𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐭 𝟏𝟎𝟏: 𝐖𝐡𝐨’𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠?
Welcome to Tarot 101 with Astrid! This is part 3 of my series; if you haven’t read the previous ones you can find them here: part 1, part 2.
So you’re wondering who or what is answering your questions when you pick up your deck. In my personal beliefs, I think who answers is up to you. You can tell your deck who can and cannot answer.
For me, who answers changes based on what reading I’m doing.
I made a list to explain the different energies you can choose when using Tarot.
c o n t e n t
a. The deck itself
b. Your spirit guides or deities
c. The universe + trickster spirits
d. Your intuition
e. All of the above
f. None of the above
g. How to set the intention
a. The deck itself
This means your deck is conscious. It has a soul. It is consciously aware of itself and the world around you. I personally believe in this because I believe in animism {the belief that everything, including inanimate objects, has a soul.} However, if this belief doesn’t resonate with you, simply let it go.
For those who resonate with this belief, if it is your deck answering, this means when you ask a question and shuffle the deck, the deck itself is giving you the information.
This can either be a positive or a negative thing depending on the personality of your deck.
Each deck is different, because each deck has a different soul, so there’s always a different personality within each deck. Some decks have very blunt energy, they will call you— or anyone you read for— out on any shenanigans and could very well stop letting any cards fly out if their advice and insight is not taken. Some decks are quite emotional in this sense where they take disrespect very seriously and can close up completely— and it can take a great deal of apologizing and changing your behavior before they are open to doing readings again. Other decks have a more forgiving energy where they will patiently continue giving the same advice in new ways to help you register it.
Then there are the tricksters. Now trickster energy does not mean they are malicious or ill-intended, it simply means they may not share the honest, whole truth 100% of the time. Now each deck is different. Personally, I have a deck that only shares what I absolutely need to know and hides the rest away from me so I can enjoy life’s surprises.
Some people may not like this. Especially when you’re not aware they are hiding the whole truth from you. But this deck is actually a dear friend of mine and I appreciate her desire to shield me from what is unnecessary to see in the current moment.
However, this is why I have multiple decks, so I can then ask another deck who is blunt and 100% honest to tell me what the she didn’t share for any questions that I really want to know everything on.
Now, for the fun— or not so fun— part about decks having personalities… they can have a mix of all of these and more. I’ve met grumpy decks, emotional decks, kind decks and fairly rude decks as well. This is also why some readers will give their used decks away and claim “Our energies just didn’t match well.” or “I never quite clicked with this deck like I have with my others.”
However, what makes this fun is getting to know your deck! It’s also very possible for a deck to change personalities after you’ve bonded with it and have respected their boundaries— and vice versa.
I have one deck that, when we first met, was super sweet and would have 20+ cards fly out during every reading— but as I stopped doing readings she felt neglected and desired to leave the deck and reincarnate where she would be used more often. While she felt neglected, her personality changed. She stopped “talking” as much. When I’d do a reading she wouldn’t let any cards pop out and I also didn’t feel intuitively drawn to pull any cards because she didn’t feel like she had anything to say to me. It wasn’t until I asked her what was wrong, and she told me, that things got better. As I put in more effort to do regular readings with her and show her I wasn’t neglecting her out of malice, she slowly returned to her original personality.
This is what I love most about divination and spirit work because it really is just like any other relationship! It takes patience, effort/devotion, and care to develop a healthy working relationship.
b. Your spirit guides or deities
This means that your deck is a vessel for your spirit guides or deities to communicate with you.
You can specify which deities or spirit guides can communicate with which deck you use. This is useful if you have multiple decks or if you don’t feel comfortable with certain deities or spirit guides and you want to take things slow by having only certain deities/spirits come thru.
If your spirit guides or Deities are answering, this means when you ask a question and shuffle the deck, either your spirit guides or a Deity is giving you the information.
I specifically bought and have a deck to use as a vessel for spirits to use when I do readings. This makes it a lot easier to get a clear answer from a spirit if I’m doubting my clair senses while channeling because then I just ask them to use the deck to talk to me and they do.
This is incredibly useful if you want to communicate with Ancestors, or any spirit really. I find that spirits have a lot of wisdom and comfort to share, and some simply want to speak directly to you rather than having the deck pick up on their energy and relay the information that way.
However, if you also believe in animism, it’s important to note that not all decks like to be used as a vessel. Many of the decks I own prefer to be used as themselves, each have their own reasons for why but some reasons are:
1. they dislike not having control over themselves and which cards come out
2. some spirits lie/don’t share the whole truth or share too much, and this can go against the deck’s personal preference which makes them feel uncomfortable
3. some decks just prefer to be used as themselves since they chose to reincarnate as a divination tool to help share insights
4. some decks are afraid of spirits not leaving once they take hold of them.
