What is Tarot and How Does It Work?
Tarot is the story of the human experience told in pictures and symbols. What sets tarot apart from other oracle decks is its structure. (This is why I love tarot so much; it is a system.) A tarot deck is composed of 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana cards. The Minor Arcana is further divided into the Pips (4 suits numbered Ace through 10) and the Courts (generally a Page, Knight, Queen, and King for each suit). Each card depicts and archetype (Major Arcana), situation (Minor Arcana Pips), or personality type (Minor Arcana Court Cards).
While traditionally, tarot was used for fortune-telling, modern tarot is more of a psychological tool, helping us gain deep insight into ourselves by acting as a mirror to our thoughts, feelings, and subconscious mind. It offers us a way to connect with our intuition and the deep well of knowledge that we all carry within us. It also connects us to the collective unconscious and to the energies around us. In that sense, we can gaze into a possible future by looking at the trajectory of our current actions. And if we don’t like what we see, we can do something to change it.
I don’t think anyone truly knows how tarot works just as I don’t think anyone truly knows what happens after we die or why we’re here at all. I think it’s possible that tarot works as a conduit for spirit (whatever that may be), that spirit uses the cards to communicate messages that the reader will understand. I think it’s possible that tarot functions much like a Rorschach test, that we project our subconscious thoughts and feelings onto the cards thereby allowing us to visually see what is going on deep within us. I think it’s possible that tarot works because we are pattern-seeking creatures and these universal, archetypal images trigger the pattern-seeking part of our analytical minds. I think it is possible tarot works because when we take time and space to sit with ourselves and our deepest and most heartfelt questions, we give our bodies and minds the time and space to find the truest answers. Much like how some astrologers believe the planets don’t affect us so much as that they move in patterns that mirror smaller patterns in our lives, I think it’s possible that tarot cards are like fractals. Everything is energy and the cards could reflect greater energetic patterns playing out in and around us. I suspect tarot works because of some combination of all of these things. What I find most important though, is that whatever the reason, the cards do work and in profound ways.