<ol><li>The world of wellness offers a seemingly endless conveyor belt of practices to heal, ground and guide us under the guise of <a href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/what-is-self-care-wellness-experts-influencers-ayurveda-marketing-gimmick">self-care.</a></li><li>In the anxiety-inducing grip of a <a href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/letter-from-mumbai-vogue-india-editor-in-chief-priya-tanna-on-finding-hope-during-the-global-health-crisis-covid-19-coronavirus">global health pandemic</a> alongside social and political unrest, our boundless appetite for <a href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/6-reliable-mental-health-resources-that-will-help-you-through-the-lockdown">emotional support</a> shows no signs of waning. </li><li>As meetings, workouts and cocktails flocked to Zoom, tarot readings are the latest trend to be digitised.</li></ol>

Tarot Reading in Time of Pandemic 

<ol><li>“It makes sense that in uncertain times, we turn to spirituality for some form of guidance,” says Holly Friend, senior foresight writer at forecasting consultancy <a href="https://www.thefuturelaboratory.com/">The Future Laboratory </a>, which has been tracking the evolution of <a href="https://www.vogue.in/content/11-wellness-podcasts-that-will-inspire-motivate-and-relax-you">alternative spirituality </a>. </li><li>“With many people finding themselves out of a job, anxious for the health of loved ones and generally disillusioned about the future, spiritual practices such as tarot readings take on a new significance.”</li></ol>

Spiritual guidance

<ol><li>The accuracy of the tarot reading is almost irrelevant as long as the practice guides the user to feel supported and attuned with their healthiest, <a href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/self-care-meditation-exercising-during-self-isolation-coronavirus">most authentic sense of self</a>.</li><li>The reassurance of putting our faith in an external power is often a helpful support as humans like to feel connected to something larger than themselves.</li><li>We like to have a sense of predictability and order and therefore we try to make patterns and meaning out of events during chaotic times.</li></ol>

