Reading without God/ess

[nisaba]

I do have deeply-held religious views, But Tarot is not about what I believe, it is about what I do.

I don't need to have religious views to drive a car - I can drive a car with or without a belief-system.

I don't need to have religious views to use a Tarot deck, either - I can use a Tarot deck with or without a belief-system.

Twenty or twenty-one years ago, I met an awesome reader, name of L. L was an atheistic sciences-educated person (actually, at the time an out-of-work physicist). L is happy to tell anyone and everyone what a stupid waste of energy it is to have a belief-system. L uses Tarot, and does so incredibly well.

When I go into exchange circles, I don't see people going to church or casting circles to do readings. You rarely if ever hear mention of spiritual practices in readings exchanges.

I am a believer, but I am atheistic when I work with Tarot. I use it as a tool or a technique. I love it and I enjoy it, but it is not an act of worship.

You said:

... is to ask for ideas for how to use Tarot when you don't believe in Spirit.

The way I do. Pick up a deck, shuffle it, pull cards. Easy.

 

[Richard]

I voted for the third option: "The cards fall into meaningful patterns which relate to the situation." This is problematic for me, and at this point I wish it were not true. It has forced me to believe something which I would rather not believe. As a consequence, I seldom use Tarot for divination.

 

[Gulliver]

I've voted for all points except the second psychic one.
I've so very different moods say phases of different moods, so that all points are true depending on the particular phase.

I like most a very creative mood, I love to be amazed and to get in deep areas of the subconscious triggered by the cards. In such moments there don't exist the question if or if not
a god/goddess for instance is present. Because all is one, you are feeling whole when the creativity is so deep in flow.

 

[2dogs]

I voted for the third option: "The cards fall into meaningful patterns which relate to the situation." This is problematic for me, and at this point I wish it were not true. It has forced me to believe something which I would rather not believe. As a consequence, I seldom use Tarot for divination.

This scientific observation has forced me to believe something too, so I voted for "It puts me in touch with etc" although I have no idea what that "etc" might be.

 

[Zephyros]

I chose the random option. Sure I have my beliefs, but they don't usually enter into Tarot, or my daily life. Even if there is an all-powerful being it doesn't, strictly speaking, matter. I myself am God, or at least the facet of God that experiences life as me. I am wholly and completely unique, my vision of Creation is my own, which makes me a One, a Unity, in that I create everything I experience at the moment I come in contact with it.

 

[Karrma]

As someone who did not like and was uncomfortable with tarot for years, (I still do not like seeing multiple swords stabbed in people so never use the Rider-Waites)I had to vote the first one, as the only reason I started to learn was due to a feeling or message.

Most all of the time, the cards are just cards, and I am having fun with the symbolism, and just making one think about life from the perspective of the cards, a different angle is fun and enlightening just due to that.

But rarely, it seems there is a message there, I don't know why I feel different, but I do, that it is not "me" who is interpreting, but "other" who for some reason want to give some guidance, to the questioner. But that is why I learned tarot, for this rare time, and not the common, everyday usage.

 

[Pixna]

I chose "other" because although I don't believe in a deity or any religion of sorts, I do believe in the energy that is life -- an energy that takes different forms, the same way that water can be contained in a cup or boiled into steam or evaporate. It's still water, regardless of the form. I believe there's an energy that manages the seen and the unseen that is at the heart of us all -- and I really don't care what it's called (or even if it has no name at all). This is the energy that fills a body (or animal or plant) with life, and that energy transmutes when the body (or container) dies.

For me, Tarot is a mirror -- it reflects the currents of energy in the life being read for at the time of the reading. This is a spiritual experience for me, but not at all in a religious sense; it's an experience of the spirit (my energy and/or the energy of the querent). I don't label myself an atheist, agnostic, secular humanist, or anything else -- I don't see the need for those kinds of labels. At the same time, I feel that Tarot can be whatever you want it to be, and it can work just as well for people who label themselves as something as it can for those who don't use labels. If Tarot is viewed as a mirror, it can reflect whatever you believe it reflects, and work however you believe or think that it does. For my own purposes, I don't have to understand how (or why) it works; it's enough for me to simply know that it does.