What’s Wrong with Horoscopes, Tarot and Ouija Boards?

The short answer: The Bible warns against looking for guidance or power anywhere other than God, and that includes star signs, tarot cards and Ouija boards. Some of these are mostly harmless nonsense and some play with things that are real and not good, but all of them offer a counterfeit of what God gives freely. You don’t need to be afraid of them: Jesus is far stronger.

Horoscopes are in magazines and apps. Tarot readings are all over social media. Someone brings a Ouija board to a sleepover “just for fun”. Lots of people who’d never call themselves religious read their star sign every morning. So what’s the problem?

What the Bible says

God was clear with His people: “Let no one be found among you who... practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery, casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead” (Deuteronomy 18:10–11). Isaiah mocked the “astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate” (Isaiah 47:13), and asked, “When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead?” (Isaiah 8:19).

Why does God care? Not because He’s against fun. There are three good reasons.

1. They point you away from God

At heart, all of these are ways of trying to know or control the future without trusting God. The Bible offers something better: “My times are in Your hands” (Psalm 31:15). And if you need wisdom, “he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault” (James 1:5). Why ask a deck of cards when you can ask the One who holds tomorrow?

2. Much of it simply isn’t true

Horoscopes split the whole human race into twelve groups. Your sign tells you the same thing it tells hundreds of millions of other people. Readings sound personal because they’re written in statements that fit almost anyone: “You can be confident, but sometimes you doubt yourself.” Tarot works the same way. The reader, or your own mind, fills in the meaning. Studies testing astrology have found that its predictions do no better than chance.

That might make it sound harmless. But steering your life by something false isn’t harmless. People have made real decisions about friends, relationships and choices because of what a card or a star sign said.

3. Some of it plays with what’s real

The Bible doesn’t pretend the spiritual world is empty. In Philippi a girl with “a spirit of divination” made money for her owners “by fortune-telling”, and Paul set her free in Jesus’ name (Acts 16:16–18). Many Christians who have been involved in the occult say that some practices, especially trying to contact spirits through things like Ouija boards, opened them up to fear and darkness they didn’t expect. Christians differ on how much is going on in any particular case, but all agree it’s not something to play with.

No need to be afraid

None of this is meant to scare you. If you belong to Jesus, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). On the cross Jesus “disarmed the powers and authorities” and “made a public spectacle of them” (Colossians 2:15). You don’t need to panic about a horoscope you read last year.

If you’ve been involved in any of this, tell God, turn away from it, and get rid of anything you used. When the people of Ephesus turned to Christ, those who had practised magic “brought their books and burned them in front of everyone” (Acts 19:19). If anything you tried left you frightened, talk to a parent, pastor or other trusted Christian adult. That’s not weakness; it’s wisdom.

And if someone pulls out a Ouija board at a sleepover, you’re allowed to say, “I’m not doing that,” and go and do something else. Real courage sometimes looks like that.

Think about it: Why do you think people are so drawn to knowing the future? What does God offer instead?

Go deeper: On the Incarnation by Athanasius — writing in the fourth century, Athanasius points out that since Christ began to be preached everywhere, the famous oracles had fallen silent, magic had been exposed, and the deceits of demons were being driven out, because Christ alone has been recognised as the true God. Start with chapter 47, on how the oracles fell silent.