The Tarot can be a magical and enlightening experience, but if you’ve ever even so much as flipped through a deck, you know it’s not all sunshine and rainbows!
Tarot cards like The Tower or Death regularly can turn heads and stop our hearts when they appear in a spread. Sometimes, the “scary” Tarot cards or darker cards in a Tarot deck can even scare us out of reading cards altogether or prevent people from wanting to get a reading. However, at the end of the day, Tarot is not meant to scare you but to illuminate the truth.
This means that even some of the “scariest” Tarot cards actually can contain a positive twist or bubble of insight in the darkest of times. After all, life isn’t always as black and white as “good versus bad.”
If you’ve just encountered a “scary” Tarot card and are hoping to see what positivity you can glean from the experience, read on!
Prepare for your day with an energetic reading from the Universe. Read your daily Tarot card!
6 “Scary” Tarot Cards That Are Actually Positive
1. The Tower
When things are stagnant for too long… you may just need to have your castle crumble to ash.
The Tower is typically a scary Tarot card because it represents the destruction of everything we know. Relationships end, jobs come to a finish, and perhaps even our sense of self and identity gets flipped on its head. Without a doubt, change is scary, especially when it involves a complete collapse of what’s familiar.
However, this isn’t necessarily a bad omen, no matter how much you dislike the idea of losing what you know. At the end of the day, Tower moments are often necessary and only create space for something new and better suited for you.
2. 4 of Swords
This scary Tarot card often spooks most Tarot beginners, as the image often looks like someone is lying in their death.
However, those familiar with the card’s meaning will recognize the 4 of Swords as a card of rest, not death! This mysterious card often meets us when we need rest and rejuvenation, especially if we’ve been working too hard or just finished a long path or journey.
See — the suit of Swords isn’t always so ominous! It’s here to offer some regular, much-needed self-care advice too.
3. Death
Death is an understandably concerning card at first glance, but like The Tower, it only arrives to help.
Rather than physical or literal death, the kind of death that this “scary” Tarot card brings to the table is more of an internal transformation. The Tower cuts out the excess of what we no longer need and leaves a space, but Death moves us more obviously from point A to point B.
We find Death when we require something different, and often Death delivers by bringing us more in alignment with our true soul’s desires and goals.
After all, within the death of anything, there is the opportunity for rebirth as well!
Check out this article next: This is Why Your Tarot Reading Makes No Sense
4. 5 of Cups
Heartache and loss are never fun, so having the 5 of Cups in your forecast can be a real damper on your day.
This scary Tarot card definitely points out disappointment, sadness, and loss in your life, one that cuts an emotional wound thanks to the suit of Cups. However, the positive meaning in the card is inherent to everything the 5 of Cups represents.
The figure in the 5 of Cups gazes sadly at the spilled Cups, completely missing the two full ones right behind them.
Ultimately, it’s a reminder that there is actually so much good and beauty waiting for you once you’re done healing.
5. 9 of Swords
This one might seem strange, as we know the 9 of Swords is a particularly daunting beast to deal with when it arrives.
Deep anxieties, our darkest fears, and rampant nightmares are all present in this gloomy card. However, the struggles that the 9 of Swords represent are always internal ones, meaning that they often do not actually hold any weight in our realities.
In other words, seeing the 9 of Swords is a validation that your anxieties about what bad thing may happen are rooted nowhere in reality. That doesn’t make it any less real for you as you struggle with your fears, of course — an internal battle is still a battle.
But know that the 9 of Swords itself can come to negate what you fear will happen. And sometimes, that’s all we need.
Did you know that when a Tarot card is pulled in a reversed position, it takes on a new meaning? Make sure to read: Everything You Need to Know About Reversed Tarot Cards
6. 10 of Swords
Like all 10’s of Tarot, the 10 of Swords represents an ending.
However… it’s not a happy one. Undoubtedly, the 10 of Swords is quite the fright when it comes up in a spread unexpectedly, as we might take it to mean that our relationships are going to end in heartbreak or that the job we like very much will be coming to an unexpected close.
And yet, there are many times in our lives that we know moments like this to have happened. It’s very likely that you have already experienced the 10 of Swords multiple times in your life, and guess what — you’re still here!
The 10 of Swords’ real meaning indeed represents an ending, but it doesn’t mean that a new beginning isn’t right around the corner. Sometimes this card arrives to help us dodge bullets, or we need to learn to let go.
Positive Thinking & Tarot Readings
A Tarot reading or Tarot card is about as scary or negative as we allow it to be.
Of course, we shouldn’t just ignore the negative things or only focus on what we want to see. On the contrary, Tarot is about seeing the full spectrum of experience. In acknowledging everything that our cards could be trying to communicate, we are more likely to glean all kinds of insight from a reading — positive and negative.
This is why not letting a Tarot card you perceive as “bad” scare you immediately is important! Rather than holding preconceived ideas about how exactly a card might manifest in your life, be open to all the beautiful unknowns that even a little darkness can bring.
Soon, you might even find new comfort in seeing some Swords pop up in your spread!
Take the quiz: Which Major Arcana Card Describes Your Life Right Now?