“It’s What They Do”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I occasionally encounter complaints in the online community from people who are distressed that their tarot readings are only reflecting their feelings back at them and are not providing actionable advice. Although I haven’t done so yet, I’m tempted to tell them that the cards are only a mirror of the subconscious mind, and presenting its contents to our waking consciousness is “what they do.” When reading for ourselves, this happens directly, and when reading for others it derives from the querent shuffling and cutting the deck (I won’t get into online divination, which I find to be unconvincing as normally conducted; that’s another topic of online debate).
A reading may identify opportunities to take action based on our subliminal awareness of the situation and its likely ramifications, but the cards aren’t necessarily going to tell us how to make it happen (or prevent it from occurring if undesirable). It’s up to us to turn the impressions they bring to the surface into meaningful goals that we can attempt to realize through our diligent follow-up. If we sit back and wait for something to fall into our lap, we could be waiting for a long time.
I find this to be the fallacy in any kind of mystical practice that is predicated on “wishful thinking.” We are almost guaranteed to be disappointed much of the time. The premise behind the Law of Attraction (aka manifestation) was largely debunked back in the 1950s when Norman Vincent Peale’s brand of auto-hypnosis caused severe depression in some practitioners who could not make it work for them. My opinion is that they were almost certainly expecting too much from it, and it’s obvious that what we have now in willed manifestation is just “old wine in new bottles,” a refurbished marriage of “New Thought” and creative visualization — in other words, it’s all about updated packaging and marketing hype aimed at the young and hopeful.
As I see it, if we can put our finger on the pulse of the matter and identify which way it’s trending, we’re ahead of the game. Then it’s our job to climb on and “ride the wave.” If we’re pulling with the current, we’ll get somewhere; if we’re rowing against it, we most likely won’t. It’s all about playing the percentages. Tarot may be effective in helping us puzzle out the what, the why and the how of a predicament but it won’t tell us much about the odds of success, just that it might be “in the cards.” If it seems more likely than not, we should play our hand; if it’s a long shot we should hedge our bet; and if it looks like a losing proposition, we should probably fold and walk away before we get in too deep.
It’s a good idea to treat any forecast as a “definite maybe” rather than a sure thing, no matter how compelling its testimony appears to be. By doing so we will be informed about what may happen and empowered to deal with it, but if it doesn’t occur as predicted at least we were ready for it. The idea is not to take any irreversible steps until we’re confident which way the wind is blowing. I’d rather remain cautiously alert — even for an extended period of time — than to be blindsided by a sudden “twist of fate” while I’m looking the other way. I call this approach to prognostication “taking it under advisement.”
If something favorable is predicted, I’ll just relax, smile sagely, and say “It’ll come in its own good time — or not, as the case may be.” That doesn’t mean I don’t practice autosuggestion or positive reinforcement (I already live most of my life that way without expecting dramatic results beyond endorsing an optimistic or “glass-half-full” attitude), but I won’t be put out if it fails to materialize any more than I am when my lottery tickets prove to be worthless. As the saying goes “You can’t win if you don’t play,” but if you don’t win, that’s just the luck of the draw and there’s no use whining about it. That’s not fatalism, it’s realism.
An indifferent Universe isn’t going to give it over just because we envision holding the prize in our hand. Its engagement with us is often more oblique than direct; let’s call it the “Law of Refraction,” under which our idle hopes are as likely (and perhaps more likely) to be batted away as granted outright. The flaw in the argument for manifestation is the word “affirmation” when we should be talking about “aspiration,” or actively pursuing what we desire even if it means “bootstrapping” from humble beginnings. The aphorism “There is no free lunch” is fully operative here.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.org on February 18, 2025.
