Tarot as A Language

and therefore, as a bridge.

I often say that tarot is a practice that inherently encourages empathy.

It’s true that we all may have different interpretations of the same cards. Our reading styles are, after all, often forged through our own personal experiences and lenses. One person may see The Tower as a life-changer, and one may see The Tower in their day-to-day shifts and small ebbs and flows. And this diversity in perspective is important. With varying reading styles across the board, we ensure that there will always be a reader out there for someone — that different needs can be met.

But it is not an indicator that these differences are the end all be all of our connections. This is our starting point. After all, we are still looking at the same cards — or perhaps, reading the same language, just with different voices.

I think there is something humbling about this consideration. Tarot is both condensed and expansive; it interprets and places the broad spectrum of human experience and existence into 78 cards, but we then acknowledge that these experiences take different shape and form depending on the person.

In other words — my Tower may not be your Tower, but we both have one.

As a result, I think tarot can encourage us to find the bridge between us and another person, or another community, intentionally or not, just by its very nature. We may pull the Tower for a stranger, and we may not know exactly what that entails for them, but you will both have this shared human experience that can be labeled as the Tower. Tarot offers us that language for complicated, seemingly unrelated situations, and makes a connection.

I think among the discourse of validating different card meanings and interpretations, and our ever-broadening tarot study, and how we debate and discuss the possibilities for variation within cards, this is something worth remembering too. Tarot is diverse, expansive, and varied (as it should be), but it is also shared.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today, I feel loved & blessed to share tarot with you all.