The science of tarot

Amid global health concerns and political unrest, people sometimes turn to spiritual practices to guide them through life’s difficulties. One such practice is tarot card reading—but can it actually help?<div><time data-testid="ContentHeaderPublishDate">1 September 2020</time></div><picture class="sc-iwajpm gtWlEp split-screen-content-header__lede responsive-image" style=""><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcset="https://assets.vogue.in/photos/5f4e0680e07cbbc0d15b68cd/1:1/w_1024%2Cc_limit/tarot%252520reading.jpg 1024w" sizes="100vw"><source media="(min-width: 768px)" srcset="https://assets.vogue.in/photos/5f4e0680e07cbbc0d15b68cd/2:3/w_2560%2Cc_limit/tarot%252520reading.jpg 2560w" sizes="100vw"><img alt="tarot card reading tarot cards tarot reading" src="https://assets.vogue.in/photos/5f4e0680e07cbbc0d15b68cd/2:3/w_2560%2Cc_limit/tarot%252520reading.jpg" width="328" height="569"></picture><figcaption class="caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;Caption&quot;}" data-in-view="{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;Caption&quot;}" data-include-experiments="true">Getty</figcaption>The world of wellness offers a seemingly endless conveyor belt of practices to heal, ground and guide us under the guise of <a href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/what-is-self-care-wellness-experts-influencers-ayurveda-marketing-gimmick" dir="ltr">self-care.</a> In the anxiety-inducing grip of a <a href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/letter-from-mumbai-vogue-india-editor-in-chief-priya-tanna-on-finding-hope-during-the-global-health-crisis-covid-19-coronavirus" dir="ltr">global health pandemic</a> alongside social and political unrest, our boundless appetite for <a href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/6-reliable-mental-health-resources-that-will-help-you-through-the-lockdown" dir="ltr">emotional support</a> shows no signs of waning. As meetings, workouts and cocktails flocked to Zoom, tarot readings are the latest trend to be digitised. But can it help?Despite often inciting images of crystal-ball-yielding fortune tellers, the often mystical world of tarot card reading is widely seen as a tool for self-reflection rather than divination. <a data-event-click="{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https://www.instagram.com/projectajna/?hl=en&quot;}" href="https://www.instagram.com/projectajna/?hl=en" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr">Giselle La Pompe-Moore</a>, energy healer and founder of <a data-event-click="{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https://www.projectajna.com/&quot;}" href="https://www.projectajna.com/" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr">Project Ajna,</a> describes <a href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/can-astrology-and-horoscopes-be-self-care-tarot-reading-angel-guidance" dir="ltr">tarot card reading</a> as “a spiritual private investigator” offering us a new way of seeing ourselves, the situations we’re in and how to navigate them.During this collective period of unrest, it’s perhaps unsurprising that tarot is thriving. “When so much of our daily lives has changed or been taken away from us, we’ve had no choice but to confront what’s left behind—ourselves,” La Pompe-Moore notes. “It’s been an interesting moment to do some inner work and examine areas of our lives that we’re finding difficult to manoeuvre.” With sessions traditionally taking place face to face, recent events have created a surge in demand for online readings, primarily utilising Zoom, WhatsApp or FaceTime. Data from consumer behaviour platform <a data-event-click="{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https://www.spate.nyc/&quot;}" href="https://www.spate.nyc/" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr">Spate</a> reveals that US searches for ‘tarot cards’ and ‘how to read tarot cards’ are up 31.9 per cent and 78.4 per cent respectively from 2019.<figcaption class="caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;Caption&quot;}" data-in-view="{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;Caption&quot;}" data-include-experiments="true" dir="ltr">Photo by Pierre Roy/Conde Nast via Getty ImagesPierre Roy</figcaption><h2>Spiritual guidance</h2>“It makes sense that in uncertain times, we turn to spirituality for some form of guidance,” says Holly Friend, senior foresight writer at forecasting consultancy <a data-event-click="{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https://www.thefuturelaboratory.com/&quot;}" href="https://www.thefuturelaboratory.com/" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr">The Future Laboratory</a>, which has been tracking the evolution of <a href="https://www.vogue.in/content/11-wellness-podcasts-that-will-inspire-motivate-and-relax-you" dir="ltr">alternative spirituality</a>. “With many people finding themselves out of a job, anxious for the health of loved ones and generally disillusioned about the future, spiritual practices such as tarot readings take on a new significance.”Trending VideoUS-based tarot reader and social worker <a data-event-click="{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https://www.jessicadore.com/&quot;}" href="https://www.jessicadore.com/" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr">Jessica Dore</a> attributes the rise in interest due to those seeking tools to grapple with the current instability. “In mythic terms, we’re in a collective ‘belly of the whale’ moment. We’re all inside, doing whatever we’re choosing to do, waiting to be tossed back out into the sea. Tarot is particularly powerful in an initiatory time such as this because it utilises archetypes and symbols that can help us acclimate to the broader storyline of what we might be going through and why.”The pictorial language of a deck of tarot cards is the fundamental catalyst that encourages us to dissect and discuss matters that our conscious minds aren’t able to comprehend. Although Dore believes the cards have specific meaning and aren’t merely ambiguous images open to interpretation, she says there is a tangible benefit in letting an image from a card land where it needs to in your awareness. “When I work with clients, I’ll often ask them to just tell me what comes up when they look at a certain image, without prior knowledge of what it’s traditionally ‘about’. What comes up is profound, tailored to their needs, and nine times out of 10, more useful than whatever I would have said.”