“Alex Reads Tarot, reads the sh*t out of me” echoes Hayley Williams in Love Me Different, a song on her recently-released album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Williams’ lyrics undoubtedly speak to many individuals’ experiences dealing with heartbreak, and can be interpreted to mean a multitude of things for numerous individuals. Many listeners, however, were curious about Williams’ reference to Alex Reads Tarot, also known as yourfiresignbestie, a TikToker who achieved pop culture relevancy through her videos reading tarot cards for her “collective,” meaning those for whom her video appears on their TikTok feeds.
Alex Reads Tarot is not the only prolific “Tarot TikToker” who appears on users’ For You Pages. Various other creators follow similar formats, filming themselves pulling cards, describing their meanings, and relating them back to viewers’ lives.
TikTokers using hooks like “Stop scrolling!” or “If you’re seeing this, it’s for a reason” is no new trend. However, Tarot TikTokers are able to utilize the divine in their pleas for you to watch their videos: Not only are you seeing this for a reason, but the reason is charged by the state of the moon or the alignment of the stars.
As someone born solidly in the middle of Gen Z, I, naturally, spend a lot of time (arguably too much) on TikTok, and have come across a variety of Tarot TikTok videos from numerous creators. Almost unwittingly, I grew into my own ideas of these cards I knew virtually nothing about, and formed opinions about certain creators. Some emphasized the sense of fate in the process so strongly that I felt suffocated by it. Others were too overt with their pleas for me to keep watching – I resented being repeatedly told to stop scrolling, or that the message was meant for me.
Like Hayley Williams, I came to like Alex Reads Tarot’s videos the best. She was often blunt, yet subdued enough in her takes that their interpretation had some flexibility. I could lament that someone wasn’t texting me back, while people in the comments would relate Alex’s declarations to their career change or recent move. She often repeats the phrase, “Take what resonates, leave what doesn’t,” giving viewers (like me) the flexibility to ignore the videos that seemed to say that no, he wasn’t going to text me back.
My foray into Tarot through TikTok led me to learn more about Tarot: its origins, cultural significance, and impact on art. While Tarot cards originally were part of a game played throughout medieval Europe, interest in divination and the occult in 19th century Europe led to both changes in the elements of the Tarot and its use: the symbology of the cards was taken to represent the goings-on of one’s life and future.
My delve into Tarot history led me to question the authenticity of TikTok’s appeals to my attention through my supposed fate. My curiosity brought me to ask Dr. David T. Burkam, a professor at U Mich in the residential college, about his thoughts on Tarot TikTok.
This semester, Dr. Burkam is teaching a course on Tarot and its impact on the world. When I asked Dr. Burkam what he considered himself in regards to Tarot (an expert?), he clarified that he doesn’t necessarily consider himself a scholar of Tarot. “Am I a master or a scholar? I don’t know,” Dr. Burkam said. “Tarot is one of those interesting things, that you can pick it up and start playing with it immediately, and yet spend the rest of your life learning more about it,”
The Tarot community on TikTok isn’t something that Dr. Burkam was extraordinarily familiar with, but he provided me some valuable insights with regards to the spiritual and psychological benefits of reading the Tarot. “Everybody knows the Tarot very well, they just don’t know them as Tarot cards,” he said. “They know them as life.”
The archetypes represented in the Tarot are intended to reflect one’s own feelings, giving them more clarity. Pulling the Justice card reversed, a card related to feelings of dishonesty and avoidance, and that meaning leading you to think about how you should really come clean with your best friend about what you think about her new boyfriend, reflects more on you than it does on the cards.
With regards to TikTok Tarot readers’ bold, attention-grabbing hooks – like this video claiming you’re going to get a new job offer – Dr. Burkam rejected the notion that Tarot can tell you what to do with such specificity. “It’s not a reading for you, it’s just a reading for anybody who’s watching the TikTok,” he said. “I don’t see how you could possibly use it as being relevant for you, because it wasn’t a reading for you in the first place.”
TikTok’s black-box algorithm also plays a role in the proliferation of these videos. The general public isn’t completely aware of how exactly TikTok’s algorithm works, despite this being a key component of its rapidly-accelerating success and skyrocketing popularity. Nonetheless, users can glean some general clues as to why they’re seeing certain videos – once you engage with some Charles Hsu videos, you keep seeing Charles Hsu videos. But TikTok can exploit emotions as much as it can your interests: Liking videos about heartbreak leads to more videos about heartbreak. Naturally, we all wallow after a breakup, but what happens when you start to believe that the videos are spiritually ordained?
Dr. Burkam emphasized to me that while historically, Tarot was used as a divination tool that gives someone a singular answer, the movement has moved away from this and towards TikTok as a form of self-examination. Watching Tarot TikTok videos, however, a feel of divine ordination emerges. Tarot TikTokers emphasize that those who come across their videos are “seeing this for a reason,” reinforcing their relevance and status in viewers’ minds.
Young people’s incessant use of the Internet and social media has greatly impacted their mental health, a fact widely understood and documented now in 2026. “Now more than ever before, in history, young people need to turn off the damn phone,” Dr. Burkham said. “We have so much evidence that the rising mental health problems in today’s youth–and everyone–is directly tied and substantially generated by too much screentime and everything that that implies.”
Tarot, Dr. Burkam believes, can help people’s mental health. “[Tarot] forces people to disconnect from the craziness of the world and to think about their feelings and concerns,” he said. However, the therapeutic support the Tarot can provide may require deeper self-reflection than an online video can provide. “[Tarot] certainly isn’t improved by a quick, short superficial burst of anything,” Dr. Burkam said.
TikTok Tarot readers’ ability, then, to “read the sh*t out of” someone, speaks to that person’s capability to self-evaluate, and reflect on their deeper psyche’s ability to make connections between themselves and the outside world. Leading individuals to self-reflection is positive, and if they experience that through TikTok videos on Tarot, they’re likely gleaning some psychological or spiritual benefit. But, as Dr. Burkam said, we may all do better to go “analog” with Tarot, and drift from the hyperspecific, supposedly meant-to-be online videos, and instead take a beat for some offline reflection.