It is generally accepted that the standard deck of playing cards we use for everything from three-card monte to high-stakes Vegas poker evolved from the Tarot. “Like our modern cards,” writes Sallie Nichols, “the Tarot deck has four suits with ten ‘pip’ or numbered cards in each…. In the Tarot deck, each suit has four ‘court’ cards: King, Queen, Jack, and Knight.” The latter figure has “mysteriously disappeared from today’s playing cards,” though examples of Knight playing cards exist in the fossil record. The modern Jack is a survival of the Page cards in the Tarot. (See examples of Tarot court cards here from the 1910 Rider-Waite deck.) The similarities between the two types of decks are significant, yet no one but adepts seems to consider using their Gin Rummy cards to tell the future.
The eminent psychiatrist Carl Jung, however, might have done so.
As Mary K. Greer explains, in a 1933 lecture Jung went on at length about his views on the Tarot, noting the late Medieval cards are “really the origin of our pack of cards, in which the red and the black symbolize the opposites, and the division of the four—clubs, spades, diamonds, and hearts—also belongs to the individual symbolism.
They are psychological images, symbols with which one plays, as the unconscious seems to play with its contents.” The cards, said Jung, “combine in certain ways, and the different combinations correspond to the playful development of mankind.” This, too, is how Tarot works—with the added dimension of “symbols, or pictures of symbolical situations.” The images—the hanged man, the tower, the sun—“are sort of archetypal ideas, of a differentiated nature.”
Thus far, Jung hasn’t said anything many orthodox Jungian psychologists would find disagreeable, but he goes even further and claims that, indeed, “we can predict the future, when we know how the present moment evolved from the past.” He called for “an intuitive method that has the purpose of understanding the flow of life, possibly even predicting future events, at all events lending itself to the reading of the conditions of the present moment.” He compared this process to the Chinese I Ching, and other such practices. As analyst Marie-Louise von Franz recounts in her book Psyche and Matter:
Jung suggested… having people engage in a divinatory procedure: throwing the I Ching, laying the Tarot cards, consulting the Mexican divination calendar, having a transit horoscope or a geometric reading done.
Content seemed to matter much less than form. Invoking the Swedenborgian doctrine of correspondences, Jung notes in his lecture, “man always felt the need of finding an access through the unconscious to the meaning of an actual condition, because there is a sort of correspondence or a likeness between the prevailing condition and the condition of the collective unconscious.”
What he aimed at through the use of divination was to accelerate the process of “individuation,” the move toward wholeness and integrity, by means of playful combinations of archetypes. As another mystical psychologist, Alejandro Jodorowsky, puts it, “the Tarot will teach you how to create a soul.” Jung perceived the Tarot, notes the blog Faena Aleph, “as an alchemical game,” which in his words, attempts “the union of opposites.” Like the I Ching, it “presents a rhythm of negative and positive, loss and gain, dark and light.”
Much later in 1960, a year before his death, Jung seemed less sanguine about Tarot and the occult, or at least downplayed their mystical, divinatory power for language more suited to the laboratory, right down to the usual complaints about staffing and funding. As he wrote in a letter about his attempts to use these methods:
Under certain conditions it is possible to experiment with archetypes, as my ‘astrological experiment’ has shown. As a matter of fact we had begun such experiments at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, using the historically known intuitive, i.e., synchronistic methods (astrology, geomancy, Tarot cards, and the I Ching). But we had too few co-workers and too little means, so we could not go on and had to stop.
Later interpreters of Jung doubted that his experiments with divination as an analytical technique would pass peer review. “To do more than ‘preach to the converted,’” wrote the authors of a 1998 article published in the Journal of Parapsychology, “this experiment or any other must be done with sufficient rigor that the larger scientific community would be satisfied with all aspects of the data taking, analysis of the data, and so forth.” Or, one could simply use Jungian methods to read the Tarot, the scientific community be damned.
As in Jung’s many other creative reappropriations of mythical, alchemical, and religious symbolism, his interpretation of the Tarot inspired those with mystical leanings to undertake their own Jungian investigations into parapsychology and the occult. Inspired by Jung’s verbal descriptions of the Tarot’s major arcana, artist and mystic Robert Wang has created a Jungian Tarot deck, and an accompanying trilogy of books, The Jungian Tarot and its Archetypal Imagery, Tarot Psychology, and Perfect Tarot Divination.