<h2>Accessing the subconscious</h2>With blind spots in our consciousness, utilising visual prompts allows us to access different parts of our brain and reveal things we didn’t know about ourselves, according to Dr Charlynn Ruan, clinical psychologist and founder of <a data-event-click="{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;http://www.mythrivepsychology.com/&quot;}" href="http://www.mythrivepsychology.com/" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr">Thrive Psychology Group</a>, a female-focused group practice. “Our verbal abilities can be limiting, with much of our understanding and experience challenging to verbalise without other visual or physical sensation cues. It’s why we say, ‘I just have a gut feeling’ to express something we know, but can’t verbalise.”Conceptually, using imagery and metaphors to evoke greater understanding is often echoed in psychotherapy, most famously with the Rorschach inkblot test in which patients describe how the ink pattern makes them feel, rather than just answering a question. “Much of what we experience in life is informed by our expectations, worldview and view of ourselves. We’re bombarded with so much information that our brains have to filter out huge amounts of data so we don’t overload,” says Dr Ruan, adding that our brain decides what is relevant to us based on this internal schema and explains why research shows both optimists and pessimists tend to get what they expect in life. “With both Rorschach and tarot, the subjective interpretation a person makes may reveal much about their <a href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/mental-health-tips-for-managing-fear-and-anxiety-properly-covid-19" dir="ltr">unconscious beliefs, expectations and feelings.</a>”<h2>The science of tarot</h2>New York-based clinical psychologist <a data-event-click="{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https://www.drchloe.com/&quot;}" href="https://www.drchloe.com/" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr">Dr Chloe Carmichael</a> explains that although most forms of modern psychotherapy rely on rigorous academic testing to be accepted as modalities, they recognise that a strong spiritual or <a href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/how-to-improve-attention-span-with-meditation-exercise-ayurveda-expert-tips" dir="ltr">meditative practice</a> is often salubrious. “A psychotherapist would be unlikely to recommend tarot cards, just like they would not recommend a particular religion, but they would potentially be able to work with the client’s spiritual beliefs in a welcoming and productive manner.”Dr Ruan doesn’t recommend things outside her scope as a psychologist, but keeps in mind that science and technology are constantly evolving and doesn’t limit herself or her clients based on our ability to measure something as an effective treatment. “Years ago, we thought of meditation as an alternative treatment and now that we have the tools to measure its positive impact on the brain and body, it is considered a research-validated, evidence-based treatment, recommended for many <a href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/6-reliable-mental-health-resources-that-will-help-you-through-the-lockdown" dir="ltr">mental health diagnoses</a>.”Meanwhile, Dr Carmichael suggests it’s easy to understand why many people feel helped by tarot when we consider that psychology derives from the Greek word psyche, meaning ‘spirit’. “The accuracy of the tarot reading is almost irrelevant as long as the practice guides the user to feel supported and attuned with their healthiest, <a href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/self-care-meditation-exercising-during-self-isolation-coronavirus" dir="ltr">most authentic sense of self</a>,” she says, adding that the reassurance of putting our faith in an external power “is often a helpful support as humans like to feel connected to something larger than themselves.” We like to have a sense of predictability and order, says Dr Ruan, and therefore we try to make patterns and meaning out of events during chaotic times. “Religion, tarot and other beliefs about how the universe is structured give us a sense of peace because we feel we can plan for the future. The more safe, prepared and secure we feel in ourselves and the people around us, the more we can tolerate the unknown.”During my own Zoom session with La Pompe-Moore, I felt seen and supported at a time when I needed it most. It was an opportunity for me to brain-dump in a sacred, trusted conversation without the rigidity of a formal setting. Though it’s easy for naysayers to condemn tarot as pseudoscientific babble, at a time when uncertainty is the only inevitability, tarot can act as a powerful tool in our armoury to make life that bit more manageable. Granted, it’s not a clear-cut plan of action but as La Pompe-Moore says, “Life isn’t all love and light, and tarot provides us with an inner toolkit to handle and make sense of the spectrum of experiences and emotions that we might face.”

