I've been feeling a little nostalgic as of late, and I've got to thinking about Tarot readings. There was a time in my life that I used to do them, specifically hanging out in the IRC #tarot room (wow, really dating myself there). I was told by people who had spent years studying Tarot that I had the gift, or at least a knack for it. When I used to do it, I would concentrate on the question or topic being asked about while shuffling the cards. I would then run my fingers up the side of the deck until they felt heavy, as if to say it's time to stop and cut the cards then. I would then deal either an 11-card modified Celtic Cross, or more commonly just a 3-card "past present future" and then proceed to read them. (How I used to do them is probably irrelevant, but some fun JR trivia for all y'all.)
Reading Tarot is a little interesting. When you are learning you have a little dictionary that says what each card symbolizes and, if you are lucky, some thoughts on what they might mean in the context of the particular configuration you've dealt. But reading Tarot isn't just going card by card and spitting out a definition. The cards relate to one another, play off of one another, and weave together to tell a story. It's understanding these relationships, the context, the story that makes a Tarot reader talented (or so I am told).
Back when I used to read Tarot, I had never heard of things like the Forer effect or cold reading. And looking back on it, I can certainly see how these played into Tarot. But recently I wonder if there's not something else to it. Nothing mystical. Just that inevitably, we're all the same. Or at least as fellow humans we are all more same than we are different. Reading Tarot isn't about reading fortunes, it's just a funny kind of way to read the story of humanity. Or at least, that might be a different way to look at it. And as for insights into the future, the consequences of our present situation are sometimes obvious, or at least more same than they are different. Anyway, Tarot isn't about seeing the future, but about insight for dealing with it. Some people have a knack for giving good advice, so this isn't exactly mystical, either.
There's nothing but atheists on these forums anyway so maybe I'm asking the wrong audience, but does anyone else have a history of dabbling in Tarot? Completely unrelated but at least about Tarot (and possibly another way to make this thread longer than a few replies), what's up with religions that condemn Tarot?