You do not find many people attempting to read palms or to contact the dead, but you do see a large amount of people purchasing tarot cards, determined to master them. There has long been a debate about the necessity of psychic ability, whether hidden or not, in reading tarot cards. I, myself, pondered this very question, and in trying to find the answer, learned a little bit more about the tarot cards.



1) The Mysterious History

One of the very interesting things about tarot cards is that there is no concrete proof about where they originated from. Some say that they began in Italy, while others believe that they came from China, and still others say that they are the creation of the mysterious Egyptians. It is believed by some that they were created all the way back in 1400.

The majority of people believe that tarot cards were invented by the Gypsies. This rag-tag band of fortune tellers crossed almost all of the continents at one point in time, and made their fortunes by fleecing gadjo, which is their word for non-gypsy folk.

To do so, they used to read palms, throw stones, and tell the future by looking into crystal balls. There is rumor that more than one gypsy actually had psychic ability, but we will never know for certain how many. If psychic ability is truly a product of the mind, a piece of it that is not used by many people, than it makes sense that the ability to tap into the power could pass down through gypsy progeny.

2) The Basics

There are some basics that you should understand about tarot cards. There are 22 major arcane and 56 minor arcane, for a total of 78 cards. The major arcane cards are meant to show life journey.

The minor arcane cards look more like the regular playing cards, with suits, such as wands, cups, pentacles and swords. Each card has a different meaning, and the meanings together tell a sort of story. It is this story that winds up being what is known as the tarot reading.

In most readings, you will sit down with a reader. You will then be asked to shuffle the cards. There are a variety of ways that this occurs. Sometimes you do a normal card shuffle, as you would a regular deck. Other times you are asked to drop the cards and just pick out a few.

The reader will then take the specific cards that you have chosen and will lay them out in a format. There are a variety of formats to choose from, each one representing a different thing.

3) But it does not really work, right?

Wrong. If you go to a tarot reader who has had practice, and enjoys doing what they are doing, than you will likely get an extremely accurate reading.

You will probably be asked if you would like to ask a question before the reader interprets the cards. Some people choose to ask a question, and others do not. Do not get upset if your question does not get answered.

Often, the cards reveal what you NEED to hear, not what you want to hear. Just like any other fortune-telling phenomenon, the results you get from a tarot reading may scare you.

So how do they work? That is a question that has yet to be completely answered, and is also one that leads us back to our original question. Some people believe that you need to be psychic in order to determine what the cards are trying to say. Others believe that learning to read the cards is just about practice and learning to trust your instincts.

As to what I believe? I have always believed in intuitive powers and having a good intuition give you that extra advantage to do a good tarot card reading. I do know that I purchased my first tarot deck quite a few years ago. I then took the deck and tried to learn as much as I could about every card that was in the deck. The only problem was that it got extremely confusing. I decided, instead, to go by what the pictures were revealing.

The more I use tarot cards, the more I realize that my intuitive powers are increasing each and everyday. It just happens and you will know it when it happens. Each picture is extremely revealing and tells a story all on its own, if you look at it right. I then tried the cards on a few close friends, with mediocre results.

It was not until late one night at work, when I tried the cards on a co-worker, that I was really astounded. The cards revealed an entire different side to him; a side I knew nothing about. We both left, shaken, that the cards could be so powerful.

Does this mean that I have hidden psychic abilities? Does it mean that the cards are all that is needed in order to delve into someone soul? The only thing I do know is that, when read by someone who enjoys doing it and practices, they tend to reveal what is truly in your heart.