Is Tarot a Sin? An Honest Answer From a Christian Reader

This is the hardest page on my whole site to write, and the most important, so I am going to write it with my cards on the table — literally. If you searched “is tarot a sin,” you probably already suspect the answer is yes, because most Christian voices say so. And on the most important point, I agree with them. Let me show you exactly where I agree, and then tell you honestly what I do and why, so you can judge it for yourself before God.

Where I agree completely

Scripture forbids divination. It is not vague about it. “There shall not be found among you any one that… useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch… or a consulter with familiar spirits” (Deuteronomy 18:10–11). To use any tool — cards included — to tell fortunes, predict the future, seek hidden knowledge apart from God, or contact spirits is divination, and divination is a sin. Full stop.

So if you are asking, “Is it a sin to use tarot to find out my future, or to channel a spirit, or as a power in itself?” — my answer is the same as your pastor’s: yes. Don’t do it. Stay away from it. I will not soften that to keep a customer. My grandmother, a devout Catholic, would have softened it even less than I do.

If that is the tarot you have in mind, you have your answer, and you can close this page in good conscience.

So why do I use a deck of cards at all?

Because the same object can be put to entirely different uses, and Scripture judges the use. A sword can murder or defend. Fire can warm a home or burn it down. The question God asks is never only “what is the object?” but “what is being done, and to whom does the glory go?”

Here is precisely what I do with a worn 1971 Rider-Waite deck at the Three-Gate Reading, and what I do not:

I do not tell your future. The “three gates” — past, present, future — are not windows I see through. They are a structure for looking honestly at a family’s history.
I do not contact any spirit. There is no familiar spirit at my table. There is a Bible, a candle, prayer, and Christ.
I do not treat the cards as having power or knowledge. They are images — a mirror that helps a soul see and name a pattern that is already plainly there in their bloodline: what Scripture calls the “iniquity of the fathers” (Exodus 20:5), what I call the chain.
I do not offer the cards any redemption. The naming is mine to help with; the breaking belongs entirely to Christ — “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13).

I have written more about this distinction in Christian tarot reading explained. The deck, in my hands, is closer to a counselor’s worksheet than to a fortune-teller’s crystal ball. It names; it never predicts; it never receives worship or trust that belongs to God.

And here is where I will not push you

I have to be honest about something, because a man who only argues his own case is not to be trusted. Many sincere, Bible-loving Christians will still not be at peace with cards of any kind, used in any way. I understand that completely, and I respect it without an ounce of pressure.

Scripture itself makes room for this. “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Romans 14:5), and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). If, after reading all of this, your conscience is uneasy — then for you it would be wrong, and you should not come to my table. I mean that. I have turned away souls who were not at peace, and blessed them as they went. I would rather you keep a clean conscience than gain a reading.

If you want to weigh who I actually am before deciding, read is Celestino legitimate? and my story, and pray about it.

“My grandmother taught me.”

So: is tarot a sin? Used for divination — yes, plainly. Used as a mirror to help a soul name an inherited wound and bring it to Christ for healing — that is a different act entirely, and I believe it stands. But I will not decide your conscience for you. Take it to God. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God” (James 1:5). He will not lead you wrong.