Tarot in the future.

Tarot has been around for many hundred years, but how do you see tarot in the future?
What about 10 years or 20 or even 50 years?
Thinking about computers and other electronic things that is taking over our lifes more and more!

Apps are coming in front. It's now very easy (and cheap) to use Tarot right away. But I believe that it's going to survive in the form in which is for hundred years - pieces of paper. Same goes with playing cards. Luckily, we as human, still have a sentiment for specific things.

I don't think much will change. Tarot exists for so many years of years, and it's going to survive for many more.

I think Tarot is always going to be in the real world----not that online isn't a good thing, but being able to sit with an actual person, hold and shuffle a real deck, and form bonds with actual people is never going to be overshadowed or eclipsed by anything electronic. Tarot is an awesome tool and a large part of it for me is actually holding and shuffling cards and doing readings for people, whether it's online or in person. There's something magical to it. Mysterious and magical and very spiritually nourishing. I can't imagine that the internet could take the place of that.

I think "they" will make holographic cards that pop up from our reader's tables and turn this way and that.

I think Ciro will do it

(just an idea, not any inside info as I don't know Ciro)

Personally, I'm a bit distrustful of automated online and app readings, or even drawings. I feel like if I'm not shuffling the deck, I don't have any say in what cards get drawn. When I shuffle, I can stop when it feels right, but digitally, you just get what you get. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, so I think there will always be a market for physical decks.

If the drop in quality of the cards since the 70s is any indication of what "technological progress" is really like, then, we can depend on everything turning to "plastic" or dissolving into thin air. The "personal touch" will only become rarer and rarer, and that means more and more valuable. I say, hold onto your books and your cards.

Great question! I think that a lot of the symbols that we find in tarot will remain, since they're rooted in our universal consciousness. I would think that as humankind continues evolving, tarot will reflect that in the future, so we may see more decks with themes related to "higher consciousness", etc.

Gaming and other kinds of oracles.

I think gaming in a variety forms will be the future of Tarot. I see this happening now to a certain degree. The traditional trick taking Tarot games will eventually become as well known as the divinatory Tarot. While the game of Tarot might never become more popular than the divinatory Tarot, it will becomes as widely recognized. The use of Tarot in RPG and fantasy themed games will continue as it has for about 40 years along with gamifications of the popular divinatory meanings. The diversity of oracle cards will continue and perhaps non-Tarot oracles will rival if not surpass Tarot decks in the card reading communities.

Currently now we are seeing a fashion of words and things on the card being removed by publishing houses, apparently finally buyers feedback is getting through to them! So all the quotes and key words and less clutter on the cards. Based on how currently things are going....

- more decks going digital, as apps and on websites. more books and books for decks being published by pdf, maybe some things digital only!

- probably more difficult times for physical publishers, probably more difficult times for small chains and independent shops. Things like popular decks like Doreen Virtue will continue to sell but may affect others! so make sure to support the small time sellers and creators and publishing companies or in future there will be less choice for physical items will bookshops and libraries still exist as real actual locations?

- maybe more choice for us as consumers, you might be able to print a deck however you want, with /without borders, with/ without numbers. it might become you buy a deck and print in your own home on a super printer (which by then is really cheap). decks will be custom one off's! this would be really bad for the middle ground shops but printers are going that way.

- maybe someone will make a subscription tarot site where you can use the decks on the site (or app) as long as you subscribe. A subscription model to access any deck (people who like the idea about energy on the cards will hate that )

- people will probably still be starting threads on here about the tarot has stopped suddenly working for them AT will still be going!

that's my future predictions

I predict that crowdfunding and the ability to self-publish and print decks will create a greater desire for individualized, niche or unique decks. Think of how popular the Wild Unknown is today! I actually think that the number of indie decks in the future will create a new popularity for the tried-and-true traditional decks like TdM and RWS as the pendulum swings in the other direction. Combine that with the RWS copyright expiring and I bet we'll be seeing some interesting RWS clones.