Are Readings Always Accurate?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 12 Jan 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

tarotbear	12 Jan 2003
This is (I hope) a complimentary thread to 'Do the Cards Suggest or Reveal?' Someone sent this to me, and I added it to the letter I send out when dealing with an online reading. It sounds like a quote from someone's book or website, so if anyone knows, please pm me so I can give credit where credit is due. Are readings always accurate? Nine times out of ten you will receive information about your past or present and you will be amazed that someone who doesn't even know you can see that. You can easily judge a person's accuracy by how clearly they seem to be turned into your life or your situation as it is. But, when it comes to the part of the reading that reveals your manifesting future, this will be governed by choices you have yet to make. It is important to understand that while 'what is meant to be' will come to pass, as we live our lives we arrive at forks in our road that we may opt to explore or simply bypass. Many factors influence out decision about which way to go, but which direction we ultimately turn in is not always predetermined. Here is an example: You receive a reading and among other things, you are told you will adopt a puppy, but the puppy would be a source of grief. A week or so later a friend offers you a puppy. You love animals and would gladly accept this gift, but because of the reading you decline the offer. A few weeks pass and your friend drops by to see you. You ask about the puppy and they become upset and tell you the puppy had distemper and had to be put to sleep. The only reason the tears shed for the puppy are theirs and not yours is because you decided not to adopt it. Does this mean the reading was not accurate? The value of a reading is that it presents situations in their entirety so that you can respond to them more productively. While some things are 'meant to be', most of our lives are shaped by our own FREE WILL - choices yet to be made and actions yet to be taken. Tarot is not written in stone. The future is affected by decisions we make every minute. If you find your future is not as bright as you would like, use your reading to take steps to change it for the better.

cuddles	13 Jan 2003
i think this is so important to keep in mind when you get a reading that disturbs you. you have the power to make many changes in your life if you just choose to do so. the cards can alert you to possible problems so that you can take steps to avoid them. so a gloom and doom reading about a certain situation can change if you heed the warning and make the necessary changes. so the gloom and doom need never actually happen. and that won't make the cards wrong ;-) probably also important to remember this when you get a good reading. it's not a promise! did i get that right?

MeeWah	13 Jan 2003
Tarotbear: Thanks for some very sage advice that also serves to reiterate the realm of possibilities--a quality that is sometimes not considered. Aside from describing what was & what is, Tarot presents possibilities. Even the most likely concluding scenario is not absolute, given that represents only one of a number of possible outcomes or futures based on a cumulative effect of past & present actions &/or decisions which are then subject to variables. There are variables such as outside influences; things we have no control over; chance; & changing one's mind. Based on the example ye cited, I would say most definitely the reading was accurate. What ensued indicated the outcome to be ultimately undesireable. There are occasions where there is little one can do to change things. In those instances, what Tarot reveals can be taken as a warning or as a means of preparation. How one chooses to react or to meet a situation can be guided by the information or insight conveyed. In making this statement, I am thinking of specific readings, both personal & for others where I saw certain events unfolding & inevitable. In those, it was largely evident that a chain of events was already in motion & moving to their conclusion. It was just a matter of time before all aspects manifested.

Cerulean	13 Jan 2003
Maybe we have a predisposition to want the tarot reading to mean something---not necessarily a bad thing. A teaching story that causes me to reflect on possibilities or consider ideas is not a bad thing if I know there are limits. I know that thinking there is a story scenario just for me in a tarot layout that actually seems kind of magical. I've always thought it was a wonderful thing when people started thinking of the tarot card scene as a possible scenario that affects them personally. When you hope that you are going to see a good movie, isn't there a delightful anticipation and hope that we'll see a message, a film star, character or scene that speaks to us? I like being given a special message or story when I look at different card scenes. But of course, Nina Lee Braden's suggestion in her Tarot and Self Discovery exercises is excellent---if I think there is a worthwhile lesson involved, then I better be ready to act on it, even if it is in a small way. So I don't do tarot layouts every day, because I know that I want to act on the resulting story or reading.

Alex	13 Jan 2003
I think the word "accuracy" deserves a note here. An accurate instrument hits the "right target". It reaveals "The truth". Unless the future is pre-determined and cannot be changed, no instrument of prediction will give you 100% of accuracy. That's the reason why wheather forecast has always been a problem: there are random variables that come into place and change the climate of an entire region. It's not that the forecast instrument is bad, necessarily. It's just that it cannot take into account random variables. When dealing with humans, the problem is even worse. Humans are very prone to suggestion, and that's why many people avoid predicting accidents, death etc. When you read for someone, you are already changing that same future you're attemting to predict... Tarot is not "always" accurate in predicting the future, and it would be very presumptions of any of us, to assume that it is. However, if you want to go for an accuracy test, I would suggest that you to stick with present and past factors: may be taking a note of how many times one can go right or wrong with facts that already "reality" and therefore a target one can attempt to "hit" accurately. Regards Alex. Quote: Originally posted by tarotbear Does this mean the reading was not accurate? [/i]

The Are Readings Always Accurate? thread was originally posted on 12 Jan 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.