Before you ask the question: Do Tarot cards work, you have to ask yourself what you actually mean by 'work.' If you mean 'Do they tell the future?' then the answer is most probaly 'no', unless it is by informed guessing, or weighing up all the information and predicting the logical outcome. However, if you mean, 'Do Tarot cards help to solve problems?', then they do for some people. A tarot reading helps a person to set out, understand and explore whatever it is that is worrying them. From this point of view it is a therapeutic experience, but it is no quite as simple, or as staraightforward as that.

Tarot originated around the year 1440 in Italy. The original cards were hand- painted and used in the courts of the nobility. They were a rare and exclusive pass time of the rich, and nothing more than a game.

The cards themselves hold no power as they are merely cards which originated as part of a game. The real power comes from the reader's ability to interpret the cards and relate them to situations. Those individuals who have a gift for this could do equally well using baseball cards!

In the hands of a sensitive, receptive reader, Tarot cards can work. They operate like a very basic map of a person's mind and seem to work as a tool that facilitates access to whatever is really going on inside. It's a little like looking at a rather distorted mirror. Images come and go and are far from clear. A little imagination can soon fill the gaps and make perfect sense.

The danger here is that the Tarot card reader may project his or her own interpretation onto the situation. The person seekibg answers may be inclined to act on advice given, thinking that the reader has all the answers. Tarot cards are like any other tool. They work best in the hands of an expert user.

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung studied the symbols within the Tarot and came up with the idea of universal symbols that can be used to map the human mind. He developed the idea that the unconscious mind of an individual is made up of the personal unconscious and a collective unconscious. This, he reasoned, partly explained the success of symbolic systems like the Tarot.

So, in many cases Tarot can help a person to unravel what is around them and reach conclusion. In this respect the cards do work but anyone expecting Tarot cards to give times and dates and make concrete predictions for the future will be disappointed.

Learn more about this author, Louie Jerome.
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