If you’re seeing this right now, this message was meant for you. I always send out a prayer that my messages find exactly the collective they’re meant for.
We’ve all been there, I assume, since I manifested you here to read this article. Pausing a little longer on a TikTok tarot card reader, wondering if their reading really was about you. Whether you subscribe, like, and share wholeheartedly or swipe away rolling your eyes, I’m going to tell you why these readings can be uncannily accurate, and why they matter so much to so many people. The answer floats in the mysterious waters, somewhere between the technology of how feed algorithms work, capitalism’s effect on our insecurity, and the powers you have to change your reality with your own beliefs.
How the feed algorithm works
From LLMs to the algorithms that run social media, most AI is created the same way – through predictive mechanisms. The goals of social media are two-fold: one, to get you to scroll for as much of your day as possible, two, to sell you things.
To get you to keep scrolling, the feed algorithm model estimates things like:
- Probability you’ll click.
- Probability you’ll watch to the end.
- Probability you’ll comment.
- Probability you’ll share.
- Probability you’ll open the app tomorrow after seeing it.
- Probability you’ll leave the app.
It cycles videos of different types to keep you engaged, which creates a larger drama in your body hormonally. Since long-form story telling was invented, we’ve enjoyed paying attention to stories where our emotions are manipulated across the span of the plot. Think of the hero’s journey. From the viewer’s perspective, most plots follow the idea that there is character you can relate to, something bad happens, there’s comedic relief, relational drama, a horrible thing happens, and then something miraculous happens. All the while your emotional centers are following the story because of the empathy cultivated through the fact that you can relate to the character based on how the story was told.
Now that we no longer have patience or tolerance for long-form story telling, the algorithms still understand the ebbs and flows of attention that have been cultivated through the entire history of story telling. One video is good, the next depicts something bad, the next video is funny, then horrible, then miraculous – all within the span of 4 minutes.
Our dopamine, cortisol, and other hormones are all responding to the drama of the story because when we relate to a character, we empathize with them and magically feel what they are supposedly feeling.
The AI monitors how long you watch a video or stay engaged on the platform by monitoring:
- Watch time: How long you watch before scrolling away.
- Scroll behavior: Speed, pauses, rewinds, and whether you skip immediately.
- Replays: Whether you watch all or part of a video multiple times.
- Likes, comments, shares, saves, and follows: Direct engagement signals.
- Search history within the platform: Topics you’re actively looking for.
- Viewing history: Categories, creators, and styles you’ve consistently watched.
- Time of day and day of week: Patterns in when you’re most engaged.
- Session length: How long you’ve already been using the app during the current visit.
- Interaction patterns: Typing speed, deleting comments before posting, hesitation before clicking, or rapidly switching between videos.
- Social graph: Which friends or accounts you interact with and how often.
- Location (if available): General context such as home, work, or travel.
- Device information: Device type, battery level, network speed, or screen orientationAudio preferences: Whether you usually watch with sound on or off and what kinds of audio you engage with.
- Facial expressions: Smiling, frowning, surprise, confusion, or other expression estimates.
- Eye gaze: Whether you’re looking at the screen or looking away.
- Blink rate: Changes that may correlate with attention or fatigue.
- Head position: Leaning closer, turning away, or nodding.
- Body posture: Sitting upright, slouching, or shifting position.
- Speech characteristics: Tone, pace, excitement, or silence during playback (not necessarily the meaning of speech).
- Laughter or audible reactions: Whether a video prompted laughter, gasps, or other vocal responses.
- Background context: Whether you’re in a noisy or quiet environment, or whether other people are present
As far as selling you things, the feed algorithm monitors your larger patterns to attempt to predict what you’ll likely buy next and what it will take for you to buy it. I’ve been amazed to see TikTok giving discounts on products that were not offered by the seller, but instead, by TikTok – moving the ad funds away from reach and into price targeting.
Algorithms monitor your behavior to determine:
- Who: Who is the most likely person to buy this in the future
- What kind of content: If we show certain videos before and after the ad, will it help convince this user to buy it
- Price: At what price point do we think they’ll buy it?
A LOT of data is collected to predict your future behavior on all social media apps. Now the question is, can the algorithm give you content that actually reflects your future. In other words, can the predictive nature of the algorithm also explain the accuracy of TikTok tarot card readers?
Capitalism & Insecurity
Most TikTok tarot readings start with a bold claim about your reality. In social media marketing, this is called “the hook” but in the world of online tarot readings, this is the portal where you either buy in or scroll away. It’s important to understand, this is an adaptation of traditional tarot card readings, where the process of intuitive interpretation was on the reader, not the person who is getting the reading. The mystical process of knowing if a message is “For You” starts with the algorithm, and ends with your own belief in it.
