#they're a fortune teller/tarot card reader

[chipper-smol]

WOOO THEY'RE DONE

i underestimated how long this would take, but honestly i'm glad i did it, cause it was indulgent and the results are satisfying as hell

if you wanna play with their sprites I'm gonna put a link to the google drive they're in along with the original file so you can make your own Loop expressions!

[goldenestheart]

okay, i need to tell my opinion about readings. remember, this is just my opinion!!!

i have done many many readings in the past. (on my other blog). i always used tarot cards. but I always did it just for fun and I didn't even believe in my predictions. it was just fun. i always said that people shouldn't take my readings seriously.

but long period passed since that. now i am older and i realised.

readings are bullshit!

like come on, people, do you actually believe that some random person on the other side of the world will tell you your future based on your favorite emojis? 🙄🤦‍♀️

like be smart, people, use your brain. do you really think that reader only needs your initials for your readings? wut? they just do it for fun. like everything they say in their readings, nothing will happen. they just feed your delusionals.

what i really hate is celebrity readings. like when someone wants to know their future with celebrity🙄 like: hello, i always dream about *insert celebrity name* and i truly believe they're my soulmate. could you tell me how will i meet them?

guurl, be serious, you will never meet them.

and many people who request readings are so ungrateful, they won't say thanks and please, they always want to know about their crush😁 i think they're kids.

other thing, i received many readings by the start of this year. year is slowly ending and guess what? nothing happened what readers told me will happen💁‍♀️ i even received many readings from readers whose do paid readings and it didn't happen. meh, these people offer many money for their readings, some naive girls buy from them and they'll be dissappointed cause shit happened. GUYS, WAKE UP, THEY ONLY USE YOU FOR YOUR MONEY. THEY MAKE UP THEIR READINGS, THEY TELL YOU ONLY WHAT YOU WANT HEAR AND THEY ONLY WANT YOUR MONEY!!!

readings are bullshits. readings on tumblr are bullshits. if you need to know your future, visit some fortune teller where you live, make sure to view their reviews if it did happen what they told will happen and yes, i think this is only way you can know your future. not from some random people on tumblr who tell you they can see the future.

And also, serious question for you, did it all happen what reader told you will happen? The answer is no, right? ☺️

This is just my opinion, ok? I just grew up from this embarrasing phase. I don't mean it bad, okay? And also sorry for my errors, english is not my native language.

[dykepuffs]

I hate seeing "TAROT TIPS" posts because they all seem to assume that there is one tarot tradition, which is practised by people who all have the same relationship to tarot as each other.

But a Wiccan who believes in the God and Goddess, and a Spiritualist who believes that the cards are presented to them by their Guiding Spirit, and a Christian Hermit who meditates using the cards as a map, all are doing different things as they lay out a spread (just as the client of a dukkerer, a fortune teller, a mystic tarot reader and a sage may all want and expect different things from their reading)

If you come from a tradition that's more concerned with the psychological and using the tarot as a tool for self-reflection and discovery you might laugh and dismiss the ignorance of someone who says that the Knight of Swords means you'll meet a bachelor with dark hair and hazel eyes - But if you're from a fortune telling tradition you might in turn raise an eyebrow when someone insists that the same Knight means that you are a knowledge-seeker who looks before you leap, and nothing about what will happen afterwards.

Likewise, traditions that insist on cleansing the cards and specific ways of storing them and speaking to them, compared to ones which say that the cards need to stay un-cleansed to pick up more of your vibration... And then the ones that say they're just paper, they deserve no more or less ritual treatment than a coffee cup or a pencil.

But "Tarot Tips" posts always seem to be the most random hodgepodge of things that work for the individual that wrote them, almost always written by someone who doesn’t acknowledge that each item on their list comes from a different spiritual and cultural background, and doesn’t even tip their hat to mention them.

TLDR: Tumblr how do I filter down that I want to see Tarot but only from people who practise in half a dozen concrete traditions, I don't want to see Pick A Piles with barnum statements about Your Future Spouse, I don't want to see Which Crystals Charge Your Deck, I want to see essays about how French mystics incorporated folk beliefs into their practise in the 1700s, or how the HOGD interpreted different cards and how that relates to Masonic levels, or how Showmen fortune telling relates to Romany ones, or how early the modern meanings of the cards became settled... Including, people talking about where modern fortune telling traditions like charging and cleansing and crystals came from and how they became "the norm".

[tea-with-evan-and-me]

and, probably most of all, has a seemingly happy and healthy relationship with his gf which has been publicised.

