Why do tarot cards so accurately display human emotions? What properties do they possess that allows them to seemingly read minds, diagnose distress, and predict the future? Do the cards possess the powers of mysticism or math? The answers to these questions may be surprising.
The Tarot Card Test
Those who claim Tarot Cards use magical and mystical powers can test whether these claims are real very easily. All one needs to do is think of a question, and see which of the cards could conceivably answer that question. A standard Tarot Card deck has 78 cards. If, after going through all of the cards, one finds that 13 cards offer an adequate answer, then in the long run, about one out of every six "one card readings" will result in a correct answer -- exactly the same as blind chance.
Why Do Tarot Cards Seem Like Magic?
If, as mentioned above, Tarot Cards operate under the normal rules of blind chance, how do they produce seemingly magical and mystical results? The answer lies in the math of the cards. As per the aforementioned estimates, if one chooses a card at random from the deck, they only have about a 17% chance of getting a card that answers them -- a poor result. But what about choosing multiple cards for one reading? If one does the mathematical permutations, it turns out that it takes just four cards for the probability of not drawing one correct card to fall below 50%. A seven card reading has the probability falling to 26%, and at a 14-card reading, the probability is at just 5%, meaning the psychic will appear to get it right 19 times out of 20.
How Do Tarot Cards Work?
Each "suit" in Tarot Cards contains 14 cards, and each suit is tailored to a specific category of human concern and emotion. It is likely that, given the meanings that each card contains, at least one, and probably multiple "correct" cards will appear in the majority of psychic readings. Given that these cards often provide long sought-after advice, it is easy to remember the hits and forget the misses.
The Human Power of Tarot Cards
Aside from chance, which as mentioned, actually works to the tarot reader's benefit, there are two other key elements to the success and usefulness of Tarot Cards. The first is the cards themselves. The meanings of the cards, as well as their categories, were obviously created by someone with a firm grasp of human nature. A blend of mysticism and psychology were likely responsible for the first tarot card deck. The second key element is the psychic Tarot reader. A healthy dose of empathy and the ability to understand what people want to hear without their having to completely spell it out can seem like the symptoms of psychic abilities, but often, it's simply the traits of someone who is simply good and understanding and comforting people.
Tarot Cards are constructed to answer the most common questions -- love, money, family woes, and so on. The nature of how the cards are constructed, the empathic abilities of the psychic reader, and the mathematical distribution of the cards creates the powerful impression of mystical powers. This may be how Tarot Cards work their magic.
Jared Plotkin - I recently graduated from UC Irvine and I am trying to make a career out of freelance writing. I enjoy writing about a wide variety of ...
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