What Happens in the Brain When You Read Tarot (And Five Tips to Become Better at It!)

So, there you are with your cards, shuffling them, and as you lay out the spread asking your questions, the path ahead becomes clearer, the answer unfolds in front of your eyes. What is happening? Do all of us have this "talent?" From where does this hidden power of divination come?

As a neuroscientist who also reads tarot, I have been pondering these questions for a while—it is fascinating trying to observe the brain instrument that interprets the cards. Here is a 5-step process that your brain takes to move from perceiving the cards to making intuitive leaps and gaining insight.

Step 1: Finding the Meaning. Our eyes take in pictures in front of us and send it to the back of our heads. Place your palm just above the nape of your neck and feel the bulging skull there; that is where the picture you see is imprinted, like a photoprint. From there, this image is annotated using your memory centers, and is layered with metaphors and meanings. Symbols on cards are just squiggles, and objects just lines, until you form those connections and associations. Say you always associate the Queen of Pentacles with "mother;" this is the step when that happens. Feel your head above the tips of your ears, and delve in. This (your temporal lobe and hippocampus) is where meanings and memories are attached to images.

Hint: To break away from getting stuck in readings, force yourself to notice new things in a card. This will help you form new pictures in your head, and thereby new meanings and associations. Another way is to just ask a friend or a stranger to write down the first five things they notice in a card and what those things mean for them.

Step 2: Embodied Emotions. You have a card in front of you; it shows the 10 of Cups. You have looked at the image and matched it with all the meanings in the little white book. And yet, there is a sinking feeling in your stomach. Despite the happy, contented nature of the card, your interpretation could be "Beware of what you wish for." Your brain is literally listening to your body, and interpreting the signals as feeling anxious or stressed. When we do a Tarot reading, we are instantaneously heeding our body signals (interoception), inferring from them, in order to attach emotional valence to the pictures in front of us. Perhaps you call it trusting your gut.

If you take a pencil and stick it up your nose (don't do it!) and go further in, you will reach the pituitary and the hypothalamus. These areas control body reactions and facial expressions that change automatically when we experience the world. These, along with the emotional center of the amygdala, help you interpret body changes as specific emotions (happiness, sadness, etc.) Be body-aware (and ask the querent to listen to their body as well) during readings.

Hint: Do a body scan of what you feel like before a reading. Make a note of where you feel tensions and consciously release them. Settle yourself into a neutral space so you can have the most unbiased reading. Also, when you have intense readings, make a note of where you feel emotions in yourself. What parts of the body do you notice a lot?

Step 3: Plots and Blocks. When we read for others, we are creating a mental image of the querent in our head, creating stories of their desires and motivations and aspirations and use that to understand their choices. This is termed "mentalizing," and is really important in empathizing with the other. We have ways of creating a plot narrative on what the other person would do—and this is part of our interpretation of the cards. But do be aware that the querent hears what they want to hear and may have a block—something that refuses to hear or listen to their own inner plot narrative. Meet them where they are!

Hint: One easy way to overcome plot blocks is to ask the querent to narrate first what they see in the images, and also repeat how you interpreted the cards. This active listening and response exercise may make them conscious of their blocks.

Step 4: Making Those Intuitive Leaps. Any reading is more than just the pictures or cards in front of us. We make intuitive leaps that allow us to make bold statements that seemingly come out of nowhere. While not alluding to psychic senses (for which we don't yet have any means of measuring, given current tools in neuroscience), our brains are inherently wired for making intuitive decisions. We constantly take in a huge amount of information, process it unconsciously, and then integrate it into a whole (in an area called the caudate nucleus) to make those intuitive calls. We rely on these judgements to make everyday choices, and without them we would be in a state of paralysis. The key seems to be that we are better integrators with greater emergent divination powers the more we train our abilities. Just like a master surgeon can intuitively guess where the cut needs to be made or the elite athlete who just knows where the ball will land, the master diviner needs to work on their intuitive prowess.

Hint: Have a journal to record your readings and why you made certain intuitive statements. This will help you parse out some of the unconscious information you may be using to make those leaps. The more you learn, the better you will be at your intuitive game.

Step 5: Gaining Insight. This is one step that many of us as tarot readers don't use as much. Our intuitions are not always correct. You may have said things that don't work out. Your gut checks may have been wrong. After making those intuitive, instantaneous leaps, go back and contemplate. Process what you observed in Step 1, how you felt in your body in Step 2, how you mentalized the other in Step 3, and what led you to make those intuitive leaps in Step 4. This will lead you to that "Aha" moment of gaining insight—"Oh! This is why this reading was so spot on!" or, "Ah! This is where I failed to recognize the signs." This moment of self-reflection is very important in making you become better at your craft, and even recognizing your own self.

The reflective parts of your brain are located near the base, and are essential for learning from past errors, recalibrating, and problem solving. Note that these reflective parts of the brain are distinct from your quick reflexive, intuitive parts.

Hint: If the puzzle of insight is just beyond the reach, contemplate on it while in the shower or while washing dishes. Allow your brain to wander while seeking the answers. Sometimes it will appear, as the brain puts together the pieces of the puzzle. Remember that you have all the information, you just are not consciously aware of it.

In short, your brain is wired for being an intuitive, divination agent—and is also highly predictive. Learning more about the process behind your tarot or divination abilities may help you retrain and become better at what you do.