In recent times, tarot is becoming more widespread and acceptable around the world. More people are starting to understand tarot as a very useful divination and self-help tool. However, it is still often misunderstood and misrepresented, especially in the media, in fiction and on the small and big screens. Fiction is about creating drama, so of course a story about someone dying from getting their cards read is much more interesting than a story about someone who got their lives together after a tarot reading.
That’s not very helpful to the regular layperson who is interested in learning and finding out more about tarot though. Some people even practice tarot for years believing some of these misconceptions. This post is an attempt to address some of the misconceptions. It’s my hope that if you are genuinely interested in learning tarot but holding back from fear of some superstition or other, that this post will help allay your fears and start you on a wonderful journey with tarot.
1 – Tarot cards are evil and are gateways for evil spirits
First of all, the tarot is a tool, and just like any tool, it is neutral and only a medium for what you decide to do with it. You do not throw your phone away and say that it is a gateway for “evil” telemarketers who call you in the middle of dinner. You just block the telemarketers, and continue enjoying phone calls with your loved ones, texts, apps, and all the other great things your phone can do.
Can tarot be used as a medium for spirits to communicate with you? Yes, but only if that is your intention. There are many tarot readers who have never used the tarot for spirit communication and have no need or desire to.
If you do want to communicate with spirits through tarot, you definitely can, and again, like the phone, you can choose to “hang up” if you do not want to take the call from that specific “person”. Much like setting your phone to block certain numbers, there are many grounding techniques and exercises you can do before each reading to ensure a safe space for yourself and your tarot work.
Remember, you are in control.
2 – Your first deck must be gifted to you
I don’t know why this is even a thing. It’s nice if someone gave you a tarot deck as a gift and started you on your magical journey with tarot, but if you are at all interested in tarot, you do not have to wait until someone buys you a deck. By all means, buy your own deck. Start yourself on your own journey. Because you want to.
My first deck was one I chose and bought for myself when I was 13 years old. I chose the Dragon Tarot because I love dragons and have a special affinity for them. I might not have liked a deck someone else had chosen for me instead. As it happened, I used my Dragon Tarot exclusively for many years, and I still use it today.
3 – You need to memorize every single card in the deck before you can give a reading
Oh, ffs. This is like that episode of Friends where Phoebe told Joey he couldn’t even touch a guitar until he had mastered all the “claw” positions. And don’t get me wrong, that episode was hilarious, but obviously not realistic. How else are you going to learn if you don’t practice with readings?
No one is asking you to charge money for your readings right off the bat, or misrepresent yourself as an expert either, that would be unethical, but there is more to reading tarot for people than memorizing the meanings of all the tarot cards. Also, when it comes to tarot, even if you do memorize all the meanings of each individual card, there are things you can only learn when you start reading for others.
When you practice tarot by giving readings, it helps you remember the meanings of the cards faster and better because then you have a situation or a story to relate the card to. When I teach my courses, I like to emphasize applying the knowledge immediately so that you can remember what you learned, rather than trying to memorize some vague concept or theory that you may not understand.
4 – All the scary/negative cards in a reading mean bad things will happen.
There are some who might disagree with me on this, but I believe that none of the cards in tarot are inherently negative or “bad”.
Death often represents a rebirth or letting go, which can be a good thing and helps the seeker move on to better things. The Devil often represents the ego or false beliefs, which can actually give freedom when the seeker understands what’s holding them back. One of the “scariest” cards in tarot is the 3 of Swords, and it happens to also be one of my favorite cards because it also represents open and honest communication.
I believe that in every card there is a positive and a negative meaning, and however that card manifests in a person’s life after a reading depends on what that person decides to do with the wisdom that the tarot reading has given them.
5 – You should never let anyone touch your tarot cards
If you’ve been told that if you let someone else touch your decks then the deck loses all power, rest assured, it is nothing but a superstition that has no credence except the credence you give to it. If you believe this baseless superstition, you may probably lose confidence in your readings with the deck if someone has touched it, which of course ends up “proving” it to be true.
Again, the tarot is a tool, its “power” comes from you.
There are some people who are particular about who touches their stuff, and that’s fine. There are many things I rather not let other people touch too, and if you don’t want anyone to touch your tarot decks because that is your personal preference, that is completely fine.
But if you are overly superstitious and getting anxiety over making sure no one touches them, I hope you realize now that this is not true and your deck will not lose its power from being handled by someone else.
6 – You should never charge a fee for tarot readings
Why? Why should a professional tarot reader read for you for free? Do they not spend their time and energy on helping you? Do they not deserve some monetary compensation for the service they provided?
Some freeloaders like to say that tarot readers, psychics, and other fortune tellers get their gifts from God, so they should never charge people money for the work they do with those gifts. I call bull. A doctor’s gift from God is healing, an accountant’s gift from God is their ability with numbers, a singer’s gift from God is their voice, an artist’s gift from God is their artistic ability… Shall I go on?
We all have our “gifts from God”, that doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve monetary compensation for using those gifts as a service to others.
For tarot readers, we spend time and energy on our seekers, making sure that they get the reading they need. We spend money on studying and learning tarot, we put in our effort and energies into our practice to gain experience and to give you better readings. Courses cost money, tarot decks cost money, books cost money. If we have a physical shop, it costs money; if we have a website, those cost money too.
If the seeker doesn’t believe we should charge, that’s fine, they don’t have to pay us for a reading, and we don’t have to read for them. They can find someone else who’s willing to read for free, and we can read for the seekers who really appreciate the work and time we put into our readings for them.
7 – All tarot readers are frauds or con artists.
A lot of the misconception and fear towards tarot cards are also due to stories about con artists who pretend to be psychics and tarot readers. Some of these con artists use the tarot to scare the seeker into paying a ton of money to reverse “curses” or bad fortune that according to the con artist, the cards seem to be showing in the reading.
I am not disputing that there are frauds and con artists in the tarot industry. There are, and you should absolutely be careful when you shop for a reader. The sad truth is that there are frauds and con artists in probably every industry. We’ve heard of unethical doctors who abuse their power towards vulnerable and sick people, yet we do not malign all doctors. We know about the accountants who launder money, yet we do not think that all accountants are money launderers.
Similarly, there are many legitimate and professional tarot readers, a lot of good readers that do good work and help many of their clients change their lives. We get angry when we hear about someone getting conned from these frauds, because they give all of us a bad name.
We’ve learned to trust our guts when choosing a doctor, we’ve learned to ask for second opinions. We know that if something doesn’t feel right with the numbers in our account that we should look at the accountant’s work. It is about exercising common sense and trusting your gut. Do your research, read reviews if they have them, and if the reader tries to con you into paying more money than originally agreed upon, do not pay them, and do not go back.
If this is something that’s holding you back from learning tarot or becoming a tarot reader, remember that integrity is something that YOU bring to the table, no matter what profession you are in. As long as you are genuine and honest about wanting to help others with your tarot readings, the right clients for you will find you.
If you have been on the fence about practicing tarot, I hope this post helps to dispel some of the tarot myths that have absolutely no basis in reality. If there are other myths you think I’ve missed, please do leave a comment and tell me what you’ve heard!
I would love to hear from you!
Hazellie Wong
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