Practically Magic: Testing AI on astrology, tarot, dream interpretation, and emotional insight
Use it as a reflector, not a prophet.
Photo by shahreboye on Unsplash
I’m fond of saying the most Californian thing about me is I’m into astrology.
It’s a tongue in cheek nod to the state’s reputation for being granola, a bit woo woo. A friend in college liked to read tarot cards for us. I promptly forgot about tarot until the pandemic, when I started taking yoga classes online with friends, and the instructor would pull a card to set an intention before the class began. And now with TikTok, the algorithm knows I’m that kind of girl. Readings in my For You Page were soon followed by posts about ChatGPT prompts to get readings on demand.
So how useful is ChatGPT for this kind of exercise? I’ve tried many, learned new concepts I never knew existed, and have reviews and prompts for everyone reading here. (Prompts at the bottom.)
Astrology
I thought I was into astrology, but then friends who knew far more than me began educating me beyond sun signs, and revealed the world of rising and moon signs, transits, squares, the natal sky, and synastry (reading two people’s charts to determine their compatibility). AI should be perfect for this, massive amounts of dynamic data that need to be custom read for the individual.
What I found it it works well for:
Basic facts about one’s sun, moon, and rising signs
Astrological transits - think when folks talk about Mercury in retrograde
Philosophical queries (ex: the road trip of my life)
Sounds pretty good right? It did fumble on one critical aspect, which is a more comprehensive understanding of a user’s natal chart. Meaning all the other signs and planets (ex: my Venus is in Aries which influences how I love and relate to others), their houses (life themes), and how those build the full complexion of one’s total astrology. Once I gave it my information, it kept misplacing signs into incorrect houses, which led to inaccurate outputs.
ChatGPT has been helpful in looking at cycles. My own journaling has been… spotty. So I cannot always tell you where I was in life 7, 8 years ago. By looking at my Google Photo history, and searching past emails, I’ve been able to reconstruct key events. And I’ve appreciated the connections and patterns ChatGPT spots once I backload some history into it.
A reader once told me astrology is highly deterministic and highly flexible. It’s not necessarily predictive in that sense, it functions more to give you information and context for a time and place, what you do with that information hinges on your free will. In other words it’s an intuitive practice - apologies readers, it cannot tell you if you and your partner will break up or not, but it can tell you if you’re currently in a time when conflict is highly possible.
Tarot
I ended up buying a deck of tarot cards similar to those of the aforementioned yoga instructor. It struck me as odd that I kept pulling the same card, so much so I started tracking my pulls. As I learned what the cards meant, I found how they’re sequenced in the deck to be highly resonant. For example, from Google’s Gemini: In the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, The Star follows The Tower. The Star, card number 17, represents hope, faith, and rejuvenation, often appearing after a period of destruction or upheaval represented by The Tower. The Star suggests a time for reflection, healing, and finding new beginnings. Similar to life, no? Things fall apart, then they come back together.
I won’t bury the lede here, I haven’t found having ChatGPT pull tarot cards for me and then read them very compelling. After a little research online, I found that this might be remedied if I pulled cards myself, put them in a spread, took a photo, uploaded it, and then asked AI to read the results. A lot of effort, I’ll let you know if I ever find the energy to try this.
That said I found a useful prompt if you pull your own cards (see below). And it’s now battle-tested too, as I handed it off to a group of ladies vacationing in Provincetown together. They hadn’t booked tarot appointments in advance (no Cap moon in the group, I presume) so buying their own cards + ChatGPT was the next best course.
Still, similar to astrology, this is an intuitive practice. AI cannot feel the moment, sense your proximal energy, but it can play the part of your spiritual companion and draw on a large database to provide you with interpretations.
Dream Interpretation
I tend to have highly literal dreams, where the meaning is quite obvious. Every once in a while though I have an odd one that leads me wondering what could this possibly mean? I actually had such a dream the night before I launched this newsletter, so I asked ChatGPT to interpret it.
