Why I Stopped Posting Tarot Readings on TikTok

Have you ever been scrolling your FYP or reels feed and happened upon a tarot reading that resonated with you? It’s a powerful and validating feeling, and it can give you the sense that everything is going to be okay, or someone else knows what you’re going through or how you’re feeling. Maybe your algorithm recognized your interest in receiving those kinds of messages, and you started seeing more and more of them, each more relevant or accurate than the last. 

As a consumer of readings on social media, as well as a tarot reader who has created Tiktok content myself, I understand the experience of being victimized by my algorithm all too well. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and she shared that she felt some of the readings she was receiving were predatory - telling her exactly what she wanted to hear, and giving her a false sense of hope or certainty during an uncertain time in her life.

I recently stopped posting my TikTok readings because I often feel conflicted about the politics of the collective style of tarot in online spaces. There are a couple of reasons why:

1. Feeding Delusion

In my tarot practice, I’ve always operated under the principle of self-determination, integrity and respect for spiritual differences. I may not identify as a medium, but if you feel like your intuitive messages are coming from a loved one who has passed, I support your experience and belief system. I’ve always said that tarot is not magic, YOU bring the magic to the practice. It is a medium through which you connect to your own truth. 

On Tiktok, many readers preface their readings with a statement clarifying that they are posting a collective reading that won’t resonate for everyone, advising viewers to be discerning, and suggesting that you shouldn’t force a message to apply to you. But when the algorithm is increasingly sensitive, picking up on your hopes, fears and desires to such an accurate degree, and reflecting that back to you in the content that you consume, it can feel like those messages are speaking directly to you. It follows that some viewers will feel like the messages they receive represent an objective truth about their lives, or that the reader is accurately predicting their personal future. 

It’s every viewer’s responsibility to consume content critically, but I know that, in some cases, my TikToks are being received as objective predictions rather than exercises for developing emotional awareness. When you receive a tarot message, notice how it makes you feel, entertain it as a possibility, and by all means, claim it! It is a valuable tool for personal reflection, but collective readings should not be treated as reliable information sources.

2. The Wellness to Alt Right Pipeline 

There is a growing social issue in the wellness, new age and spiritual online communities that doesn’t get enough attention, and has potentially serious repercussions. Online content geared toward people who are on a healing journey, a spiritual journey or exploring environmentalism, healthy eating or naturopathy are being targeted by the alt right pipeline. The alt right pipeline exploits your good intentions for self improvement, or concerns for your families’ well being through fear mongering and purity rhetoric. For example, 'crunchy mom' content promoting the use of non-toxic products for your children slips into dogmatic messaging urging higher and higher standards of purity, which produces mom shame, encourages you to shame others, incites perfectionism and eventually leads to tradwife content espousing strict gender roles, heterosexism and white superiority.

Tarot messages are part of a lot of people’s spiritual journey. They can help you to reconnect with your inner voice, heal from trauma, deconstruct your religious upbringing and expand your philosophy on life. They are powerful because of the way in which they connect to your emotions, but this power can be dangerous if not wielded with a healthy dose of critical thinking, reality testing and personal and political accountability. 

Spiritual bypassing is a big problem in spiritual online spaces. It involves intellectualizing through a deflection to ‘love and light’ over radical acceptance of the material conditions that cause harm and the ways you might be complicit in them. Think about the way that manifestation is discussed - your thoughts and feelings determine your reality, so if you focus on what is good, your life will be good. If your life happens to be stressful, challenging and distressing (as is the literal consequence of economic attrition facing the vast majority of the population), manifestation rhetoric can sound like it’s blaming you for not thinking positively.  

Thinking positively during times of stress has its place, to be sure - but not at the expense of addressing issues of inequality, oppression and political violence in your community. The problems we are facing today will not disappear when we look the other way because the tarot lady said that abundance is coming. We have to act according to our values, advocate for each other and face reality together if we want to see society change for the better. 

Tarot symbolism tells a story about the journey of the individual into collective consciousness. The Fool’s Journey is a psycho-spiritual development process that starts with individuation and ends at integration with the world. It shows us how to embody independence, show up for ourselves, heal our inner child and self-actualize, but it does this for the purpose of the ultimate recognition that we are one with the collective. The love you give to yourself will extend to those around you. But love isn’t a feeling, it’s an action, and if your self work doesn’t involve facing and integrating your shadows, your efforts toward spiritual growth will be in vain, and you just might end up voting against y(our) interests.

Fantasy can be a fun and creative element of a spiritual practice, but it can also be a slippery slope into the energy of the Devil card - addiction, vice, entrapment and delusion. I'll never say never to posting tarot readings online, but for now, I'm considering different ways of sharing my craft. If I value integrity as a tarot reader, it doesn’t make sense to participate in spiritual psychosis that contributes to political apathy (and worse) in an increasingly divisive world.