. In large part, I'm of the mind that an individual's belief is actually a huge part of whether or not something in "the esoteric sciences" holds true for them or not.

graspee said:

I think it's odd that so many people pour scorn on "myths" such as you must be given your first deck as a gift, or you should keep it wrapped in silk of a certain colour or you alone must touch your decks, and yet a good number of people in our community believe they are psychic, and a good percentage of people believe tarot can divine the future. These beliefs are not mocked, but the myths are.

In the absence of evidence for any of the things I have mentioned, are they not all about the same level of credibility?

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I would see a difference between belief in tarot and divination, and telling people (that's what the myths are all about !) - what rituals are required to practise the various methods of divination.

Also, I don't think people "pour scorn" on most of them; most of the threads here are "well, I don't (insert ritual here), but if you like to, go for it." The only one that tends to bring on the giggles is the "thou shalt not buy thy own deck" one. Mostly because 90% of us here, I'd say, would never have got into the cards at all if we'd waited.

graspee said:

I think it's odd that so many people pour scorn on "myths" such as you must be given your first deck as a gift, or you should keep it wrapped in silk of a certain colour or you alone must touch your decks, and yet a good number of people in our community believe they are psychic, and a good percentage of people believe tarot can divine the future. These beliefs are not mocked, but the myths are.

In the absence of evidence for any of the things I have mentioned, are they not all about the same level of credibility?

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In short, no.

The longer version is perhaps to someone who knows nothing about Tarot or divination, they might have the same level of credibility. For people who have no experience of a thing, well how do you know what to believe. And society can mock people who call themselves psychic, in a sense like Tarot readers "put down" Tarot myths.

But since you are asking this question of people who DO actually know and have experience with these things, experience with Tarot teaches us what Tarot myths are, as it teaches us how to become more and more "psychic". Although the word "psychic" can be used it different ways by different people, and it is usually best to define what is meant by the word ....I think most of us as readers have seen our "psychic" abilities (aka intuition) improve greatly the more we work with the cards. To see is to know.

To see it happen to you and then to talk to many many others who all have the same expereince (like here on AT) IS in fact evidence. If you know 100 people who all have the same expereince and none really who have not had it (or the only ones who have not are those who are still new to it) THAT IS evidence. Clear evidence in fact.

Babs

graspee said:

I think it's odd that so many people pour scorn on "myths" such as you must be given your first deck as a gift, or you should keep it wrapped in silk of a certain colour or you alone must touch your decks, and yet a good number of people in our community believe they are psychic, and a good percentage of people believe tarot can divine the future. These beliefs are not mocked, but the myths are.

In the absence of evidence for any of the things I have mentioned, are they not all about the same level of credibility?

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In the absence of evidence it would be all the same, but the people who believe they are psychic and the people who believe tarot can divine the future base their beliefs on evidence which supports the beliefs. Why would they mock something for which they have evidence of it to be true?

The "myths" are most likely mocked because of overwhelming evidence which supports the belief that they are not true.

There was a myth floating around in the eighties, and a friend of mine recently mentioned it, that you should always buy a new deck because a used one will have the previous owner's energy on it. First I told her, if she thought that was a problem, put a crystal on the used deck and set it in a sunny window. Then I told her I thought the story was concocted by publishers as a means of selling more decks, and that I got my Quantum Tarot used and it reads just fine.

I've heard the "must be wrapped in silk" one, and if I could afford silk scarves for all my decks... I do think they should be wrapped in something made of natural fabric, and most of my decks, except for those that came in really nice boxes that I display on my bookshelf, are wrapped in cotton bandannas that double as spread cloths.

As far as reading rituals are concerned, I really don't have a problem with other people touching my cards. When doing a reading for someone else, I usually ask if they're good at shuffling, and if the answer is no, I shuffle the cards myself.

Reading for myself, well, that's a whole nother affair. I lay my spreadcloth out, light a seven-day votive candle with St. Michael the Archangel on it, set my amethyst skull on the corner of the spreadcloth, queue up some music that goes with the deck I'm using... it's a very ritualized affair.

On the other hand, there are people here on the forum who can just throw the cards down with the TV on in the background and read.

I think a lot of the "myths" evolved because some people have a psychological bent where they're more comfortable reading if their cards are treated with respect, and a bit of ritual helps put them in the frame of mind they need to be in for a good reading.

I don't think Tarot reading or being psychic is a myth, although I'd be willing to bet that about 90% of professional psychics are frauds who are just good at cold reading. Reading Tarot is an ability that most people can learn, and I think there is some predictive value, although lately I'm steering away from predictive readings, but then, the future is not written in stone. I believe we create our futures by the choices we make, and if the cards show that the choices we're making are leading us down a bad path, then we can make different choices.

I've seen threads where people weren't scornful but they were ..condescending but not in a cruel way? I think for the most part people here are very live and let live so it's never a prescriptivist response or dismissal. But it is interesting to see Tarot people respond to other Tarot people the way that the general population responds to Tarot readers. I have seen a few posts where people mentioned the phrase "they make us look bad!" so I think for a few people it is a case of seeking validation for their fringe beliefs.

Overall though, most Tarot people aren't going to be coming from the perspective that divination is charlatanism. And just because you don't believe your contested truth is wrong, that doesn't mean you can't disagree with other contested truths, if that makes sense. Like I use tarot cards but I also vaccinate my son and if someone asked me about antivaxers views I would say that they are wrong. (using a nonrelated example to better illustrate) I hope that makes sense!

Asbestos Mango said:

On the other hand, there are people here on the forum who can just throw the cards down with the TV on in the background and read.

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*cough*

vee said:

I've seen threads where people weren't scornful but they were ..condescending but not in a cruel way? I think for the most part people here are very live and let live so it's never a prescriptivist response or dismissal. But it is interesting to see Tarot people respond to other Tarot people the way that the general population responds to Tarot readers. I have seen a few posts where people mentioned the phrase "they make us look bad!" so I think for a few people it is a case of seeking validation for their fringe beliefs.

Overall though, most Tarot people aren't going to be coming from the perspective that divination is charlatanism. And just because you don't believe your contested truth is wrong, that doesn't mean you can't disagree with other contested truths, if that makes sense. Like I use tarot cards but I also vaccinate my son and if someone asked me about antivaxers views I would say that they are wrong. (using a nonrelated example to better illustrate) I hope that makes sense!

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I think the condescension is more a badly managed attempt to say rituals are NOT necessary, and whoever told you that should be shot. Kind of - trust yourself, not someone who tries to manipulate you....

like

I like what Gregory said here. Trust yourself; the only "musts" are those dealing with ethics.