These tarot card readings fall into a few predictable categories. How do I know these categories so well? Let’s just say I did a lot of….research…. personal..research…..yeah ok so there are probably more categories but these are the ones on my feed.
- Money
- You’re going to be rich
- You’re going to get a bunch of unexpected money
- Everything you’ve spent in the last 10 years is coming back to you 10 fold
- Love
- The person you just broke up with is crying over it and wants you back
- You’re going to marry the person you’re going to meet very soon
- The other woman is evil and a witch and is hexing you but she’s bad and you’re good
- Legal
- You’ll win the lawsuit that you’re in
- True justice will be served
- Change/Relief from Suffering
- A BIG change is JUST on the horizon
- The suffering you’re feeling is about to be a success story
- A powerful person like a celebrity or brand is looking at you specifically for a project and it will change your life
- You’re going to fall in love with someone who will take care of in every way
- Conspiratorial
- You’re a starseed and the government is trying to harm you
- An evil occult group sent a demon after you but your light nullified it and now they have to deal with it
Just me on that last one? probably…
Capitalism has robbed us of our sense of of community, estranged us from resources we create, and created a system that is detrimental and unjust to everyone involved in it.
The system we live in has taken every ounce of healthy culture we had and continues to replace it with materialistic vapidness that feeds the 1%
These videos get so many views and end up on all of our feeds because they’re relatable to all of us. These topics are universal in a capitalist system because they reflect the places where we’re wounded. We can call it insecurity, but really I think it’s a sense of karmic injustice. Deep down, we all want to feel like we deserve the love of our ex, the money we’ve helped create, and any other personal injustices we feel. Being validated that we deserve those things is a really good drug if you can buy into it. Not everyone can, and on most videos you’ll see a few disbelieving comments like these ones:
But most comments are positive and hopeful, relishing on synchronistic relevance in their lives:
In our late-stage capitalist hellscape, TikTok tarot card readings are a rare, hopeful part of the internet, a special place for the delulu girlies who know that the power of their belief. They show us the world where divine justice has power, and where we are in our rightful place as celebrated, abundant parts of our community.
The Power You Have to Change Your Reality
Many readers repeat the adage, “Take what resonates, leave the rest.” This is the intuition off-loading that traditional in-person tarot card readings keep with the reader. Historically, the customer buys access to the reader’s intuition and connection with their cards. But the algorithm takes care of all that, providing you with videos you’re most likely to watch.
These videos could be so unbelievable that they trigger you into analyzing a blocked belief, so desirable that they fill you with longing, or so realistic, you just smile as you tap the heart button and pop another chip into your mouth, nodding your head as the person on screen “reads you to filth.”
Passing this power from psychics and witches over to the average, uninitiated person can be dangerous. With this power comes significant responsibility! Will you believe a tarot card reading just because it came up on your screen? Will you allow yourself to start feeling paranoid that occult groups are out to get you? Will you spend all your money on a lotto ticket because a reading told you that you’d win big? Will you break up with a healthy partner in the assumption that your toxic ex is coming back? Ultimately, the decisions that someone makes with their life are their own. But the darker side is worth mentioning. Even I, after using the hope from these videos to lift me out of temporary pits of despair become disgruntled and resentful when these “manifestations” don’t happen fast enough.
Manifestation experts know that it’s an emotional process. So if your tarot card readings are bringing you down in any way, then you should probably stop watching them. But, if these readings teach you something about yourself that you didn’t know before, like a block in your worthiness, or a rekindling of a hope you didn’t know you had, then that’s real information that you can use to shift energies in your life. Maybe celebrities aren’t watching your page and maybe you won’t be winning the lottery, but you can improve your circumstances by feeling into the reality where those things are possible.
TIkTok tarot card readings are a rich intersection of the mystical parts of modern technology, the pressures of a broken culture, and the power of our own thoughts and beliefs. This old fortune-telling game has turned into a multi-million dollar industry of readers, apps, ads, and more. And there’s good reason for it. TikTok tarot card readers are as right as you let them be. If you know yourself, you’ll know which readings resonate for you, and that’s what makes them accurate.
With the vision of recycling all our phones into something healthier and creating real community and culture again, Happy Scrolling!
Cover image credits
The composite cover image for this article was assembled from the following TikTok tarot readings:
- https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Gf2pvr/
- https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8GfaqGV/
- https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8GfLB48/
- https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Gffyc7/
