Tarot isn't a crystal ball. And the cards don't know what's going to happen next Tuesday at 2:30 pm. Thankfully. Still, tarot cards have been used for centuries to explore questions about love, work, choices, change and everything messy in between. Not because the cards make decisions for you, but because they're very good at something else: bringing to the surface what might already be there. Sometimes, that's exactly what you need when you've been carrying the same question around for a while and can't seem to think your way out of it.

But first: what actually is tarot?

A tarot deck consists of 78 cards, each with its own imagery, symbolism and story. Together, they form a kind of visual language that can help you look at situations, thoughts and feelings from a different angle. The cards are divided into two groups. The Major Arcana consists of 22 cards, including The Fool, The Lovers, The Hermit, Death and The World. Big names for cards that often deal with the bigger themes in life: beginnings, choices, letting go, change and growth.

The remaining 56 cards make up the Minor Arcana and are divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. These tend to cover things that are surprisingly everyday. Ambition, trouble, love, doubt, money, conflict, new ideas, taking on too much, pulling back and eventually moving forward again. In other words: life.

Does tarot predict the future?

As far as we're concerned: no. Of course, you can draw a card with a question about the future, but that doesn't mean your future is already sitting somewhere fully formed, waiting for a tarot card to reveal it. A tarot reading is much better at showing you the direction something is moving in right now. What's going on? Where is the resistance? What might you be overlooking? And what could happen if you continue down the same path?

That distinction matters, because the moment someone tells you your future is fixed, something very important disappears from the picture: you. You can change your mind, draw a boundary, quit that job after all, call someone or decide not to. You can begin or end a relationship and finally do the thing you've been putting off for months. The cards don't make those decisions for you. They can, however, help you see what's really going on before you decide.

So why does tarot work?

Because people are remarkably good at knowing something and not wanting to know it at the same time. You can carry a question around for months when, deep down, you probably already know the answer. It's just surrounded by all sorts of other things: fear, hope, expectations, old patterns, other people's opinions and that one thought that suddenly sounds much more convincing at night than it does during the day.

Then a card appears that's about holding on. Or perhaps about leaving, conflict, desire, control or a new beginning. The card doesn't suddenly give you secret information, but it does give you an image to respond to. Maybe you recognise it immediately. Or maybe your first thought is: no, that's not how it feels at all. That's interesting too, because why doesn't it feel that way? Sometimes, that's exactly where a different perspective begins.

You don't have to believe in tarot

That might be one of our favourite things about tarot: you don't have to believe anything. You don't need to be spiritual, you don't need crystals on your bedside table and you certainly don't have to believe the universe personally arranged for that one particular card to leap out of the deck just for you.

You can simply use tarot as a tool for thinking. The images, stories and archetypes in the cards give you another way into a question instead of running the same thoughts through your head for the hundredth time. Sometimes a card confirms something you've already been feeling, sometimes it rubs you the wrong way and sometimes you simply think: damn. Those are often the interesting cards.

How does a tarot reading work?

A tarot reading begins with a question. It can be something specific, such as Why do I keep doubting my job?, or something broader like What do I need to move forward? One or more cards are then drawn and read together.

It's not just about the traditional meaning associated with each card. A card's position, the other cards around it, its symbolism and, most importantly, your question all shape the story. A tarot card isn't a standalone answer pulled from some kind of cosmic answer book. Context makes the reading, which is why exactly the same card can mean something completely different for two different people.

What can you use tarot for?

Tarot works particularly well for questions where you're looking for insight rather than a simple yes or no. That could be love and relationships, work, a decision you need to make, a pattern you keep falling back into, a new beginning or something you're finding difficult to let go of. It can also be useful for that vague feeling that something needs to change, even though you can't quite put your finger on what.

For questions like Will my team win on Saturday? or What are the winning lottery numbers?, we find tarot considerably less useful. Shame, really. Otherwise, we'd probably be sitting in an Arcana Lane villa by the sea by now.

What do you actually get from a tarot reading?

Ideally, not an instruction and certainly not a card telling you what you have to do. What a good tarot reading can give you is clarity. It can reveal what you're really struggling with, show you possibilities you might not have considered yet and sometimes even uncover the question hiding underneath the one you originally asked.

Maybe it confirms something you've already been feeling. Maybe you discover a perspective you hadn't considered before. Or perhaps you read one sentence and think: yes, I actually knew that already.

That's exactly where we think the value of tarot lies. The cards don't tell you anything new. They show you what you already knew.