Tarot card readings on TikTok and Tumblr are reinventing the art form

“If you’re seeing this then it’s meant for you” is a typical caption on TarotTok, a corner of the internet that has manifested more than 14.7 billion views on the app.

Many of the videos found on this side of TikTok emphasize the idea that this content — typically a reading — is meant to find you, eschewing algorithmic design for destiny. It’s on your For You Page, after all. The creative formula is rather simple: A Tarot reader presents a scenario, like turbulence in a romantic relationship, and offers advice by way of cartomancy. Stop self-sabotaging, they might say. Learn to practice self control.

Everyone wants to hear that good things are coming their way, and these videos can provide a sense of comfort, direction, and validation to those looking for it. Wouldn’t it be nice to make all of your problems disappear with a deck of 78 cards and the flick of a wrist? It’s an alluring proposition, one that also draws a lot of skepticism.

But even naysayers on social media can be pulled in to tarot’s orbit. For example, @lakaiaj tweeted “i be tryna skip the tarot readings on tiktok but then i be like ‘wait it might be frl.'” And they’re not the only ones who feel this way.

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That has a lot to do with the fact that there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of tarot online. Tarot is a form of divination, but the cards don’t predict your future; they offer guidance to help get you there. More than anything, tarot is a catalyst for self-reflection and mental clarity. Theresa Reed, aka The Tarot Lady, a tarot professional with over 30 years of experience, refers to it as “a creative prompt for self development.”

“It’s something to reflect on and guide you and give you more meaning,” she tells Mashable. “Whatever the card is, there’s a lesson — there’s something to think about, and there’s a myriad of ways it can apply, whether it’s to something small or something major.”

She describes a typical reading on her website as a way to “explore the pros + cons of different choices that you might make — creating the best possible plan for the future you want.”

It’s something to reflect on and guide you and give you more meaning.

On TikTok, these readings, although brief and perfectly bite-sized for social consumption, are always reassuring and never judgmental. They are most likely tapping into a universal feeling or struggle, which is why it’s not uncommon to see scores of comments like “I claim this with positive energy” and “I claim with good luck and happiness” under any one video on TarotTok.

Take a video posted by @queenbarbieznoire, tarot card reader who has over 74,000 followers on TikTok, as an example. She gives the viewer an 11/11 reading, which tells you what the spiritually significant day of Nov. 11 will bring for you. She begins with, “if you see this before 11/11 this reading is for you.” Then, she proceeds to deliver a reading for different astrological and elemental signs. “Fixed signs, so Taurus, Scorpio, Leo, and Aquarius you have completed a cycle in which you are about to be very fucking happy. You have been healing,” she says. The video has over 10,000 likes. 

It’s a strange phenomenon because no matter how creators try to spin it as fate, it’s the TikTok algorithm that knows what you need to hear — and ultimately, what you want to consume. Tarot readings on the app are popular because they utilize the app’s most influential indicator of interest: watch time.

So is the practice of tarot an art form or a cunning way to build a following? Reed finds tarot’s migration to TikTok both interesting and necessary, but she cautions users against reading too much into it. “If you’re looking for an introduction to tarot or something with a hip flair you’re going to find it on TikTok, but you also see a lot of people who haven’t done long work with tarot and don’t really know what they’re doing,” Reed tells Mashable.

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“What people need to understand is that tarot is an art form and a craft,” she adds. “When you dedicate your whole life to it, you take it very seriously. Then there are people who who get into it and get excited and want to turn the hobby into a career before they’re ready, which can put yourself and the people interested in your work into trouble.”

Despite the obvious tensions between the centuries-long practice and the app, many TikTok users choose to believe the readings — just look at the number of likes and positive comments on these videos. By following a tarot card reader’s instructions to interact with their content, users are choosing to claim what the cards say as divine intervention.

What people need to understand is that tarot is an art form and a craft.

In the past year, tarot has blown up on TikTok and Tumblr, platforms that attract niche communities of young, highly engaged users.

According to Cates Holderness, Tumblr Trend Expert, there have been roughly 1 million engagements with the “tarot” tag on Tumblr since April, 200,000 of which were in the last six weeks.

“Like many of the communities found on Tumblr, the content related to the tag ‘tarot’ is extremely varied,” Holderness told Mashable. “From fan art to original tarot card designs to posts about astrology to explanations around what certain cards mean when pulled — the community uses the creative canvas on Tumblr to really express their passion around this practice.”

Tarot content has become so popular on Tumblr that the platform launched Tarot Tuesday, an event where a group of seasoned tarot readers, including @readingsbylily, provided users with personalized readings.

“We wanted Tarot Tuesday to be an event for the Tumblr community, by the Tumblr community,” Holderness explained. “So we made sure to work with tarot readers who were active on our platform and who had long-standing, trusted experience with readings. And then we wanted to make it simple for the community to participate by sharing their initials, sun sign, and pronouns — and any burning question they had for the universe.”

Saj Allen, a 21-year-old spiritual practitioner on TikTok, is glad that tarot has found a place on the internet. “There’s always been a stigma around spiritual practitioners, but on TikTok it’s more welcomed. Now that people actually listen, they are like,  ‘I agree with this, I feel like this is for me,'” Allen tells Mashable. 

Allen thinks people have become more accepting of tarot online because of all the time we’ve spent sitting with ourselves during the pandemic. “There has been a lot of self-discovery happening during the pandemic. We’re finding out we are more like each other than we ever thought,” they explained.

Meanwhile, Reed sees tarot on social media as an opportunity for the art form to “get with the modern age” and educate curious minds “about the beauty behind it — the art, the craft.” She says, “It’s a way to get people interested in tarot and make tarot more accessible.”

Reed, who picked up her first deck at age 15, hopes that through TikToks and Tumblr posts more young people discover tarot and start practicing it themselves.

“We really want to urge the young readers to get started because we have to pass the ace of wands onto somebody,” she says. “But just please make sure you’re treating it like a craft. We want make sure the craft continues and is respected.”

And if she has one piece of advice for users seeing tarot content on their FYPs, it’s “don’t believe everything you hear on Tik Tok.”

At a time where everything is so uncertain, it’s unsurprising that tarot has become so popular. People of all ages are looking for answers. So go ahead and comment “I claim with positive energy” cautiously.