But according to those ridiculous tarot blogs there’s trouble in paradise and according to their hocus pocus cards, Evan and Natalie won’t make it as a couple. I also happen to find them rude and self-centered. They live in this fantasy and think they hold the hands to the future. I unfollowed each one of them. Mind you that these are the same people that said Evan and Natalie won’t make it after Coachella because they were just friends with benefits. And let’s say if they are heading for a split ( which I hope they won’t), then those readers will think it’s because their cards predicted it when clearly, that’s just how life goes. Sometimes you make it as a couple and sometimes you decide to go separate ways.

not to be a debbie downer, but i mean, it's just realistic to say that most relationships are not going to last forever. it doesn't take a tarot reader or fortune teller to come to that conclusion. they're going to spend their days posting tarot readings painting this couple in a negative light.. and if/when nat/evan break up, of course they will take that as affirmation. it's like that one anon said, they always say things can change at any moment, energy can change, etc.. so, life? lmao like, everything is fluid. that has nothing to do with tarot cards. it won't matter if it's in a month or a year or more, same thing. they break up and now evan can be with his ''soulmate'' they keep ''seeing''.

[random-conspiracy]

Why are these face cards here. The meaning of the king is so close to the meaning of the queen. And they represent character traits rather than experiences, which means that they often don't fit right in a reading that's asking about what's going to happen etc. Like, I know there's always a way to make them fit if you look at them sideways, but it just throws me every time. Why even have them if they're going to be such a pain?

Hope that you don't mind if I answer some of your pet peeves.

That's because they're people and it's more useful to read 'em that way. Kings and Queens are mature men and women, while Knights and Knaves stand for younger people, usually male and female, but that's up to you. These two could also be changes, actions and messages, because of their role as servants of the royalty.

Family members, coworkers, friends, strangers, etc...

Why are there so many repeated meanings? I mean, do you really NEED the Empress, the 9 of Pentacles, AND the Queen of Pentacles? Like yeah, I get it, they're all SLIGHTLY different, but there's SO much overlap.

They're not "slightly" different even when they have common themes, because you're only focusing into text-book meanings and not the actual structure of the deck itself. The 9 of coins represents a concept, a situation, in this case the value of a considerable amount of gold coins, but the Queen is a person (usually a woman) who is the one taking action or being affected by the situation. The Empress is in a completely different level because is part of the major arcana, she's not only above the Queen but allegorizes more complex and deeper concepts. Don't forget the hierarchy, try to keep things simple.

Reverses. I refuse to read reverses. 'Cause like, what's the opposite of greedy? Is it NOT greedy (IE well-balanced desires) or is it TOO generous? What's the opposite of happy? Is it sad? Angry? Bored? Vaguely disappointed?

I'm with you here ahshasa, that's exactly why I don't use reversals.

What are the staves. What is that.

The what??? ashahsa.

If swords represent air and the mind/intelligence, why are there so many more inauspicious cards in the swords suit than in the others? Is being a deep thinker THAT BAD?? *flashes back to grad school* Never mind, I guess that's valid.

STOP. Swords are *not* air, swords are *not* the mind/intellingence.

Swords are firstmost swords. This is a very subtle mistake that many readers do and it changes thw whole way you read your cards because instead of seeing what is in front of your eyes, you're jumoing straight into elemental associations that carry their own external associations and so on. Ask yourself, what is a sword? What is a cup? A coin? A baton/wand? Swords are weapons, harbingers of power, war, pain, conquer, battle, etc... are you really surprised that its suit is full of inauspicious cards?

So if the three biggest subjects people come to fortune-tellers on are love, money, and health... Why do pentacles represent 2 of the 3? Like, okay, if the question itself limits the topic to, say, health then you know that the pentacles represent health and probably not money. But if you're just doing a general reading... why do the staves and swords mean so little and the pentacles mean so much?? It's hella lopsided.

Ok, first than anything, Tarot cards were not designed to be used in fortune telling; we were us, the fortune tellers, the ones who learned and adapted to use 'em, changing some things in the process. If you check decks explicitly designed to do fortune telling you will find specific cards for money, love and health.

Second, coins/pentacles don't represent money and/or health as a whole, they just represent what the symbol of the coin contains. It could be money, it could be commerce, it could be success, it could be privilege, status, happiness, etc, is only with the context of the reading (as you said) that they take a more specific value. Same case for the rest of the suits. In a general reading, you will probably gravitate more to money related situations but that doesn't mean that swords or batons have less "meanings".

I guess one of my major quibbles with tarot is that so much of it relates to mental states rather than physical, external occurrences. That's probably why I don't like staves. When you get a two of cups, it's like, "Ooo! There's a new relationship in your future!" And when you get a 9 of pentacles it's like, "Wow! Wealth and physical comfort are headed your way!" But when you get a page of wands, it's like, "...Well, I guess you're gonna start wanting to do something." "Do what?" "Dunno."

