Mediumship and Tarot Cards: Taboo? Exploring what it means to be a Medium and use Divination Tools

If you’ve been browsing through various Mediumship and Psychic communities and forums you may have noticed that the subject of using Tarot Cards may be taboo. Many people, perhaps even you, have the idea that using Tarot Cards or other tools of Divination nullifies a Medium’s abilities. This is my experience as a Psychic Medium and how I began connecting with those in Spirit.

Tarot Cards were taboo in my life. While I did not grow up in an overtly religious household, I did attend a private Christian school previous to entering high school. Here I was regularly taught not to explore any other religious ideas or spiritual practices and certainly to stay far away from even contemplating interacting with something like tarot cards or Ouija boards. And like most of you, I had heard the pop culture urban legends of becoming haunted by using tools of divination or how so and so’s sister got possessed by doing such and such ritual. Growing up I was conditioned to think tarot cards were synonymous with ouija boards and a sure ticket to inviting in demonic energy.

I am a Medium. I receive clairaudient messages from those who are in spirit. I also see clairvoyant visions and work with Higher Dimensional beings, Spirit Guides and have prophetic dreams. I also use tarot and oracle cards. Despite my upbringing, I was called in my late 20’s begin experimenting with tarot cards as a way to explore my abilities, investigate whom I was speaking with and most importantly, how to trust in myself and my abilities. Tarot cards taught me lessons about discernment, how to interpret messages from a perspective outside my own ego and also how to conserve my life force energy.

So, was it all sunshine and rainbows as soon as I picked up a tarot deck? No. It wasn’t. Did it work right away? Yes. It did. Tarot can be very blunt, especially depending on who’s using it. I often notice that Spirit takes the path of least resistance to get the message across. And depending on the question being asked, can be a little too intense. The flip side to this is that when you are first developing your mediumship abilities it is a good exercise to really contemplate the information being given to you, where it is from, what is the intention behind it and your personal preferences for even participating in this exchange.

Starting with a tool that gives you a place to start in how you receive messages without opening yourself to receive communication like a radio that is on 24/7, in my opinion, can be healthy. It can be a stepping stone to feeling safe to explore opening yourself further to communication with spirits, perhaps through automatic writing or channeling. Using a tool as an intermediary can also give you a way to practice ritual in your spiritual practice surrounding using your mediumship abilities. A way to begin and end a session and establish boundaries.

But why tarot cards? That is the magic and mystery of how Spirit works within each of us. Using tarot cards does garner a certain distrust among some potential clientele. It may cause some people to distrust the full magnitude of your abilities. For me, using cards gives me a way not to spend all of my life force energy with one client. I need some for myself afterall, and what I am offering has to commensurate with what the client is expecting and at an affordable price. Channeling through mediumship purely using clairaudience and 3rd eye sight is exhausting. It may feel like your life force is literally depleting. And it might be. After doing an intense session of mediumship and Healing work a practitioner will need rest to remain healthy and in balance. My personal views are that as a practitioner it is important for me not to feel unwell after a session and I also believe that is not in Spirit’s plan for me and my gifts. My mission is to stay healthy and in alignment so I can continue to be blessed with the ability to bring healing to others. Using tarot and oracle cards helps me to conserve my energy by giving me some of the general context of a reading without having an entire conversation, from small talk to healing, with someone who is no longer on this plane of existence.

In my case, using tarot cards also came with facing some amount of religious shame from others but also from within. I am grateful for being shown a way to face these issues that can remain an underlying cause of religious oppression. What I shed in shame, I gained in standing in my authentic truth to my individual spiritual beliefs and practices. Which are ever evolving. I too, like many, was tempted to avoid anything negative that could have come from picking up a taboo divination tool. The lessons, trust and skill I learned from using this tool are invaluable, in my experience. But everyone will have their own unique calling and ways to get there.

Using cards doesn’t change that within the same reading I also channel guidance directly from the Divine. Using cards doesn’t prohibit me from saying something just the way your loved one is Spirit would have said to you in this life. I am writing this account for those of you who are contemplating these same things. People who are developing mediums and practicing mediums. People who are working to strengthen their practice and exploring new points of view. People who also are members of online communities that are supposedly dedicated to people who are mediums and developing their skills. When it turns out, most of those communities and forums end up being about people who are seeking readings. And lets be honest, seeking readings for free. I intend for this account to be an alternate and honest perspective to the idea that using tools of divination makes you less talented, less blessed, less magical or less connected to Spirit.

You decide that. No one else.

Best wishes to each of you on your journey who read this article.