“My tarot card person had to cancel does anyone know how to read tarot cards”

It was October, 2025, and I had no idea this call for help would launch a new hobby for me.

This text came from the organizer of the annual Haunted Playground fundraiser for the North Reading High School drama club, the Masquers. It so happens I had picked up tarot card reading on a lark months before.

I had always been fascinated by tarot cards. Not for the ties to divination and the occult, though I considered those topics worth poking at. I liked them for the self-reflection, storytelling, and shared connection to other humans they provided. When a software trade show in April offered an abbreviated set of company-specific tarot cards and I found myself benefiting from random pulls and spreads using them, I decided to buy my own deck and study the real thing. I practiced with my own readings and with a few friends and family members. Now I was going to do them for $5/pop for strangers as a sideshow to raise some cash, paired with another student who had other, more kid-friendly “oracle” decks with mermaids or elephants.

Together we raised $110 (22 readings) which is about as much money as my wife’s 20 caramel apples made. Yes, I was glad those four hours would help fund my son’s appearance in the school’s musical in a few month. But for me, the experience for doing “real” abbreviated readings for strangers was exhilarating. I could almost hear the little fanfare and see the ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED banner above me.

As for the suggested donation of $5? Some people clearly thought it was too much, but others were surprised I wasn’t charging much more. Two people asked me for my card. Another immediately paid for a second reading on a different question. Still another wanted to know how she could follow up with me for future readings. More than a few people had knowing nods or claimed insights as they recognized elements of the story I told; more so if they had specific questions about career or life events or decisions they wanted to explore as it gave me something to relate the cards to. That was the best part for me; making those connections with people who were pondering something weighty and offering a safe space to explore different ways of thinking about the issue, or needing a nudge in a new direction.

Ultimately, I reminded my querents, these cards don’t tell the future, and I do this just for fun… but some of the readings just made for uncanny connections. For example, when a querent said she was considering a career change, we then revealed cards talking about mastering your skills (8 of Pentacles), the opportunity for new beginnings (Ace of Swords), and major endings closing the book on one chapter and starting another (The World), what else can you say? Or the querent whose first pull suggested she was getting in her own way and not believing in herself (“The Devil”), then pulled more cards suggesting past turmoil holding her back, and happiness and wealth if she figured out how to better use the resources she had… and she nodded in agreement. Or take, for instance, the reading suggesting a major sudden life change (“The Tower”, crossing) challenging the querent’s ability to succeed… and then the querent knowingly said, “It’s my mom, she had a medical incident recently and it’s changed everything.” Those and others let to new perspectives for people who benefited from an external nudge from a stranger and a deck of cards.

Like everything from horoscopes to I Ching to the Magic 8 Ball, if vague enough these cleromancies can be shaped to fit any narrative. But it’s the process of doing so, and connecting with another person, that makes it interesting and special and fun, and I was glad to have a chance for more at-bats in the name of fundraising. Who knows if I inspired a few people to make some changes in their lives, too? That started me on a journey of exploration, and I began devouring more information about tarot reading, joining online groups, and practicing with friends and strangers whenever they’d let me give them a reading.