You can see images of each of Wang’s cards here. His books purport to be exhaustive studies of Jung’s Tarot theory and practice, written in consultation with Jung scholars in New York and Zurich. Sallie Nichols’ Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey is less voluminous and innovative—using the traditional, Pamela Coleman-Smith-illustrated, Rider-Waite deck rather than an updated original version. But for those willing to grant a relationship between systems of symbols and a collective unconscious, her book may provide some penetrating insights, if not a recipe for predicting the future.
Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on our site in 2017.
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Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness
It opens doorways alright. To satanic control of your life.
Correction: Sallie Nichols book is based on the Marseilles deck, which is one of the earliest, much earlier than Rider-Waite, as that deck contains 19th century additions.
Also, the comment about the Tarot being Satanic is profoundly silly. The deck is riddled with Hebrew and Christian symbolism, it has no overlap with Satanism. The Golden Dawn people were High Church / Anglican types, though I’m sure there are many American evangelists for whom that is Luciferian enough.
Love the history, and extra insight. I was told catholics made these cards. Good to know. Thank you.
I have to agree with Dermot O’Connors comment entirely. Before you people that don’t understand or know anything about spirituality and other things in correlation to it open your mouths and allow ignorance to fall out how about trying to educate yourselves otherwise don’t get offended when someone corrects you and puts ya in your place. Blessed be 🙏
I’m excited about the Marvel Tarot. It really is Synchrony for me.
I love tarot riding
You could 4ead mine 8f you want
Bday 10 4 62
Female
In a relationship
Ok want 5o know how th8s relationship will end up
ma********@gm***.com
720 709 0999
I would like a reading
Good morning I would like a reading I’m 58 years old I have been a widow for 17 years My husband transition from a fire He was 95% burnt up I was left with three young boys and I made it giving thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ.. I’m African American and I had a lady friend who lived on a farm Her name was Virginia I love and miss her she read regular card decks and people all over the world came to see her Her son let me know I was her favorite She’s been gone now for 3 years and there’s some what I really like and I’m wondering does he feel the same for me We both are Pisces but there are so many jealous people and he hasn’t talking to me We never dated but we were friends and I know that we like each other and I want to know what I finally be loved by him I’m not lonely but I am alone and all I do is work laborly and I love helping people Thank you
Cynthia, I would love to do a reading for you email me
I have done Tarot card since I was 17, both for myself and others.And almost without exception, my predictions have always been right.Like all true psychics, I believe it is partly a gift of God and partly because o open to it and believe it is a “natural“human ability that most people are taught to shut off like we are all taught to shut off artistic and creative abilities , and that they are somehow related.I had my first of many prophetic dream by 5, and there has never been any way to shut it offm„„it comes through dreams, artwork (my own), deep meditation, gut feelings and intuition, listening to music, therapy and self-hel methods. Needless to say, I gave up fighting it long ago and began studying formal methods of divination like the Tarot.
I’m very interested in the cards and would love to get your newsletter. I’m curious how much a reading is.
I have usually done in,- person readings,because, as an empath, I believe that they are more reliable for anyone and I would probably not consider doing s “general reading” , because I am almost as positive that they’re virtually as worthless as the general Astrological “horoscopes” for everyone in sn entire ‚“sign,’ in comparison to a very detailed and researched done for only one person,!I have done long+„distance readings,though and they have been successful too, so I am considering it if asked.God knows we all need divine help k matter what it who we pray to of commune with in these crazy, troubled times!
I would love a reading also! I’m saggitarius and have been going through so much turmoil from people very close to me and trust Noone plus I can’t catch a break in life 💔 😪
I would love a reading also! I’m sagittarius and have been going through so much turmoil from people very close to me and trust Noone plus I can’t catch a break in life 💔 😪
hw***********@gm***.com
Thank you 😊
Hello my name is Sheila Carr I would love to have a reading I’m an Aries didn’t have any family troubles and I have a son I’ve been trying to get out of prison and I would like a reading please if I could thank you and have a blessed day
Omg please give me a reading my life has to the worst in my life. I know people get upset with when i say last month i put myself in hospital because i was thinking suicide and i know im going off course here but please im desperate try find answers to life like what is my purpose in life i know when im in dangerous moment and I’ll call out for help and what scares me is not calling for help and thinking I’m going things my way and of course my way got me here so with a reading maybe I’ll have a lil hope of what future has in store for me and yes i pray everyday. So please can you give me a reading and sorry for getting of course i just felt someone here is going help me and guide to a better life. Sorry everyone
Dob 5/26/1969 11:33pm
Fa*******@ya***.com
Would love to know if you could read me.
I would love a reading and a newsletter if possible .ty for sharing your gift and helping people get clarity.
