Why Tarot Feels So Accurate, And How to Actually Read a Card

About this episode

Mollie Adler explores the accuracy of tarot and how to read cards intuitively.

Someone tagged me this week in a Christian conversion testimony video and accused me of leading people into demonic tarot witchcraft, which honestly made me laugh. So naturally, I made an episode. I felt like it was important to explore why tarot feels so disturbingly accurate sometimes even when you don’t fully “believe” in it. I’ll introduce you to Pamela Colman Smith, the artist behind the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and why her illustrated minor arcana changed tarot forever. We discuss tarot as theater, the body language inside various cards, and perhaps most importantly, why simply memorizing meanings is usually the worst possible way to learn. By the end of this episode, you’ll learn how to actually read the tarot intuitively. You can listen to the full episode at patreon.com/backfromtheborderline . You can also join the Patreon for free if you want the weekly Wednesday newsletter and previews of the paid episodes before deciding. MOODS is live at moods.world ,  and you can use The Animatrix inside MOODS to work through your daily tarot pull in the same way I teach here. Patreon members also get discounted access to MOODS. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more…

People in this episode

Host: Mollie Adler

Topics covered

• tarot
• intuition
• spirituality
• body language
• art
• Christianity

Keywords

• tarot
• Pamela Colman Smith
• Rider-Waite-Smith
• intuitive reading
• Christianity
• witchcraft
• body language

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Patreon, MOODS

Books & works: Rider-Waite-Smith deck

More episodes of back from the borderline

• The Female Shadow · June 9, 2026 · 1h 12m
• The Christian Grimoire Evangelicals Forgot About (Part 1) · June 2, 2026 · 43 min
• Why Everyone Sounds Religious About AI [Consciousness Stream for May 2026] · May 28, 2026 · 27 min
• The Body Keeps the Mileage (On Mortality & Wellness Panic) · May 26, 2026 · 1h 1m
• The Intelligence of Madness, Part Two: How We Come Back · May 19, 2026 · 1h 19m
• Why “Disclosure” is a Distraction and How to Stay Sane as Reality Crumbles · May 14, 2026 · 27 min