Did I create a new tarot deck?
Demon Spotting is an emotional healing game. When you forgive yourself and others, you win.
Gwyneth Ragsdale
Someone in a Christian community group made a fuss when I asked the group to beta test my new digital version of Demon Spotting.
Yes! There’s an app. I’m still working on it, as it just launched this week. Please give feedback and suggestions!
- Demon Spotting Quick Start Guide: The short version of how to play
- Demon Spotting Landing Page: Start from the beginning with lots of good info before you spin the Randomizer for the first time.
The sky is falling! It’s tarot! Run!
I did receive helpful feedback from the group. But the loudest voice proclaimed that I was on the wrong track and needed deliverance.
There’s an old adage that says — if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
So when an acorn fell from a tree, and clonked Chicken Little on the head, he thought that the sky was falling.
Both the story and the adage describe the same thing.
Beware of allowing your limited experience to draw conclusions from small data points.
Chicken Little got frightened, and got busy warning people. And because he genuinely believed the sky was falling — to him — his alarm was spot-on.
“Something’s wrong! Look out!”
The problem is he had one acorn — and no context.
In Demon Spotting, this is known as the Magpie Position.
Magpie Position: Overly focused on one thing to the detriment of everything else. When you’re filled with your own thoughts, experiences and fears, it’s difficult to hear anything that contradicts your world view.
Someone using the Magpie Position reframes what you say to match the way they want you to see a situation. This is also known as gaslighting.
Chicken Little’s reaction reminds me of that person from the Christian community who took a quick look at my emotional healing game — Demon Spotting — and sounded the alarm.
“The sky is falling! This is tarot! Run!”
Just like Chicken Little, her intention was to warn people that something made her uncomfortable.
From her point of view, I was headed for danger, and trying to take everyone with me.
Even though she was worried, her tone was respectful and warm. However, we are not friends, and we don’t know anything about each other.
So, as often happens, brief bits of information cause incidents of jumping to conclusions.
She turned into Chicken Little with an acorn.
Because she saw something in my Demon Spotting game that isn’t there.
But the question she raised deserves a real answer. Is Demon Spotting tarot?
No, Demon Spotting is not tarot. Click here for the short answer.
And based on over 20 years of doing tarot card readings for friends, I am qualified to disagree with her.
I learned on the dreadful and demonic Thoth deck. All I can say in my defense is that we didn’t have the internet back then.
From the Amazon website: “The Crowley Thoth Tarot is a masterpiece of esoteric wisdom and visionary art, renowned worldwide for its striking beauty and profound occult symbolism.“
My teacher was a sweet old lady who lived alone in a beautiful 4-bedroom Victorian house in Belmont, an affluent suburb of Boston. A small group of us met there once a week for 12 weeks. We drank tea. It was fun!
Hey! If it were creepy, I wouldn’t have done it!
When the series of classes ended, the first thing I did was buy a new deck of tarot cards that looked friendlier.
Over time, I ended up with 8 decks of different styles of tarot cards. They were all well used. I chose a different set each day to reflect my mood.
That all ended when I finally got rid of them all in 2017 — because the Holy Spirit told me to — when I downsized and moved to Florida.
Introducing Gwyneth, former tarot card reader.
So, here I stand in the court of public opinion, listening to someone reframe my Holy Spirit inspired game into a game designed for-and-with Team Darkness.
Basically, she accused me of being a Two-Timer, another Demon Spotting code word.
Side Note: I just spun the Randomizer to get an example to drop into this spot. And look at the code words that I received. They illustrate (perfectly) how I feel on my side with the woman spreading doubt.
- Peacock Position: she needs to be the center of attention.
- Grandiose: she insulted me by causing doubt (public shaming).
- Creepy Wally: she is all over me like a cheap suit telling me that I need deliverance.
- Simple sentence: To pull attention away from my game announcement, a woman insulted my offering and told me to get help.