Hello Beloveit!!
I hope you are doing well!
:) MY NAME IS Janie Nicole, I’m pleased to meet your acquaintance! I just had happened to come across this email chain (after reading the WONDERFUL ARTICLE ON CARL YUNG & TAROT!
Would you mind possibly doing a reading for me PLEASE!?!?!
JAMIE NICOLE POWERS
BIRTH: JUNE 26, 1979,
TIME: 06:12 A.M.
LOCATION: AKRON, OHIO, ST. THOMAS MEDICAL CENTER, 444 North Main Street, Akron, Ohio 44310
Thanks you so, so so much in advance! I’m looking for a serious change in my life, I’m praying that I will be able to return home to my Mother and my 3 Children! IT WOULD HONESTLY WOULD BE A REAL LIFE MIRACLE!!! IF IT SHOULD OCCUR!!! ;) IN JESUS’ NAME I PRAY, I LOVE YOU JESUS! AMEN! THANK YOU!
JAMIE NICOLE
88*******************@GM***.COM
Christians have tried to suppress and supplant and demonize all magic systematically throughout the years, even replacing pagan holidays but leaving them in place rebranded for their own religion. Easter and Christmas are both older traditions observed before Christianity. Easter is still observed on days governed by the lunar calendar. That’s why it’s on a different day every year. Anything ascribed any power that isn’t directly credited to Jesus is wrongly called the work of the devil and let us not forget the Inquisition and witch burnings, which I believe Jesus Himself would have frowned upon.
Bless you. Be strong. Peace will find you.
As a tarot reader and astrologer, for more than 50 years, I can tell you that NOTHING predicts the future, but these elegant tools are used to help people who might be confused about where they are in this moment. Every now is a point of change and decision, a re-evaluation of the choices we are making and where they might lead. The future is mysterious, there is nothing that is written, but in the dance of the archetypes, we have a chance to find our way.
I have loved watching tarot& horoscopes all my life Utube is great but had personal readings where supposedly readers just wanted thousands but I am wondering if my SCORPIO WILL EVER SHOW UP…I AM A GEMINI…IF NOT I WILL REMAIN INCONSOLABLE CAN I GET A READING PERHAPS…THANKS
Excellent response!
Hey I’m a Capricorn and would love a reading I was born on January 18,1982 birth place in Cullman Alabama. I love Jesus Christ and believe in readings. I’m also gifted of many things but don’t talk about it much cause it freaks people out sometimes.
Does she really give u ALL free readings? She may be a professional and this is how she makes money.. I could see if ppl asked to book and PAY for a reading, but I wouldn’t harass the crap out of her every post looking for free!! It’s not fair and very tacky
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter and education. Thank you.
Jesus said “there is enough evil in today to be concerned about tomorrow…”. I 💯 agree!
G.S.McConnell
How it began.
Good morning 🌞
Thinking 🤔 about tomorrow is a waste of the moment you have right now. Live for today, today is the only day that matters.
Would love to receive your News letter.
Than you, sending you love and light from Florida ❤️
I would love a free reading
I am desperate for help you sound amazing please give me a chance I love Jesus
I am desperate for help you sound amazing please give me a chance I love Jesus I don’t know if I will make it till tomorrow I need help now
Oh God please help me I’m sorry for telling you this the only way out is to end everything I don’t have enough energy to do anything how do I end this horrible feeling thank you for listening I hurt everybody around me if I could disappear right now it would make everyone’s life better please help
It is the end for me I pray that you will find happiness
Can you do me a reading my name Manuel Andrade gomes Miranda my date of birth 04 _13_1976 and I was born in cape Verde island and I live in Boston Massachusetts in united States of America.
Can you do me a reading my name Manuel Andrade gomes Miranda my date of birth 04 _13_1976
My date of birth 04_13_1976 I need a tarot reading
Would like a reading
Please contact me~
Read article
Hello not sure you can give me a reading was told many years ago there no tarot card reading will tell you the truth my life had been completely lost two husband’s died third one served. My family always fighting. Don’t think I’ll ever remarried
How did you come to that determination? Sounds like implicit bias and fear-based thinking regarding the unknown. Please share your research that has led you to this belief. Thank you.
I’m interested in a reading and I like to know how much is a reading, on a fixed income.
