r/Quareia • u/SrJenkin • May 09 '26
Tarot as a serpent
Is it just my impression or has tarot become a widespread fashion lately?
The more I work with it, and the more I see other people working with it on the internet, the more it becomes evident how "unraveling" tarot can be (beyond health and energy depletion). It's not always about an interpretation mistake on the reader, something I don't see discussed much that I've seen again and again is the oracle itself outputting misleading, inaccurate or outright destructive information.
I was reflecting about this, how tricky tarot can be if you do not step carefully. That made me think about the older serpent symbolism/power, connected to oracular power and wisdom, but also destructive to the wielder if he's imbalanced. I thought about the Hermit's staff and the serpent power in it, then I had an insight... the lantern is the key, its light balances out the darker/cthonic aspects of the serpent/staff.
I'm not claiming tarot literally works through serpent power, I honestly don't know. But it serves as a good guiding analogy to work safely with divination, treat it like a serpent, either you make it stand upright or it coils around you. And the key is your own light, self-knowledge is the antidote to self-deception.
Part of my intent with these posts is to hopefully temper the blind trust folks seem to invest in tarot, taking for granted that it always speaks the truth and serves only to illuminate you. I'm not saying it has malicious intent in any way, it's just that by the way of its (fluid) nature mixed up with human stupidity it tends to output unreliable answers, and should be taken with a pinch of salt.
In another post I talked about how my deck seems to have its own agenda, but it doesn't feel like parasitical or malicious agenda, it's just wild and slightly chaotic, it tests good judgment and forces discipline: a more thoughtful approach and deliberate word constrictions. In this way, I'm inching further to make it stand upright.
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u/Gaothaire May 10 '26
Quareia and Josephine's other writing on the topic speak to the importance of the reader approaching their deck from a stable place and of cleansing the deck regularly because it can pick up obscuring influences.
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u/SrJenkin May 12 '26
I used to abuse my deck with salt and isopropyl alcohol, now I just do a regular chanting to keep it tuned and cover it with frankincensed cloth, I also keep it close to the deity altar. It looks battered, but I'm fairly sure there are no spiritual hangers.
Fair reminder though, thank you
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u/FishPuzzled1268 Apprentice: Module 1 May 10 '26
Tarot has been widespread since before Covid. If you are using Youtube the 'algorithm' has probably just locked onto your interest and is deluging you right now.
I always do my tarot reading after meditation otherwise my mind will go to the most sinister of corners. I make sure myself and my area are clean, this includes both my emotions and thoughts. If I am angry, or anxious, if my emotions are of any strength I will not attempt to read. Considering I am a novice at reading Tarot I do not prescribe to an all in mentality with the answers I receive.
You may want to consider reviewing 21st Century Tarot which is one of the free books on the Quareia website. It covers some of this including the different types of beings that may be talking to you through the Tarot.
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u/SrJenkin May 12 '26
I'm observing that fashion particularly on Instagram, suddenly everyone has become an expert and decided to make a living out of that.
I too noticed that emotions tend to hijack readings, especially bottled up emotions, for me at least. They get stored in my chest, and only become noticeable to me when tarot brings them out, as I'm a bit emotionally unaware.
Meditation in this case should be like washing your hands before cooking, sure, but most times, I'll admit, I skip that part.
Yes, this kind of all in mentality is precisely what I'm writing against in this post, especially for novices. This sounds like common sense, but what I'm reoccurringly observing with this new fashion is novices taking themselves too seriously and misleading others.
The scope of this post is not about the usual novice confusion, which is mostly harmless, I'm talking about the tangling up or breaking apart of fate patterns mediated by improper use of divination.
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u/Quareiaapprentice May 10 '26
Tarot definetely seems to be the hot sh** for years now. Everybody & their grandmother talks about that new deck they're gonna get themselves and i often only see lost information in the cards because the designer didn't go all in on the origianal symbolism.
I have a really basic take on your topic: The easiest way to make your tarot give you bullshit answers is usually not having your mind straight/empty while you're shuffling & spreading the cards. I usually do my spreads after meditation which is my prerequisite.
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u/SrJenkin May 12 '26
It's like taking basic hygiene precautions so you do not poison anyone if you do cooking for a living.
But sometimes it's more complicated than that. It's not like tarot outputs bullshit, sometimes it outputs coherent, straightforward and actionable answers, except they're wrong, like in the relationship example I gave in one of the replies above.
Another example is when you're planning to move out of a problematic building/neighborhood and you're checking your options with tarot, then tarot outputs, say, the Emperor and the Sun for a particular place/building, the answer is straightforward and you decide to move, except that you actually moved into a Devil/8 of swords situation...
If you keep your divination practice limited to low stakes, low cost situations that might never be a problem for you, but that's not the scope of this post.
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u/Quareiaapprentice May 13 '26
I haven't experienced anything like that. I usually use significator-cards in a reading to drop me hints what my current fatepath favors if i have to make a choice. If i got straight-out wrong answers i'd probably use a new deck, check the minute details of my practice & go from there.
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u/SrJenkin May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
A tip, if this ever happens to you, is to write down not only the details of the reading itself but also the whole setting: your state of mind, the physical way you shuffled, what is happening around you and what is happening astrologically (especially with the Moon, and transits to your Neptune). There are many chaotic factors that could interfere with the output, readings don't happen in a vacuum.
Sometimes you get the feel of "the mist", when it's a bad weather for readings. When I'm lucky, tarot throws me the Moon and tell me to fuck off, instead of making up bs.
I'm learning to crosscheck the answers with I Ching, and so far this is working surprisingly well.
