Divination is organizing what appears to be random so that it provides insight into an issue at hand. Every culture has practiced some form of it in the world throughout history. Common methods of divination include throwing coins to consult the I Ching, the astrologer’s use of a computer or books to calculate the position of the planets at the moment of someone’s birth; and reading Tarot cards. While it may seem that no useful information could come from looking at picture cards chosen at random from a deck, people who have worked with Tarot know that consulting the cards can bring up much valuable information. No, it won’t tell you how to fix your car’s dysfunctional alternator or optimize the hard drive of your computer. But it could reveal the sources of your creative block, or your relationship challenges, or how best to navigate an issue on the job.

 

While many consider happenings without a causal connection to be random, and therefore meaningless, in eras prior to the rise of scientific materialism in the 17th and 18th centuries, people thought in terms of correspondences. Events or occurrences in one area of life corresponded to occurrences in other areas. The patterns of the zodiac correspond to the patterns of a person’s life. An arrangement of Tarot cards chosen at random and placed in an orderly arrangement, or “spread,” could answer questions posed by sincere, open-minded querents.

 

The Tarot deck is connected to our familiar 52-card deck of playing cards, which emerged into Europe from the Arabic world in the mid-14th century. The earliest known Tarot deck was created in Italy in the early 15th century. Twenty-two Major Arcana (“Major Mystery”) cards were added to the playing card deck, in addition to four Pages, one for each suit. The suits then were wands, cups, swords and coins, which correspond to the clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds of our contemporary playing cards.

 

A Tarot reading invites us to suspend our cultural disbelief in meaningful coincidences—what Jung called synchronicities—and act as if events without causal connection are potentially significant. Jung hypothesized that there is an ‘acausal principle’ that connects events as surely as the causality of natural laws. But the principle can only manifest if we remove the causal one. Shuffling cards or throwing coins or yarrow sticks (for I Ching) provides an opportunity for synchronicity to occur.

 

But if any device, from the arrangement of clouds in the sky or tea leaves in the bottom of a cup, can provide meaning for one open to it, why Tarot? The Tarot contains a implicit philosophy, an outline of how human consciousness evolves, and a vast compendium of human experience and archetypes. It is a skillfully designed model of the universe, representing the archetypes, emotions, people, and situations humans encounter throughout life.With our daylight awareness, or ordinary egoic consciousness, we can only see so far the path ahead. A Tarot reading reveals the hidden influences within our unconscious psyche so we can meet them with full awareness. A reading is like a lighted lantern. It helps us glimpse the complex texture of complexes and archetypes influencing our present, and what we need to be and do to move forward with confidence and clarity.