Amid global health concerns and political unrest, people sometimes turn to spiritual practices to guide them through life’s difficulties. One such practice is tarot card reading—but can it actually help?

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Religion & Spirituality

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

mentalhealth

Mental Health

communication

Communication

Amid global health concerns and political unrest, people sometimes turn to spiritual practices to guide them through life’s difficulties. One such practice is tarot card reading—but can it actually help?

The world of wellness offers a seemingly endless conveyor belt of practices to heal, ground and guide us under the guise of <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/what-is-self-care-wellness-experts-influencers-ayurveda-marketing-gimmick">self-care. </a>In the anxiety-inducing grip of a <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/letter-from-mumbai-vogue-india-editor-in-chief-priya-tanna-on-finding-hope-during-the-global-health-crisis-covid-19-coronavirus">global health pandemic </a>alongside social and political unrest, our boundless appetite for <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/6-reliable-mental-health-resources-that-will-help-you-through-the-lockdown">emotional support </a>shows no signs of waning. As meetings, workouts and cocktails flocked to Zoom, tarot readings are the latest trend to be digitised. But can it help?

Despite often inciting images of crystal-ball-yielding fortune tellers, the often mystical world of tarot card reading is widely seen as a tool for self-reflection rather than divination. <a data-event-click='{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://www.instagram.com/projectajna/?hl=en"}' dir="ltr" href="https://www.instagram.com/projectajna/?hl=en" rel="nofollow">Giselle La Pompe-Moore </a>, energy healer and founder of <a data-event-click='{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://www.projectajna.com/"}' dir="ltr" href="https://www.projectajna.com/" rel="nofollow">Project Ajna, </a>describes <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/can-astrology-and-horoscopes-be-self-care-tarot-reading-angel-guidance">tarot card reading </a>as “a spiritual private investigator” offering us a new way of seeing ourselves, the situations we’re in and how to navigate them.

During this collective period of unrest, it’s perhaps unsurprising that tarot is thriving. “When so much of our daily lives has changed or been taken away from us, we’ve had no choice but to confront what’s left behind—ourselves,” La Pompe-Moore notes. “It’s been an interesting moment to do some inner work and examine areas of our lives that we’re finding difficult to manoeuvre.” With sessions traditionally taking place face to face, recent events have created a surge in demand for online readings, primarily utilising Zoom, WhatsApp or FaceTime. Data from consumer behaviour platform <a data-event-click='{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://www.spate.nyc/"}' dir="ltr" href="https://www.spate.nyc/" rel="nofollow">Spate </a>reveals that US searches for ‘tarot cards’ and ‘how to read tarot cards’ are up 31.9 per cent and 78.4 per cent respectively from 2019.

“It makes sense that in uncertain times, we turn to spirituality for some form of guidance,” says Holly Friend, senior foresight writer at forecasting consultancy <a data-event-click='{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://www.thefuturelaboratory.com/"}' dir="ltr" href="https://www.thefuturelaboratory.com/" rel="nofollow">The Future Laboratory </a>, which has been tracking the evolution of <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/content/11-wellness-podcasts-that-will-inspire-motivate-and-relax-you">alternative spirituality </a>. “With many people finding themselves out of a job, anxious for the health of loved ones and generally disillusioned about the future, spiritual practices such as tarot readings take on a new significance.”

US-based tarot reader and social worker <a data-event-click='{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://www.jessicadore.com/"}' dir="ltr" href="https://www.jessicadore.com/" rel="nofollow">Jessica Dore </a>attributes the rise in interest due to those seeking tools to grapple with the current instability. “In mythic terms, we’re in a collective ‘belly of the whale’ moment. We’re all inside, doing whatever we’re choosing to do, waiting to be tossed back out into the sea. Tarot is particularly powerful in an initiatory time such as this because it utilises archetypes and symbols that can help us acclimate to the broader storyline of what we might be going through and why.”

The pictorial language of a deck of tarot cards is the fundamental catalyst that encourages us to dissect and discuss matters that our conscious minds aren’t able to comprehend. Although Dore believes the cards have specific meaning and aren’t merely ambiguous images open to interpretation, she says there is a tangible benefit in letting an image from a card land where it needs to in your awareness. “When I work with clients, I’ll often ask them to just tell me what comes up when they look at a certain image, without prior knowledge of what it’s traditionally ‘about’. What comes up is profound, tailored to their needs, and nine times out of 10, more useful than whatever I would have said.”

