What Does Tarot Do Besides Tell Fortunes?

Reading Tarot is so much more than just “telling someone’s future”. Like most things, what is known and the truth of a thing are often vastly different. Tarot has been hugely underrated by John Q Public because it has been cloaked under the mantle of fear, and general misunderstanding.

So besides doing oogy boogy so scary readings, or telling your best pal when she will walk down that aisle, the art of Tarot is an incredible resource for personal growth and self-discovery. The act of learning to read tarot will change you as a person, and for the better. Like any tool, Tarot can be used for a variety of uses,  there is such a world to Tarot, it can do so much more than most give them credit for!

But, don’t just take it from me, I opened the question up to several online Tarot groups,
“How has Tarot benefited you as a person?”  I was overwhelmed with positive responses from new to Tarot to Tarot Masters and here is what they had to say:

Tarot of Delphi, with permission

Tarot Trains Us to Think in New Ways

• I'm good at analyzing but terrible at interpreting abstract things. So reading tarot has really helped me to think in different ways about symbols and their meanings. I guess it's a good way of training my brain to interpret abstract things.
  
  
• It calms my anxiety...big time.
  
  
• I started at a time in my life when I was young, naive, and in a very bad place. Working with the Thoth deck expanded my reality and my way of thinking so  much. Since then, I have seen the cards as a way to think outside of the box about different situations, and also to connect with my core. If I can help others, in the same way, by reading for them or sharing tarot with them, then it is a blessing!
  
  
• It made me more of a problem solver. When you treat Tarot as a tool, you manifest the ability to answer your own questions, and to trust your own advice. It can be very empowering when you act on it.
  

---

Tarot Helps Us Be More Compassionate to Others

• It has made me much more aware of the concerns and burdens people carry in their lives.
  
  
• The most important and relevant effect reading Tarot has had on me is to make me far less judgemental.  I've come to appreciate that there are so many layers in any given situation, and to any person involved in the situation it has had a profound and positive effect on me, and I am far far less judgemental than I was previously.
  
  
• It has given me insight into the shared joys and sorrows we all experience, made me more compassionate, and has opened my eyes to the deeper esoteric mysteries and magic that are the scaffold of our material world.
  
  
• It has certainly made me a better, more tolerant person. It has taught me to look beneath the surface, to see that even unpleasant people may have hidden virtues.
  
  
• It is a wonder to drop away from my ego concerns and focus openly and kindly on a sitter as together we non-judgmentally deeply look into her concerns, desires and dramas and seek forgiveness and newness in forging ahead in heartfelt aliveness.

---

Tarot of Delphi, Used with Permission

Tarot Helps Us to Discover Ourselves

• Tarot has gotten me in touch with the 'child' I used to be
  
  
• A greater love of art and symbolism
  
  
• Tarot has givens a greater understanding of myself. It had given me confidence a greater awareness of myself and my place in the universe.
  
  
• When I started reading Tarot I was at the worst time (I hope!) in my life. Tarot became my 'paper psychologist', giving me insight in my own personality and that of others. Whenever was or am stuck in my head Tarot gave and gives me self-awareness and possibilities I might not have seen before. I think I've also definitely grown as a person.

---

Tarot helps Us See How We are Agents of Change

• I'm calmer , more tolerant and trusting that the universe will put me on the night place at the night time leaving it up to me to be proactive in taking advantage of that ... ie it will show me the opportunities presented and show me paths available for me to choose to take or not.
  
  
• Contrary to what you might expect, tarot has helped me understand just what a wealth of free will I have, and helped me focus enough to use it.
  
  
• It has opened me to other areas of study and practice, opened my mind so that I'm less rigid in certain areas of life, and opened me to impermanence and the choices I can make in those moments when impermanence is more obvious to me. I suppose this can be summed up as "empowerment", although I know that word is used a lot.
  
  
• Made me more of a problem solver. When you treat Tarot as a tool, you manifest the ability to answer your own questions, and to trust your own advice. It can be very empowering when you act on it.

