What is Cartomancy?

Cartomancy is a practice of finding organization and meaning in a variety of tarot, oracle, or even standard playing cards. This practice involves many diverse systems that go as far back as the 14th century shortly after playing cards were invented. Most traditionally, cartomancy  is a form of divination, whereby the reader communicates with entities or predicts future events. However, cartomancy has evolved over centuries to incorporate many new viewpoints to communicate both the practice of reading cards and its value. There is no one right way to conduct or interpret card readings, as it is a personal decision by the reader to decide what beliefs they may have. 

From a purely psychological perspective, reading cards can help us reframe situations from our lives by offering new perspectives. Human cognition is evolutionarily designed to recognize patterns in information, visual arrays, and across concepts. As we continue to recognize patterns, we can develop schemas around what a visual array, like a card or combination of cards, is telling us. In many ways, seeing patterns shapes our understanding of the world. Sometimes we find ourselves relying on mental sets, or predisposed solutions we’ve come to expect will fix our problems. When we find ourselves in complex or difficult situations, card reading can provide a new narrative that may present fresh lenses through which we can evaluate what is and isn’t working in our lives, and what we could try in the future. We do this by interpreting patterns in cards and relating them to one another, their meanings and their relevancy in our lives. In this way, card reading can be a psychological framework for introspection. Sometimes we may look to the cards to validate a bias we already have towards a situation, which can tell us about what we want to happen, or not want to happen, deep down. It’s important to be aware of moments like this while also welcoming the process of tarot providing new frameworks to evaluate our lives.

If entire card spreads seem daunting, many find comfort in the routine of pulling a daily card to set an intention for that day’s activities. With a specific card in mind, we can pay more attention to opportunities that align with our card, appearing us to fulfill our daily intentions. Psychologically speaking, this primes us to pay more attention to moments that align with our card which allows us to think or act differently when faced with a challenging situation.

There are many misconceptions and superstitions around tarot, such as the belief that it’s bad luck for a practitioner to choose their own deck and instead should wait until one is gifted to them. I argue that you know yourself best and will feel more confident in your readings should you feel a strong connection to your deck, its theme, and its artwork and interpretations. This takes time and practice, so feel free to experiment with many decks during your journey and develop your own preferences for imagery and interpretation.

For some, it helps to cleanse a deck before using it, or periodically cleansing a deck to “refresh” its energy. This helps practitioners feel that they are shedding the energy of old readings and starting with a clean slate. If you choose to partake in this practice, you can cleanse your deck with moonlight, sunlight, sound, or even knocking on your deck to “wake it up” and signal that it’s time for a reading. You will develop your own rituals with time, whether they be psychological and/or spiritual.

This is all to say, cartomancy can be practical, mystical, or a combination of both. As you develop an understanding of card reading and build a relationship with your deck, you’ll learn what it means to you. Remember, there are no wrong ways to use tarot as long as you feel you’re in a healthy mental space to do so. Keep in mind that tarot is merely a suggestion of one of many possibilities, so don’t get too down if a reading gives you different guidance than you were inspecting. This doesn’t mean you chose your cards wrong, or didn’t cleanse your deck properly, and it doesn’t mean that misfortune is necessarily waiting right around the corner. My advice is to focus on how it makes you feel and channel that energy into working towards results you want to see in your life.