Students share superstitious pasttimes
May 12, 2015
Tarot cards have often been recognized as being a portal into the future within popular culture. Within books and movies, tarot cards are used by old ladies with long hair and bony fingers. They are read by these ladies in a tent, where ignorant passersby can pay an obscene amount of money for fake fortunes. What not many people know is that tarot card reading is becoming a real movement, and anyone can do it — even in their bedroom. This is the case for Lindsay Concepcion (’15), who found tarot card reading and can now read her cards anywhere she pleases.
Tarot cards consist of 78 cards, four suits of 14 cards each (the minor arcana) and 22 others (the major arcana). Concepcion had seen references to the cards around her daily life — in films, music, and books, and became interested in the culture. Her interest peaked during spring break when she found a deck of tarot cards and a witch shop and has been training with them since.
“[In training] I pretty much get used to the deck and the shuffling,” Concepcion said.
Concepcion memorizes the basic meanings of the cards and once she feels comfortable she sets them in different layouts and does a reading. The cards she normally uses are vintage and zombie themed, and are what she has been using to trains since she first began her hobby.
“The training I do is not a thing everyone does,” Concepcion said.
Juniors Viviana Ricart and Lizzie Engdahl have both had experiences with tarot card readings. The pair were at the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee where they found a fortune teller in a red tent. The teller, who worked mainly in palm reading, agreed to read the tarot cards for the two girls. Racist decided to only stay outside, but Engdahl agreed to the experience. Yet from outside the tent, Ricart was impressed with what she saw.
“There was so much stuff happening that I’d never seen before,” Ricart said.
When Engdahl went in the tent, the reader told Engdahl she was an artist, and that she had a lot of confidence, but trouble maintaining it.
“It was more accurate than I expected it would be,” Engdahl said.
Cards are generally read by having a person cut the card deck or choose the cards individually, followed by the cards being spread out in front of the reader in a way the reader chooses. The reader then asks the person to choose a card from each position within the spread. After that, the reader can interpret the cards.
“It’s a good tool to use for generating ideas on what path you should take and things to look out for,” Concepcion said.
Junior Sophia Hall, who recently purchased a deck of tarot cards after seeing how popular they were amongst her peers, says tarot cards should not be used to decide one’s future.
“I don’t really use [tarot cards] as a thing to tell the future and what’s going to happen,” Hall said, “it’s really just for fun.”
Concepcion agrees with Hall and recommends only reading the cards as amusement and says to stay away from following them religiously.
“No magic should ever be taken 100 percent seriously. 90 percent is okay. You shouldn’t be willing to die for it,” Concepcion said.
parkeoli000 • May 28, 2015 at 10:17 pm
This article offers a different perspective, one that has not been proposed in many other articles throughout the year. Glad to see an article that is something out of the basics.