How the Tarot Works

The Tarot is where the past and the present meet, where pictures and stories come together—that is how it works its magic. We tell stories about our lives constantly—both to other people and ourselves. Just remembering what happened last night or talking about your day involve storytelling. What's more difficult is understanding what is going on below the surface of these stories. One of the most difficult things any of us can do is to get a perspective on our lives from outside of our conscious minds. We are so used to understanding and doing things in a certain way that it can be nearly impossible to see issues and problems in our lives that may be obvious to any outside observer.

Because of this difficulty, every culture has come up with methods to try to look at our lives from new and wider perspectives. That is why some people give up all their possessions and follow gurus; it is one of the primary reasons why people spend so much money on psychotherapy. Tarot cards are a considerably cheaper alternative to either. The element of randomness in the use of Tarot cards forces our ego to give up control—if only for a short time—of the stories we tell ourselves about our lives. The Surrealists recognized that the human mind will try to make sense of any random association of words, images or other signs. In so doing, the mind will make connections that it might not have realized otherwise. In short, random images and words short-circuit the conscious process of understanding to provide us with new and powerful meanings.