Wait: Aren’t Tarot Cards “Evil”?
As a Tarot Reader–professional or otherwise–if I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that question, I’d be a heckuva lot richer than I am right now! Many people, when first encountering the Tarot (or any other system of oracle cards or even the runes) react from a place of fear, so let me take a moment to dispel yours!
Is it okay for me to do this; I’m a Christian? Guess what? So am I! You can flip through the Bible cover to cover and go over every single chapter and verse with a fine-toothed comb, and absolutely nowhere will you find anyplace where it says specifically”Tarot cards are of the Devil” or “Tarot cards are evil”. Trust me, I’ve done so, multiple times! What you will find in the New Testament is a listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, among them:
“wise counsel
clear understanding
simple trust
healing the sick
miraculous acts
proclamation
distinguishing between spirits
tongues
interpretation of tongues.”–1 Corinthians 12:8-10, The Message
When I do a Tarot Reading for someone, I am simply exercising my God-given gifts of wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, proclamation (which includes prophecy) and (occasionally) distinguishing between spirits. Pretty sure we can come to common ground where we agree that it’s a greater sin not to exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit which we’ve each been given, right?
Isn’t trying to know the future the same thing as playing God? Well, yes and no. If God never wanted us to know what was in store for us, tools like the Tarot (and oracle cards and runes) likely wouldn’t exist in the first place! Having said that, it is important to realize that I am not God, nor are the Tarot: the future is always in motion, and what happens in your future is distinctly between you and your Higher Power. There are also some things we simply should never ask, no matter what we’re consulting for answers: you don’t need to know when you will die, you don’t get to know when the end of the world is coming, and you don’t get to know when Jesus is coming back. It is very clearly outlined in the Bible (and in other religious texts from other religions as well) that we aren’t supposed to know those things, so don’t ask!
Isn’t Tarot a form of divination, which the Bible is very clear about being evil? The Old Testament does cite divination as something not to do in several places, that is true. It also says that you must not wear fabrics of two different fibers (and most of us own something that is a poly-cotton blend, now, don’t we?) and not to eat lobster or pork (and you’ve probably had a lobster roll or a steak bomb with capacola at least once, at least if you live in the state of Massachusetts!). The type of divination that this is specifically speaking of is augury through entrails, not Tarot cards, because most of the time, such augury was done with animals that had been sacrificed to a god or goddess other than Yahweh/Jehovah and these prohibitions were put into place more as a method of stopping those practices than anything else. I promise: no animals will be harmed in the context of doing your Tarot reading! The Tarot did not even exist at the time these prohibitions were made. In fact, there is some evidence to suggest that the Tarot might have been Christian in origin (although there is much debate on this among Tarot scholars), its archetypal images possibly first designed in order to “hide” the story of Christ from those persecuting Christians at the time.
I do not “leave God at the door” when I do your reading, and neither should you! While I certainly do not judge those who lack a spiritual path of one kind or another, I have decided to make it my life’s work to spread a little more love and light in the world, through my art, writing, and Tarot Readings, and that often includes showing people the gateway to a refreshed, renewed, or rebuilt spiritual path. If you are coming to me from a Christian background for a Tarot Reading, please be aware that I am sensitive to that, because I’ll be reading for you and counseling you from a Christian background as well (granted, my perspective has some Neo-Pagan overtones thrown in for good measure, but so did Christ’s!). Don’t “leave God at the door”, but please do leave fear. “There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.”–1 John 4:18, The Message