As someone who is learning Tarot the question of whether Tarot cards can ever be wrong is bound to come up. I recently did a reading which did not appear to be correct. After much thought, discussion with friends I've arrived at a number of possibilities for why this might happen....
I did a reading last month on the then upcoming vote to nominate Brett Kavanaugh as a Judge to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the time the reading seemed very clear, and was done in the same way as a prior reading for a different subject which did prove to be correct. The reading appeared to show that he would not be nominated. So when last weekend he was I was very unsure as to what had gone wrong. I did notice also that many other tarot readers online had also got this wrong.
So here are 6 reasons why a tarot reading might not be 'correct'. I've approached this regarding reading intuitively from the card imagery rather than the approach of reading by just following given guidebook meanings, although some points may also apply to the latter.
1. You didn't understand the message
Yes, this seems obvious. There can be more than one way of interpreting an image. It's possible the reader may have not considered another 'viewpoint'. For example a figure may look to be defending themselves against an attacker, so it would be natural to think that the card means the person must stand their ground, or defend themselves in a forthcoming difficult situation. But an alternative perspective is that the card is saying the person needs to look at how they deal with challenges, how they approaches these situations. It's a subtle difference, but can affect the overall interpretation of the reading.
So when a reading appears to be wrong I think it's worth taking another look at the cards and considering if a perspective has been overlooked or missed, which in hindsight does actually appear to represent what you now know the outcome to be. Perhaps ask someone else what they think is happening in the image - others can sometimes see things that seem obvious to them but isn't to us.
The information being conveyed through the cards is filtered through our minds - our minds are limited by our own experiences, learning, and perspective. I think trying to broaden our viewpoint to other possibilities widens our tarot 'language' and allows us more options for correct interpretations.
2. You had an 'off' day
Well we all have these. If we are not feeling like ourselves, or are feeling particularly emotion through stress, fear, anger etc. then I think this will have an affect on the reading. Emotions can cloud the mind and skew our perspective. You may end up seeing what you want to see (or don't want to see!). I believe making sure we are in a good frame of mind and are relaxed before beginning a reading will aid us in being more open to the messages of the cards.
3. Bias
If we start a reading with a fixed belief, thought, or desired outcome, then we can't be open to the possibilities the cards will show us. We will, again as in point 2 above, see what we want to see, what we want to be true. Starting with an intention to want to see the truth, rather than what we would like to see, or what we believe to be true, can be helpful.
I've seen a number of tarot readings online where the reader has started of with a discussion of their own (very firm) opinion about a subject they are about to read on. I'm not saying we can't have opinions, we all do, but it does make me wonder if this has affected those readings (particularly ones where the outcome was different), as their interpretation seems to reflect what they believe and want to see.
We are human though and it's not always easy to put our opinions or biases aside. But in order to get the most out of Tarot I think it's something we need to strive to be able to do as much as possible. I think starting with the intention is a good first step. Hopefully as I progress with Tarot this will get easier, or I'll learn new ways to do this.
4. The Passage of Time
A good friend of mine, a psychic, told me once that the more distant in time you are making a prediction for the higher the possibility of that outcome changing. There is also the theory that a decisions can alter timelines. Perhaps this is true. If a prediction was being made for 10 years time, a lot could happen and change in that time compared to doing a reading for tomorrow. So it's worth considering this if you have made a tarot prediction for the long term rather than the short term.
5. Poor Questions
Another piece of advice that was given to me once regarding divination is to make sure the question is precise. If the question is vague you'll not get a clear response in the cards. In the Kavanaugh reading I did, mentioned above, I had tried to be precise. However, in doing so I made the question too long - it should have been both precise and concise. If it isn't then it can be difficult to keep it accurately in mind, and you can end up repeating the question to yourself with variations, which means it's not precise and you could get answers from the card that reflect that. In comparison, my reading that I did before that which turned out to be accurate, had a question that was precise and concise (this is a good reason for having a Tarot Journal - so you can look back make comparisons with previous readings).
It may also be worth breaking a reading up to get insight on different perspectives of a situation to help with accuracy. For example rather than asking about a couple's relationship, ask about the relationship with regard to one of the partners, and then another reading for the other partner.
6. It was correct - you just don't know it...
This would more applicable for readings where you may not know the querent or subject matter intimately, and therefore can not feasibly know every event that occurs in relation to them. I think it's possible in these situations that the cards could be correct, even if we don't think they are. We are just not able to verify accurately, or verify at all, that they are because we don't have all the information about the querent or subject matter after the reading. For example for a reading about a news event we might think what we saw in the cards did not occur, or does not appear to be true in some way, but how can we know? Do we know everything that's happened behind the scene, all the events and outcomes that have taken place? No, so we can not be sure that the reading was incorrect.
Consider also that events are playing out and leading to our predicted conclusion, just not in the time frame we expected. Maybe if we look back in the future it will all make sense with newly acquired information and hindsight.
So I'd say overall don't give up on readings that don't appear to be accurate. The most we can do is try to assess if any of the above points are likely to apply, learn from that, and use that learning to go forward and make our readings stronger. We are not infallible, and sometimes the bumps in the road help us in the long run.
Do you have any thoughts on these points, experiences or comments? Join in the conversation by replying below.
Very helpful analysis!
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