---

Tarot Fosters Community

• Tarot has brought me into contact with some amazing people who have taught me many things. Least of all that I do belong. That I have a tribe.
  
  
• I look down the long road of the Fool's Journey, in my own readings and in the history of Tarot itself, and realize how impossible it is to be alone

Tarot of Delphi, Used with Permission

---

---

Tarot Supports Our Healing and Transformation

• I am calmer and more at peace - still some way to go - but it helps resolve a lot of personal issues.
  
  
• Working with Tarot, reading Tarot for others and receiving readings from others for myself has transformed my life. I am a far cry from the shy, introverted, even agoraphobic young teen I was when I first encountered Tarot. Today, although I am still moderately introverted, I have grown as a person to the extent of having the confidence to take the self awareness that I often gain from Tarot, and use it to manifest my goals. Before I didn't even HAVE goals, I had no idea who I was or what I liked, and you would never catch me interacting with others the way I do today. Tarot is a beast of a tool.
  
  
  
• Tarot has helped me IMMENSELY in my personal growth. It helped me turn my life around, literally, while battling severe PTSD. Tarot helped me heal, empower myself, gain strength and confidence, as well as pass all of those gifts on to others. Aside from therapy or my education, Tarot is probably the best thing I've ever done for myself. On a spiritual level, Tarot helped open me to receive higher wisdom and deepen my spirituality. That's something that you carry around with you even when you're not reading the cards. I could go on and on.

---

Tarot of Delphi, Used with Permission

Tarot Strengthens Intuition

• It has strengthened my intuitive ability...tarot and psychic ability is like holding hands
  
  

• One of the most valuable benefits of using Tarot is to TRUST your intuition. We all have intuition, but too often dismiss it. When you see what you intuitively know, right there in the cards, then you start to trust your own inner knowledge.

---

Tarot Changes the Way We Interact With Ourselves and the World

• Tarot prompts me to step back away from my own sometimes narrow perspective in life, and look at other influences on a situation that I am having trouble with. Rather then knee-jerk reactions and responses, I put more thought into my options and the various outcomes they will determine. So many times we just let life "happen" to us instead of being proactive, and Tarot helps me to be thoughtful and proactive in my life.
  
  
• For me, Tarot is the great equalizer: As soon as we think we're experiencing something no one else has, the Tarot comes along and says, "No, you are actually in the midst of an age-old experience," and from there we gain wisdom. Tarot is a many-sided friend--who is always there like a mirror tilted at the right angle to capture the reflection and delve into the current issue or place in one's journey.

---

Tarot of Delphi, Used With Permission

Tarot Helps Us Question


At first I misjudged because of the opinions of those around me. An individual I trusted introduced me &  I learned to find my own belief and turn the closed-minded comments off as I explored the new age section of bookstores. When I allowed my mind and spirit to open up it forever changed my life and made the connection I had with God stronger.

I began to read at first with my own personal questions & the answers proved to become true. Then I began to read for others and noticed the strength it gave them in their everyday situations. The close-minded continue to judge me from criticizing me as a devil worshipper to false judgements about reading tarot. Ive learned to rise above it and embrace the magic and the intense spiritual connection. I see the world differently and life itself makes more sense.

---

The benefits one gets from learning Tarot far outweigh the work involved in learning them. These stories from other readers of all levels reveal incredible insights as to why working with Tarot is a worthwhile persuit of depth, healing, connection and insight in addition to the more popular understanding of what the tool of tarot does for us.

Tarot is so much more.... and its positive changes are deep and wide-spread...

Tarot Helps Us to Choose Happiness

Yes... so join the tarot ranks!

Next month I am running another Tarot 101 class in Narberth, PA. In February (I only offer  these twice a year and a very limited group size).

Gain all the benefits of above and tune into your deep Self, increase compassion, make new friends (who by and large are very open-minded, frendly "normal" people) and trasnform and heal.