Can Tarot cards be dangerous?

Not according to my belief system.

Not according to testable reality.

They can be very dangerous if you throw them fast enough…

If I answer within the context of the question, then I would say that they might be considered dangerous, but only by the people who believe in the cards’ power. Those who do not believe are unharmed.

A little browsing through some questionable online forums seems to show that the general consensus is that they are not dangerous, but that they may use up a lot of spiritual energy. Take that to mean whatever you think that it means.

Tarot cards are not dangerous. People who read the Tarot cards are using them to tap into the ‘Universal Consciousness’. The Tarot cards do not predict the future, they only answer questions about what is going on in your life. They will tell you the out-come of endeavors in which you are involved – but if you change what you are doing, you will change the direction in which your life is heading & the out-come will change. There is no danger of releasing any ‘bad’ spirits, the Tarot cards are not dangerous. Tarot cards are a focusing mechanism that allows you to concentrate on questions that concern you.

@Linda_Owl
Oh okay. Thank you for answering!

No, not dangerous.

[mod says]: Please remember: This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic. The OP has stated that “by danger, I’m talking about bad luck, release of bad spirit”. Thanks!

@Linda_Owl said it very well. I’ve been reading tarot cards for 17 years, and I’ve been doing it professionally for about the last 6 or 7. In my experience, they are a mirror. They reflect my soul at a given moment. I can meditate on what I see and continue on that path or change it.

I have never once in my life considered tarot cards to be dangerous in any way. They don’t release any energy that I’m not holding onto. In some ways, they help me release feelings of anger and anxiety over situations that I might not realize I’m stuck with.

No I don’t think they are. I’ve never had a bad experience with them and neither has anyone I know.

The inherent danger I see is that some people believe their destiny/future can be defined by the turn of a card. Come on, life’s what you make it, so what are you waiting for?

Only if you get a paper cut from them, and it gets infected.

The issue is not the cards themselves, it is the PERSON who believes and interprets (and the acts on) beliefs. There is no inherent evil in a piece of colored paper; it’s what you do with it that counts.

In that respect, the use of tarot is no worse, and no better, than reading the bible. if you want to believe it and act on what you read, then you can do bad things or good things. But that’s a choice that belongs to YOU based on your understanding.

So flip the cards if you want, but in the end, it is YOUR actions, not the flip of the card, that makes the difference.

No more than the rest of the occult.

@PhiNotPi Hilarious! I was going to mention that some decks weigh quite a bit and could be used as a blunt-force weapon.

But none of the hazards in the OP are a real issue with Tarot cards. “Now, by danger, I’m talking about bad luck, release of bad spirits, etc. Are they dangerous in any way, shape or form?”

The introspective/mirror process of using them will expose you to information you already ‘know’ so the cards are no more dangerous than that. ..but sometimes the truth is scary if you’ve been deluding yourself and are faced with that.

I’m somewhat of a paranormal enthusiast, but I’m more into afterlife, ghost and spirit research than things like astrology, numerology and tarot cards. Perhaps with some of my related knowledge I can help you here.

From what I’m aware of from the secular research of the afterlife, people upon death are just as human as they are now, but their etheric bodies (and the matter systems that they reside in) vibrate at frequencies which are just above what most people’s senses can detect. A person that is full of love and good intentions will have a much higher vibrational frequency than a person whose motivations and actions were less than good. The vibrational patterns of a ‘deceased’ person’s etheric copy determines where it will reside upon passing on. The lower vibrational planes, known as ‘hell’ to many religionists, are where the baddest of the bad reside. Hell, unlike the higher planes on up, interpenetrate with our plane, so there can be an inherent danger here. This is why mediums or clairvoyants that function without a spiritual guide can endanger themselves, because it is the lower entities that interpenetrate with our own realm. When people use things such as ouija boards, unguided mediumship or tarot cards they are more likely to come in contact with lower entities than higher ones.

From what I’ve read about ouija boards and tarot cards, it seems that ouija boards have the potential to be much more dangerous than tarot cards though.

Yes, they can be very dangerous for superstitious people prone to the nocebo effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo

Perhaps the danger may be proportionate to an individuals psychological predisposition and spiritual upbringing. It stands to reason that most of the people who have had negative experiences with the tarot tend to come from a Christian background which strongly condemns this sort of thing. This has the potential to set up an extraordinary level of inner conflict within certain individuals. For example when those from a Christian background begin seeking insight from outside their native schema it’s usually because there is something they feel that their faith or belief system is not providing. But when they begin to explore other spiritual paths the conflicting messages between the old and the new can be more than some can deal with. Most people simply can not have a Bible in one hand and a Tarot deck in the other. It can be hard to reconcile the fact that we can be drawn to things that we may not be able to process based on our backgrounds. Just my 2 cents