When you do a tarot reading, there is no guarantee that what the cards say is going to be 100% accurate. The cards are not a foolproof tool to read into your future, whether it is you doing your tarot reading or a professional tarot reader. Often, in the world of tarot and tarot readers, you will hear people discussing whether their tarot reading resonates with them or not. This can sometimes be more important than accuracy or anything else! But what does it mean? And how can you tell if a tarot reading resonates with you?
What to expect from a tarot reading
Before you can determine whether or not a tarot reading resonates with you, you’ll need to know what to expect from tarot readings. Whether you’re going to visit tarot readers or doing it yourself, this will help you to manage your expectations and to understand what the tarot cards are actually trying to tell you. Too many people assume that tarot cards used for a personal psychic reading can tell you exactly what’s in store for your future, but that is not true. Tarot cards are a tool to help you to explore your options, chances and feelings, and the way that they are interpreted can help you to figure out what needs to be done in your life to get you where you want to go. It sounds confusing, but it’s based a lot on your own intuition as well as your readers.
During a tarot card reading, you can expect your tarot reader (or yourself if you are doing your own reading) to pull a number of cards from their tarot deck. They will likely have asked a question either aloud or in their head beforehand, based on the information you’ve given them. If you’re just after a general reading, this may not be the case.
Once the cards have been pulled, the tarot reader will place them on the table in a ‘spread’. The tarot spread that they choose will depend on the reading they are doing as well as what you’ve asked. You might then get asked whether you want to turn any of the cards around, as the direction that the tarot cards are facing affects their meaning when it comes to reading tarot.
The cards are then in place, and the reading can begin. Reading tarot takes a lot of practice, so it is important to work with a tarot reader who has sufficient experience. They will turn each card over, and, depending on your question and where the card sits, this will represent an element of the solution or answer. For general readings, this might just be a “past”, “present moment” , “future” layout, or it may be a bit more nuanced.
Each tarot card has its own meaning; the minor arcana cards have meanings within their suits, and the major arcana cards have bigger meanings independently. The way that the reader (whether that is you or someone else) relates these cards back to you will depend on which are pulled, the direction, the placement, and much more.
What does “resonate” mean?
When you are getting a tarot reading, whether that’s a group reading or you’ve done your own reading with your own cards, you might find that the cards you pull don’t really draw your attention. They might feel unrelated to your life or to the questions you seek answers for. This would be a reading that does not resonate with you.
Alternatively, you may find that a tarot reading really jumps out at you. Everything feels like something you’ve been needing to hear, or you can sense that it really is a good insight into how you’re feeling and your life at the present moment. This is the feeling you will get when reading does resonate with you.
What does it mean if a reading doesn’t resonate with me?
You may feel if a tarot reading does not resonate with you, that you’ve been scammed or that you’ve lost out. But that is not necessarily the case!
If a tarot reading doesn’t resonate with you, it might just mean that your desires and needs at that moment do not match up with the advice on the cards. It might even be that your desires are standing in the way of the cards!
This might mean that you need to wait for the cards’ meanings to reveal themselves to you. Perhaps over the next few days, weeks or even years, things will happen and pieces of the puzzle will change until you eventually get that “aha!” moment, and you understand exactly what the tarot cards were trying to tell you.
Are tarot readings that I do on myself more likely to resonate?
Not necessarily, no. Doing tarot readings on yourself is a great way to practice and can really help with learning tarot, but they do not always have more power than readings done by another person. In fact, if you’re still learning tarot, you might find that the cards resonate with you less because you aren’t familiar with how best to interpret the cards!
Not resonating with a tarot reading can happen to anyone at any point, with any reading. Similarly, resonating with a reading can happen to anyone. Often, professional readers find themselves reading tarot cards for one client or even for a wide audience and will resonate with the cards! This can be a weird experience, and in the interest of professionalism, they will keep it to themselves, but it just goes to show how unpredictable tarot reading can be!