Profession: tarologist. Women talk about what it’s like to work with letter reading.

It’s hard to find someone who has never been curious about going to a tarot reader. This millennial oracle is among the most popular in the world. The tarot is a deck of 78 cards. The best known are the so-called major arcana, a sequence of 22 cards with symbolic figures full of meanings, such as the madman, death, the star, the sun, among others. The others are the 56 minor arcana, which resemble the common deck, with sequences of cards numbered from 1 to 10 of four different suits, with the difference that the tarot has four figures (and not three): jack, queen (or queen), king and knight.

The origin of the tarot is a great mystery, but the oldest records kept in museums or with collectors date back to the 14th century and originate in northern Italy. And for almost six centuries, people all over the world have used cards for different reasons: to try to predict the future, ask for advice before making an important decision or understand issues that are hidden in our unconscious.

For a long time, there was a belief that playing and interpreting card messages was a gift that few people possessed. But little by little, the activity was demystified. It is increasingly common to see people who decide to buy their own deck, study the symbology of the cards and use them to gain clarity in difficult times. For some women, however, after much practice, reading ceased to be an amateur activity. See three testimonials from those who faced their own fears and prejudices and adopted the tarot as a profession:

Isabela Lages, 34 years old, teacher, translator, singer and tarot reader
“My first contact with the tarot was at home. My mother had one and when she opened it, I was kind of dating the letters. After a few years, I had a friend take it out for me and it was very impressive. And then I went to study the cards with this friend and my sister-in-law, who is a tarologist. I began to understand what the symbology of the cards was and what my intuition was. Then I dove in deep. I always read to my friends, but it took a while for me to take it as a profession. I am a singer, French teacher and translator. And this stereotype of the tarot reader comes with a lot of prejudice. She was afraid of being judged, that they would think I was a charlatan or that I might lose students. But after I assumed to myself that I wanted to do this professionally and shared it with the world, I had a huge result. Several people who I thought would find it strange reached out to me. Today I’ve been doing up to two appointments a week and I see that the tarot is gaining more and more space in my professional life. It’s kind of taboo, right? No one talks about it, but everyone thinks it’s wonderful. It’s a silly prejudice, but I feel that this is changing. I see the tarot as a tool of self-knowledge. I think everyone not only can but should practice”.

Bianca Santana, 32 years old, university professor and tarot reader
“I grew up watching my aunt open letters for people. It wasn’t tarot, it was regular deck. When I turned 15, she said she wanted to teach me. I said no, that I wanted to study and that I didn’t really believe in it. And I stayed that way for about 15 years. When I got pregnant with my daughter, I already had two boys, I started to feel very different, to have different interests. And I began to study the differences between men and women. One day I was in a bookstore and I stayed there for hours researching books on Anthropology, History, but nothing caught my attention. And when I saw a book on tarot, I was very interested. I went to the cashier to pay and I didn’t even give my CPF so I wouldn’t register for my purchases. I thought ‘no one will see that I’m reading this’. I went looking for my aunt who started teaching me and I heard many interesting stories from my family. And I discovered another way of thinking. Because we, who are very educated, have a very linear way of thinking. And that was one of my main difficulties with the tarot. It took me a while to find out that it does have the meaning of the cards, but that it has another interpretation that is more subjective, intuitive. I started opening letters to myself, I read a lot of books, until one hour I decided to open them to people close to me. I saw how powerful reading can be for everyone. I teach at a communications college and I’m working on my doctorate. I have already opened letters to several fellow professors, several doctors. I don’t know if they would talk about it publicly, but several have asked me. The way we see the world is very fragmented. It is as if it were not possible for someone who appreciates Science and History to be interested in tarot, as if it were something minor. But I look at the cards as popular knowledge. How long have people been using this wisdom and does it make sense to them?”

Ana Cristina Vidal de Castro Ortiz, 38 years old, astrologer, therapist and tarot reader
“I was a teenager when I went to a tarot reader for the first time. I wanted to know about the future and understand a little more about the things that happened. One day, a friend talked about taking a course so we could read to each other and not have to spend any more money. I was in law school. We took the course and it was super cool. I started practicing and took several other courses. My first clients were my closest friends, who were embarrassed not to pay anything and so it started to become work. I think the main function of the tarot is to translate what we already know. We have those desires, the possibilities are there. And I think it also shows things that we are not seeing, from our unconscious. Many think that you need to have a gift, be a clairvoyant or a medium and that is a big nonsense. If you just base it on the meaning of the cards, you’ll get an answer. Of course intuition helps a lot, but anyone can do this and interpret. I have a postgraduate degree in Law and Journalism and a Master’s in Communication. And the tarot universe is something totally separate from the academic world. I’ve been through a lot of prejudice. I managed to present a work on tarot at a master’s event, which later became an article. It never crossed my mind that I would get something like that. In the family it was also complicated. Until recently, my father used to say: ‘My daughter dropped out of law to become a fortune teller’. I think he would have been happier if I had stayed on as a lawyer.”