Is The Tarot Predictive?

[Toxicmage]

Can the tarot predict the future of a sitter? I know the Old School tarot readers believed so. But it seems to me that the New School tarot readers really don't believe so.

When tarot hit the mainstream right around the year 2000 it seemed that all the tarot books that came out after 2000 were all written by psychologists & counselors of some sort with PhD's after their names.

What do you think?

 

[Lurker]

Can the tarot predict the future of a sitter?

I've only read for myself, but in my experience, yes. That is the point of divination, to be able to divine the future.

But it seems to me that the New School tarot readers really don't believe so.

I would avoid those people. They don't know what they're talking about. IMO they have either accepted other people's limitations or they are charlatans.

Post automatically merged: Nov 27, 2025

But keep in mind that divination isn't absolute. It is showing your patterns of energy and the most likely patterns in the future. It's possible to disrupt those patterns. In fact, Denning & Phillips wrote a book called Magick of the Tarot on how to replace unfavorable cards in readings of the future with favorable cards. (I think it's out of print now, but I cherish my copy.)

 

[System Error Message]

yes and no. Long answer is no.
Tarots predict, but some can change fate. This is why i like the angelic sight, they see futures and consequences for actions. Meaning unlike tarot you can actually understand the future better.

 

[Dascent]

Can the tarot predict the future of a sitter? I know the Old School tarot readers believed so. But it seems to me that the New School tarot readers really don't believe so.

When tarot hit the mainstream right around the year 2000 it seemed that all the tarot books that came out after 2000 were all written by psychologists & counselors of some sort with PhD's after their names.

What do you think?

It is evolving and here's how.
The "old school" as you say didn't had the privilege of so many words and definitions (even if the knowledge and the skill was there) to define the layers of the craft while the "new school" has the knowledge, has the words for it and goes in depth.

The old school didn't had the term archetype tho that was what they used in their readings.
From The Fool up to The World (major arcana) all these are archetypes rooted in our colective consciousness.
Carl Gustav Jung, pioneer and "architect" of the term, definition and concept of "archetype" was the stepping stone of Tarot's evolution and inevitably the birth of the "new school" from here the psychologist influence of the reading.

There is no old/new school but there is an adaptation of the words and definitions, an evolution if you will.
Old school makes the very same reading as "new school" with same accuracy but words land different because we no longer use the archaic ones.
Instead of trumps we say archetypes and that alone sounds quite different.

Archetypes didn't changed only our definition for what they reflect did.
Tarot doesn't predict the future but does reflect potentialities of predictive behavior ... archetypes are a cumulus of predictive repetitive behavior .
So in that sense, so called prediction is in fact the reader's knowledge about the reflective aspects of the archetype which is predispose to specific actions, states so on.. plus their skilful intuition because there are specific individuals who are passionate about this skill, this activity. Not for everybody.

I, for one, make use the major arcana from tarot (and some other esoteric knowledge) as a tool to reflect the Personality and Destiny of an entity and I can do that with an accuracy which makes the "sitter" wow...

 

[The wandering scholar]

In my experience it heavily depends on the sitter's ability to receive and apply information. For me the cards show what will happen if no change is made, and where focus is needed to make a desired change. So if the sitter isn't able to receive the information presented ( either due to the reader, or the sitter ) then everything will play out as the cards predict. But if the sitter is able to receive the information as well as apply it to their life then they will be able to avoid an undesirable outcome. I like to tell people who I read for that "I am just a humble guide who leads you to your answer". I kinda got that from the saying you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink.

 

[AbammonTheGreat]

It is evolving and here's how.
The "old school" as you say didn't had the privilege of so many words and definitions (even if the knowledge and the skill was there) to define the layers of the craft while the "new school" has the knowledge, has the words for it and goes in depth.

The old school didn't had the term archetype tho that was what they used in their readings.
From The Fool up to The World (major arcana) all these are archetypes rooted in our colective consciousness.
Carl Gustav Jung, pioneer and "architect" of the term, definition and concept of "archetype" was the stepping stone of Tarot's evolution and inevitably the birth of the "new school" from here the psychologist influence of the reading.

There is no old/new school but there is an adaptation of the words and definitions, an evolution if you will.
Old school makes the very same reading as "new school" with same accuracy but words land different because we no longer use the archaic ones.
Instead of trumps we say archetypes and that alone sounds quite different.

Archetypes didn't changed only our definition for what they reflect did.
Tarot doesn't predict the future but does reflect potentialities of predictive behavior ... archetypes are a cumulus of predictive repetitive behavior .
So in that sense, so called prediction is in fact the reader's knowledge about the reflective aspects of the archetype which is predispose to specific actions, states so on.. plus their skilful intuition because there are specific individuals who are passionate about this skill, this activity. Not for everybody.