This may sound well crazy.…but here goes: I was given a deck of tarot I only did what the directions said only followed the cards meanings exactly according to the translation which came with the cards as I felt that was leaving it all in the cards and with the person I read. Well one day I did a looking into my daughter coming to me that morning and the card said death. She died I never 4 gave myself and stopped touching the cards. Now I swear cards both of tarot and regular 52 card decks are found all around me in the oddest places like parking lot at stores. The local pick n pull junk yard with my dad looking for car parts.…its weird.
Satanic doorways? That’s just a very close minded and presumably judgemental comment. But everyone is entitled to there opinion
I once believed the same thing. But only from inexperience and no knowledge of what I was basing my belief on. I wonder if u even know the history? Where did that belief come from. It didn’t come about because of true facts that they are evil. It’s like anything. U cant make the cards ur God. It is very easy to idolize the cards. Become infatuated. I believe that is the warning. The history is much more detailed. But I’m not going to get into that. I just think ppl should know what they are talking about when they automatically judge something or someone based on hearsay
U heard they were evil so u believe it. Doesn’t make it true. Just makes the person look like an idiot. Sorry my opinion
That’s exactly what I said. Close minded and ignorant because they base their beliefs on myths or plain hear say. It’s ignorant
Why give him so much information about your life. They should already know about this.
Why give him so much information about your life. They should already know about this. No matter how much I say it.
My daughter Nova is a tarot reading and when them cards come out it’s a 100 percent true. She is so gifted ❤
I would like a personal reading
I find this all fascinating. The differences of opinions on this topic. I have been doing readings for many years. I started a YouTube channel a couple years ago but only recently began taking it more serious It’s my personal opinion, you can feel free to agree or disagree, it’s totally up to you. But I have discovered that Tarot can be incredibly healing. It offers connection with areas of ourselves that as a majority, have gone undiscovered. I have used it personally to aide myself as well as many others battling things like depression, stress, anxiety and grief to name a few. Tarot is a beautiful alternative to just giving a pill to someone and telling them to take it. Not to mention the countless other pills to address the side effects of the original. No one knows you better than YOU! The true you! Not the one you were formed to be by society. But the you that you were created to be. Tarot helps connect us back to ourselves. Our connection and our free will become our guide to our purpose here.
Being someone who was in new age when people say they are satanic it is because it is the reason you are given insight about peoples lives but only a limited amount is because the knowledge you are getting is familiar spirits not ancestors or their relatives it may seem like that but it isn’t it is demons who pretend and shift forms to trick the people you are giving the reading to to look deeper into the occult so deception can be spread for demonic kingdoms can be born out of those people. Demons need people to do that so they can spawn their own kind out of these people to spread more demonic doctrines. When spirits/demons are not sent to the abyss they wander till they find a host ghost are not really ghost but demons tricking and playing games with people who are fooled by media to portray them as innocent yet they are after your destiny.The destiny God has for you. Matthew 12:43 tells you of that demons roam around looking for 7 worse to get to inhabit the same body if not closed and repented of and seeking the Lord if you are just an empty vessel then they can come back and inhabit you
Also the only who knows your future in totality is Jesus God the true and living creator the one above the heavens and earth 🌍 so the earth you worship is a pagan practice given to the earth by fallen angels witchcraft was given to the Egyptians of Babylon during tower of babble times when nephiliem and fallen angels and giants that where spawn of the fallen angels were on earth both cuz they were both living on earth before the flood and after the flood of Noah
Thank you for reaching out, thanks for sharing
I would love to see if you could help me,I’ve talked to a few physics about my brother’s death January of this year and trying to get any kinda information about who killed him, they gave me a little insight but I’m desperate for insite. Thank you
I thank you for all the information you are sharing with me I don’t have any way of paying you back I am a poor women who has a hard life I have my grandchildren and sometimes I can’t feed them I have no money just a hard life but God helps me from time to time every day is good we are here another day togeatger a family happy together
False.
My false comment was to the people that are saying its satanic. Tarot has been around forever and is in no way satanic.
My daughter Julie reads tarot cards and also has a special gift.
Jesus loves you Mike , there is so much magic soken about in the bible itself remember the miracles the power of God is able to make happen , honestly the most powerful wizard / god I have ever seen and known . John 11:44
Tarot card readings and trying to predict the further through mediums and psychic is the opposite of Godly. He specifically speaks against doing such things, Leviticus 19:31, only God knows the future, gift or no gift, Nobody knows the future but Him, and any gift we have He (God) gave us. They are supposed to be used for the glory of the kingdom of God. Seek Him first and he will give us the desires of our hearts. Trust Him, he reveals what your gift is meant for and trust me it brings unexplainable joy and fulfillment. (p.s. if someone claims they can speak to one of your dead relatives, it’s not them, it’s a familiar spirit (demon) and they just want your money) God’s gifts are free…and you can go straight to the source, just talk to Him, he really wants to hear from you, daily.
