Tarot and Evil Spirits

I've heard from a couple of people that using Tarot cards makes people susceptible to influence from evil spirits. A google search on "Tarot evil spirits" will turn up others who believe the same thing. Without exception, these people come from a Christian background, and that's O.K., because I do as well, but what bothers me is that, for the most part, these people have at best a very superficial understanding of what Tarot is, where it comes from, and what it should be used for.

Let's talk first about what Tarot is. It's a deck of cards with pictures. It's ink on cardboard. It's not a portal to the "Dungeon Dimensions" or a way to contact the Devil. If drawing a few pictures on cardboard could really contact the devil, don't you think a lot more people would be doing it? Tarot is in fact a symbol system. The symbols for the most part refer to concepts that come from Qabalah, which comes from Kabbalah, the Jewish version of mysticism.

Now let's talk about what Tarot should be used for. Some people do use it for fortune-telling, but I disagree with that use, and the group I'm with disagrees with that use very strongly. In fact, I've been asked to give a definite answer as to what was going to happen, and I told the person who asked: "You should be deciding that for yourself." The most important application is to use the cards and the symbols to help balance out the different parts of your personality and mind, and remove everything that gets in the way of your experiencing Unity Consciousness. And if you're doing a reading for someone, the cards represent principles and qualities that the person you're doing the reading for can use to improve their situation.

So if you use Tarot cards, don't feel guilty about it. And if you're a Christian who is against using them, maybe you should learn a bit more about them before passing judgment.