What's with the 2025 Tarot resurgence? Carl Jung and the psychology behind why the cards speak to us

So, I went to a huge Halloween party yesterday, literally full of Moms (it was a witches-themed, women-only brunch extravaganza), where someone was reading Tarot cards. She was the high priestess of the moment, and we were all her tipsy disciples, ready and willing to accept the fate she dealt from the dining-room table. 

As the afternoon wore on, I was kind of dumbfounded for a few reasons: 

1. This was at least the third time in a week that the subject of Tarot and divination had emerged randomly (?) in my life.

2. The emotions pouring out of that room were raw.

3. Despite her giving a clear disclaimer that she only read for fun and the last time was twenty years ago, you would’ve thought she was straight-up channeling unseen forces that shape the future in there.

If TikTok trends and Pew data are any indication, people are all about Tarot and other types of divination these days. Why? Probably because something deeper lies behind the hashtags that resonates with current social and cultural dynamics. Tarot’s comeback might be less about predicting the future (although wouldn’t that be great?) and more about symbolic resonance, emotional release, self-recognition, and the understanding of others. 

An abbreviated Tarot history

It’s hard to know for sure when and where the tarot emerged—but its origins appear to be rooted in the 15th century as a fun card game played by Italian nobles who could afford to hang out and do things like that. It didn’t have any divinatory meaning or ties to the occult; that didn’t really become a thing until an esoteric revival in the 18th century brought a wave of mystics touting the tarot as a form of secret wisdom imparted by the ancient Egyptians. 

From there, it became a tool for divination and a kind of symbolic map of the universe and the human soul. Fast-forward to the 60s, and the tarot took on a more psychological persona. Today, tarot seems to be nestled somewhere between art, spirituality, psychology, and self-help. 

78 Mirrors: Jung’s take on the Tarot

Carl Jung (psychoanalyst and the brainchild behind such famous hits as The Collective Unconscious, Archetypes, Individuation, Synchronicity, and much, much more!) was a spiritual guy. Unlike his bro Freud, Jung thought that in order to really understand the human condition, psychology needs to reach beyond the scientific and embrace the metaphysical. As such, Jung had a more nuanced and complex view of the Tarot. He didn’t see it as a fortune-telling device per se, but rather as a system that can symbolically reveal the unconscious, perhaps leading to greater self-understanding.  

Archetypal imagery in the Major Arcana

Archetypes are images and motifs that subconsciously (and consciously) influence our thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and how we view ourselves and the world. Jung dubbed that universal, inherited part of our unconscious experience the collective unconscious. 

The Major Arcana consists of 22 cards depicting archetypes reflected in the collective unconscious. For example, the Hero archetype is sometimes associated with the Chariot card, symbolizing triumph and determination. Or the Mother archetype is sometimes represented by the Empress card, symbolizing abundance, creativity, and a love of life. I don’t think it’s a stretch to see how the Major Arcana cards can be a catalyst for building a relationship with The Tarot—in them, we see ourselves and other people in our lives. 

The everyday themes of the Minor Arcana

While the Major Arcana represents archetypes we share in the collective unconscious, the Minor Arcana shows how these archetypes play out in our personal unconscious and daily life. With 56 numbered cards and Court Cards (Pages, Knights, Queens, Kings) across four suits—Swords, Cups, Wands, and Pentacles (Coins)—each suit is often linked to an element: Swords to air, Wands to fire, Pentacles to Earth, and Cups to water. 

As you may have already guessed, those four suits also correspond tidily with Jung’s four primary functions of consciousness: Thinking, Feeling, Sensing, and Intuition. (If those sound familiar to you, they’re traits found in the MBTI—The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. But that’s an article for another time.) 

So, while The Chariot might represent determination and action, when complemented by the Two of Swords (associated with thinking and the air element) it suggests the person is having a hard time deciding what to do next and must find clarity through thought rather than charging forward with intuition. In other words, if you drew The Chariot and the Two of Swords, you’re probably stuck and need to sleep on it before you decide what to do. 

Final thoughts: The Tarot, the trap of magical thinking, and trying it out anyway

Remember how I mentioned that my run-in with The Tarot at that amazing party marked the third time it’s come up in my life over the past sixish days or so? Jung might call that synchronicity: Meaningful coincidences that aren’t causally related. (This concept was first introduced in Jung’s 1952 paper with physicist Wolfgang Pauli.) According to him, the Tarot and other divination systems, such as the I Ching and astrology, can serve as tools for synchronistic reflection. The cards you draw probably won’t predict the future, but they may very well resonate with your current state of mind. 

In fact, Jung warned against the type of “magical thinking” that may lead us to make literal or superstitious interpretations of the Tarot. He saw divination systems as a projective technique like dream interpretation or the Rorschach Test. Regardless of whether you view The Tarot as a predictor of the future, a mirror for our own psyche, or a way for shady people to make money, it’s important to acknowledge the human tendency to see what we want (confirmation bias) and to differentiate between intuition and avoidance. 

Jung said it best: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” 

Regardless, I personally think dabbling in the Tarot is worth it. If you enter the experience with the right attitude, it can be highly insightful and a whole lot of fun. Oh! And in case you were wondering, I didn’t get my cards read. Not because I wasn’t dying to know what they’d say, but because the line was nuts. Guess I’ll learn to read my own.

Hey, thanks for indulging my ramblings again. May your readings be fruitful.

Laura 🔮