As always, with these three code words, Holy Spirit is efficient and effective.
But wait! Look what happened because sometimes the Demon Spotting code words reveal something beautiful. And Holy Spirit loves to create a powerful message from a well-intentioned mess.
With regard to publicly accusing me of creating a tarot deck, the woman from my Christian community actually established my credibility to answer the question — without me having to prove a thing.
I didn’t have to introduce myself as a former tarot card reader. She did it for me.
Holy Spirit is an excellent cornerman. He redirected every move meant to push me back and shut me up.
In Demon Spotting, the move she launched is called an Eddie Attack. That involves people banding together to challenge someone publicly. They need an audience to make the trap more effective.
But, it didn’t bother me because my code words are dynamic, agile, adaptable and resilient. Just like me.
As it turns out, I’m glad she took that bold step.
She provided an opportunity for me to analyze the situation and use the code words to first, reveal the holes in her game, and then secondly, to provide an escape from the trap that she set for me.
She created an opening for Holy Spirit to illustrate how the code words reflect his plan to work all things together for my good (Romans 8:28).
- An accusation meant to discredit and cause doubt — became a platform. She gave me a way to express my testimony, in full, publicly for the first time ever in this post.
- The alarm meant to shame — became an introduction. Proclaiming loudly, she made sure everyone heard my name.
- A move meant to silence me — became a strong opening for this post.
That is why I love these code words. They don’t just describe what was done to you. They reveal what is happening around you, through you and — when you stay in the River of Grace — FOR you.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 KJV
Do I get defensive when answering questions about Demon Spotting vs tarot? No, not defensive. More like precise.
Because I am a former tarot card reader, I understand the symbols in the imagery. I’m familiar with the way you hold a question in your mind while you shuffle. Knowing how to ask questions was key to helping me interpret the symbols on the cards I turned over.
I heard words in my mind that I repeated out loud.
And so, by now you realize that I only heard from Team Darkness. All of those answers were meant to confuse, distort and lead me (and others) down the wrong path… and straight into traps. I sometimes argued, begged and pleaded for them to give me different answers.
Instead, they laughed because they’re demons dressed up to look nice so that I wouldn’t run away. Fooled!
They used all 16 position and attack code words in my game against me. And silly me! I kept fighting to stay in relationship with them.
I finally left tarot behind when Holy Spirit showed me there was another way to use the gift he had given me. The gift of reading symbols and weaving stories was always his. It was me, my choice, to point it in the wrong direction.
So when someone tells me Demon Spotting is tarot — I don’t get defensive.
I get precise.
There Are Only Two Teams. Which one are you consulting?
Let’s start with what the Bible actually says. The prophet Isaiah draws the line clearly:
“Someone may say to you, ‘Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.’
But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead? Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.”
Isaiah 8:19-20 NLT
This is what’s true. There are two teams and two destinations. The River of Grace or The River of Shame.
Team Darkness — mediums, familiar spirits, fortune-tellers, divination. Consulting the dead and the demonic for knowledge.
Team Trinity — Holy Spirit, Heavenly Father and Jesus. The living God who reveals, guides and illuminates truth.
I didn’t ask the woman from my community group why she thought Demon Spotting is tarot. I got stopped by her insistence that I get deliverance. Stat!
Maybe the use of animal symbols for the position cards bothered her? For me the question isn’t, “Are symbols involved?”
A better question is always, “Which team are you consulting?”
"Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:31 KJV
As it turns out, Tarot cards were invented in Italy during the Renaissance, as early as 1420. These decks are filled with imagery and symbols decoded for fortune-telling and predicting the future.
If you are not skilled at reading images or making connections through symbols, you turn to help from the dark side — especially when you are desperate for an answer.
Team Darkness sends monitoring or familiar spirits to spy on humans and bring back knowledge that the fortune-teller then offers to their customer.
