I confess, for 28 years I have made a living reading tarot cards.  In fact, I am such a believer in their accuracy that I created my own deck to work with. And now for my really big confession...I don't know the future! 
 
As a tarot Reader, I am supposed to see the future but cannot.  Am I a hypocrite, the devil incarnate, or because the trade of readings and cards is booming, just a smart businessman?
 
You should have heard what my friends said when I told them of my new found tarot career way back in 1978.  After all, I was a Ph.D. and a Professor of Political Science. Who would have predicted?  Nobody, not even me, and certainly not my Columbia University mentors, who would have been horrified at the notion. (Though my dissertation on the criminal "underworld" indicated inclination toward things  "subconscious" and mysterious).
 
Now, if I can't predict my own future, how can I for others?  A tarot reader is supposed to be psychic, a fortune-teller who can foresee. True, I can see a future or futures, but what's the right forecast?  I don't know.  And no mere mortal knows.  Having done approximately 7,000 Readings, I know that nobody knows for sure.
 
Other seers will tell you otherwise because, of course, they are in the prediction business.  What are we doing then?  Do we have any integrity?  Yes, and here is the secret of how it works.  We predict the future by preparing and sowing our prognostication into manifestation with the all-powerful phenomenon known as "self-fulfilling prophecy." 
 
This is how it goes. Everyone wants to know the future and that it will be good.  That's human nature.  A good Reader will paint a positive picture of the future for their client, and communicate in such a convincing way that the prediction rings true.
 
How do we Readers become credible?  First, by the very fact that someone comes to us for a consultation shows their belief in us.  People want to believe the Reader, particularly when it's good. What gives me special legitimacy as a Reader is that I have created a popular tarot deck.  So, I must be a Reader, I must know something... so it goes.
 
Truly effective Readers are intuitively empathic. They have insight into the client, their capabilities and resources.  This is where Readers are "psychic" – knowing the psyches of people and how they work.  In that sense, Readers are, indeed, mind readers.
 
An oracle, like tarot, is a mystic psychology that reflects who a person is through symbolic archetypes pictured on the cards. With the imagery and our intuition, we can see if an individual is open or closed, positive or negative, has self-esteem or lacks confidence, is energetic or lethargic, passionate or passive, has a healthy wholeness or dysfunctional wounds, is a creative initiator or follower, a risk-taker or not – all qualities that indicate their possible future.
 
We Reader's view of the future must be optimistic because that's what people want to see, but it must be couched in what we feel our client is about and capable of, and thus believable to them.  Having received a plausible and positive future, the client strides off brimming with hope, confidence, and renewed energy.
 
We can call this "folk therapy" or "pop psychology. " Readings do not go deeply to treat the mentally unbalanced, but give the mind enough peace and clarity so that a person feels that who they are and the choices they make is right for the life they desire.
 
Readings are a kind of therapy that heals a mind of paralytic confusion and conflict, which is often found in our society today because we live in a world of uncertain and swift change, eroding models of behavior along with mind-boggling choices and life style freedom, all overlaid by a demanding critical culture.
 
While the field of psychology searches for the correct therapeutic approach to the present world, perhaps they are not seeing before their very eyes, the forest for the trees.  The obvious popularity of Readers and Readings is an indication of what the public wants and needs. The oracular way is a psychology that works, a right media for the times.
 
And I confess... surely, there are dangers in the shadow-side of fortune telling. What if we misread a client and the future is really not so rosy?  Are we just a "soothsayer" that comforts and dis-serves a person with pollyanna-like palliatives that have as much chance as a snowball in hell? As a lay therapist, it is our responsibility to see and tell the truth as best we can. Adverse possibilities must be recognized, but as a "warning sign," because who actually knows.  Indeed, to foresee is to forewarn.  And once, pre-viewed, it can be pre-empted and pre-vented.
 
Fortune telling ultimately works because the portrayed future and even the preventions often come true. How? The re-energized client wants it to happen, and so creates it with belief, and even sometimes with actions. 
 
Believing is seeing, and following the adage – if you can see it, you can make it. There is simply no objective future. The future is subjective, subject to our own desiring of it.  This is the basic psychology of all prophecy.  We see what we want to see and believe its true. It's called projection and it works. Ancient philosophers and seers, modern psychologists, and even quantum physicists agree on this.
 
There is no guarantee, however, that all our prophecies are fulfilled in the way we'd like to see them.  What to do when predictions don't materialize?  Get another Reader, get another Reading!
 
Knowing that our future is made by ourselves and that the projected forecast might not even happen, why go to a "fortune teller?" Here's another confession...You don't have to.  You can do it yourself.  In this self-help world of taking responsibility and being accountable, BE YOUR OWN ORACLE! 
 
I confess to you that I don't go to Readers, knowing that consulting a Reader can be like giving away your own authority, judgment and power. How can anyone know us better than ourselves?  Don't we have an inner voice that we can trust for guidance? Seeking out experts and gurus can perpetuate dependency and control from outside forces, which keeps us from being true to ourselves.  When we trust our inner authority, then we can be the author of our life. 
 
While many think Readers are objective and understanding, here's another confession... all Readers project themselves into your Reading.  There is no objectivity. Everyone looks at life and at another through the lens of their own values and experiences.  So, who really is this person telling you who you are and what's going to happen?
 
How to do your own Readings?  First, bracket your picture of the future by visualizing what you'd love to see happen, what you'd not like to see, and what could happen somewhere in between your best and worst case scenario.  Since reality is subjectively based, choose the vision you'd like to see and be prepared with some warnings and a fallback plan if things go differently. Second, you must believe in yourself and your forecast. 
 
But is that it, just see and believe in what you'd like to see and everything will be fine?  Hardly. I  confess as a seer that it takes a lot more to perform the great secret of being your own oracle, which is the principle of the "self-fulfilling prophecy."  Prophecies are manifested also by wanting it and acting on it.  Future visions are realized by great passion and desire and by continuous step-by-step action.
 
I confess after doing thousands of Readings that most people are lazy about doing much extra out of their comfort zone and habitual routines to manifest their visions and dreams.  Most don't believe in themselves, live in some kind of denial, and don't have much fire and passion.  And that's why Readers are so popular – it's so easy to be told that it will all happen as you would like it to be. 
 
The responsible and genuinely helpful Reader needs to educate their clients that a Reading is of limited help, and that for the Reading to come true, the client must self-fulfill the prophecy by participating proactively with the principles of being their own oracle. 
 
For Readers to contribute to a nascent psychology of results and credibility, we must act more as a coach, facilitator, and educator, not as a fortune teller, which no longer rings true.  My great vision is for everyone to realize that they are their own oracle.  I believe and desire it, and that's why I am acting on it by writing this confessional work.