I'm not gonna lie to you, something is dificult to extract concise and specific actions because Tarot is a very poetic tool at its core.

That said, it's not impossible to use Tarot in that way: Cups are usually gatherings, meetings, parties, celebrating, expressions of love and pleasure while swords are battles, rants, debates, discussions, sickness, accidents, fights, failure. Cups followed by swords could be a party that goes wrong, or unrequited love. Swords followed by cups could be peace before the storm, a truce, reconciliation. Again, is a mtter of context and creativity.

WHY ARE THERE 78 CARDS TO MEMORIZE OMFG. I guess I should just be grateful I'm using the Ride-Waite-Smith deck and not the Marseilles: If I just had to straight-up memorize that four curved lines meant "trust your gut", I'd probably shoot myself.

Well, if that's what you think maybe try not to shit your pants when I tell you that many Marseille readers have no different meanings for (lets say) the 7 and the 6 of swords, ahshasa.

Honestly why are you memorizing the 78 cards? The major arcana requires study, yeah, but the minor arcana of RWS have pictures for a reason. I never understood why many RWS reader waste time memorizing something that is clearly depicted in the card. 3 of cups? You can see a small groups of people happily toasting around abundant fruit. It surely is not a card of grief, is it?

Many Marseille readers give more focus to the symbol than the number and we read by rythms and groups. You literally just need to understand the major arcana, what the 4 symbols in the suits mean and you're almost hot to go. Tarot is not about "memorizing" and repeating and you shouldn't try that because like those non-newtonian liquid, the harder you try to push it into your brain, the harder will be to decipher it.

Do not memorize, philosophize. Think about the cards, practice a lot, try to fully internalize the symbols and the wisdom of the allegories. Honestly one of MY pet peeves is the awful reputation of tarot de marseille in the community. I wouldn't say is easier, but it surely has its advantages and is not the monster under the bed as it appears.

Also the "trust your gut" advice by itself is shit. Clear your mind, contemplate the cards, REALLY see what is in front of you. THEN trust your gut and put to work t your brain.

As a diviner, the tarot system bugs me.

Why are these face cards here. The meaning of the king is so close to the meaning of the queen. And they represent character traits rather than experiences, which means that they often don't fit right in a reading that's asking about what's going to happen etc. Like, I know there's always a way to make them fit if you look at them sideways, but it just throws me every time. Why even have them if they're going to be such a pain?

Why are there so many repeated meanings? I mean, do you really NEED the Empress, the 9 of Pentacles, AND the Queen of Pentacles? Like yeah, I get it, they're all SLIGHTLY different, but there's SO much overlap.

Reverses. I refuse to read reverses. 'Cause like, what's the opposite of greedy? Is it NOT greedy (IE well-balanced desires) or is it TOO generous? What's the opposite of happy? Is it sad? Angry? Bored? Vaguely disappointed?

What are the staves. What is that.

If swords represent air and the mind/intelligence, why are there so many more inauspicious cards in the swords suit than in the others? Is being a deep thinker THAT BAD?? *flashes back to grad school* Never mind, I guess that's valid.

So if the three biggest subjects people come to fortune-tellers on are love, money, and health... Why do pentacles represent 2 of the 3? Like, okay, if the question itself limits the topic to, say, health then you know that the pentacles represent health and probably not money. But if you're just doing a general reading... why do the staves and swords mean so little and the pentacles mean so much?? It's hella lopsided.

I guess one of my major quibbles with tarot is that so much of it relates to mental states rather than physical, external occurrences. That's probably why I don't like staves. When you get a two of cups, it's like, "Ooo! There's a new relationship in your future!" And when you get a 9 of pentacles it's like, "Wow! Wealth and physical comfort are headed your way!" But when you get a page of wands, it's like, "...Well, I guess you're gonna start wanting to do something." "Do what?" "Dunno."

WHY ARE THERE 78 CARDS TO MEMORIZE OMFG. I guess I should just be grateful I'm using the Ride-Waite-Smith deck and not the Marseilles: If I just had to straight-up memorize that four curved lines meant "trust your gut", I'd probably shoot myself.

I mean, I'm learning it, and it's okay, and there's stuff about it I like, but... jfc. Half-tempted to remove all the face cards from my personal deck AT LEAST.

[coinandcandle]

5 Forms of Divination

You may have seen fortune tellers in the media with their crystal ball or deck of cards, but did you know that those are actually commonly used forms of divination that real people use?

Divination has been used for a very long time, but the ways that people have told the future or seen into the unknown differ vastly based on where it came from and who practices it. Even differing from family to family, practitioner to practitioner. Want to know more?

I've made a list including five common types of divination. Read more to find out what they are!

