Frequency each card comes up

[Grizabella]

I didn't know what to name this thread, but the re-occuring cards thread prompted me to think of it.

There are 78 cards in the deck. You'd think that you'd get all of them (or at least that I would since I shuffle and lay cards out all day long sometimes just idly) in the space of a month, at least. But instead, there are some cards I don't get for months at a time during those random spreads and others that come up over and over again and then when incidents transpire that were in the cards, others will begin coming up over and over again instead. There has to be a reason why. Shall we theorize? I think it's just another example of the way Tarot works and that it does work whether people think it does or not.

 

[Chiriku]

There's another thread opened near the time this one did that asks mostly the same question. I will post the same answer for each...

I have always been interested in stories shared by readers who said certain cards "haunted" them for a given time period, often over many months or a year. I was never able to make such claims because for most of my years in tarot, I did not often read for myself; this didn't give me much fodder for analysis, and skewed the perception that a card was coming up more or less often than others.

I still do not read frequently for myself. For a few months this year, I pressed myself to do at least 3-4 short (one or two card) draws a week, as part of a workplace/lunchtime pattern. But the majority of my sit-down readings happened at intervals of at least a couple of months, sometimes more.

Thus, I don't have as impressive a sample as you seem to have. However, this year, I have received The Hanged Man probably around 4-5 times (I have it written down somewhere). This is a card that I don't remember ever drawing for myself in the scant readings I did for myself in prior years. Same goes for the Twos, especially the Two of Swords and the Two of Pentacles. All three of these cards have a pointed relation to my life of late.

In my opinion, there is a message to be had anywhere that we are receptive to looking. Tarot reading is, by default, receptivity toward "looking," and I glean a powerful and apt message from The Hanged Man and the Twos, accordingly. But I have no doubt that I would glean an equally powerful and apt message had the recurring cards been Justice and the Eights; our minds are capable of wringing meaning out of any symbol, any idea.

As to the mechanics of certain cards coming up over and over even given frequent readings and thoroughly-randomized decks--I am not familiar enough with the laws of probability to hazard a guess. I expect someone who is will weigh in on that point soon enough.

It's ever a fascinating subject to consider.