Is Tarot Psychic? How a Tarot Reader Knows Your Business Before You Ask

Most "psychic" hotlines are cashing in on the public confusion between psychic powers and the ability to read Tarot cards. Maybe you have already noticed how many "psychic" readings are actually Tarot-card readings. When a Tarot reader is able to tell you, a perfect stranger, what is happening in your life, it seems reasonable to think that Tarot readers are "psychics" and "Tarot is psychic." But that isn't true.

While genuine psychic talent is given at birth to maybe one in a hundred million people, Tarot-card studies can begin at any age, and Tarot can be learned, practiced, tested, and called upon at will. No psychic ability is required. Tarot takes several years to learn, but anyone sufficiently intelligent and motivated can learn it, improving their skills with time until they can read the cards so accurately that it seems like magic.

"Psychic" hotlines should admit it when they are really sending you to Tarot-card readers. This would enhance their credibility, because skilled Tarot readers are better than fake "psychics" or airheaded "clairvoyants" anytime. Unfortunately the Tarot-card readers working for hotlines are reading for dozens of clients per shift, trying to make money for themselves and their employer. Also, they must communicate through the computer's or phone's electromagnetic radiation and away from the client's actual presence. These stressful conditions can greatly reduce their accuracy.

Why Tarot Looks "Psychic"

Remember being amazed, as a child, by people who could type without looking at the keyboard, or knit without taking their eyes from the TV? They had developed mastery through experience, but you didn't know that.

What appears "psychic" to a client is in fact the Tarot reader's mastery of the cards and their symbolism. Each of the 78 Tarot cards has two meanings, one when the card appears right-side up, and another when the card appears upside-down, or "reversed." The Tarot reader is not psychic. Rather, she has memorized 156 card meanings and understands each card's complicated and densely packed symbolism.The finest Tarot readers learn to trust the cards and their own intuition, and they are empathetic and articulate, conveying the message of the cards in ways each client can understand.

True psychic powers are so rare that most of us will never meet a true psychic in our lifetimes. It is much easier to find a skilled Tarot card reader, and for best results you should meet him or her in person. This way you both know who you dealing with. Fake Tarot readers do exist, but they can't keep faking because soon the word gets around.

Students of Tarot learn that most clients' questions are about money, love, health, or family. They learn to breathe deeply, opening their hearts and minds, while they greet you, shuffle and lay out the cards. They learn that for a question to be properly answered it should be properly framed. Not "How long will Grandma live?" -- the Tarot cannot give a date, hour and guarantee -- but "What is Grandma's health outlook for the coming year?" Not "What is my future?" but "What will happen if I continue in my current relationship?" or "What will happen if I quit school to take a job?"

In a good Tarot reading, intelligence, intuition, sincerity, art, empathy, and collective wisdom are all working together. Those are the values of Tarot and Tarot professionals. Many people don't stop to reflect on their lives and often choose denial to stay blind to realities and the direction they are heading. The Tarot-card spread freezes a moment in time and opens our eyes to where we are going, and in the appropriate cases urges a change in the client's habits of thought and behavior.

How Accurate Is Tarot?

In my experience, the Tarot is always right although the reader might read the spread incorrectly. Tarot-card readers get tired or have off-days like everyone else. Noise, alcohol, spectators listening in (a couple asked me to read for them while she was seated on his lap. I couldn't wrap my mind around both at once), dirt or mess, pressure to hurry, and electromagnetic pollution can all interfere. I personally think remote Tarot reading is never accurate enough to pay for and I don't accept requests to do it.

Some Tarot readers ask clients what their questions are. Others let the cards reveal the client's question. Both kinds of readers are legitimate. Tarot readers don't read minds. They read cards.

The Tarot cards and spread together form a story. The Tarot-card reader should be skilled and experienced enough to read the story they tell. That is how Tarot "hits the nail on the head" for you and that is how they amaze you.

Finding a Good Tarot-Card Reader, In Person

You are much more likely to find real Tarot practitioners than a real psychic. Ask your friends. Ask in health-food stores, New Age supply stores, salons, spas, and hotels where many people cross paths. I used to be the Tarot reader "on call" for a four-star hotel which called me to come in whenever a wealthy guest wanted a Tarot reading. Meet a Tarot-card reader in person and you will have a much better experience, probably less costly, than if you send your credit-card info to an "Internet psychic."

Sylvia Sky, experienced astrologer and Tarot reader, reviews horoscope and psychic sites and writes about occult matters. See her review of California Psychics and her article on identifying fake Tarot-card readers. Copyright 2011 by Sylvia Sky.