I’m a little funny, about “should I” questions with Tarot. It’s not because I don’t think the cards advise well. Hell yeah, they give great advice! It’s the “should” part that bothers me.
We turn to the cards for help, when we’re worried and anxious and want to make sure we make the right decision. So they million dollar question is so often, “Should I?”
Uh, no.
Not you “shouldn’t.” Just that you shouldn’t ask like that. Because you know, we have an infinite number of paths. But we fixate at times, on the choice right in front of us. YES or NO, yes or no. Black or white, left or right. And the world depends on the answer.
If you don’t go out with the guy, if you don’t take the position, if you don’t make the investment, you’re engaging a particular chain of possibilities. If you do, you’re engaging another chain of possibilities. Each chain does not imply a moral imperative. It also doesn’t follow that one of the options of leads to eternal happiness, the other leads to certain death, one leaves us a good person, the other a bad person. Living is not a true/false proposition, and Tarot isn’t a moral litmus test. You own your own morality, along with your own future, thank you very much.
If you don’t take one option, then you’ll take another. Outside of fear, what makes you so damn sure the world will blow up if you don’t make the “right” choice now? I mean, sure. Some decisions are really important. And we do well to take care making them. We can sometimes screw things up. But a good 99% of our decisions that we agonize over aren’t about those kinds of questions.
Tarot cannot tell us what’s right–that’s abdicating our personal power to a deck of cards. Magical or not, it’s not up to the cards to tell right from wrong. That’s our job.
Most often, we ask the Tarot for reassurance, that our sensibilities are on target, that our intuition is trustworthy, or the ever-present “what’s going to happen.” So often, we turn to Tarot to keep our fears at bay. That’s a legitimate use of the oracle, but honestly, we could get so much more.
Why not use the cards to grow, to get perspective? What can I expect if I make this choice or that? What’s underlying this situation? What will make me the happiest? What’s in the highest a best good of all concerned?
I’m not ragging on your should questions, really. And I’m here to help reframe ’em as need be. I’m just trying to give you a poke here, a reminder. YOU know best what you should be doing most of the time. People worry, if they make the tiniest misstep, the wonderful future available for them will somehow dissolve.
Oh, ye of little faith. How funny, you know? Source is a whole lot more imaginative than that. Tarot can be a crutch, or it can be a shovel to help you unearth your own free will. Don’t give your power to Tarot. Use Tarot to help you find your own power, your own voice. The choice remains yours. (It always was.)
How do you use Tarot helping make decisions?
Ah Dixie, another fine article…thank you! You addressed things that are specifically on my mind…thank you thank you thank you!
Glad to hear that, Leisha.