Has any of you had this happen?

[lisaxtiffany]

Have you ever pulled a card and have been somewhere or encountered something that. basically looks like the card you pulled? For instance I pulled the 6 of swords for the month of may and my roommate and I went to Central Park and on the lake a mother and her young child were being rowed in a Venetian looking gondola with a rower and all. Obviously there were no swords but it looked like the rider Waite depiction of the 6 of swords. I thought it was pretty cool! How about you?

 

[trzes]

Selective perception. During a month you see so many things in passing, most of which you forget instantly because they don't relate to anything important from your memories. But a few images ring a bell. Those ones stay. In your example this rather random image relates to the tarot card of the month and many people will take this as evidence for the influence of the "devine" or something like that.

But in fact it is quite unlikely NOT to see anything relating somehow to a certain image during a whole month. IMO selective perception is one of the major things how tarot appears to work. Well, just my personal two cents. Many here on this forum will disagree.

 

[Richard]

It certainly has happened to me, many times, but I can't remember specific instances. Tarot is so integral to my experience of life that I take it for granted. I am not really a fortune teller, just someone who is trying to cope with the maze of reality as it impacts my life.

 

[angelika]

I had just that feeling the other day.I was camping on a clear night and got up just before the dawn. The moon was full and high and was shining on the river. It looked just like the Moon card - minus figures! And it has made me think differently about the Moon card. It was beautifully dreamy, mesmurising and illuminated the world in a magical way, it had its own reality and things seen in that light were just as real only different. So now I am reassessing the Moon card . I think it is given too negative a reading mostly.

 

[Starshower]

I tend to agree with trzes about selective perception.

However, even my non-tarot-using, highly sceptical boyfriend was amazed & a bit shocked by this, as was I ...

We were in a half-empty pub, listening to some disappointingly mediocre jazz droning on in a corner, & I was idly shuffling through a deck to keep myself awake ...

I pulled the 10 of Pents (can't remember which deck, but something in the Waite-Smith tradition). At that very moment, in walked a family, complete with white-haired, white-bearded grandad, young couple, children & dog, who went up to the bar & sat on stools / stood
IN EXACTLY THE SAME POSITIONS AS ON THE CARD - a totally perfect tableau, that couldn't have matched more precisely if it had been planned meticulously! They were right in front of us, sweetly oblivious of our gasps of astonishment. We were both quite amazed & even freaked out.

That multiple coincidence of every person being in the exact position (right down to the old chap being in profile on the left & the dog at his feet) couldn't have been more accurate if rehearsed!
They all blindingly obviously appeared & matched the card, at that very moment that I had pulled it; so it was not selective perception, since there was nobody else in our direct line of view to select from. And the precise timing too! I suspected a set-up, but absolutely not. We had never seen these people before, & haven't since.
Good, eh?!

I often see tarot scenes & characters in everyday life, when I'm just out & about among people in parks, on the beach etc - and I feel that IS selective editing out of the many things I see.

 

[Starshower]

Angelika, I've had that experience when camping (even by a pool, with a winding path ahead & dogs barking in the distance) ... and I totally agree with you! I love how you say that THAT reality, full of dreaminess, beauty & magic, is just as real as any other 'reality' our mundane lives embroils us in. (In fact, the latter seems less Real to me, in the grand scheme of things.) I too feel the Moon card is often given too negative a meaning.

 

[trzes]

Angelika ... I love how you say that THAT reality, full of dreaminess, beauty & magic, is just as real as any other 'reality' our mundane lives embroils us in...

Even if there should not be anything else to tarot: the way it sort of shines a magic light on an otherwise mundane reality is enough for me to enjoy it every day. Our minds seem to be set up in a way that we love metaphors, prefer to think visually and enjoy finding all kinds of connections. Thus I don't always care too much what is real in a strict sense.

"The princess and the prince discuss what's real and what is not.
It doesn't matter inside the gates of eden."
Dylan

 

[SunChariot]

Have you ever pulled a card and have been somewhere or encountered something that. basically looks like the card you pulled? For instance I pulled the 6 of swords for the month of may and my roommate and I went to Central Park and on the lake a mother and her young child were being rowed in a Venetian looking gondola with a rower and all. Obviously there were no swords but it looked like the rider Waite depiction of the 6 of swords. I thought it was pretty cool! How about you?

Often, it happened more in the beginning when I was just learning though. I took it as the cards way of showing me what Tarot really is. That Tarot actually is a reflection of real life. I found to beautiful, and still do, when it happens. It is life talking to me and sending me signs.

Babs

 

[carr4562]

I do believe I've had similar experiences, but maybe in a little different way. I've seen things that seem like modern-day equivalents of the old images, which reminds me of a card and makes me appreciate the threads of common meaning and experience that run through hundreds of years of human culture. I think this is possible because many of the images on the cards capture things that are relatively ubiquitous in many times and places. This might be one reason why so many people of such diverse backgrounds and personalities can relate to the tarot, it's just full of sights and concepts that we are all familiar with on some level. So, I'm not sure that there is necessarily a predictive connection between pulling the card and literally seeing a similar sight later (though I'm not one to rule it out either), but there is clearly a connect between the cards and everyday life.