However, the deck I use as a vessel is very understanding of the importance of asking spirits directly and feels confident in his ability to banish spirits from him if they ever tried to stay beyond their welcome. This is just an important thing to consider if you do believe in animism and I personally believe the questions “How would you like to be used?” and “Do you feel comfortable/How do you feel with spirits using you to answer questions in a reading?” should definitely be something to ask all decks when you’re getting to know them.
c. The universe + trickster spirits
If you don’t have a specific deity, spirit or entity that you want to ask your questions to, you can have “the universe” answer. This could be Source, or you could simply ask “the universe” to answer.
Now, no matter which option you choose from to have answer your questions in readings, there is always the importance of your intention and belief.
Some practitioners believe that when you ask “the universe” for help— or a question— that it leaves the forum open to any and all kinds of spirits to offer their help or answers. Meaning you could get a response from an ancestor, Source, or the fair folk, or any other species of spirits.
Each of these could have their own intentions for offering their help or an answer. Some could be doing so out of kindness, pity, or malice. Others could be telling the honest truth, while others could be blatantly lying to you because they just want to have fun.
Now, just because this is a belief some practitioners have does not make it true for your practice. When you call upon the universe, you could very well have only benevolent spirits who have your best interest at heart, or Source themself answering you.
What happens is all within what you believe and your intention when you call on the universe.
Personally, I believe calling on the universe without intention could warrant any spirit to respond, but when I talk about or to the universe in my practice, it is only the beings of upmost benevolence and care for me that I am speaking to, because I have set that intention long ago.
Having the universe answer your questions can have its perks but it comes with fine print. The fine print is what you believe and the intention you put into asking your questions. The universe itself, Source, knows all and can share all… if it feels like it. Just remember to specify that you want the whole truth, if that is what you want.
d. Your intuition
Now, if you don’t believe in animism or you don’t feel comfortable conversing with any kind of spirits— or if you’re new to witchcraft— here’s the next option of what could be answering your questions when you do a reading: Your Own Intuition.
If it is your own intuition that is answering you, it is simple.
It’s you looking at a mundane deck, asking yourself the question while shuffling the deck and it is you who finds the answer by simply looking at the cards and interpreting them based on how your intuition speaks to you.
This is probably the most widely used/accepted belief in the witchy communities I have seen. I think it’s because it’s the most beginner friendly of them all. You don’t have to subscribe to a new belief system, you don’t have to worry about setting up boundaries or learning the intricacies to spirit work and channeling, all you have to do is work on understanding your own intuitive pings.
But while this is the most widely used option, it is not free of its own complications.
Now, it can be hard to listen to your intuition or hear it, especially if you are just beginning on your journey. This could lead to frustrations, self-doubt, or even giving up on the art of reading tarot.
However, all the other options are based on the detail that you can hear your intuition, and trust it. Spirits don’t talk to us the way live humans do, we cannot hear them with our physical ears so we use our clair senses— and our clair senses are based on our intuition. This isn’t to discourage you but to inform you of the truth of what it is to read tarot.
The good news is that when it is your intuition answering you, you don’t have to worry about being lied to, being manipulated, upsetting your deck, or having to build a relationship with any kind of spirit.
The good news is, your intuition always has your best interests in mind, your intuition is your higher self nudging you and guiding you to where you need to go and keeping you safe from harm. So this really is the best, beginner friendly option— for now, until we discover a new one!
However, just like with the other options, there is quite a bit of effort to put into reading tarot. This isn’t because this option is just as difficult but it’s simply because Tarot is difficult to grasp, because divination is complicated today.
The world we live in, especially in today’s age, is manufactured to separate us from our intuition, to cloud our judgement, to overstimulate us til we’re exhausted and can’t find our center. Why? Because it’s easier to keep people under control if they can’t regulate their nervous system and hear their intuition and know ways to live free from oppression. (There’s more reasons of course but we can get into that in a later post if you’d like.)
For this reason, it can take quite a while to hear and trust your intuition. Some of us may be faster at it and others may seem like they’re a natural at it, but this shouldn’t discourage you if you need to take more time and put in more effort to trust your intuition. Instead, take pride in how exciting your journey will be! You’ll get to practice more and enjoy the journey to uncover the noise and perhaps trauma that is clouding your intuition.
Taking time to learn your intuition is not a sign that you’ve done anything wrong or that you’re any less of a spiritual being than others. It is a sign of how far our world has gotten from our natural order. It is a sign of how much you’ve endured and have been told to disregard the way your body feels and the voice of your intuition. It is a reminder that we need to put in effort to teach others and the generations to come to spend time listening to their intuition to strengthen it so this doesn’t continue happening.
