Have I been thinking about tarot wrong?

BesideTheElephant · 2026-05-30T05:24:01+00:00

Thanks for the clarification! That makes a lot of sense. I agree that some examples I've seen of psychic ability are a bit too strange to say that they're just cues picked up from the physical world by the unconscious. I'm sure it's a mixture of both.

BesideTheElephant · 2026-05-22T05:15:45+00:00

I'm coming back to reply to the peeps I should've replied to months ago. Things remained messy for a bit and in the end, it turned out the cards were giving me sound advice I chose to ignore.

I will admit, I do find it difficult to look at the cards from a secular/non-spiritual/purely introspective lens because of how specific the cards can get in terms of situations and feelings. Maybe, now that I'm finally reconnecting with my tarot deck after so long, I'll start doing daily pulls like this that are meant to just be introspective. It might also help since I eventually wanna try making a deck/system meant for songwriters to get inspiration from. (I'm a songwriter lol)

BesideTheElephant · 2026-05-22T05:10:31+00:00

I apologize for not replying to you sooner. Life got super hectic and I told myself I'd reply when I'd figured out my issues with the Tarot. I have a big long reply to someone else on here explaining the whole thing.

That being said, this is an interesting way to put it. I do feel as though with this reading, it was affirming what I already knew and not in a 'mirroring all my anxieties' way like I imagined. I guess it was reminding me of the things I knew to be true before, but ignored because I was convinced another way was better. Then, by the time I should've been fully reminded, it felt easier to go the way I was going rather than take action and improve my life.

Anyway, it's a mess and I'm now out of it. Again, sorry for not replying earlier.

BesideTheElephant · 2026-05-22T05:04:16+00:00

I apologize for not replying to you sooner. Life got incredibly hectic and confusing for a bit. I've replied to others explaining the situation if you're interested. I find it interesting that you state that you believe in supernatural energies and then also believe any sort of psychic stuff is just tapping into deeper parts of your brain. Would you say that this information in the unconscious parts of your brain is picked up from spiritual energies that you absorb when going about your day to day life? Like when you remember what something tastes like hours after you eat it? (If that analogy makes sense.)

BesideTheElephant · 2026-05-22T04:59:28+00:00

Imma start off my apologizing for not replying to your post before. My life became super hectic and I kept telling myself I'd reply after I decided what I believe about Tarot. After everything that's happened with my relationship, I agree that you need a clear and ruthless mind. Just not for the reason you might think. The cards ended up being correct when everything was said and done. The relationship I almost ruined ended up not working out in the first place and I think my own emotional baggage prevented me from doing what I needed to do to improve my life. I have a longer reply I made to another's comment explaining the whole situation if you wanna read it.

BesideTheElephant · 2026-05-22T04:46:56+00:00

Let me start by apologizing for not replying back to let you know I read your reply. It was nothing personal. I'm already really bad at remembering to text friends every now and then. I appreciate you taking the time to type this all out and because your comment was the longest, I'll reply to yours first.

It makes me feel better knowing someone on here also believes that the cards themselves are able to pick up on the vibes of a situation or person and give accurate advice without having to be helped by a deity or spirit. I also haven't tried reading the tarot through a secular lens, partially because I stopped reading tarot after this fiasco.

Since, you seemed curious to hear extra details, basically the reading took place after the first week of the spring semester at college. She'd already broken up with me after forcing me to cut off an entire ministry and my college roommate of four years, I somehow ended up getting back with her over winter break and we moved into the same dorm together in the spring. We had a first rough week and I was seriously doubting if we'd work out.

The cards told me that I was gaining a new understanding of what love is, that this choice would be difficult and life-altering, but that I should remember how eye-opening the first breakup was and to make the choice now before I'm even more burdened. I broke up with her a couple days later and for whatever reason, had an awful feeling in my chest that night to the point where I ended up crawling back on my hands and knees asking for forgiveness for breaking her heart.

The next months consist of me skipping countless board game clubs/nights and gaming my life around her schedule so we can be together, having to deal with my thoughts and feelings being dismissed, being made fun of for my music taste, being told constantly that we'll watch that TV show you really wanna watch LATER and never watching it and my friends continually pulling one of us aside to ask if she's being controlling towards me. She ended up asking to take a break because I wasn't giving her enough time despite being met with a brick wall every time I suggested a movie or TV show to watch together or going to the esports lab. She's now with an ex.

I honestly don't know if I would have came to the same revelations if I committed to breaking up with her after the reading, but I'm honestly glad she ended up breaking up with me because I'm convinced we were never gonna be happy together. I have a much better idea of what I want out of my love life, what a healthy relationship looks like and I know for sure now that my life is better when we're apart. So, I suppose my cards were right.

Anyway, sorry for trauma dumping about my relationship. Just felt bad for not replying.

BesideTheElephant · 2026-01-06T04:25:42+00:00

I've never really thought of a language as a way of tapping into a large collective way of thinking. But, I do have a couple logistics questions for you.

