Predictable
A television meteorologist stands in front of a weather chart.
This week, I participated in a discussion that Mary K. Greer started online that got me thinking. While the discussion covered some far-reaching topics, the part that inspired me (and therefore this newsletter) was about fortune-telling—that is, the future predictions that many diviners make regularly.
The topic of discussion was not whether it is wise to predict the future with tarot, specifically, or with divination in general. However, this is also an ongoing conversation (or debate) within our larger community. I am not addressing the particulars of that question here, but I will say that I make predictions regularly. I recognize that predictions are just that—an educated guess about what could happen to help us be better prepared.
The primary discussion was about artificial intelligence, or AI. Mary and I came to the following question: When we are asked to make future predictions, does the rise of unprecedented cultural change make it more difficult to see ahead? How much must we look to the past to determine the future?
We both felt there was something important to explore here, but in that moment, we had no answers.
Many professionals predict the future as part of their jobs. Arguably, any good C-Suite pro is excellent at looking ahead. Wealth advisors, trend spotters, pollsters, futurists, sportscasters, and meteorologists are all paid to predict the future. I joke that we diviners often get it right more often than the non-mystical predictors do. We hear the term “read the tea leaves” more often on political podcasts than podcasts that teach and discuss divination.
Everybody makes predictions. People often say, “I knew that would happen” or “I had a feeling you would do that.” Usually, those predictions are indeed based on knowledge of the past. If someone did something a certain way before, they are likely to do it that way again, or so the thinking goes. This illustrates the quandary of making predictions in unprecedented times. If we have never seen something behave before, can we know how it will act in the future?
My answer is that, while I am a huge proponent of logical thinking in all things, including divination, there is a time when logic is no longer helpful in predicting the future, and we must trust the mystical process.
An illustration of that was the US presidential election in 2000, where the Supreme Court ultimately decided the outcome due to the ‘hanging chads’ in Florida. That was the first election season of my career when I could not get a sense of which candidate might win the election. My inability to glimpse who would win greatly confused me until I realized I had been asking the wrong question and could not interpret what I saw.
Logically, I could not anticipate the idea that one of the candidates would not officially win through the electoral college. Never in my lifetime had a president been appointed. Had I approached the cards I had drawn without the fetters of logic, I might have seen what was to happen.
One of the words we often use in the same paragraph as ‘unprecedented’ is ‘uncertain’. The maps and models we have relied on may no longer help us understand what is likely to happen next.
In uncertain times, perhaps we must rely on future prediction more, not less. Maybe we must trust our mystical nature over our logical nature, and open ourselves to asking questions we had never before thought to ask. I believe this is true in life as much as it is in divination.
The more unprecedented something is, the more uncertainty there will be. The more uncertainty there is, the more we need to ask new questions and anticipate answers that are different from what we have seen before. To do that, the logic from understanding our experiences will not always help us. When logic fails, intuition and our connection to spirit must guide us to the right questions.
The StaarCon 5 Imagining of Pixie Arcana. Art and composition by Stacey Williams-Ng, backgrounds by Animix.
The StaarCorner
We had some really great lounge events in May, and many more are planned for June. June will also be special because we are planning to announce StaarCon 6! Get ready for some great new features and some of your old favorites.
I wanted to share something from last week's lounge session on Tarot and Mediumship. We considered how the dearly departed may speak through us in a tarot reading for those who are not naturally reliable mediums. Here is the list we agreed upon.
Mediumship happens in a tarot reading in the following ways.
The client asks, “Who is around me?” We pull cards to answer that question and give a message.
The client requests a message from a departed loved one or is recently bereaved. We use the cards to get information about the loved one’s experiences and their message.
We spontaneously experience something not specifically in the cards but triggered within the container of sacred space. This experience may lead to a trance state in which information is relayed. This experience may be visual, auditory, a thought, a memory, a scent, or something we feel physically.
We also discussed that we very often need to be present for grieving people, and what an essential, delicate, and sacred duty that is.
Finally, we agreed that using tarot makes us more psychic over time and more receptive to communication from those in spirit.
One of StaarCon's most outstanding values is that it is not only a weekend but a whole year of community growth, healing, and learning.
We will have quite a few lounge events in June. Here are the next two.
On Tuesday, June 3, join Frank Kwiatkowski for Frank's Rock-and-Roll Tarot Lounge. Meet at 6 pm ET.
