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I Don’t Believe Tarot Cards Predict the Future, but Rather Guide and Inspire the Future

My personal view on all things mystical is that they are tools to connect with each other and ourselves. Viewed in this light, mysticism is more accessible because it doesn’t require anything to be accepted as fact, but rather requires deep engagement with the self. For example, I don’t believe tarot cards predict the future (but if you do, I deeply respect that) but rather guide and inspire that future—a card I pull provides a fresh and unique vantage point from which to consider my life and life’s circumstances. And is that not its own sort of future prediction? If I pull a card and commit to carrying that card’s message, then in a way the card did create that future. But it’s not that the card has any special power, but rather I have the power to bestow meaning and manifestation into that card, and consequently into my life, and consequently into the lives of those around me.

Recently, basking in the glow of the strawberry moon, I did a three-card tarot reading. The final card I pulled was meant to illuminate my future. I pulled “The Fool,” a card with themes of spontaneity, innocence, leaping from the nest, excitement, naïveté, and inexperience.

Like many Black women, growing up (and to this day) I was not allowed to be naïveté or innocent. I was (and still am) expected to know everything, have it together, be strong, and take care of others—and l did, and I do. But this summer I am naïveté and innocent. I am a tiny baby relative to who I will become. I don’t have to go back to my childhood to find my beginning, I can be born today and every day.