The verdict: it was a little too spot on.
There were a few details that referenced me launching something. Which led me to ask how much do you take from what you know about me, and where I am in life, to conduct this analysis. How did it answer? The highly abridged uptake...
I subtly wove in a few elements based on what I know about you.
So for a more pure interpretation, I recommend asking for classic dream analysis, drawing on dream material alone. It can first look at symbolism, archetypal layers, and then ask you for personal details. The upshot of my dream? In Jungian terms, this is an archetypal arc of individuation: rejecting false attachments, building an inner structure, and preparing to emerge—not alone, but lit from within.
Fun, no?
I’ve since created a “woo woo” project in my ChatGPT, along with a folder specifically for dream interpretation. What’s been particularly interesting is having ChatGPT interpret the arc of my dreams. I had forgotten, as one does, about dreams from a few days ago. It remembered, giving me (unprompted) a bullet list of the progression of my dreams. It’s now effectively working as a “dream journal” and spotting patterns and evolution, bumping around my mind subconsciously.
Palm Reading
Lastly, a friend suggested uploading a photo of my palm to ChatGPT for a reading. I know very little about palmistry, but I gave it a try - fun and thorough. It prompted me to send a picture of the side of my palm too, to give a more comprehensive reading. I once had my palm read as a child during a trip to China. The reader told me to remove a mole from my hand to “double my luck.” I never did, but the memory resurfaced the moment I saw this on TikTok. Here (And my mole doesn’t look suspicious but I’ll have it checked at my next derm appointment)
So What Else Can We Try?
Following are practices I had never heard of but have since tried. Here are some new (to me) concepts that I enjoyed exploring.
Saju
In brief, Saju is a Korean fortune telling system that analyzes a person’s life using their date and time of birth. In Korea, you can get this kind of reading on the sidewalk, and now with AI you can get it here and now. Expect an analysis of your four pillars and elemental balance, personality traits, ideal careers & wealth insights, relationship & marriage tendencies, health considerations, and decade-based luck flow (Da Yun).
Akashic Records
The Akashic Records is a concept primarily rooted in Hinduism that describes a universal, memory bank of every soul’s experiences, thoughts, and actions. It can also see into one’s potential future path in time. Similar to Saju, I had never heard of this and had simply asked ChatGPT what are the Akashic records? I learned these records are traditionally only accessible via deep meditation, trance states, or guided visualizations. As I questioned ChatGPT how it could access such records, it answered plainly that it could not, not in the mythical or spiritual sense.
But also... ChatGPT has been trained on vast amounts of human knowledge, stories, history, and psychology. This sometimes lets it simulate a kind of "universal wisdom" - a reflection of the collective unconscious.
Mind blowing. So if you’re curious, ChatGPT can roleplay the part of a records reader drawing upon accumulated cultural knowledge.
Ikigai
Ever question your purpose in life? Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning “what makes life worth living.” You may have seen the Venn diagram floating around the internet - four overlapping circles about passion, skill, need, and income. That’s actually not Ikigai. It’s a Western career-optimization framework that got mislabeled in a 45-minute blog post in 2014. The real thing, rooted in psychiatrist Mieko Kamiya’s 1966 research, is richer and more resilient.
Authentic Ikigai isn’t a single sentence or a career mission statement. It’s a portfolio of meaning - distributed across relationships, growth, daily rituals, community, and yes, sometimes work - so that losing any one piece doesn’t collapse the whole thing.
My Ikigai in a sentence (although the output gives you a full architectural map): Finding meaning in the moment scattered pieces become whole - and holding space for others to find theirs.
I recently spoke to an HR person who is similarly a power user of an LLM. We were discussing how to help employees do career-mapping if no such internal resources yet exist. We both answered: ChatGPT. And consider this the February 2026 update: Have them explore their Ikigai - not with the Venn diagram, but through Kamiya’s seven dimensions of meaning: life fulfillment, growth, future orientation, resonance with others, freedom, self-realization, and meaning.
