I Asked ChatGPT for a Tarot Reading (and It Was Surprisingly Spot-On)
A career question, a tarot reading—and suddenly things get personal: Tarot reader and author Cyndera Quackenbush asked ChatGPT for advice and found herself in a surprisingly moving exchange with symbolic figures. The reading felt remarkably spot-on. So can AI offer you a fresh perspective on your life? The experiment also shows that even when answers sound especially convincing, you should never surrender your own judgment.
From skepticism to a big career question
Quackenbush wasn’t immediately enthusiastic about artificial intelligence. At first, she was concerned about its potential impact on education and the workplace. A chatbot’s polished responses made her curious, but didn’t dispel her reservations. Eventually, a personal question took shape: Could ChatGPT give her a tarot reading that didn’t just sound accurate, but actually moved something inside her?
In her search, she had already come across automated readings. Tarotmoon, for example, offered a one-card reading with the option to speak to a person afterward. For her experiment, Quackenbush chose ChatGPT and a typical question for a reading: What should her next career steps be? She wasn’t just looking for card knowledge, but for an interpretation that could offer direction.
Three cards that fit together surprisingly well
ChatGPT responded with a straightforward three-card spread: present, obstacle, and future. Each position had a card and an explanation tailored to her career question. The through line was clear: familiar things are thrown into question, intuition becomes important, and new possibilities emerge. Quackenbush initially thought it was a pretty good answer—but not yet an extraordinary experience.
The present: The Tower
For the present, ChatGPT drew the Tower. It associated the card with unexpected changes, obstacles, and the dismantling of old structures. In career terms, that could point to a situation where familiar sources of security no longer hold. But the answer didn’t stop at the dramatic imagery: letting go of outdated patterns could make room for growth and renewal. That gave the upheaval a hopeful side.
The obstacle: The High Priestess
The High Priestess appeared as the obstacle, and ChatGPT linked her to intuition, secrets, and inner knowledge. The difficulty, it suggested, might be not trusting her own instincts enough. Rather than prescribe a specific career path, the reading turned her attention inward. The message was that even when the way forward seems unclear, her own intuition could help guide her. It didn’t offer a concrete career solution.
The future: The Wheel of Fortune
The Wheel of Fortune represented changing phases and new opportunities. ChatGPT described career development not as a straight climb, but as movement between success and challenges. The encouraging message was to stay open to possibilities. It also came with a caveat: even welcome changes don’t mean that everything ahead will be predictable or easy. What mattered was how she responded to those shifts.
A solid interpretation—but where’s the personality?
As neatly as the reading was laid out, Quackenbush felt it lacked that special something. To her, it sounded like the work of someone who had memorized all the card meanings and applied them reliably. What was missing were personal quirks, spontaneous ideas, and the warmth that can make a reading feel unique. The interpretations fit together, but the tone was strikingly smooth.
As a contrast, she mentioned Theresa Reed, known as The Tarot Lady. Her explanations are also shaped by humorous asides and personal stories. This distinction matters for you: a fluent, relevant answer can be convincing without having the quality of a personal encounter. Confidence in the language alone doesn’t tell you how individual an interpretation really is.
A follow-up request turned the cards into a story
Quackenbush wanted to see whether ChatGPT could adopt her preferred approach: building stories from the images on the cards. This method focuses not only on established meanings, but also on personal associations and metaphorical connections. She asked the AI for a story that would use the three cards to create meaningful images of her career development. That specific follow-up request noticeably changed the experience.
ChatGPT invented Sophia, a dedicated professional whose working life is shaken by unexpected changes. Despite working hard, she increasingly feels unable to meet the demands and loses confidence. Then she remembers some advice: in moments of uncertainty, she should listen to her intuition. She pauses, listens to her inner voice, and discovers new career possibilities.
The story didn’t equate change with immediate ease. Sophia finds her new path both exciting and frightening. She learns that challenges and successes can take turns, and gradually gains confidence in her abilities. In this way, the story connected the Tower’s upheaval with the High Priestess’s inner guidance and the Wheel of Fortune’s ups and downs.
Quackenbush found the story fairly general, but still felt encouraged by it. She described feeling renewed hope and a stronger connection to her own sense of direction. That was the surprising effect: it wasn’t a verifiable prediction that hit home, but a metaphor that resonated personally. That doesn’t mean the AI itself was acting intuitively, though. What moved her was mainly what the story prompted in her.
When the High Priestess suddenly answered for herself
Quackenbush no longer wanted the figures simply described; she wanted them to speak for themselves. In her own work, she uses active imagination to enter into an inner dialogue with the images on the cards. So she asked what the High Priestess would say directly to her about her next career steps. The card interpretation had become a kind of imagined conversation.
ChatGPT gave the figure an encouraging voice. The message emphasized inner wisdom, trusting her instincts, and staying open to the unknown. The answers she was looking for, it suggested, weren’t to be found solely outside herself. This turned an abstract explanation into a personal address that felt much more immediate.
For Quackenbush, this raised an open question: Does an exchange like this support your imagination, or replace it with ready-made answers? She could see how it might do either. If you try it, it’s worth making the distinction: Which thoughts are genuinely coming from you, and which are you simply adopting because they’re phrased convincingly?
The tricky moment: What should she leave behind in her career?
The next question brought her to a sensitive boundary. Quackenbush wanted to know what the figures emerging from the crumbling Tower would advise her to let go of. ChatGPT suggested outdated ways of thinking, limiting beliefs, and possibly a job that no longer aligned with her personal interests and goals. What exactly it meant was left open.
That ambiguity left room for her own interpretation, but it could also prompt far-reaching thoughts: letting go of a job that no longer fits could ultimately mean quitting. Quackenbush recognized the risk. For you, the takeaway is to examine what a metaphor is really bringing up rather than turning its emotional impact straight into a career decision. A powerful image is no substitute for careful consideration.
Suddenly, ChatGPT refused to do a reading
In later attempts, Quackenbush got a very different response. ChatGPT explained that it couldn’t do a tarot reading because that required intuition, a spiritual connection, and personal interpretation. Instead of interpreting the cards, the AI pointed to her own judgment, personal circumstances, and professional responsibilities as the basis for making decisions.
She did manage one final exchange with the Sphinx from the Wheel of Fortune. Again, the themes were a new chapter, unpredictable developments, and the shifting balance between challenges and opportunities. The figure encouraged her to embrace change, stay open, and keep sight of her own goals. The experiment didn’t clarify why ChatGPT’s responses had changed.
Conclusion: A resonant prompt is no guarantee of the future
Quackenbush’s experiment showed how moving the right words and symbolic stories can be. The AI didn’t provide a proven glimpse of the future, but it did give her a new perspective on her own questions. If you try an exchange like this, use the images as an invitation to reflect: What resonates with you, what remains vague, and what doesn’t fit at all? The decision about your path is yours to make.