With blind spots in our consciousness, utilising visual prompts allows us to access different parts of our brain and reveal things we didn’t know about ourselves, according to Dr Charlynn Ruan, clinical psychologist and founder of <a data-event-click='{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"http://www.mythrivepsychology.com/"}' dir="ltr" href="http://www.mythrivepsychology.com/" rel="nofollow">Thrive Psychology Group </a>, a female-focused group practice. “Our verbal abilities can be limiting, with much of our understanding and experience challenging to verbalise without other visual or physical sensation cues. It’s why we say, ‘I just have a gut feeling’ to express something we know, but can’t verbalise.”

Conceptually, using imagery and metaphors to evoke greater understanding is often echoed in psychotherapy, most famously with the Rorschach inkblot test in which patients describe how the ink pattern makes them feel, rather than just answering a question. “Much of what we experience in life is informed by our expectations, worldview and view of ourselves. We’re bombarded with so much information that our brains have to filter out huge amounts of data so we don’t overload,” says Dr Ruan, adding that our brain decides what is relevant to us based on this internal schema and explains why research shows both optimists and pessimists tend to get what they expect in life. “With both Rorschach and tarot, the subjective interpretation a person makes may reveal much about their <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/mental-health-tips-for-managing-fear-and-anxiety-properly-covid-19">unconscious beliefs, expectations and feelings. </a>”

New York-based clinical psychologist <a data-event-click='{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://www.drchloe.com/"}' dir="ltr" href="https://www.drchloe.com/" rel="nofollow">Dr Chloe Carmichael </a>explains that although most forms of modern psychotherapy rely on rigorous academic testing to be accepted as modalities, they recognise that a strong spiritual or <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/how-to-improve-attention-span-with-meditation-exercise-ayurveda-expert-tips">meditative practice </a>is often salubrious. “A psychotherapist would be unlikely to recommend tarot cards, just like they would not recommend a particular religion, but they would potentially be able to work with the client’s spiritual beliefs in a welcoming and productive manner.”

Dr Ruan doesn’t recommend things outside her scope as a psychologist, but keeps in mind that science and technology are constantly evolving and doesn’t limit herself or her clients based on our ability to measure something as an effective treatment. “Years ago, we thought of meditation as an alternative treatment and now that we have the tools to measure its positive impact on the brain and body, it is considered a research-validated, evidence-based treatment, recommended for many <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/6-reliable-mental-health-resources-that-will-help-you-through-the-lockdown">mental health diagnoses </a>.”

Meanwhile, Dr Carmichael suggests it’s easy to understand why many people feel helped by tarot when we consider that psychology derives from the Greek word psyche, meaning ‘spirit’. “The accuracy of the tarot reading is almost irrelevant as long as the practice guides the user to feel supported and attuned with their healthiest, <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/self-care-meditation-exercising-during-self-isolation-coronavirus">most authentic sense of self </a>,” she says, adding that the reassurance of putting our faith in an external power “is often a helpful support as humans like to feel connected to something larger than themselves.” We like to have a sense of predictability and order, says Dr Ruan, and therefore we try to make patterns and meaning out of events during chaotic times. “Religion, tarot and other beliefs about how the universe is structured give us a sense of peace because we feel we can plan for the future. The more safe, prepared and secure we feel in ourselves and the people around us, the more we can tolerate the unknown.”

During my own Zoom session with La Pompe-Moore, I felt seen and supported at a time when I needed it most. It was an opportunity for me to brain-dump in a sacred, trusted conversation without the rigidity of a formal setting. Though it’s easy for naysayers to condemn tarot as pseudoscientific babble, at a time when uncertainty is the only inevitability, tarot can act as a powerful tool in our armoury to make life that bit more manageable. Granted, it’s not a clear-cut plan of action but as La Pompe-Moore says, “Life isn’t all love and light, and tarot provides us with an inner toolkit to handle and make sense of the spectrum of experiences and emotions that we might face.”

How can tarot card reading help you cope in these uncertain times

Tarot Reading in Time of Pandemic

Spiritual guidance

The science of tarot

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