Flipping through video clips, one comes up showing flowery cards about to flip.
“This found you because … ” read the words on the screen. “Those financial issues are about to come to an end.”
It looks and sounds like other social media content, thanks in part to the popular Olivia Rodrigo song in the background.
Meg Ludwig sets up her tarot cards for a reading. She does pop-up readings at Eclectic Co. twice per month.
But this one isn’t meant to make you laugh or teach you how to make dinner. It’s meant to help make some of your biggest life decisions.
The comment section is flooded with some version of the phrase “I claim this energy,” showing that hundreds of people, if not more, believe in this.
These videos show something else. Tarot card readings are no longer a mysterious thing behind a curtain. Tarot readings are on TikTok, which sort of means tarot readings are everywhere.
This is true in Colorado Springs, where tarot readings can be found at festivals, farmers markets and birthday parties.
They can be found at downtown shops such as Eclectic Co., where Meg Ludwig hosts a pop-up tarot reading every other weekend. Ludwig, 35, is prepared for whoever walks through the door, which tends to be a range of tourists or locals, and welcomes a range of reactions to the tarot table. Ludwig can see the look in people’s eyes.
“A lot of people are pretty freaked out that I’m going to tell them they are going to die,” she said. “And I’ve never predicted anyone’s death.”
That’s one misconception Ludwig runs into. There are many others.
“A lot of my sessions are demystifying what people have gleaned from television and movies about tarot,” Ludwig said. “And just showing them I’m a normal person.”
She’s run into these types of conversations a lot, because tarot, perhaps, doesn’t seem normal. Or hasn’t until now.
Meg Ludwig shuffles the tarot cards. Ludwig does pop-up readings at Eclectic Co. twice per month. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Ludwig has seen tarot turn mainstream, as has Natalie Evans, who does readings out of her metaphysical shop, by phone and during occasional parties.
“Honestly, with the emergence of TikTok, it really blew up,” she said.
She said it’s emerging out of the “taboo.” But the soul of tarot should not be lost.
“Tarot is meant for introspection,” she said. “It’s about looking into yourself to see what moves you can make to improve your lives.”
Evans gets a lot of skeptics. So sometimes she tells her story. She wasn’t looking for tarot. She wasn’t looking to become a 17-year-old mother. She wasn’t looking to become a 19-year-old widow, after her husband died of cancer.
And she wasn’t looking for a tarot reading. Her friend thought it was a good idea.
“She was able to tell me right off the bat that I was a widow,” Evans said of the tarot card reader. “You don’t just guess a 19-year-old is a widow.”
The reader told more to the young woman who had spiritual experiences prior but was scared of this reading because she didn’t want to hear more bad news. The reader told her she’d meet a strong, red-headed man someday, and Evans did. The reader sparked something else. A new belief. A healing. A career.
Meg Ludwig sets up her tarot cards inside while she has a sign in the window of Electic Co. Ludwig does pop-up readings at Eclectic Co. twice per month. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
“It all comes back to helping people,” she said. “I like helping people through my gifts.”
She now gets to tell others that. She now gets to help others.
“I truly believe this is what I’m supposed to be doing with my life,” Ludwig said.
“A lot of people are pretty freaked out that I’m going
to tell them they are going to die. And I’ve never predicted
anyone’s death.” Meg Ludwig, tarot card reader
