A "Price" to Pay

Something happened today that can't seem to get off my mind. I was waiting after class today, using my cards to practice divining, and one of my friends walked up to me. Her roommate was with her. Upon seeing my cards, she asked me to read the cards in order to help her deal with her stressed-out-med-student girlfriend, a request that I happily obliged to, as I was anticipating someone (and in fact, she was the one I had in mind,) to ask me so I could read for someone else. Her roommate, however, seemed... weary, to be quite frank, and not in a skeptical, "I don't believe in this stuff," sort of way, as would be expected. After reading my friend's tarot, she tried to convince her roommate to get his read as well, and he turned down the idea. I'm not sure I understood entirely what he was saying, and I don't know him all too well as I had only met him once before, but he mentioned something about his mother practicing witchcraft and that there would be a "price to pay," or something of the sort. When my friend asked him what "price" this could be, he simply replied with - "Oh, you'll know."
What could he have meant by this? I do not practice witchcraft, and I can't say I know as much about it as I would like. What sort of "price" was he speaking of? I use tarot as a coping mechanism for medical reasons, and I have grown somewhat dependent on using the cards. I do not wish to give them up, but I do not want to put myself - or those around me - in danger.

I don't know about real magick, but a common misunderstanding I don't like is that tarot reading is magic. There is nothing special about what we do with them. Each card is simply assigned a meaning, and there is nothing pricy about reading everyday signs.

Any time you feel dependent on something, it is a good idea to be aware of that and try to be objective and deal with your feelings in a healthy way. But I think that your feelings about depending on the cards are a separate issue from the intent of the young man’s comments about a price to pay, because he referred to his mother practicing witchcraft.

Many people have a wrong impression of the Tarot; they fear that the cards are used to open doorways for spirits to speak through, and those doorways might invite malevolent influences. But like you, most of us use the cards to look within ourselves. Most of us are not conjuring or channeling more than our own intuition.

I would not worry about those comments. But I would suggest expanding your ways of coping with your medical issues so that you don’t feel too dependent on the cards alone.

I think as you look around the forums here you will feel reassured and see lots people supporting each other in healthy ways including Tarot.

WhatAboutBrennenburg said:

I'm not sure I understood entirely what he was saying, and I don't know him all too well as I had only met him once before, but he mentioned something about his mother practicing witchcraft and that there would be a "price to pay," or something of the sort. When my friend asked him what "price" this could be, he simply replied with - "Oh, you'll know."
What could he have meant by this? I do not practice witchcraft, and I can't say I know as much about it as I would like. What sort of "price" was he speaking of? I use tarot as a coping mechanism for medical reasons, and I have grown somewhat dependent on using the cards. I do not wish to give them up, but I do not want to put myself - or those around me - in danger.

Click to expand...

A price to pay? Sounds more like Catholic guilt than witchcraft. Never mind that noise. Many people might disagree with what I'm about to say but all these karmic concepts of random things coming back to bite you in the back are basically obsessive-compulsive ideas. Be ethical even in your own way and there won't be any price to pay, especially for immaterial, benevolent things like divination.

They are putting a morality or guilt on using the tarot! They are also confusing a whole lot of things together, witches can use tarot but non witches also use tarot, so it's not witchcraft. Paganism / Wicca has some folk who believe in the threefold law, so if you put out something positive out there it comes back 3 times as strong and same if you put something negative out there. However religion is different to using the tarot.

There is people on AT who do tarot readings for people professionally all the time and they are yet to have this moralistic "come back", in fact they are paid a price for their readings This really reflects the mindset of the person to try to scare you off using the tarot! It really shows their ignorance.

WhatAboutBrennenburg said:

I'm not sure I understood entirely what he was saying, and I don't know him all too well as I had only met him once before, but he mentioned something about his mother practicing witchcraft and that there would be a "price to pay," or something of the sort. When my friend asked him what "price" this could be, he simply replied with - "Oh, you'll know."
What could he have meant by this? I do not practice witchcraft, and I can't say I know as much about it as I would like. What sort of "price" was he speaking of? I use tarot as a coping mechanism for medical reasons, and I have grown somewhat dependent on using the cards. I do not wish to give them up, but I do not want to put myself - or those around me - in danger.

Click to expand...

I think what he meant was "I can't tell you because I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about".

Sounds like the chap assumed that Tarot reading was "evil witchcraft which would result in the fulfilment of the 3-fold-law, whereby whatever intension you give out - you have returned to you three times over. It's a bit like Karma operating right now - the 3-fold-law.
(Tarot - is not a witchcraft practice. It can ofcourse be added to it. As has been stated, witches and non-witches alike use the Tarot).
But as he couldn't explain - I figure he didn't really understand - and was just "making you wrong" in a sneaky way. Enjoying being cryptic and deliberately playing on your doubts.

If Tarot helps you navigate your medical problems - good for you. (I'd watch out for the quality of your "dependancy" on them - but, that can be said for anything that somebody uses in this way).

Let it go. I'd carry on as you have been.

Personally, I don't think that sort of rubbish is even worth listening to. It could be a religious, knee-jerk reaction with biblical underpinning, or he may have just been being "cute," trying to get a rise out of you. He's probably watched Warlock one too many times and is starting to believe in it.

Ignore him- some people just like to act like they're all dark and mysterious to bolster their own ego. His mother sounds a little scary though- maybe she read cards for him then made him do 5 hours of oven cleaning!

WhatAboutBrennenburg said:

After reading my friend's tarot, she tried to convince her roommate to get his read as well, and he turned down the idea. I'm not sure I understood entirely what he was saying, and I don't know him all too well as I had only met him once before, but he mentioned something about his mother practicing witchcraft and that there would be a "price to pay," or something of the sort. When my friend asked him what "price" this could be, he simply replied with - "Oh, you'll know."
What could he have meant by this? I do not practice witchcraft, and I can't say I know as much about it as I would like. What sort of "price" was he speaking of? I use tarot as a coping mechanism for medical reasons, and I have grown somewhat dependent on using the cards. I do not wish to give them up, but I do not want to put myself - or those around me - in danger.

Click to expand...

There's something like "price to pay" in many different pagan and shamanistic traditions. I don't want to say it's complicated, it has just different faces depending on culture and traditions. But I don't think this guy was thinking that "deep". He had a very simplistic view so there's no need to get into it. By using Tarot, you won't get any "price to pay". Tarot is a tool, nothing more and nothing less