I, for one, make use the major arcana from tarot (and some other esoteric knowledge) as a tool to reflect the Personality and Destiny of an entity and I can do that with an accuracy which makes the "sitter" wow...

Jungs archetypes are Plato's forms. The concept has always been with us the name just changed.

 

[therootbeersprite]

It is as @Lurker and @The wandering scholar said - Tarot can predict the future if nothing changes. The problem is that the future is in flux. But forewarned is forearmed, and as people who work magic, we are empowered to make changes. The cards can especially be used for "if-then" questions - If I do xyz, what will the outcome be? What will happen if I do abc instead? They're also good for asking HOW to change the outcome - What can I do for a more favorable outcome? How can I prevent that from happening? What pitfalls do I need to avoid to obtain the future that I want? The future is an ever-branching path. The cards will tell you what path you are currently headed down, and can lead you to the path that you want - if you ask the right questions.

 

[Magus314]

Less predictive and more probabilistic, imo. For me Tarot functions more as a lens for seeing possible outcomes, tendencies, and chain of events if those tendencies don't change, rather than spelling out a single, fixed or predetermined result.

 

[freakstarsh]

A future of probabilities, mutable to the present.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

A future of probabilities, mutable to the present.

That's a description of the universe, not just the Tarot

Hey, I see what you did there

For myself, anything predicted much more than two weeks in advance risks becoming enchantment rather than divination. "Divine short, enchant long" as the saying goes.

 

[therootbeersprite]

For myself, anything predicted much more than two weeks in advance risks becoming enchantment rather than divination. "Divine short, enchant long" as the saying goes.

Could you please say more about that, divination becoming enchantment?

 

[Firetree]

Normally I would say not , yet in my experience with it ( around 50 years experience reading for self, friends and about 8 years as a public reader at a market stall ) two distinct readings stand out ;

One , not just the Death card , but it was not well aspected at all and surrounded by negative indications ; I went against the reading and offered the alternative ( change and rebirth during life ) option . He died soon after .

The other was an elderly sweet lady ; her reading was full of sexual juice and excitement ! Again , I tried to find an alternative around that, but she just kept smiling and at the end told me I was 'close to the heart of the matter ' and said on departing '' You know the older you get the better it gets .'' , winked at me and walked off

Oh .... that wasn't a prediction , but an observation ..... unless she realized previously she had an 'opportunity ' and after the reading she was going to go and enjoy it .

 

[therootbeersprite]

Normally I would say not , yet in my experience with it ( around 50 years experience reading for self, friends and about 8 years as a public reader at a market stall ) two distinct readings stand out ;

One , not just the Death card , but it was not well aspected at all and surrounded by negative indications ; I went against the reading and offered the alternative ( change and rebirth during life ) option . He died soon after .

The other was an elderly sweet lady ; her reading was full of sexual juice and excitement ! Again , I tried to find an alternative around that, but she just kept smiling and at the end told me I was 'close to the heart of the matter ' and said on departing '' You know the older you get the better it gets .'' , winked at me and walked off

Oh .... that wasn't a prediction , but an observation ..... unless she realized previously she had an 'opportunity ' and after the reading she was going to go and enjoy it .

Any divination method requires interpretation, not just tarot. These two instances sound like you trying to skew the reading instead of honestly interpreting what the cards showed.

Why have you been reading tarot for 50 years if you don't believe in its ability to be predictive?

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Could you please say more about that, divination becoming enchantment?

The further forward you go, the more divergent the futures become - predicting the future of anything other than the simplest, most linear systems becomes impossible after a relatively short time, for the same reasons as weather forecasters (the butterfly flapping its wings etc.). When it comes to enchantment, the longer you give magic to work when trying to achieve something, the wider the spread of outcomes from the original decision point, and, hopefully, the more chances for you to end up experiencing a successful outcome.

If the period is, say, less than two weeks (the maximum period for predicting the weather with any accuracy) then the chances are much reduced that enough time has passed to cause the event to happen as a result of your prediction.

If the period is more than, say, a month, not only is there much more time available for the intersection of act and result, the chances of having predicted the resultant path become less and less likely as the outcomes become more and more divergent from your original start point. An accurate prediction becomes less and less interesting the further into the future you go, as the only predictions which will be accurate are the ones with less new information in them. You can predict with a high degree of accuracy that the sun will rise in a year’s time, but this is not an interesting prediction. Instead, the further forward in time you go, the more likely your interesting and accurate ‘predictions’ are to have been magically caused by you instead.

So (for example) any Tarot readings ‘for the year ahead’ need to thought of as climate indicators rather than weather predictions.