Let us first look at scripture, the place a Christian must start.  In the Old Testament we find “Let there not be found among you anyone who causes their son or daughter to pass through the fire, or practices divination, or is a soothsayer, augur, or sorcerer, or who casts spells, consults ghosts and spirits, or seeks oracles from the dead.  Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of such abominations the Lord, your God, is dispossessing them before you.  You must be altogether sincere with the Lord, your God.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)  The word of God says that we make ourselves something abominable to God by doing these things.  Not good.

Should Catholics Use Tarot Cards?

Tarot cards are one of many forms of divining hidden things, often the future.  To seek knowledge of the future or hidden things is to tell God you do not trust His word or his providence in your life.  When Jesus was asked which commandment is the greatest He said, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) 

Tarot cards, and any form of divination, are telling God you do not trust him.  The trust owed to God comes, at least in part, from loving God.  Another way to see it is that you are making the Tarot cards an idol that you give reverence to, a violation of the First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God; you shall not have strange gods before me.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is built upon Scripture and tradition, addresses divination:

“All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church #2116

A Catholic’s Attitude To Predicting The Future

OK, so what is our attitude toward future events to be?  Catechism paragraph 2115 helps us here: “God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints.  Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it.”

If only God knows the future, then why do some people claim that divination accurately predicts it?  This can be explained in at least three ways.  First, Tarot cards, like newspaper astrology readings, describe and predict vague life events and human issues that are common to most people.  Secondly, a “reading” provides many points of information (that are as we said, common to most people’s lives), if only one or two of them comes to pass we focus on those and forget the many that were not “true.”  That is called confirmation bias. Thirdly, in the cases where demons are facilitating the “reading,” they may predict a specific future event and then simply go make that event happen in the future.  If I predict someone will give you flowers tomorrow, and then I send you flowers tomorrow, was I really magically predicting the future?

Divination of the future, or hidden things in the present, is a form of black magic.  It violates the command of Jesus, the First Commandment, and the teaching of the Church. People that charge money to divine the future are usually exploiting people’s bereavement or anxiety about their life problems.  They offer a false comfort or sense of power when people feel uneasy and powerless.  When you enter into a relationship with divination, you break your relationship with God and open the door to a relationship with the demon.  I have seen a number of cases over the years where Tarot cards were one of the occult practices that led a person down the road to demonic obsession, oppression, and even possession.  The usual pattern is the divination practice starts, becomes a daily practice, and then the spirit offers to speak directly to the person and no longer use the external technique (whether it be Tarot cards, Ouija boards, pendulums, divining rods, EVPs, etc.).  Once permission is given, the spirit starts to speak directly into the mind of the person.  Then after some time it starts dictating what the person can, and cannot, do.

God’s word, the Church, and centuries of experience seeing people fall victim to the occult leads to rejecting these practices.  Each person has to make their own choices though and will be held accountable for them.  Please consider all of this, or even my mere fifteen years of working with exorcists, when you go to pick up that Tarot deck again or have another reading.

If you do choose to stop divination (or any black magic practices) and are Catholic, please go to your parish priest and confess these practices.  If you are Christian, please confess to Jesus as best you can and consult with your local spiritual leader about this.  If you are not Christian I still encourage you to stop these practices as you will, sooner or later, find out they are dangerous.

Learn More About Why Catholics Should Avoid The Occult

Drawing from his extensive experience in assisting with cases of demonic oppression and possession, in The Exorcism Files, Adam Blai presents readers with enlightening true stories and traces their causation. Whether people provided a gateway through Ouija boards, tarot cards, Reiki, Yoga, or martial arts, Blai reports from firsthand observation how they were lured into the occult. Blai also recounts shocking cases of participation in covens and cults under the guise of knowledge, empowerment, and liberation. This is sometimes accompanied by crimes and hauntings, which Blai also documents. Learn More Here!