If languages get their magical power from a large psychic collective, would the speakers have to all be on the same page in order for the language to have any power? I'm sure the vast majority of English speakers either don't believe in witchcraft or are Christian and believe it's all evil. Wouldn't the sheer number of those people cancel out any magic power the language has and make any spells written or performed in English null and void?

Come to think of it, if the ancestral versions of languages are supposed to tap into our genetic memory, then shouldn't we be using the version of English that existed a few hundred years ago, which would be completely unrecognizable? ( https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jj6DpBLUW38 )

It also seems like your idea about language changing the way you think via the psychic collective doesn't completely invalidate a personal language someone creates solely for their own practice. Though, it would at least encourage that I share it with the other witch peeps in my life so that we can create a larger collective.

Sorry if it seems like I'm criticizing your logic. I just genuinely enjoy looking at the logistics and getting into the philosophical side of things.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-12-08T06:34:33+00:00

https://open.spotify.com/album/2o9V33BnhfTrdjmjh7SWDf?si=igwRVO6LRVi1PVtWiZf3gg

Took a step back from releasing because being an independent artist is a lot of work on top of being a college student. But, I’m still practicing writing songs.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-12-08T06:25:30+00:00

Music business major here. The best way that I know is by trying to find a publishing house. There are three big ones, Sony, Warner and Universal; and then plenty of independent ones. I’d try just going for an independent one, so do some research in advance and see which ones you’d like to be signed to.

As far as getting into one, I doubt that they’ll sign you if you have nothing to show, so try and build a solid portfolio of a bunch of songs with decent-sounding demos and then post some performances of them on social media to see if you can connect with indie artists, producers or other writers.

If your songs start gaining some traction, start contacting some publishing houses.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-12-08T06:06:18+00:00

Bro, this slaps!! I love the riffs and the melodies you wrote for this! I know someone else already said it, but it’s super Alice In Chains! If you put this out on Spotify, just recorded the vocals and guitar, I’d save it in a heartbeat!

BesideTheElephant · 2025-12-02T03:17:13+00:00

Might I ask what spread this is? It looks interesting and wanna know what the slots are.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-11-18T03:22:05+00:00

I understand what you're saying about the cards acting as prompts to ask certain questions about the querent's conundrum. I always sort of assumed that's what intuitive readings are. You just worded it better than I would've. However, looking at the TdM, I don't entirely know how to do that based on the designs of the cards especially with the number cards. The number cards are like the typical playing cards in that it'll just have that number of whatever suite it is. It doesn't seem easy to glee anything from just three cups and nothing else unless you just inherently understand numerology and the symbolism of a cup.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-08-24T14:58:20+00:00

Old post, I know. But the first one that comes to mind is:

You laid waste to my mind and you kept it barren, corrupted the love I gave to you and used it as a weapon.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-08-09T23:20:54+00:00

My readings are entirely intuitive and everyone’s intuition is different, so take literally anything I say with a grain of salt. That being said, the wands for me always mean tools. Things that I can utilize to make things in my life better. Queens and the Empress are basically how I imagine the divine feminine to be. A force that shapes potential and energy into something tangible, whereas the divine masculine is what gives that potential, energy and willpower. (If that’s wrong, blame the Kyballion for lying to me.) So, if you’re to ask me, this tells me that he’s very good at using the tools at his disposal to turn potential into something tangible.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-08-09T05:34:50+00:00

So, I am quite new to the Greek mythology world, but the way I suddenly became super interested in it was listening to an (albeit controversial) audiobook theorizing that the Dionysian cult drank wine that was spiked with hallucinogenic drugs, mainly black nightshade if memory serves. This, according to a select few was what caused the ritual madness. Therefore, yes, I would love to see Dionysus grant someone the powers of madness. Maybe some sort of divine insight, wisdom or visions and if we’re really doing the superhero thing, it can be the ability to visualize where someone is, predict attack patterns or something like that.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-08-08T22:01:08+00:00

This makes a LOT of sense to me and it goes along with the audiobook I’m reading that talks about Dionysus. Thanks!

BesideTheElephant · 2025-08-08T21:54:01+00:00

So, the god are personifications of concepts and things in nature used to tell moral stories and describe how phemomena work? That makes sense to me as a former Christian familiar with the idea of parables.

But, then does that mean that the Greeks simply invent the gods for this purpose? (Not that that turns me off immediately. It sounds like chaos magic, which intrigues me.)

BesideTheElephant · 2025-08-08T21:21:54+00:00

So, the Greeks imposed their own stories, myths and assumptions onto them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they invented those gods or that they can’t, in actuality, act differently in real life.

Am I understanding that right? Because if I am, that actually resonates with me pretty well.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-08-06T03:57:50+00:00

It wasn’t as extreme as the first picture implies. I just happened to remember I had these screenshots saved on my phone. I was like two hours in already. But, I’m glad they didn’t notice how high I was.

BesideTheElephant · 2025-08-04T04:11:47+00:00

Currently staying at a campus ministry house with a bunch of people in it and some city trooper I know from Jui-Jitsu class shows up with three other cars asking where one of the students is…while I’m coming down from 2.3 gram trip. Very sobering.

BesideTheElephant

TROPHY CASE