Is tarot for real?

Nancy Razza, a psychologist with a doctorate from Fairleigh Dickinson University, thinks so. On Tuesday, Razza held a workshop at Hancock Town Library on the education of tarot cards and tarot card readings.  

Tarot cards are used in fortune-telling, and Razza explained the dynamics of the cards. 

“There’s 78 arcana in a deck. Twenty-two of those arcana are the major arcana and the other 56 are the minor arcana,” she said. The arcana are the cards, but the Greek definition of the word is “secrets of the universe.” 

The purpose of tarot cards is for people to be able to see the representation of universal human experiences, such as love or bad news, within themselves. 

There are many themes throughout the cards, such as female and male representation, references to astrology and infinity symbolism.

These themes correspond to portray a human life cycle. 

Razza said that humans “go on, life after life, generation after generation,” as she explained the symbolism behind the infinity theme on many of the cards. 

John Sarbello, Razza’s significant other, talked about Razza’s passion for tarot post-retirement.

“This is her passion,” he said. “It’s all she does. And I’m the one she practices on.”

Along with the hobby of tarot-reading, Razza also talked about her certification in ancestral regression, which is intended to provide better understanding of the self through hypnosis.

“During COVID, I got my certification for the ancestral regression, It was only about a week-long course, but you really have to be in tune with yourself and the person you're working with,” she said. “I believe there's meaning and things to learn from these skills that we can use to tap into the subconscious and use our full brain”. 

Razza was pleased with the turnout for the workshop and the prior knowledge they had.

“I did not expect this many people to come and have so much knowledge of the tarot. I plan on doing more here in the future,” she said.