Not fortune telling. Fortune framing.

The beaded curtains part. You step cautiously into the darkened room as smoke from burning incense hits your nose. Candles flicker, throwing shadows across the close walls. The wrinkly, turban-clad woman seated at the table croaks, “Welcome.” Her long fingernails flash sparkly moons as she shuffles her cards. “Sit, and we shall begin,” she whispers as she starts laying cards on the table. The first one she turns over shows a skeletal figure in a black cloak carrying a scythe. She stops with a gasp and clutches the medallion hanging from a silver chain around her sagging neck. She looks up and meets your gaze with watery, red-rimmed eyes. You gulp. “Death,” she whispers, moving her craggy fingernail across the card. “Your journey is nearly at an end.” Cue the dramatic organ.

Spare me. Spare you. Spare everyone.

The Hollywood version of tarot reading is so far off from what the tarot is really about, it can be pretty funny. What’s not always funny is having to reframe people’s expectations of what tarot does and does not entail. What it can and cannot do. And how you, as the querent (the person asking the question and getting the reading) play an active role in the whole process. I’ve seen people get visibly dejected when I tell them I’m not going to read their fortune. It’s like telling them their dog died, it makes them that sad. But once I explain what I am going to do, they perk right up. Fluffy isn’t dying after all. At least not on my watch. Here’s why.

First, an acknowledgement that Yes, there is an element of outlining a possible future to most tarot readings. But that’s just what it is—a possible future. There’s a line drawn here because tarot is actually not designed to predict any set outcome. What the cards show is a snapshot of a moment in time and where things are likely headed in that moment. There are many influences on that snapshot: the question you’re asking, the circumstances that inspired it, your state of mind and energy around it, where you are in life, the path others who are involved may be on, and the actions you may or may not take as a result of the reading. Think of all these things as the clay we get to mold throughout our lives. Last I checked, no one’s figured out how to mold stone.

What’s important to remember is that any of these influences can shift at any moment and change how things play out. Ever try to control a situation? Or pour futile energy into bending the world to your will? How’d that work out for you?

So you see, a reading doesn’t reveal a pre-set path you’re destined to travel. It reveals where things are likely headed if nothing changes. But we all know how realistic it is to think nothing will ever change. The world is going to keep spinning, things are going to keep happening, people are going to keep peopleing. Above all, your own free will, which we all have in every moment of every day, isn’t going anywhere.

That’s why tarot isn’t fortune telling. I like to call it fortune framing. And this distinction is where the magic of tarot truly lies.

Because a reading is much, much richer than a simple prediction of Yes, you will get married one day or No, you will never win the lottery. When you ask your question, in the right way, with the right frame of mind (more on this in a future blog), tarot reveals a great deal: how your past is influencing your present, insight into your behavior and decisions, life perspectives that may be eluding you, illumination of things forgotten or unnoticed, the parts of your life that do and do not serve you, reminders of who you are at your core, guidance for the path forward, inspiration to manifest your dreams, and the confidence to go do it.

And if all that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. In fact, it’s infinitely more than a simple Yes or No could possibly tell you. I’ve seen the cards give querents these gifts of clarity and empowerment many times. It usually results in lots of tears, lots of smiles, and lots of “Wow”s. Using tarot in this way is a profoundly more meaningful experience than asking it to tell you what will happen in your life, then waiting to see if it comes true. Because we’re all meant to take an active role while we’re on this earth. The tarot is a beautiful tool to help us do that in the best ways possible.

So the next time you’re watching a movie or streaming a series and a character decides to “have their fortune told” from a mysterious woman who still dresses in turbans in 2026, I give you permission to smile smugly, roll your eyes, and feel just a tad superior.