Can tarot tell you if your house is haunted?

Most of my client readings are focused on work or relationships.

I think that’s pretty common for most tarot readers, as those are the topics that people are usually most concerned with.

But every once in a while, I get some really fun – and unusual – questions.

I was reading at an event in a small town a couple hours away. It was nearing the end of the day when a young woman sat across from me said, “I’m not sure if you can tell me this, but is my house haunted? Because I feel like it is but no one will take me seriously when I tell them.”

I had been asked a lot of questions before this, but it was my first haunted house reading.

I shuffled the cards like usual and had my querent pull a few. When I flipped them over, we both peered down at them and paused.

The Seven of Cups, Wheel of Fortune and the Hanged Man stared back at me.

It’s not always easy to navigate such a direct question: Asking “is my house haunted” is essentially a yes or no.

So my interpretation had to centre around a definitive answer. Saying “maybe” was going to leave this querent in the same way she came.

“Yes,” I said.

But why, and by whom – or by what?

First I wanted to break down why I was landed on a yes instead of a no.

Tarot is very literal sometimes, and my first thought upon seeing the Hanged Man was that someone (or something) was “hanging around.”

And while the Hanged Man often has softer, more spiritual connotations in contemporary tarot, it is historically an image of someone being hanged. While I wouldn’t go so far as to diagnose how someone died in this case, I would look at this card as a reflection that a spirit was attached to the home.

I was also struck by the pattern across the cards: Each card emphasizes an image that is ephemeral or disconnected from the earth.

The Seven of Cups’ mysterious, shadowy figure looks up at a dreamscape.

The Wheel of Fortune is of the ether, full of myth and imagination and spiritual beings: “Spirit beings.”

And while the Hanged Man is the most embodied, he is floating. He’s not grounded here, but tethered and suspended in time.

As I explained why I felt the answer was yes, the relief on the querent’s face was obvious. I realized that, more than anything, she had wanted to be taken seriously.

I also realized she was very open to exploring this conversation further. From there, we started to look at other questions: Who is this spirit? What did they want? What could she do to create peace in her home?

It might seem intimidating to take on a question like this if it’s unexplored territory in your tarot readings. But the mechanics of deriving an interpretation are the same whether you’re talking about a haunted house or a love affair:

You’re looking to the cards to show the way. In cases like this, the usual guidebook meanings might not always feel so helpful, though, which is why the visual components of tarot can add so much more meaning.

If you’re interested in learning how to use tarot to explore questions about the spirit realm, as well as use it for magical and ritual purposes, I’d love to show you how in Tarot for Magic, Spell Craft and the Strange.

We start on April 9. Details are here.

Until next time,

Liz