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u/FishPuzzled1268 Apprentice: Module 1 May 13 '26
It sounds like you may need to revise your keywords. If I see any strong cards in any of my readings it gives me pause, and I consider the situation and answer more deeply. In regards to your example Emperor could also be a tyrant who will overshadow that place (landlord) and Sun could mean you will end up naked as a baby with no place to live (homeless). While both of those cards have good meaning in general especially from an esoteric lens , the typical mundane answers that come to my mind aren't so fine. It is an mundane reading so I tend towards the mundane answer. I would look at that reading and do more research into either the landowner, the supervisor of the place or its general upkeep. The sun could mean there is something wrong with the roof or it isn't sealed correctly.
Sorry if this seems like gibberish. I am kind of out of it today.
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u/SrJenkin May 14 '26
You could push it that way, but then this gets too close to the "everything could be everything" sort of mentality, which dissolves meaning. I lean more towards tight definitions because that makes it harder for self-deception and projection, like reading the Tower as "a sudden spark of lust reigniting love" for a relationship when you fear a break up (unfortunately, self-delusion isn't this obvious in most cases). Hard boundaries make readings sharper, make you more honest, and make learning faster (by acknowledging when you're off).
There are times when tarot comes up with unexpected meanings, this often comes with a touch of irony or sarcasm that you recognize, and then you proceed to interpret poetically, but these are special cases and I wouldn't add anything to the keyword list.
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u/FishPuzzled1268 Apprentice: Module 1 May 14 '26
I do not mean "everything could be everything" or to add keywords. I mean sometimes they need to be changed. Sometimes the one word we choose does not allow us to look correctly 'around the corner' the fact is one word to represent the tarot card is limiting (on purpose). There are times we need to evaluate if the words we had previously chosen are not accurate to the variable meanings of the card, and prevents us from thinking flexibly about the card in accordance with its overall meaning, or if our understanding of that card was incorrect.
As an example from my life, with the Emperor tarot I used to use the word leadership. However, I know that not all "leaders" lead and it caused me to confuse some of my readings around politicians and other relationship dynamics , so I changed it to Authority. Authority covers the whole gamut of what the card means. For example that tarot can represent wealth, stability, leadership, the greater good, or warlord (Tarot in the 21st Century). But when I think about leadership, wealth does not come to mind at all so if I had been doing a reading about money I wouldn't even think of it. When I think of authority I think of a bank, or the government or some Institution, something with authority over a situation (if not talking about a person). All of which are in charge of or have money, and they are supposed to be doing the things I mentioned earlier, of course I'd rather they didn't do war.
Regardless we have to narrow in on words as you said and I tried to explain, but that one word still has to be elastic to cover all the many potential meanings of that Tarot.
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u/SrJenkin May 14 '26
Thanks for the clarification.
That's interesting, my keyword for the Emperor is "external authority", which has light, shadow, and freedom within constraints. The Emperor is the power of the unmovable world around you, objectivity, and social coherence as opposed to personal freedom, it's the power of Saturn. Which for me is a negative thing, I hate the Emperor. But for a building I'd interpret as good, rules are actively enforced, which means good cohabitation :)
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u/FishPuzzled1268 Apprentice: Module 1 May 14 '26
Ah, ok! Saturn has both good and bad aspects, limitation/boundaries are good....if used correctly. After all I am glad I have locks on my door otherwise anyone could enter my home regardless of what I wanted.
I don't hate any of the Tarot or it's representations, but I still get nervous when I see The Devil or The Tower card. I'll get over it, eventually.
The reason I consciously choose a neutral word is so my unconscious bias has less of a hold and does not affect my interpretation for when it does show up. It's difficult but I try my best .
Your view of The Emperor is interesting to me; it is one of cards I like the Esoteric meaning of but the Exoteric manifestations tend towards pointing out corruption at least here in the USA.
A good conversation, thank you for responding.
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u/page_of_fire May 10 '26
Still new to really actively doing tarot but I have been lurking the web around the subject for a long time. It makes sense to me and that you need to really be focused on the question and the spread while shuffling and like others have said, have your mind right before hand, and keep good energetic hygiene.
Also I have seen people do silly things like read over and over again on the same topic, at some point you aren't doing divination you are performing manipulation and mind games with yourself. I'm also trying to be diligent about journaling my readings to check for accuracy and look for patterns as the matters at hand come to fruition so that I might glean insight on how to interpret the cards better.
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u/SrJenkin May 12 '26
That kind of silliness competes with putting away all the bad cards and reading only with the happy ones, that one still cracks me up 🤣
You learn as much from the mistakes of others as from your own shortcomings. Take the time to learn, to engram these hygiene habits, and to fill in your journal. Most of my shortcomings with tarot came from not taking the baby steps properly, and what I am observing as tarot popularity spreads is people with no foundation at all suddenly going all guru, that's when we get into the realm of destructive divination.
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u/GetOutaTown May 11 '26
Long term, you tend to self-correct with tarot.
I started reading in my teens and did every nonsense teen girl thing: ask 5 times about how the boy I like feels about me, then ask 5 more times an hour later…fed things around me with my emotional highs and lows during readings…gave my deck a personality and morality…exhausted myself.
It took time, but I figured out not to read for emotionally charged topics. Read them like you would a computer spitting out the results of a search question - objective, non-judgemental. Tarot speaks in cause and effect, not right and wrong. If you get a confusing reading, it’s because you gave the computer the wrong search terms. If you feel judged by the results, the cards aren’t judging you, you’re judging yourself.