AUTHOR’S NOTE: Whenever I contemplate the unstructured psychic or purely intuitive approach to tarot reading as currently practiced in “live” settings, on internet platforms and via telephone-hotline “prediction mills,” my skeptical nature goes into overdrive.

I summon a fanciful vision of a youngish mystical diviner (who is largely untutored and inexperienced in the historical roots of prognostication), firing up a stick of incense, brandishing a crystal, invoking the spirits, entering a light trance, and proceeding to make inventive and impressionistic observations concerning the message the cards presumably convey about the question asked. (Full Disclosure: I admit to doing all of these at one time or another in the past, but then I lost faith or grew up, take your pick. I’ve always been a student of the occult first and a mystic second.) Whatever rises unbidden to the top of the head is accorded an aura of legitimacy and is presented as guidance. Not that it’s always bogus, of course; let’s just say that I’m deeply suspicious of its integrity in today’s mercenary environment. If I were to write a book on the subject, I would title it The Woo of Fortune-Telling.

With the online availability of a wealth of published tarot material, both in book form and as smaller bites of information contained in posted essays, there is no excuse to remain unschooled in the philosophical underpinnings of divination as long as one has the literacy and the persistence to take on the written word (not a given considering the state of modern education). The danger lies in the neophyte skipping over the documented baseline entirely and going straight to YouTube “talking heads” who may be only slightly more versed in the foundations of the art.

If I were a cynic I would surmise that we will enter a downward spiral in public-reading proficiency (for which there are no established standards, only oral conventions of dubious provenance) and eventually wind up in the tarot equivalent of the 2006 film, Idiocracy. The risk from a communal standpoint is that the blind will be leading the blind down the primrose path to blissful ignorance and nobody will be the wiser. Factor in the growing intrusiveness of AI into divination (and into life itself) that goes well beyond predictive tarot apps and we might as well pack up our decks and go home.

Much has been said about the failure of our public institutions of higher learning to instill the classical virtues of critical thinking and methodical scholarship in their graduates, whom they teach just enough to attain the minimum test scores needed to ensure continued government funding. This constitutional weakness spills over into the skills required to understand the concepts and instruments of metaphysical investigation at a more profound level than demanded by the shallow auguries that now pass for intuitive truth in social-media circles. I’m certain the purveyors of such inconsequential fare think better of their work, but a seasoned outside observer can only cringe at its superficiality.

By way of contrast, I will offer my own approach to tarot reading. Although I may not impart them unfiltered to my sitter, I always begin from a solid footing in traditional definitions (both prosaic and esoteric) that serve as a springboard for more adventurous narrative forays. Then, using the imagery as another launch-pad, I cast a wide net into the waters of inspiration, imagination and ingenuity to see what I can haul up that will cling to the core principles in ways that enhance their interpretation, usually in a more stimulating (and entertaining) manner. (I won’t cite depth of experience as an asset since that comes in due time to both the knowledge-based and intuitive practitioner although, as my previous statements suggest, I might quibble about the latter’s benchmark of excellence.)

Ideally, these insights will carry at least a trace of wisdom about ways in which the client can successfully manage the affairs addressed by the reading. I will run them by the querent for confirmation or rebuttal and then go from there into a conversation with the individual about how the forecast can be made more precise. (This applies equally to remote predictions for which I use email, it just takes longer and involves more back-and-forth in written communication.) I consider the product of this shared analysis and mutual agreement to be the crowning achievement of the diviner’s craft, unequaled by any form of unilateral, “one-way” delivery.