A psychologist discusses why many people perceive tarot cards as accurate.

Close your eyes for a second and imagine this scene: someone shuffles a deck, places three cards in front of you, and without asking you anything, begins to describe in detail what you are feeling. Your doubts. Your fears. That topic you’ve been avoiding. And the most disturbing thing: everything fits.

The reaction is almost automatic: “How could he know that about me?”

For years, that question has divided people into two camps. For some, it is proof of something “beyond”. For others, it’s pure deception. But there is a third possibility, much more human and, for that very reason, just as shocking: the tarot can feel accurate not because it guesses your future, but because it activates deep mechanisms of your mind.

Enter Charles Morgan, a psychologist with a background in neuroscience and experience in mentalism, who decided to test that “accuracy” in difficult conditions: live readings, for strangers, without knowing their names or questions.

The experiment that changed everything: more than 400 readings without knowing the question

Morgan says that, during a period of intensive practice, he did hundreds of readings with a single rule:
the person had to think of an important question, but not say it out loud.

Still, many ended up emotional, crying or repeating the same phrase:
“This was exactly what I needed to hear.”

And if the tarot reader didn’t know the question… how could the answer feel so specific?

“Inner magic”: when the tarot works like a mirror

According to Morgan, the tarot would not be an external magic that “discovers hidden information,” but an internal magic: a system of symbols that acts as a mirror.

The cards are full of ambiguous images but loaded with human meaning: figures, paths, falls, decisions, breakups, hope, loss, desire, control, fear. Your mind, when you see them, does what it does best:

• interprets,
• connect,
• Remember,
• Fill in what’s missing
• and build a story that makes sense.

It’s not that the letter “reads you.” It’s that you read yourself through the letter.

Pareidolia: why we see messages where there are only patterns

There is a key neurological phenomenon to understand it: pareidolia (or paraidolia). It’s what happens when you see recognizable shapes in random stimuli: a face in a blob, an animal in the clouds, “something” in a crack.

Your brain hates the void of meaning. That is why he looks for patterns even where there are none.

Something similar happens with the tarot: the cards offer rich, symbolic and open visual stimuli. And your mind does the rest. If you are emotionally sensitive, anxious, creative or in a moment of searching, that “meaning machine” works harder.

Jung, archetypes and the feeling that “this spoke to me”

Another important piece is in the psychology of Carl Jung: the collective unconscious and archetypes. Jung said that there are universal patterns (the hero, the shadow, the sage, the lover, the transformation) that appear in myths, dreams and stories of all cultures.

The tarot is built with that language: symbols that your mind recognizes even if you can’t explain it logically.

That’s why a reading can feel so intimate: not because the letter knows your story, but because it touches on internal structures that are already in you. The letter only “ignites” something.

The Power of Ritual: It’s Not Divination, It’s Focus

There is also something very potent about the ritual itself:

• To stop you,
• Breathe,
• Focus on one question,
• look at images,
• Listen to a possible narrative.

That framework reduces mental noise, lowers anxiety, and puts you in introspection mode. In that state, it’s easier to see what you normally avoid: an emotional truth, a fear, a postponed decision, a real need.

So the tarot doesn’t give you “facts.” It gives you perspective. And perspective can change your life, even without magic.

So… is it an illusion?

It may be, in part. But that doesn’t necessarily make it useless.

If a symbolic tool manages to make you identify what you feel, organize your ideas and make better decisions, the effect is real. Not because it predicts the future, but because it helps you see the present more clearly.

At its core, what makes tarot seem “accurate” is a combination of:

• your need for meaning,
• the strength of symbols,
• your ability to project internal narratives,
• and a moment of emotional openness.

And when all of that aligns, the experience can feel almost supernatural.

Tips and recommendations

1. Use the tarot as a tool for reflection, not as a sentence. Change “what will happen?” to “what am I ignoring?”
2. Write your question beforehand, but don’t obsess about it being perfect. Sometimes it’s the topic that’s important, not the phrase.
3. If a reading generates fear in you, pause. Fear clouds the interpretation and makes you more suggestible.
4. Contrast with reality and concrete actions: if “change” appears, define what small action you can do today.
5. Avoid big decisions just because of a reading (money, health, breakups). To do this, rely on information, conversation and time.
6. If you are very emotionally vulnerable, prioritize talking to someone you trust or a professional. The tarot can accompany, but it does not replace real support.

The accuracy of the tarot is not always in “guessing” something outside, but in revealing what is already moving inside. Sometimes, the card doesn’t predict your destiny: it shows you your blind spot. And seeing that, even if it’s uncomfortable, can be the beginning of real change.

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