Are you ready to combine your love for tarot with your passion for rock music? We'll have a lively discussion identifying tarot cards that best correlate to your favorite songs.
On Saturday, June 7, at 8 pm ET, join Alyassia Taylor for Tarot Vibes: A Full Moon Tarot Prep Journey. Expect insights from tarot, sound healing, and the energy of the full moon. Get ready to set intentions, release what no longer serves you, and invite transformation into your life.
Benebell Wen and Christiana Gaudet pose at StaarCon 2024.
Friends interpret cards together.
Tarot Reading Styles
Each tarot reader has their own unique ways of working with the cards and with spirit. One of the things many of us who are predictive readers caution about is that it is best to present predictions as possibilities, rather than suggesting that the future is always written in stone and always knowable. Anyone with experience forecasting the future knows that some things are more predictable than others.
Some readers are not predictive at all. They will help you plan for the future, process the past, and understand the present. But they will not say what might happen next. This is a choice in reading style, just as different readers use different decks and techniques.
If you are someone who loves tarot but does not feel comfortable predicting the future, do not despair! A non-predictive reading style is valid. Here’s a pro tip for you. When using tarot spreads, any predictive position, such as ‘Future’ or ‘Final Outcome’, can be interpreted as advice going into the future, rather than a prediction for the future. You might say, “As you look to the future, consider this,” rather than, “You may soon encounter this.”
Every good tarot reader develops their tarot reading style in a way that is ongoing over time. That style is based primarily on the reader’s ethics, skills, and belief system. We each have our own relationship with the cards and we each have our own ways of working with them.
A girl studies tarot online.
The Week in Review
Have you noticed that I am now livestreaming on YouTube in the vertical format (better for phones) and the usual format? I also multi-stream on Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, and sometimes TikTok. You can sometimes catch me doing live reading pop-ups on TikTok.
My YouTube channel has a wealth of material for tarot students and scholars, as well as weekly free reading live streams and monthly livestream classes. Please subscribe and consider becoming a member!
From Around the Web
Since she inspired the newsletter this week, and since we are talking about prediction, here is a post from Mary that many of us have bookmarked. This is a spread to help you use tarot to answer yes/no questions.
This week, the Pew Research Center reported that thirty percent of Americans consult astrologers, tarot card readers, and fortune tellers. (I could have told them this.)
I have not watched this yet, but I am brimming with excitement. This episode of the Nice Girls Don’t Win podcast reveals a tarot card reading as part of the journey that brought Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce together. Taylor Swift and Tarot in the same conversation? I think I am in heaven!
Friends gather for tea and tarot.
Communities
Dire future predictions can lead people to gather in community to prepare for the fall of society. As much as I am a fan of dystopian fiction, I am also a fan of putting my energy into ensuring society improves.
One of the things that always restores my faith in my neighbors is our local tarot meetup. I have been running a free or low-cost local tarot group since before the start of Meetup.com. Except for a few months when preparing for a big interstate move and then for a year during the pandemic, I have hosted a local tarot meetup wherever I happen to be living and working each month for the last twenty-five years. Our local meetup has gathered monthly at Panera Bread in Palm City, Florida, for the past nine years.
The discussions we have online about tarot, divination, and spirituality in general are amazing. To have these discussions in person is truly a gift.
So many people living far away from me tell me they wish they could attend my meetups. While I do believe I offer something special, I always say the same thing: Start your own, wherever you are!
We are unique, so no two local tarot communities will be the same, but they can all be excellent. You do not have to be a teacher or a professional reader to run a great meetup. A tarot group or gathering can be any way you want it to be, and it will still be great!
Unseen hands leafing through a calendar.
Upcoming Events
Christiana Gaudet and Brenda Nicklaus at Bush Wildlife Center, Circa 2009.
About Christiana Gaudet
Card and Craft, Inc.
Southeastern Tarot Artists and Readers, LLC.
Christiana Gaudet
770 SE Indian Street Suite 10
Stuart, Florida 34997-5604
Locations in Port Saint Lucie, West Palm Beach, and Stuart, Florida!
Email cgaudet@cardandcraft.com
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Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 8 Issue 22
May 28, 2025
Christiana Gaudet Your Tarot Fairy Godmother banner.
Join us for "Autumn Arcana Class Three: Spread the Word!" on December 16, 7-8:30 pm at W Executive Suites, Stuart, FL. Discover ways to perform a tarot reading.