Tarot Cards

 An elderly woman shuffles her cards and passes them to her client, an elegant young woman in her gray coat and heels who sits anxiously while her jewelry glitters in the mesmerizing lights of the  candles burning around her. The dark scent of the dripping candles shrouded the room as she stares at the cards showing her the future of the new employment she’s chosen, “The Hermit”, “The Tower” and “Nine Of Swords” lay still on the cold marble table as the gloomy figures of destruction displayed alongside the elements of melancholy. Her concerned expression turned towards the elderly woman who muttered in her deep cold voice “you are lost dear, this new job of yours… is a result of your desperation to be employed, only to result in sadness and infamy if you accept the offer”. 

  Throughout history, the question of what the future holds had always intrigued humanity and people have always been curious about the future. The desperation to get a sneak peak into the future eventually gave rise to divination, from the extreme forms of necromancy and trance mediums to minor forms of Ogham readings and tarot Cards. It is no secret that people have been using tarot cards to foresee the future and to make decisions that would potentially significantly impact their lives such as getting a new job or a change in career or even selecting which course to study in a university. 

  Tarot cards came about to existence around the late 14^th century when they first started off as playing cards in Europe during the period. However during the 1700s their fame switched to fortune telling, foretelling one’s future in many aspects of life. Five suits govern the deck with Swords, Cups, Pentacles, Wands and Major Arcana cards which are combined with the experience of interpretation and connections between cards along with the type of spread the reader chooses to use to tell the story of the person’s journey in the future.  The most common deck used for the sole purpose of fortune telling today is the “Rider-Waite” deck, designed by tarot reader A. Waite and William Rider in 1900s. 

  Despite modernization and the uproar of technology in today’s world, it is surprising to know that this mysterious yet simple method of fortune telling is more commonly used today than in any other time before. It is believed that tarot cards can help in decision making and alter outcomes to bend towards more favorable ones by reading the messages channeled through the cards and making a just decision based on the messages. At its most simplest form, tarot cards reveal the different challenges or events that one might experience in a journey,  they can represent people in their lives who play different roles or even pointing out the villain and the nobleman in the journey that is being questioned. 

  Although one might believe wholeheartedly and imply their full trust onto tarot cards, it is always important to avoid extreme superstition and develop an obsession with divination. 

Would you ever try tarot reading? 

by Lai En Chong