Actually, it’s the other way around, playing cards, the pips and such, predate tarot cards by a long stretch originating in the far East and traveling westward by trade routes. Tarot was/is a game and divination arose from the tarot game cards. There are several traditions of tarot that long predate the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Also, Jung’s interest in the tarot, like all of his esoteric pursuits, is thoughtful, but, as often comes up in his research, sometimes he got his sources wrong. No internet back then, limited and skewed historical references would lead him easily down a path of error. Hence his misbekief that poker playing cards come from Tarot and not the other way around.
So need a reading,Clarity is much needed in life at the moment.
It is really quite simple. What we call the present is actually a complete spontaneous creation including a past a present and a future. So the future is just as much determinative of the present as the past. It is a package deal in which each is entirely dependent upon the other. Hence it is just about as easy to intuit the future from the present as it is to read the the present from the past. This does not necessarily mean that the past, present and future are predetermined because the entire package, past present and future, are wholly recreated each time that an observation is made.
I have researched Tarot and this article is accurate to what I learned during my research. I also ran into the debate as to whether the modern playing card deck evolved from or predated Tarot.
I went further to study the Tarot cards themselves so I could decide for myself if the cards represented psychology, the human condition and a path to the Unconscious mind.
I did decide after all that time invested in educating myself that Tarot can help a person navigate the human condition and get past the ego to reveal insights into past, present and future paths, wisdom, guidance based on psychology and spirituality of different cultures to gain a great deal of beneficial information.
I found nothing to support claims of tarot being evil or magical or satanic. I only found psychology and spiritual wisdoms from many cultures. The images are more symbolic than literal with the death card meaning situational endings, change, transformation, destruction more often than actual death but with supporting cards it can more rarely mean actual death.
The cards are just paper with ink on them. Its the ability to interpret the images that seems magickal and you dont have to be psychic to read tarot but being a psychic sure adds even more insights to a reading.
You definitely do not have to be present for “me” to read for someone. I have heard some debate on this too. Should you do in person or remote readings. I think that answer is highly dependant upon the readers capabilities and beliefs. If the reader is capable of accessing the energies of the individual and the situational energies then Yes, a remote reading is 100% possible. If a reader has the capability for remote reading but believes only in “in person” readings work, that is what works for her but she could read remote if she believed and learned that she can.
Anyways, I am really glad I ran across this article.
I would like a reading please and thank you
Ha ha
.….Deuteronomy 18:10–12…you must represent the FOOL CARD
GOD DETESTS THOSE WHO PRACTICE DIVINATION. TAROT IS SATANIC
MOST ARE PETTY THEIVES AND CARNEY WORKERS. MESSAGES ARE MARKWTED TO WOMEN WHOARE DESPEERATE AND EMOTIONALLY WEAKER
ONLY A FÒOL WOULD FOLLOW TAROTS
Psychology = Narcissism at minimum by own rules out of the box, objective hypocrisy test.
Psychology is also satanic, word salad hypocrisy destroying relationships harming children, all for Profits.
I’m from United Kingdom…I just found out about my husband cheating on me with a co-worker! We’ve been married for 4years now with 3kids with lots of amazing moments together, i wanted to leave, but i love him so much. we are both still young and very attractive. but i want my husband, my friend, and the father of my beautiful children. how do i get past the thought of another woman having my husband? Not my fiancé, not my boyfriend, but my husband! i still love him even though he thinks i want to leave i really want him to do better and stop me before i walk out! my husband told me that he doesn’t feel loved anymore, just because of this co-worker he has be cheating on me with, that he wants a divorce, i was devastated, heart broken i begged him to listen to me that we can work it out like we always do, but he didn’t listen, he told me that he met someone that loves and understands him, i begged him to consider our kids but he didn’t listen. he left and i was frustrated, i began searching for help and answers, then i heard about a man that can Cast a spell to remind him of all the things we have been through together and bring him back to me, at first I was scared then i decided to give it a try, and like magic my husband came back, apologize and begging for forgiveness, thanks to DR ogugu I’m posting this to help people with similar issues. You can contact him via his email (
so*******************@gm***.com
or WhatsApp+2347011196745) for help too. i give you 100% guarantee that he will help you.
Where did you find the quote attributed to Carl Jung, “we can predict the future, when we know how the present moment evolved from the past.”