Tarot’s Main Character Problem

How does the I Ching Compare to Tarot?

The Main Character Problem in Tarot, Western Astrology, and Divination

I love Tarot. I’ve spent decades in personal and professional cartomancy practice. Over time, I noticed the readings either told me the same story or reinforced a story about myself. I used to think maybe it’s a user problem but then came to understand that it may be a limitation of the oracle. 

What Is the Main Character Problem in Story-Based Divination?

Archetypes require a protagonist. Stories need a main character. Tarot, Western astrology, and other symbol-based divination systems are about identifying yourself at the centre of an image and read outward from there. And while this can produces insight, it also produces a ceiling, where the reading reflects your psychology back at you with permission and even indulgence.

Why Western Astrology and Tarot Keep You at the Centre

Western culture, and the New Age tradition that grew from it, trains us to stay at the center aka the main character. The I Ching comes from a cosmological lineage that doesn’t share this premise. When you toss coins or yarrow sticks, the hexagram(s) that come through do not reinforce protagonist viewpoint. Rather than asking you to identify, the hexagram locates you in a space time field that exists independently of your narrative. The read is not about your story. It is about where you are standing, what that location is about it, and what your position / relation in it requires of you.

Is Self-Centred Divination a Cultural Bias?

A divination tradition that keeps you as the main character also reproduces, in miniature, the epistemological inheritance of Western individualism, in other words, the premise that the self is the primary unit of meaning, that the world organizes around your story. In a society built on and ravaged by colonialism, “the self” is hardly a neutral assumption. Symbol-based systems trained inside this tradition will keep returning you to your own patterns because self-referentiality (and therefore, entitlement) is inherent in the divining.

How Does the I Ching Compare to Tarot and Astrology as a Divination Method?

The I Ching in contrast, is a map, and not a mirror. It locates you in the geography of possibilities and change that operates according to how life force moves, independent of your self-concept. The hexagram does not ask what the image means to you. It tells you where you are standing in a process that was already unfolding before you even asked. It also doesn’t accommodate protagonist framing which means with practice, you will also develop the capacity to receive information that contradicts what you expected, wanted, or already believed.

What Clients Notice When They Learn I Ching Divination With Mimi Young

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“By session four, I wasn’t just tossing coins for answers. I was seeing and understanding patterns.” 

— B.L. Fulton

“Everything Mimi does is magnificently intentional, grounded, and so real. Just being in her presence, I learn so much about… just being …I can say she’s one of the very best I’ve met.”

— Natalia Estevez

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