First, a paradox: to unknowingly know something. Tarot theory suggests it’s possible. Times infinity. According to Tarot theorists, esoteric truths lie beyond the deck in the depths of the human subconscious. The primitive universality and symbolism of Tarot cards can expedite the process of tapping in.

These pretty playing cards have been known to draw out hidden truths, irrespective of time and place. Because ultimately, they were made for the one endless game everyone knows the rules to yet no one knows how to play: the game of life.
Tarot’s origins are unclear. When exactly the first deck of these 78 pictographic cards, now referred to as the “Tarot,” began to circulate is a mystery. Some scholars believe the first deck originated in Western Europe, sometime in the 15th century. Others have set the date way back, citing Kabbalistic precursors. The origins of the word “Tarot” itself are virtually untraceable too.

This much is known: each deck has 20 numbered cards and the famous Fool card which, collectively, make up the Major Arcana, as well as 56 suit cards which make up the Minor Arcana. The four suits-Swords, Wands, Pentacles, and Cups- represent the four elements-Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, respectively. There meanings, however, are less discrete.

Generally, the images of the Major Arcana provide wisdom at life’s major turning points. For example, the Lovers card is ultimately about choices that force the inner world to mingle with the outer world. This card is for those who’ve established their own values and now must decide how to live them out. The Hierophant, another famous Major Arcana card, represents the desire to conform, to become engulfed by the structure and order of institutions. The Hierophant is church, school, government–all those formal means to, in theory, spiritually fulfilling ends. Finally, there’s the Fool, Tarot’s most well-known card. The Fool represents blissfully naive beginnings. It’s the spirit of potential, adventure, and risk-taking.

People everywhere use Tarot cards in myriad ways. Some play games with the cards while others use them for divination or decorative art. Senior Olivia Fitch, whose mother is a Tarot reader, grew up around the cards, asking them where she had left things and watching her mother perform the occasional reading for a friend.

“It’s [Tarot] supposed to like ‘tell your fortune’ but that’s not really how I use it,” Fitch said. “Like one time my aunt lost a purse and my mom said it was underneath something like a chair (the Tarot card she had drawn depicted a figure perched on a throne) and it ended up under her car seat.”

So while the cards cannot magically depict where, say, something is hidden, they do seem to have the power to prod one’s subconscious into recalling where an object was, spatially, relative to the body, emotions, and thoughts at the time it was lost.

“You can really ask the cards any question though,” Fitch added. “And then it depends on how you set them up. There are questions you can ask where you only pick one card-first you ask someone to split the deck- and whatever that card is will answer the question. You can also create a 3 by 3 grid– the top row showing what’s happened in the past, the middle row what’s happening in the present, and the bottom row what will happen in the future. That way can answer one question too. Or, maybe you don’t have a question and you just read the cards,” Fitch said.

“You should really always ask a question though,” she added.

Fitch doesn’t make many of her own interpretations, but she does enjoy reading others’ interpretations in the Tarot literature lying around her home. “I’m still pretty young so I don’t like to mess with the cards. My mom doesn’t do readings for anyone who’s under eighteen. She [my mom] has read for me– not past, present, future,because she wouldn’t do that. If I lost something, yes,” she said.

“Obviously, though, if you go into [a reading] with happy thoughts and the right mindset and you’re not looking to abuse the cards to do evil, I don’t think you can [do evil]!” Fitch added.

Because after all, Tarot is really all about the player, not the game. And the more one studies and experiences the cards, the less paradoxical “ignorant knowledge” seems.

“The cards have a lot of power…If you’re really feeling a lot of energy around them, feeling like they have a lot of power, then I wouldn’t mess with them,” Fitch said. Or, perhaps, she meant mess with one’s own mind.