Here are a few thoughts on the uncertainty of event timing in divination.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: If we assume that human consciousness exists outside of ordinary space-time as surmised by parapsychologist Dr. Dean Radin, and that the mental contortions of most forms of divination latch onto asynchronous coincidences in multiple subconscious orbits, then we could say that a tarot reading is a “time-decoupled” artifact. Chronologically, any predicted events or circumstances can reach “critical mass,” both independently and in concert, at any conceivable moment in the near or far future with no advance warning. Tarot timing conventions aren’t famous for precision anyway, so the ETA is frequently a case of “Your guess is as good as mine.”
It’s tempting for the mystical diviner to say of these emerging probabilities “Nothing will happen unless and until the stars align,” but a more realistic posture would be that something will transpire when all of the internal, germinal factors involved in the matter come to fruition en masse, creating an irresistible urge to manifest in external reality. Only after the fact can we think of such a momentous event as a “time-stamped” occurrence, perhaps for our next encounter with a similar scenario.
I was just answering a question in the online tarot community about the long-range dependability of prognostication, and came up with the following (slightly expanded) response:
As far as reliability over time, a lot depends on the scope of the question. If it is “What will happen in this area of life over the next six months?” that will be my temporal envelope. If it’s open-ended and the spread is narrowly-focused, two weeks to a month is reasonable (and not just because I want clients to return for another paid reading). At the other extreme, if I’m doing a Lenormand Grand Tableau (a full-blown life reading), a six-to-twelve-month timeframe is common, and the 12-position Celtic “Wheel of the Year” layout speaks for itself. With a Celtic Cross spread, I usually allow three-to-six months for the final outcome to drop. But if other people have a vested interest in the querent’s concern or the issue itself becomes volatile, conflicting agendas or unstable conditions can derail any time-dependent outlook. To avoid these risks, I prefer not to put too fine a point on timing in complex or ambiguous situations.
All of that aside, if I perform a long-range prediction I will sometimes do small “milestone” readings (for example, at the beginning of each month for an annual timeline). This refreshes the immediacy of the individual short-term windows and permits comparison of the revised perspective to the original augury to see if anything noteworthy has changed in the interim. This update enables a mid-course correction for the upcoming month if it is deemed prudent.
As I’ve experienced it, tarot timing can be a “no-win” proposition for the reader. I would be delighted to report that even one of the timing experiments I’ve conducted has shown consistently strong evidence of credibility, but the best I’ve been able to do with a clear conscience is to offer broad “ballpark estimates,” sometimes no better than “sooner-rather-than-later” or vice versa. My clients have had to be content with any indication that a hoped-for event was going to happen, and not a single one that allowed them to plan confidently for its arrival.
I tell them that it’s a “forewarned is forearmed” matter of readiness and that they shouldn’t funnel too many resources into preparation. Envisioning a “Plan B” or fallback position may be the most rational option to pursue. There is little point in overextending themselves if no extraordinary upset looms on the horizon and any sunk costs are unlikely to be recoverable. If they aren’t deeply committed and nothing earthshaking is promised by the cards, they can simply say “Oh, well, at least I had my eyes open” and walk away in relief for having dodged a bullet. All that might suffer is the reader’s reputation due to the anxiety caused by the excess of caution, which is why I’m very careful with temporal advice. It’s always safer to generalize with unshakeable conviction even when pressed for specific dates or date ranges. I’ve gotten quite good at predictive equivocation when it comes to timing.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: If we assume that human consciousness exists outside of ordinary space-time as surmised by parapsychologist Dr. Dean Radin, and that the mental contortions of most forms of divination latch onto asynchronous coincidences in multiple subconscious orbits, then we could say that a tarot reading is a “time-decoupled” artifact. Chronologically, any predicted events or circumstances can reach “critical mass,” both independently and in concert, at any conceivable moment in the near or far future with no advance warning. Tarot timing conventions aren’t famous for precision anyway, so the ETA is frequently a case of “Your guess is as good as mine.”
It’s tempting for the mystical diviner to say of these emerging probabilities “Nothing will happen unless and until the stars align,” but a more realistic posture would be that something will transpire when all of the internal, germinal factors involved in the matter come to fruition en masse, creating an irresistible urge to manifest in external reality. Only after the fact can we think of such a momentous event as a “time-stamped” occurrence, perhaps for our next encounter with a similar scenario.
I was just answering a question in the online tarot community about the long-range dependability of prognostication, and came up with the following (slightly expanded) response:
As far as reliability over time, a lot depends on the scope of the question. If it is “What will happen in this area of life over the next six months?” that will be my temporal envelope. If it’s open-ended and the spread is narrowly-focused, two weeks to a month is reasonable (and not just because I want clients to return for another paid reading). At the other extreme, if I’m doing a Lenormand Grand Tableau (a full-blown life reading), a six-to-twelve-month timeframe is common, and the 12-position Celtic “Wheel of the Year” layout speaks for itself. With a Celtic Cross spread, I usually allow three-to-six months for the final outcome to drop. But if other people have a vested interest in the querent’s concern or the issue itself becomes volatile, conflicting agendas or unstable conditions can derail any time-dependent outlook. To avoid these risks, I prefer not to put too fine a point on timing in complex or ambiguous situations.
All of that aside, if I perform a long-range prediction I will sometimes do small “milestone” readings (for example, at the beginning of each month for an annual timeline). This refreshes the immediacy of the individual short-term windows and permits comparison of the revised perspective to the original augury to see if anything noteworthy has changed in the interim. This update enables a mid-course correction for the upcoming month if it is deemed prudent.
As I’ve experienced it, tarot timing can be a “no-win” proposition for the reader. I would be delighted to report that even one of the timing experiments I’ve conducted has shown consistently strong evidence of credibility, but the best I’ve been able to do with a clear conscience is to offer broad “ballpark estimates,” sometimes no better than “sooner-rather-than-later” or vice versa. My clients have had to be content with any indication that a hoped-for event was going to happen, and not a single one that allowed them to plan confidently for its arrival.
I tell them that it’s a “forewarned is forearmed” matter of readiness and that they shouldn’t funnel too many resources into preparation. Envisioning a “Plan B” or fallback position may be the most rational option to pursue. There is little point in overextending themselves if no extraordinary upset looms on the horizon and any sunk costs are unlikely to be recoverable. If they aren’t deeply committed and nothing earthshaking is promised by the cards, they can simply say “Oh, well, at least I had my eyes open” and walk away in relief for having dodged a bullet. All that might suffer is the reader’s reputation due to the anxiety caused by the excess of caution, which is why I’m very careful with temporal advice. It’s always safer to generalize with unshakeable conviction even when pressed for specific dates or date ranges. I’ve gotten quite good at predictive equivocation when it comes to timing.