Tarot cards are often associated with mysticism and divination and thus dismissed by many philosophers and scientists as unworthy of serious epistemological attention. But philosopher Georgi Gardiner proposes a novel perspective: tarot, stripped of its supernatural assumptions, may serve as a rich tool for philosophical reflection, creative inquiry, and self-understanding.
Gardiner’s interest in tarot began not as a research project, but as part of a personal crisis. During a difficult decision on whether to end a twelve-year marriage, she sought out various introspective methods. One unexpected moment occurred aboard a sailing ship with the band Rising Appalachia, where a fellow traveller offered her a tarot reading.
What unfolded was not prophecy, but an unusually profound conversation. The tarot cards, she reports, served as a kind of third interlocutor in the dialogue. They structured the conversation, introduced symbolic cues, and permitted emotionally difficult questions to surface. This use of tarot, Gardiner realized, had epistemic value. It wasn’t about supernatural knowledge. It was about structuring thought, enabling honest conversation, and provoking new ways of seeing familiar problems.
Gardiner compares the use of tarot to writing prompts. Just as creative writers often require ambiguous or evocative stimuli to overcome blocks, tarot cards can function as rich, ambiguous cues. Their images, depicting archetypal symbols such as kings, towers, lovers, and roads, invite interpretation. Importantly, different people see different things in the same card, revealing their own emotional and conceptual frameworks. This makes tarot a mirror of the mind, not a window to the future.
Tarot’s power is amplified in social settings. In dialogue, the cards can enable conversations that would otherwise feel taboo or difficult. The ritualised setting of a tarot reading provides a kind of theatrical license to speak freely. The cards act as a buffer, allowing questions about identity, trauma, or major life choices to arise in a less confrontational way. In Gardiner’s view, tarot is not just introspective. It is dialogical. It changes what kinds of questions can be asked and how openly they are received.
Historically, tarot has moved through several cultural phases. It began as a set of playing cards in 15th-century Italy, gained occult significance in 18th-century France, and was later absorbed into 1960s counterculture. In the 1980s, therapists began using tarot in secular settings. Gardiner identifies a fifth wave today, where tarot aids creative, community-building, or self-empowerment projects, especially amongst socially marginalised users. Tarot is used for conversation, bonding, introspection, self-care, prognostication, and social critique. In this contemporary wave, community organisers host tarot-themed events, and artists design decks featuring empowered Black women, contemporary witches, disabled people, historical figures, social archetypes, and sex-positive themes. Many ‘fifth-wave’ users see tarot’s epistemic value as revealing hidden truths about one’s character or social conditions, philosophical values, or the meaning of life. They do not see it as a source of paranormal prophecy.
One of Gardiner’s central innovations is to bring tarot into the philosophy classroom. She uses it to prompt conceptual exploration, encourage self-reflection, and break through theoretical blocks. Students are asked to draw cards and reflect on how they relate to philosophical problems, generate new concepts, or consider multiple perspectives on an issue. Exercises like ‘flipping the reading’, where one reinterprets a card’s meaning in the opposite direction, help guard against confirmation bias and encourage intellectual flexibility.
The visual aesthetics of tarot are central to its function. For sceptics wary of supernatural claims, Gardiner suggests focusing on the imagery rather than the text. Tarot can be understood as a tabletop art gallery of the human condition, full of metaphor and ambiguity. Visual responses can reveal hidden assumptions or stimulate new associations. Some modern decks update the iconography with denim jackets, smartphones, and sneakers, helping them resonate with contemporary users. Others, like the ‘Philosopher’s Tarot’, embed figures like Descartes into the traditional structure to provoke thematic connections with philosophical thought.
Critics of tarot worry about its potential for deception. Some readers exploit the mystical associations of tarot to manipulate clients or make false claims. Others argue that tarot fosters sloppy thinking, especially among those predisposed to magical or conspiratorial beliefs. Gardiner acknowledges these concerns. But she insists that these risks are not inherent to tarot, nor are they unique to it. Any powerful cognitive tool, whether art, religion, therapy, or AI, can be misused.
Rather than dismissing tarot wholesale, Gardiner urges us to differentiate between uses, users, and contexts. Some people employ tarot for fraud. Others use it for spiritual consolation. Still others, like herself, use it for philosophical insight. In this light, tarot is best seen as a flexible cognitive instrument. It can reveal patterns of thought, elicit self-knowledge, and support creative exploration. Its value depends on how it is used, and by whom.
Tarot, Gardiner suggests, invites a broader conception of epistemology. Much of traditional epistemology focuses on forming justified true beliefs about clearly defined propositions. But other aspects of intellectual life matter too: what questions we ask, what concepts we use, what we notice or ignore. Tarot prompts us to expand our epistemic repertoire. It fosters new questions and conceptual frames, even if it does not always yield precise answers.
For example, Gardiner describes using tarot to explore why philosophy might matter to a mathematics student. Instead of listing stock answers, the card she drew – a solitary figure walking into the mountains – sparked the thought that philosophy helps us think through new possibilities and models. If mathematics is evolving, then students need philosophy to help guide its transformation. The card didn’t supply the answer; it prompted a way of thinking that led there.
Some users of tarot treat it as sacred. Others see it as secular. Gardiner remains agnostic. She doesn’t claim the cards predict the future, but she affirms that they can help us see the present more clearly. And sometimes, that’s what matters most. Whether used to guide personal decisions, enrich philosophical dialogue, or inspire classroom creativity, tarot has epistemic potential that deserves serious philosophical attention.
Works Cited
Gardiner, G. 2025. Purism and Pluralism: The Brilliance of Tarot and the Breadth of Epistemology. In MaCain, K., Stapleford, S. & Steup, M. ed. Evidentialism at 40: New Arguments, New Angles. New York: Routledge.
By Mark Oppenheimer
Mark Oppenheimer has been a member of the Johannesburg Bar for 15 years. He is the President of the Institute of Race Relations, a Council member of the University of Cape Town, and he runs the philosophy podcast Brain in a Vat which has aired over 200 interviews with academic philosophers from around the world.