AI and Tarot
Artificial Intelligence, Tarot Readings On Demand and AI Created Tarot Decks: How Is This Going To Work?
I attended a festival a few weeks ago, one I havent been to for a number of years and I felt the change. My first thought was, WTF? Where is the spirituality I wondered? In only a few of the spaces did I sense the vibe of authentically inspired souls at work, people bringing something new, previously undiscovered, unique, healing, and genuinely special to attendees. It hit me most when I came across the Tarot decks, and it took me a few minutes to get what was really going on.
I perused the decks, and there were many. Very beautiful, great colours, gorgeous design, but there was a silence. It felt a bit like walking through a beautiful house where no one has ever lived - you know, the ‘things’ are all there, yet the presence is not. I felt, well I felt confused. Dismayed. Then a teeny bit worried.
When A Picture Paints A Thousand Words
A Tarot image is more than an illustration; it is a vessel for years of study, of reflection and exploration. Artists like Pamela Colman Smith did not simply “design” cards; they poured their lives into them. She created the imagery for what is now known as the Smith-Waite Tarot deck, (previously the Rider-Waite) a body of work that has become the foundation of modern Tarot practice and the decks that are used in it. Her scenes, especially those in the Minor Arcana, were groundbreaking in how they turned abstract numbers and suits into lived, emotional moments.
Pamela was an artist, occultist, and member of esoteric groupings like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, moving in worlds where symbolism, ritual, and mystical study were woven into daily life. Her cards arose from that immersion; the art and the magical worldview grew from the same roots, like branches of a single tree.
The Imprint of The Artist
When people speak of Pamela painting “in sync with the sky,” they are pointing to something essential: her work was not just about the static symbolism of astrology, but about the living moment of it. She drew in a world where planetary movements, ritual calendars, and inner states were entangled; even when specific stories about timing are hard to verify historically, what is clear is that she worked quickly, intensely, and within an environment saturated with occult and astrological ideas. Her deck, carries the feeling of a person listening, responding, and translating subtle influences into line and colour.
Because of that, the cards feel alive. The Fool’s step, the sorrow of the Three of Swords, the watchfulness of the Nine of Wands: these are not generic scenes, they are emotional atmospheres anchored in her imagination and experience. Over time, millions of Tarot Readers have projected their own lives into those pictures, but there is a core spark that began with her—her choices, her quirks, her filter, her hand.
Why AI decks Feel Strangely Empty
In contrast, the AI-generated Tarot decks I have seen so far seem to be collages of what the machine has learned that “tarot art” looks like: robes, moons, swords, a certain mystical mood. But the system does not know what initiation feels like; it does not wrestle with archetypes within the self, or wonder what the Moon is whispering to it at 3am. It just assesses, recombines. predicts and produces.
This can create images that are stunning - there’s no doubt about that, but they do seem hollow. For me, there is a lack of “life” in these decks: no story, no relationship between artist and archetype, only a reflection of what has already been done.
The Soul Of A Reading
Still, Tarot has always been a mirror, and mirrors can work even if they are mass-produced. An AI-generated deck can absolutely be used as a divinatory tool if a reader forms a relationship with it. Meaning does not live solely in the artist’s heart; it also emerges in the encounter between reader, querent, and symbol. Some Psychics, Tarot Readers and Channels may even appreciate the neutrality of an AI deck, finding it provides a more open field onto which their intuition can move.
For others, though, this neutrality could feel like a void. Some might miss the sense of lineage, of human touch, of knowing that a real person once sat under a lamp, worrying over the tilt of a hand or the angle of a star. That knowledge can create a ritual intimacy with the cards: a feeling of being in conversation not just with symbols, but with the generations of people who have handled them.
Is There Value in AI-Based Readings?
The value or lack of value in doing readings with AI-generated decks depends on what Tarot is, for you.
If Tarot is primarily a symbolic language to trigger intuition, then any coherent deck—even an AI one—can function, provided you are willing to work with it, slow down, and listen.
If Tarot is a living tradition, where the deck is an altar object carrying the breath of its maker and its history, then an AI deck may feel more like a prop than a sacred tool.
Similarly, AI “Tarot Reading” systems that draw cards and generate interpretations can be useful as a starting point, especially for beginners learning card meanings. They can offer structure, prompts, and different angles on a situation. But the deepest value of Tarot is rarely the mere information. It is the sense of being held inside a meaningful moment, of being witnessed and gently guided as you face yourself.
Why See A Human Reader At All?
In a world where someone can ask an AI like Chat GPT for a Tarot spread and an instant explanation, why would anyone still go to a Tarot Reader?
Because Tarot is not just content; it is container. A human reader provides a space where your story is heard, your body language is noticed, your emotions are met with empathy, not just text.
Because a Reader brings their own lived history, intuition, spiritual practice, and ethical discernment. They can say, “Let’s pause here,” or “How does that land for you?” in a way an automated system cannot.
Because transformation often happens in relationship. Having another human reflect your patterns, fears, and hidden strengths can shift something in the heart that no instantaneous print-out of meanings quite touches.
AI can mimic the language of insight, but it does not sit across from you sensing the tremor in your voice. It does not share in your courage as you ask the hard questions. It does not carry, the way Pamela Colman Smith did, its own strange and complicated life into the encounter. Human readers do, and that shared humanity is often where the deepest magic is.
When I sit with someone over the cards, we sit within an energetic container, our auric fields blend, there is atmosphere, fragrance, sometimes a cup of tea; they are held energetically by me, challenged and supported dependant on need through facial expression, voice tone, by feel. This is whats real. Tarot is in truth, a healing modality in and of itself, and this cannot be replicated - in my humble opinion of course.
In the end, I think that AI will flood the world with marvellous Tarot imagery and quick, clever readings. But this only makes the hand-drawn or painted, human-made decks more precious, and the living presence of a reader more luminous. The soul of Tarot has never been in the shuffle alone; it lives where human beings bring their whole selves to meet the mystery.
What do you think?