====== My Reading Philosophy ======
My approach to Tarot is as rational as Tarot can be. That is to say, I don't view Tarot as a tool for divination, predicting future outcomes, or controlling what any free-willed person does. I've found, pretty consistently, that Tarot readings serve to reinforce important cultural and ethnic archetypes that are innate to white, Western, European-descended civilization <sup>//[[philosophy:start#tab_why_genetics|(see note)]]//</sup>. These archetypes matter, because they help us contextualize and understand the world around us. Human behavior isn't predetermined or predestined, but there are basic behavioral characteristics common among any population that form the basis of a cohesive society with share ideals and values and expectations.

When I first started seriously examining and researching Tarot, Robert Place's [[tarot:reviews:alchemical|Alchemical Tarot]] deck was my guide, and his deck includes deep, consistent imagery around the idea of [[philosophy:balance]] in the alchemical allegory of the Major Arcana. I've learned that balance is a lot more important than enforcing some ideal of [[philosophy:absolutism]], where things are purely evil or purely righteous. As a result, I don't view a Tarot reading as any message of what's "the right thing to do".

Instead, I view the cards as the building blocks of a narrative. Sometimes it's very accurate, in the way that a preacher's biblical selection one Sunday strikes you deep in your heart, in a different way from your average sermon. Other times it's generic, and it takes a little introspection to see how it might apply to your life. Since the cards depict normal human archetypes we've consistently seen throughout western human history - remember, the first French cards were very Catholic! - it becomes easier over time to apply their narrative to your life in the real world.

Again, I liken this a lot to bible study. The difference is that you're not reading a book that was set by a council of fallible humans in the Roman Empire who were choosing a specific dogmatic creed and therefore selecting writings that endorsed that chosen creed, which provably synthesized a lot of Roman non-Christian folk beliefs into its ideals. Instead, you're taking the parables of the human condition - the beggar who is so focused on his own plight he doesn't realize help is right in front of him, or the miser who is overly consumed with amassing wealth (whatever that wealth may be) that he's forgotten what matters, or the picture of an abundant family unit that puts the health of itself before the individual - and turning them into a sort of algorithm, which uses the layout of a spread to make it easy to remember which card happens to align with which indicator.

I never expect a Tarot reading to tell me something I don't know. You can call that confirmation bias, but I call it considering other angles of what I've already decided to do, just in case I'm missing something worth noticing. I've considered doing readings for other people, but so far, I've found it to be too personal to be something I could do for a stranger. Not only that, but I'm pretty uncomfortable with the idea of someone basically asking me to make a decision for them. People need to make their own decisions, not depend on a deck of cards and a Tarot reader to "point them in the right direction".

I'd already decided to make a major career and life change when I decided to read a spread on the outlook for my decision. The results were extremely positive. Does that mean I won't change direction if it becomes obvious I need to? Of course not. More than anything, it helped me emotionally move on, which allowed me realize that it was okay to accept the idea of leaving my current job...which was something I'd had a really hard with even //considering//. Once I was actually ready to move on, it became a lot more clear what to do next.

By the way - because I read Tarot as a narrative rather than a roll of the fortune-telling dice, I do not use reversals, and I discourage their use. Reversals suffer two flaws: they distract the reader from the artwork, which is usually designed to be read one-way (I know there are some specific decks with bidirectional artwork), and they encourage [[philosophy:absolutism]]. When you're reading cards that put things into black-and-white negatives and positives, it's a lot harder to understand how the spread's story might relate to you in real life. It's also harder to look at an upside-down picture, which is an important part of narrative Tarot reading. I agree with both Robert M. Place and Benebell Wen's general view on reversals, but I'm probably less open-minded about it than they are, and I'm ok with that. I'm no expert, just putting out what I've found makes sense.

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