6 Reasons Why Your Tarot Reading Was Wrong

I’m teaching an on-line class in reading Tarot for divination. Even before we get into the consensus meanings of the cards, I’m asking the students to jump into the deep end of the pool and start doing readings based on what they see in the artwork. So far the assignments have been for 1-card or 3-card readings. It’s best to start with simple questions and simple questions don’t need a 10-card spread to answer them.

The readings the students are sharing are, for the most part, very good. I don’t always agree with them, but they demonstrate an understanding of the principles of divination, and their interpretations of the cards reflect a good thought process.

But they aren’t always right.

My readings have gotten really good in recent years, but they’re not always right either.

It’s important to celebrate our successes. It’s also important to examine our failures, so we can figure out where we went wrong, so we can do better next time. When we do, it’s helpful to have some idea of where we might have gone wrong.

These are some of the most common reasons why Tarot readings and other divinations go wrong – why they give us answers that aren’t what we need.

photo by John Beckett — Robin Wood Tarot

1. You asked the wrong question

This is the Number One reason why Tarot readings are wrong. When you start with the wrong question, you’re going to get the wrong answer.

In magic we often say “fuzzy targets yield fuzzy results.” In divination, it’s “vague questions yield vague answers.” You asked “how’s this going to go?” instead of “will this action generate that result?” And so you get cards that tell you “oh, it will be a nice pleasant experience” instead of “yes, you’ll get the job” or “no, you won’t.”

Or worse, you surrendered your agency to a deck of cards and asked “what should I do?” And so the cards speak in general terms about getting your affairs in order and cutting toxic people out of your life and building a strong spiritual foundation. All of which is true and helpful but doesn’t tell you what’s going to happen in this particular situation.

In magic, in divination, and in mundane life, properly defining the problem is the first and most important step. If you can ask a question that is clear, specific, and narrowly focused, you can almost always find the answer – with or without Tarot cards.

2. You read the cards wrong

People will come up with the most convoluted explanations of why their magic didn’t work and ignore the most obvious reason: you did the spell wrong. It’s the same with reading Tarot: sometimes you flat-out misread the cards.

Sometimes a reader simply doesn’t know the cards. They heard one meaning one time and they assume that’s what that card means in every situation. Perhaps the reader is clinging to the little white book meaning and ignoring what their eyes see. Yes, the swords are the suit of the element of Air and of the intellect. But swords are also weapons used to hurt people in horrible ways. Is the context of the question and the other cards one of making wise decisions? Or is it one of “someone is threatening you with great harm?”

Sometimes readers will twist the cards into the meaning they want, ignoring obvious and more likely answers that point in another direction. Just as often, they’ll twist the cards into a meaning they fear. “Head in the sand” and “the sky is falling” are very similar errors.

A picture says a thousand words – which words are relevant to you and your question? That’s the art of reading.

3. You used the wrong spread for the question

A couple years ago there was a brief online discussion of the commonly used Celtic Cross spread. Thorn Mooney said The Celtic Cross is Kind of Terrible and while I don’t agree with her title, the content of her blog post was quite good.

You don’t need a 10-card spread to answer a yes-or-no question. Most ordinary questions can be answered with a 3-card reading, at most. More cards just complicate the answer.

But if you have a deep question – where you’re looking for broad understanding more than for a specific answer – three cards may not be enough. Pick the right spread for the question at hand.

Along these lines, you may have used the wrong deck. It seems like there are a million Tarot decks available these days. Some of them are beautiful, but they’re more works of art than divination tools. Some are so plain as to be little more than triggers for intuition (which is fine, if that’s what you want). And some are just hard to read – particularly those whose artwork isn’t aligned with the structure of the Waite-Smith deck.

The best deck is the one you can read with, clearly and reliably. I urge beginning readers to start with an established deck and learn it well before moving on to others. In my class, we’re using Waite-Smith, Robin Wood, and Celtic Tarot.

4. You don’t have the context to interpret the reading

Sometimes the question is good and the cards are accurate, but you don’t have enough context to form a proper interpretation. Many times I’ve been reading for someone and I’ve said “here’s what I see, but it doesn’t make sense.” And they’ve said “oh, I know what that’s about” and proceed to tell me about a family member or a personal situation that fits it perfectly. I didn’t have that information – they did.

This can happen when you’re reading for yourself. On Sunday you ask about something that’s going to happen on Tuesday but the cards refer to something that won’t happen till Monday. Or they refer to something you’re never going to know about.

Beware of jumping to this conclusion – it can be an easy way to avoid doing the hard work of deconstructing a reading and figuring out where you went wrong. But sometimes this is the reason: you didn’t have the whole picture and so you couldn’t understand what the cards were telling you.

5. There was too much chaos to get a clear reading

The future is not fixed. Divination does not show us what must happen. It shows us what will happen, given the current state of affairs and the direction of all participants.

For simple things, particularly at a personal level, Tarot is good at showing us where we’re headed and what things will look like when we get there. But for more complicated situations, it may be impossible for even a good reader to clearly see the outcome. This is why divination to pick winning lottery numbers always fails.

Again, beware of jumping to this conclusion instead of working to figure out what went wrong. But the fact remains that sometimes an outcome is so uncertain that even the best divination can’t predict it with any degree of confidence.

6. You changed your path and changed the outcome

If divination shows you an outcome you don’t like, what should you do? Quietly accept your fate? Or do something to change the outcome?

Sometimes you can’t change the outcome. But many times you can, in part if not in whole. That’s the best use of divination – giving you the information you need to make better decisions.

If the cards say you’re going to fail, perhaps you can change your approach – or just redouble your efforts – and succeed despite the prediction.

But also, if the cards say you’re going to succeed and then your confidence turns into overconfidence which turns into inaction, you may fail despite what was an accurate prediction at the time it was made.

For good and for ill, the future is not fixed.

I don’t believe this one

After I outlined this post, I did an internet search for “why a Tarot reading is wrong.” I wanted to see if I was overlooking something important. Most of what I found was very similar to what I already had, and most of what was different wasn’t enough to argue about. With one exception:

“You aren’t meant to have the answer.”

No. It doesn’t work this way.

There is no grand plan of “The Universe” that decides what you’re meant to have and what you aren’t. There is no gatekeeper God of Tarot. Now, if the Morrigan doesn’t want me to know something, She’ll make sure I don’t learn it. But that’s not the same thing as saying I’m “not meant” to have it.

Maybe the situation is too complicated to see the answer. Maybe something or someone is preventing you from seeing the answer, though in my experience that happens very, very rarely.

Maybe you’re not a good enough reader to find the answer. There’s no shame in that. Keep studying and practicing and working to get better.

We take up the practice of magic (of which divination is a subset) because we aren’t content to accept someone else’s idea of what we’re “meant” to have and do and be. We pick our own goals and choose our own paths. When we need information that we can’t get through ordinary means, we seek it with extraordinary methods.

Celebrate your successes. Learn from your failures. And get better at finding the information you need to make good decisions.