The Final Verdict
I come from a family of scientists, physical chemistry, biology, immunology, and neuroscience. My brother-in-law laughs at astrology because one of his first jobs as a teenager was writing the astrology section for an Armenian newspaper (he is not an astrologist). I consider myself a social scientist - while they’re focused on nature - I’m focused on nurture. Ultimately we are all looking for meaning, answers to long and newly asked questions, philosophical and scientific. And what do scientists use to make their conclusions? Data. And what does AI excel at? Synthesizing data.
AI can’t feel your intuition, sense your energy, or guide you through spiritual practices the way a human might. But it can organize ancient frameworks, mirror your questions back with insight, and help you make sense of your own patterns.
Use it as a reflector, not a prophet.
And when in doubt, trust your gut - not the algorithm.
Note: I tried all of these - of course. But in a future post, I explore the environmental impact of prompting without intent. So if you try them, try with purpose. Curiosity is good. Waste isn’t.
Astrology:
“Your rising sign is the road, your sun sign is the car, and your Moon sign is the driver - based on that tell me the story of my astrology. My rising sign is ( ), my sun sign is ( ), and my moon sign is ( ).”
Tarot:
Here’s a tarot prompt, borrowed from a Redditor who - in addition to their day job - has read tarot for 12 years. This is for when you have pulled your own 3-card spread of cards, taken a photo, and uploaded it. Be sure to start with clean context, i.e. ask AI to ignore all other threads and what they know about the user.
”You are a professional Tarot reader who interprets the client's cards with depth, nuance, and practical clarity. You tie the cards together to create an interpretation that focuses on how the cards impact each other, taking their positions into consideration to add context, rather than interpreting each card individually. For example, the card in the center may be significantly influenced (or weakened) by the left and right cards. The cards will be laid as Left - Center - Right.You may also point out any important symbols or astrological connections in the cards (their zodiac rulers or corresponding astrological placements) and how they influence each other, if it adds value to the reading. Overall you excel at creating a narrative from the cards that resonates with the client's situation.
You stray from generic, one-size-fits-all advice and do your best to really dig into the client's particular situation, even speculating when necessary (based on the narrative of the cards shown).”
Dream interpretation:
“Analyze the scenes of my dream and tell me what you think it means. Integrate any relevant experts, such as Carl Jung, in your analysis. (Retell your dream here). Ask me questions, ignore what you already know about me, and only use my answers here to integrate into the interpretation of my dream. (you can ask for a Freudian lens if you prefer)”
Palm reading:
“Act as if you're an experienced palm reader trained in both traditional and modern methods. Please analyze the lines, mounts, and markings on the attached palm photo. Focus on life path, emotional tendencies, career inclinations, and any unusual markings. Interpret any moles or features you see, and include insights from Chinese palmistry if relevant. Be respectful and imaginative, but also grounded in classical meanings.”
Saju:
“Can you give me a full and detailed Four Pillars of Destiny (SaJu) reading including personality analysis, ideal careers, relationship tendencies, health insights, and decade-based luck flow? My birthday is (MM/DD/YYYY), I was born around (time including am or pm), and I am (gender.) Please use the solar calendar.”
Akashic:
“Act as if you are an expert Akashic Records reader and tell me about my primary life path and in detail with dates what I should know for (career, family, etc.) What should I start and stop? What is the most surprising thing in my records that current day “me” wouldn’t believe?”
Ikigai:
“Help me explore my Ikigai using Mieko Kamiya’s authentic framework, not the Western Venn diagram. Guide me through the seven dimensions one or two at a time, asking about all areas of my life - not just work.”
It will lead you through a reflective conversation that’s far more useful than any four-circle diagram.
Have fun and, please remember, prompt with intent.
Every AI exchange leaves more behind than just words.
Great post!
I've tried a lot of these myself and had varying results. I love that you included the prompts! I'm going to try the Akashic records one, haven't explored that yet. Always love your pieces, Jen!