Tarot ever lied?

Hi all,

I've been a tarot-user for about seven or eight years now (so I'm not trying to draw skepticism to the practise of using tarot cards for advice by any means!), and have used several decks over the years. About a year ago, I switched to a new one (Tarot of Trees: I love it!) and since then, I've started to get much more growth-inducing and positive/encouraging readings.

But I recently ran into a situation where all my cards, for several weeks in a row (in answer to different questions), came up the same and were all pointing in one direction, in a very forceful manner. That direction vaporised in 'reality' and now I'm wondering: has anyone ever had their tarot cards purposefully go out of their way and lie to them? I was just wondering about experiences people have had with that.

Thanks! Appreciate it

In peace.

Not as such. Lying is deliberate and since tarot decks are just bits of card with pictures drawn on them I dont see how they can lie, so to speak (what would be the point, what's in it for the deck? lol).

On the other hand, I do find some decks more fallible than others. I guess in that sense they could be considered less "trustworthy".

Welcome to AT! I agree with Papercut that the cards are just pieces of paper with pictures on them. What I find is when reading for myself I find that I see cards differently than when reading for others. My emotions drown out my inner voice. It is not that the cards are have lied, it is as if I can't see the truth, or perhaps I don't want to see the truth. I do have decks that I perfer to use over others, and there are times when I cannot read at all. You are not alone. Again, Welcome.

vgnhippie said:

...now I'm wondering: has anyone ever had their tarot cards purposefully go out of their way and lie to them?

Click to expand...

Only in as far as being a reader subconsciously "lying" to myself, I guess, if that's possible. I would tend to think that it would be more a case of a reader being in a situation of such "severe" wishful thinking, denial, or frustration that this is all she can see in her spreads for the duration of time that particular energy is around her.

In other words, it's the reader, not the deck, who is coming up with the interpretations.

Cool. Thanks, guys!

You know, I have never had a reading "lie", although every time I do a reading I am very careful to stress that, while the cards tell the truth, I am merely an interpreter and I am likely to get things wrong. I also stress that the future is not written in stone and that sometimes the very act of reading the cards and becoming aware of the possibilities is enough to change what will happen. The other issue you can run into is that people very often don't like what the cards are saying, and will argue against it. Every time that has happened to me, either what I have said will happen does happen, or else the arguments they make against what I've said actually fit what I've said, they just heard it through their own filters.

Well I have definitely misinterpreted, and I find that future readings are ambiguous as to accuracy. But this question raises the much older question of whether an intelligence governs the draw of the cards, whether there is some power or force at work directing which cards we get. I think there is. Does this power ever lie?

I suppose it bothers me to think of what it might do as either truth telling or lying. I think of it more as a guiding force leading one toward truth. I also think it has at times a more personal source than perhaps most people do, that of our own unconscious, or one's higher Self, and at times the collective unconscious. Is there a deity at work as well, or angelic forces? I think so, yes, but I also see tarot readings as deeply personal events.

So ... are there times when we're better off if we're in a sense confused, or when we feel misdirected? I am not in a position to say that with certainty for everyone, but I know there have been such instances for me, where I was best off not knowing what I would have to go through to get from point A to point B at a particular time in my life. At others times I was better off knowing the bad news, or the good news.

I've for many years thought that psychic or intuitive knowledge came to us on a need to know basis. So I do think that at times the tarot can appear to misdirect, but that in the end it's likely not misdirection, but simply a difficult direction.

I don't know about actual lying, but the cards have been spectacularly wrong for me every so often.

Just the other day I asked the cards what sort of a day I would have, and drew The Star, The Magus and the Ace of Cups, then proceeded to suffer very badly from a cold with shivering, coughing and a mask of pain where my sinuses used to be, sat in bed thinking I was going to die; my thinking was fogged and I felt totally zoned-out.

Now I'm sure people on here would be able to interpret my cards in such a way that it seemed plausible that they foresaw my cold, but this in retrospect with all the facts. I thought I was going to have a great day, and ended up having a bad one.

I do tend towards thinking of the cards as a tool for looking inside myself rather than actually being divinatory, although I'd love to believe they were, but situations like this weaken my "faith".

I don't think the Tarot lies persay, it has to do with how we've learned to interpret the unique language of each different deck (and of course this varies from person to person), and taking time to learn it. I've been thinking about this recently due to some melodrama about a month ago, things did change, but the 6 of Swords upright isn't always positive. It also humbled me, because I've decided it's time for me to stop buying so many card decks and only focus on just a few for better self-teaching.

This isn't to say, however, some spreads are just a cigar. I do my best to meditate on each question while shuffling before making one, but it's not always perfect, and I think the universe isn't always interested in answering your questions 24/7, as I've noticed in Horary astrology.

I recall one reading recently where I came up with all these esoteric, metaphoric kinds of interpretations. It turned out that the cards were showing me literally how my day would go, in the images.

The cards were still on top of the deck, and that evening I showed them to my husband and said, see that happened and that happened... He could see it too. We were both a bit stunned, though by now we shouldn't be.

But if I'd gone by only my earlier interpretation I would have thought the cards were wrong.

That's kind of rare, but it happens, where if I work too hard at it, I miss what's right in front of my face.