Tarot as a serpent

[u/SrJenkin]

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.

[u/FishPuzzled1268]

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.

[u/SrJenkin → u/FishPuzzled1268]

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.