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You will find a great deal of variation in personal beliefs around the Tarot and how it works, but the following sets of belief broadly covers the ground:
- Tarot cards have some intrinsic supernatural or magical power which can be invoked to discover what is hidden, whether this is the future, your lover's heart or the depths of your own soul.
- Tarot does not have any intrinsic power in itself, but some power or supernatural force ensures that you receive exactly the right cards in the right positions to help you decipher the answer. This "power" can be represented by spirit guides, guardian angels, your inner guide, higher self, Spirit (also called Source, the source of everything in the universe), or even the universe itself.
- The cards have no intrinsic power, but you use them to guide and focus your own intuition and/or psychic sense to arrive at an answer or solution. Some believe that you are aided in this by forces or beings such as those mentioned in the previous point. The power is within you, in other words.
- Tarot cards have no intrinsic power, but synchronicity assures that, when you need it, the cards will be able to offer you a “snapshot” of your life. The “meaningful coincidence” occurs when that specific moment in your life and the cards you choose reflect each other.
- Whether the cards can actually predict the future or not is a contentious point. Most often even those who believe the cards can be used for future-telling will point out that the future is malleable, that every day we act in a way that will have an influence on our future. Practitioners sometimes change the “outcome” card to “probable outcome”, i.e. the outcome most likely if current conditions prevail.
- What almost all Tarot practitioners have in common, is the assumption that the cards can be used for “divination”, which can be defined as uncovering hidden information, whether this is about the future, a situation, a relationship or what your spirit guides want you to know.
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