Can the cards be "wrong?"

Readings can and do come out wrong. I think why this happens boils down to three reasons:

1. The question was poorly worded, or the intention behind the reading was unclear

2. The reading is being done when the emotions of either the reader or person being read for are running high, and so the reading showes what the person is most afraid of, or conversely, the outcome they are hoping for, as opposed to the truth.

3. We are not supposed to know the answer to the question asked, and the cards come out deliberatly weird.

Number 3 actually clashes completly with my own beliefs, but it's happened to me so many times over the years that I can't aruge with it. Sometimes it is just not in our best interest to know the answer, and so we can't read on a particular issue.

How many times do we see people post in the reading forum asking one question but then reading the cards as though something else had been asked? Allllll the time!

The cards just are what they are. If you read them wrong, then it's you that's wrong, not the cards. The cards appear in response to what you asked them. It's either a matter of misinterpretation or not sticking to precisely what the question is that you asked or a combination of both.

I think it tends to be a cop-out when a prediction doesn't appear to come true and the reader lays the blame on the sitter with, "Oh, that's because you did something different and that changed the outcome." Oh really? Why can't the reader just say "maybe I was wrong" or admit that maybe their timing was off? It really is possible that something the sitter did swerved the situation to the left of what was predicted, but I think more often the cards were just read wrong or else the timing wasn't what was expected. Timing with the cards is hard to predict.

The issue of so-called free will is in the same category as the number of angels which can dance on the head of a pin, dear to the hearts of medieval scholastics, but rather sophomoric from the standpoint of space-time relativity, in which space, time, and motion are inextricably interrelated, and the difference between past, present, and future becomes hopelessly blurred. It is a non-issue, which appears to be relevant only because we are chained to the wall in Plato's cave and positioned so that we can see only the shadows cast by reality.

Tarot is no more wrong (or right) than tea leaves or the patterns on a tortoise shell. It is the intuition of the reader that is right or wrong. Being a structural rather than an intuitive reader, I can offer only a certain limited insight into questions, not answers which have a logical yes/no binary truth-value. For my personal use, Tarot is a map of myself, and consequently, according to the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, a map of the macrocosm as well.

For me it has never been a question of "right" or "wrong," only one of "necessary." The sequence of cards in a spread invariably tells its story, just not always in a language that is readily interpretable within the context of the question as it was consciously asked. I've never aborted a reading because the spread seemed to be delivering only static on the surface, I bore in and keep turning over rocks until something emerges that sheds light on the matter at one level or another. There is always a kernel of truth present, but it may be decidedly more abstract than concrete. That's where I've earned my stripes as a reader, bringing the querent to awareness of aspects and angles in the matter that may have been completely overlooked. The "Aha!" moment of dawning realization is wonderful to see, especially after talking for half an hour to a blank stare.

Barleywine said:

For me it has never been a question of "right" or "wrong," only one of "necessary." The sequence of cards in a spread invariably tells its story, just not always in a language that is readily interpretable within the context of the question as it was consciously asked. I've never aborted a reading because the spread seemed to be delivering only static on the surface, I bore in and keep turning over rocks until something emerges that sheds light on the matter at one level or another. There is always a kernel of truth present, but it may be decidedly more abstract than concrete. That's where I've earned my stripes as a reader, bringing the querent to awareness of aspects and angles in the matter that may have been completely overlooked. The "Aha!" moment of dawning realization is wonderful to see, especially after talking for half an hour to a blank stare.

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Yes indeed! To gain insight is the true value of a Tarot reading, not whether one will win the lottery . Although I have never read professionally, I can imagine that the "blank stare" is not too uncommon among clients. Checking one's brain at the door (as if it were a hat) may be necessary (or at least convenient) when one enters a church, but it is not necessarily appropriate when entering a Tarot reading room.

Grizabella said:

How many times do we see people post in the reading forum asking one question but then reading the cards as though something else had been asked? Allllll the time!

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All the time, So often! Like the question was how Joe feels about them and they say it is talking about their feelings for Joe. The cards will answer the question asked, but they seem to just take it however they want sometimes. Just goes to show how often this happens....

Babs