No matter the amount of time before you can fully trust your intuition, tarot is a really great way to learn and strengthen it!
e. All of the above
Now, a fun thing about divination is you can mix and match who answers your questions. This includes when you read tarot as well.
For my personal practice, I have my decks themselves answer, and I also rely on my intuition to interpret their cards and hear their insights.
I also have a handmade deck I made myself that I use to strengthen my intuition. I don’t ask the deck itself, I ask myself while I shuffle.
Then for my divination shop, the decks themselves answer until a client wants a channeled message, then I use the vessel deck.
So if more than one of these options resonates with you, know that you can mix and match with your readings, even mid-reading.
I still ask my vessel deck to answer questions himself! Sometimes I ask him to answer the questions first then I’ll have the specified spirit enter him or vice versa, but I find it faster to have him answer first because cleansing him after he channels a spirit can vary times for each spirit.
So really it is up to you who answers and when.
f. None of the above
Now, that we’ve gotten thru all the options I know of, here’s this one! It could be none of these.
If you find a new way to read tarot and find answers from something that isn’t a spirit or the deck or yourself, trust it! Trust yourself.
Tarot, like anything in the occult is really just personal gnosis turned into verified gnosis when it reaches a certain level of popularity or enough time has passed where it is now part of the myths and lore.
So if your journey takes you on the path of finding a new way, use it! And perhaps share it here if you feel comfortable, in the comments or reblogs so we can all learn your way too!
The beauty of tarot and the occult is: it is personal. What resonates for me may not resonate for you, what works for you may not work for others. It is all just each of us finding our own unique spin on a practice with lots of different options all passed down from people’s personal preferences and insights on the subject.
So have fun with your journey and have fun reading tarot in your unique way!
g. How to set the intention
Here’s the fun part! So now you know the different options for who or what can answer your questions, but if it all rests on setting the belief and intention, How do you set it?
Well, it varies… because it’s personal.
I’ve seen people complicate the idea of setting an intention, and I think that can make it really hard for beginners to understand what exactly setting an intention is, and means, and does.
It could be an elaborate ceremony where you light a few candles, maybe write it down on paper and pass the paper thru a flame. Or it could be more simple, you could set the intention by affirming while meditating for a few minutes, or it could be really quick while you’re dusting your fingers off from a snack you just gobbled up before grabbing your deck!
Each one of these— and any way you want to set the intention— is just as valid and concrete as the next!
I think the confusion around setting intention, comes from people’s desire to make their practice fun, so they add more steps or they take away steps but then share it as “the only true way” to set an intention and this causes the confusion.
So what exactly does it mean to set an intention?
Setting an intention is simple at its core. It’s you declaring either why you are doing something, or what you are doing, or what is happening.
In the case of tarot readings and setting the intention of who is answering your questions, setting the intention is essentially saying “This is who is allowed to answer me. No one else, nothing else. Just this.”
This can be done in any way that feels comfortable and true to you.
It can be as simple as thinking it once, “My deck answers me.” or it can be an affirmation you say every time while you shuffle your deck before a reading. Or it could be lighting a candle and affirming it with the energy of the flame to help you feel that your intention is solidified.
There is no wrong way to set an intention.
The only caveat is that you have to believe it and it has to be true to you.
Think of it as you swearing your reason for doing something in the court of universal law.
Let’s say a mundane example. You’re texting a friend, asking about y’all’s plans tonight. Your true reason for texting them is because you’re hoping they want to cancel because you want to stay home, but when they ask you why you’re asking, you lie and say you just wanted to confirm it was still happening. It’s not a lie, but it’s not fully honest and this can cause confusion and potentially an argument based on the miscommunication when the truth comes out later.
Setting an intention in anything magic related is the same way.
Let’s give a magical example now. Say you’re casting a spell. If you say the reason you’re doing a spell is because you want problems in your love life to be fixed but really you’re true reason for doing it is because you want someone to love you forever. Well now the spell is confused. It doesnt know whether it’s healing your karma and love life to bring you the best version of love to you, or if it’s simply bringing someone, anyone, into your life who will end up attached to you so they don’t leave you— perhaps in an unhealthy way— so you can have what you want.
This is usually the cause for why spells “don’t work” or “backfire.” It’s the lack of clear and true intention setting.
This is why it’s important to know yourself. Honestly. Either you can hear your soul and know instantly, exactly why you’re doing something, or you meditate and sit with the feeling until you know why you want to do something before you set the intention.
However you do it, you need to know your true reason behind doing something and then declare it, that is what setting an intention is.
So no matter which option you choose for your tarot practice, make sure you’re setting the true intention of what you want, to make sure you’re actually being answered by who or what you want.
If you have any questions or want me to elaborate on something in this post please reach out, either with my “Library of Owls”, comments or DMs 🩷✨
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With Love, Astrid 🪿