First, let's talk about what divination is. The literal definition is

the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means.

Meaning that divination is not just meant to tell the future, it's also used to look into the unknown. In most of the divination methods listed here the purpose is more often than not to ask for guidance on something, rather than to outright ask about the future.

Most folks who use divination know that trying to get and accurate read on the future is next to impossible since, unlike the past, the future is fluid and could change at the drop of a hat.

That being said, let's move on 5 forms of divination!

Cartomancy

The first thing that may come to mind when you hear "divination cards" may be Tarot. Tarot is a form of cartomancy popularized for divination in the 1700s, though the card game they came from was older.

However, many different types of cartomancy exist. This incudes oracle cards, Lenormand cards, even a simple deck of playing cards can be used! How the playing cards are set up and read varies depending on the culture or practitioner that you're learning from.

Rune Casting

Coming from the ancient Nordic people, rune casting consists of small pieces of wood, stone, or sometimes bone that are carved with the Futhark alphabet.

Runes are cast (tossed) or laid out either randomly or placed in a sequence and are used to divine or see the future.

The meaning of the reading can change based not only on the runes cast, but where in the sequence they're cast or what the runes around them mean.

Tasseomancy

Who doesn't love a cup of tea? Next time you drink some, take a look at the leaves in the bottom of the tea cup; do you see anything interesting?

Also known as tasseography, tasseomancy is the practice of reading tea leaves for divination. The reader looks for certain signs, symbols, and even the position of the leaves. Some people read from the bottom of the tea cup, others prefer to flip the cup over and read the leaves laid out on the saucer.

The tea must be loose leaf, though, since bagged tea doesn't leave enough leaf behind to read!

Osteomancy

Bone casting! This form of divination may sound a bit brutal or macabre to some, but to others it's a way to tell the future or answer your questions.

Bone casting can be done with strictly bones, but some may add shells, rocks, and other bits and pieces to their preference.

The meaning of the pieces often depends on the person casting them, but bone casting kits can be found for people who are new and looking for guidance!

(Make sure that you're being safe and respectful, and that your bones are ethically sourced)

Scrying

Going by other names like seeing, or peeping, Scrying is a form of divination where your main tools are your intuition and psychic ability.

While the other forms of divination mentioned also use these abilities, scrying relies on them heavily since there is only one other item used. The medium that you look at in order to scry.

This could be a bowl of water, a flame, a black mirror, a regular mirror, a crystal ball (like in the movies!), etc.

Practitioners use the medium, to see visions, images, or messages that help to answer the question asked.

~~~

There are so many more ways to practice divination, I've found a whole list of them. As such, I do plan on making more divination posts in the future once I've done more research on them.

If you'd like me to go more in detail about these forms of divination or if you'd like me to talk about other forms let me know!

[missredherring]

now that we've talked about seraphim's divinational leanings--tell me about specter's. i'm curious to see in what ways they're alike (and in what ways that aspect of specter's person carries over from your like, day-to-day reality).

Specter’s background with Divination!!!

Divination runs in her family. An uncle reads playing cards, an aunt reads tea leaves. Her grandmother read tarot cards and her mother does astrology. Her grandmother tried to teach her to read the cards when she was young, but she never got in to it very much. 

Not learning didn’t stop her from using it though. When she was having trouble with school, or her friends, or her own growing up she would go to her grandmother. She would say “Come on, sweetie. Lets see what the cards have to say.” And they’d talk through whatever the problem was, exploring what the cards had to offer and her grandmother’s own sage advice. 

It wasn’t until she was away at college, and a year after her grandmother passed, when Louise found a favored tarot deck in a box. It kept showing up in places until she finally read with it. The reading was a message from her grandmother, asking her to embrace her gifts and use her talents to help others. There were hints about her future. Vague promises of happiness and love, the usual fortune teller’s spiel.

She started learning in earnest, remembering the lessons she had as a child and learning from the internet and the few honest tarot readers she could find. She went to work on the holistic circuit, going from convention to convention, giving readings and following ghost stories. 

Louise wasn’t sure where the answers were coming from. She didn’t believe in God. Or she did, but she didn’t think he was the only one. Gods made more sense. Something about the thought felt right in her chest. Deities, spirits, her higher-self. Whatever she was connecting with as she practiced, she was getting better and better at deciphering the coded language it spoke in. 

At one of those conventions Miriam sat down at her table and asked questions throughout her reading. Why did you say this, what made you phrase it this way instead of that; gauging Louise’s skills and instincts. She left the table with a twinkle in her eye. When the convention was finished Miriam approached Louise and offered her a job, an internship, an apprenticeship. 

Louise could smell her grandmother’s perfume around them when she accepted the offer.