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I have very limited experience of Tarot readings, and I have never been to a professional reader. But I have been trained to read them by somebody who has produ

I have very limited experience of Tarot readings, and I have never been to a professional reader. But I have been trained to read them by somebody who has produced their own deck, so they are quite into it. My limited understanding is that one can ”read” them so that the subject is questioning the cards and the person doing the reading is kind of guiding the process. This works, because we repeat patterns in our life, and subconsciously we must know these patterns, otherwise we could not repeat these patterns. The cards are kind of giving us another angle to these patterns, allowing those subconscious patterns to become conscious. When we learn these patterns that we repeat in life, we can become free of them. So in a way it is poor man’s psychitheraphy.

the_af 4y ago
Thanks for the honest reply. So why not do psychotherapy then? I know there are arguments against psychotherapy, but surely all of it doubly applies to Tarot reading -- which is way less regulated, with far less oversight and peer review (I mean it in the broadest possible sense, of course I don't expect a peer reviewed article on "Nature")?
- atkailash 4y ago
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- kukkeliskuu 4y ago
  I have never participated in Tarot in professional setting so I cannot answer why others do it. I probably would not do it if I had to pay somebody for it. I have done psychotheraphy though and it was not very useful beyond having somebody listen to you attentively. In my very limited experience Tarot was more useful and cheaper — hence poor man’s psychotheraphy.
- kukkeliskuu 4y ago
  As for the peer review —- after the replication crisis of psychology, I don’t put too much value in scientific process in that or related fields. When we live in scientific ”wild west”, one has to try to find the truth oneself, being both open-minded and critical. That is why I tried Tarot when a friend suggested it, and then learned what I wrote above. And I was very critical of the whole idea of Tarot, because I believed like most people do that it is just completely made up magical thinking. What I learned is not something I have read anywhere or been told by somebody. It is hard-earned piece of information.
  - the_af 4y ago
    > after the replication crisis of psychology, I don’t put too much value in scientific process in that or related fields I thought I had preempted this in my comment: whatever criticism of psychology and therapy there is, it applies tenfold to fringe stuff like Tarot. There may be a crisis of replication in psychology, but there is simply no replication or oversight or peer review at all with Tarot and occultism in general. This is what strikes me as very odd about people's beliefs in occult and fringe stuff: their standards of proof are completely imbalanced against science. "Nobody has proof vaccines work", "doctors are spreading falsehoods", etc, and yet -- "the friend of my cousin is a Tarot reader, you wouldn't believe how accurate he is!". Say what? What happened with the skepticism about medicine and science, did it fly out the window the minute a psychic friend of my aunt's grocer said I should try Bach's Flowers?
    - kukkeliskuu 4y ago
      Just to make sure, I am not the same person you originally commented. I just wanted to add my 2 cents and tell that Tarot can be something else than what people typically think it is. It is not scientific and I am not claiming it is. But I think science in these fields is not scientific either —- that is what the replication crisis implies. However I find interesting that your preconception of Tarot seems so strong that you believe I have somehow taken something a friend suggested at face value. Nothing I wrote suggests that. Tarot cards do not have to be scientific to be useful. Would you be against Brian Eno creativity cards that just give you a suggestions on what to think, such as ”What to increase? What to reduce?” Hopefully we can both agree that such cards can be useful when stuck with a problem and you need to invent new ideas. Do you need scientific proof of them once you see that it obviously works? Tarot cards can be used in very similar manner.
      - the_af 4y ago
        Yes, I can certainly agree that Tarot cards in the sense you mean -- the same sense as jogging, taking a shower or doodling on a piece of paper -- can help one's mind become unstuck on a problem. But how many Tarot readers are going to agree with your interpretation? You know they trade on the occult.

the_af 4y ago

Thanks for the honest reply. So why not do psychotherapy then? I know there are arguments against psychotherapy, but surely all of it doubly applies to Tarot reading -- which is way less regulated, with far less oversight and peer review (I mean it in the broadest possible sense, of course I don't expect a peer reviewed article on "Nature")?

atkailash 4y ago
[dead]
kukkeliskuu 4y ago
I have never participated in Tarot in professional setting so I cannot answer why others do it. I probably would not do it if I had to pay somebody for it. I have done psychotheraphy though and it was not very useful beyond having somebody listen to you attentively. In my very limited experience Tarot was more useful and cheaper — hence poor man’s psychotheraphy.
kukkeliskuu 4y ago
As for the peer review —- after the replication crisis of psychology, I don’t put too much value in scientific process in that or related fields. When we live in scientific ”wild west”, one has to try to find the truth oneself, being both open-minded and critical. That is why I tried Tarot when a friend suggested it, and then learned what I wrote above. And I was very critical of the whole idea of Tarot, because I believed like most people do that it is just completely made up magical thinking. What I learned is not something I have read anywhere or been told by somebody. It is hard-earned piece of information.
- the_af 4y ago
  > after the replication crisis of psychology, I don’t put too much value in scientific process in that or related fields I thought I had preempted this in my comment: whatever criticism of psychology and therapy there is, it applies tenfold to fringe stuff like Tarot. There may be a crisis of replication in psychology, but there is simply no replication or oversight or peer review at all with Tarot and occultism in general. This is what strikes me as very odd about people's beliefs in occult and fringe stuff: their standards of proof are completely imbalanced against science. "Nobody has proof vaccines work", "doctors are spreading falsehoods", etc, and yet -- "the friend of my cousin is a Tarot reader, you wouldn't believe how accurate he is!". Say what? What happened with the skepticism about medicine and science, did it fly out the window the minute a psychic friend of my aunt's grocer said I should try Bach's Flowers?
  - kukkeliskuu 4y ago
    Just to make sure, I am not the same person you originally commented. I just wanted to add my 2 cents and tell that Tarot can be something else than what people typically think it is. It is not scientific and I am not claiming it is. But I think science in these fields is not scientific either —- that is what the replication crisis implies. However I find interesting that your preconception of Tarot seems so strong that you believe I have somehow taken something a friend suggested at face value. Nothing I wrote suggests that. Tarot cards do not have to be scientific to be useful. Would you be against Brian Eno creativity cards that just give you a suggestions on what to think, such as ”What to increase? What to reduce?” Hopefully we can both agree that such cards can be useful when stuck with a problem and you need to invent new ideas. Do you need scientific proof of them once you see that it obviously works? Tarot cards can be used in very similar manner.
    - the_af 4y ago
      Yes, I can certainly agree that Tarot cards in the sense you mean -- the same sense as jogging, taking a shower or doodling on a piece of paper -- can help one's mind become unstuck on a problem. But how many Tarot readers are going to agree with your interpretation? You know they trade on the occult.