That is the dark side. Definitively. And I have been there. I know exactly what it feels like emotionally. There is no peace, only chaos.
Which is precisely why I can tell you — with complete confidence — that Demon Spotting is not that.
The Critical Distinction: Revelation vs Prediction
Here is where most people get confused — and where the Bible is actually very clear.
There is a profound difference between divination and revelation.
Tarot predicts. Or tries to. It accesses hidden knowledge through the cards themselves. The cards are the oracle. The deck is consulted. The dark side is the source.
Revelation is entirely different.
When Team Trinity assists with dream interpretation and pattern recognition, what is happening is not prediction. It is revelation — the illumination of what is already true, but hidden from view. Holy Spirit is not guessing. He is not consulting familiar spirits. Holy Spirit reveals what the Father has already decided.
Joseph is a clear example.
When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s two dreams, he was not predicting the future. He was not guessing. Nor was he consulting cards or spirits or omens. His revelation came directly from God — and then he informed Pharaoh of what God had already decided would come to pass.
Joseph is speaking, "It is just as I said to Pharaoh — God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them… The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon."
Genesis 41:28,32
When Joseph interpreted , that was revelation. Not yet fact. Known because God revealed it.
Seven years of abundance came.
Seven years of famine followed.
Then it became fact.
The revelation preceded the fact.
This is the model for Demon Spotting. Not tarot or fortune-telling. Absolutely not the dark side.
Let Holy Spirit reveal the pattern. Then you, the player, can receive it and look for where the code words are showing up in your life. Then work with the Holy Spirit to forgive yourself and others. Let him take care of the rest of it.
Forgiveness is the goal. That’s how you win when you play Demon Spotting.
Demon Spotting uses 16 code words to identify behavior patterns — positions and attacks — that keep people stuck in confusion, shame and disconnection.
When a player spins the Demon Spotting Randomizer, three code words appear. They don’t predict the future. or consult the dark side. They give vocabulary to what Holy Spirit is already showing the player about their situation.
The cards don’t speak. Holy Spirit does. ️
The difference is not the tool. It is the source.
Tarot consults cards.
Demon Spotting consults the King.
And the goal — written plainly on every page of the game — is not fortune-telling. It is not prediction. Nor is it accessing hidden knowledge through illegitimate means.
The goal is forgiveness.
The Pied Piper Warning
Resorting to magic always costs more than you bargained for.
In the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the villagers learned this the hard way. After being denied payment for ridding the town of rats, the piper used his magical pipe to lure away 130 children who disappeared into a mountain.
As a symbol — rats are demons.
Moral of the story: When you make deals with demons, you pay by losing something you love in the end. But they don’t tell you that in the beginning.
And one more symbolic point — Satan took one third of the angels with him when he fell from grace and was expelled from Heaven. Satan repeats his best moves. That is why the patterns are visible for those who are paying attention.
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8 NIV
Demon Spotting teaches you to pay attention.
Get on the right team, in the correct location! The River of Grace.
The Most Honest Part of This Tarot vs Demon Spotting Post
I have a spiritual gift. It was perverted — meaning used in the wrong direction, in partnership with the dark side — when I read tarot cards. I didn’t know that then. I was a believer in Jesus Christ, but not a practicing Christian.
At all times, there were two voices competing in my head. Jesus and Holy Spirit gave me counsel. But so did the demons. Back then, I listened to whichever voice gave me the answer I was looking for.
Wrong. So very wrong.
In my Demon Spotting game, that is a clear sign of double-mindedness. It’s called the Two-Timer Attack — meaning serving two masters simultaneously. Saying one thing and doing another. Standing with one foot in each river.
That was me. I was standing in two rivers, not realizing that I had walked into a trap.
Now I know the difference. 🙏
So, if some well-meaning person wants to accuse me of being a two-timing, double-minded, wishy-washy person, well — I don’t like your chances. That was me in the past. That is not me now.
At this point, it’s probably better to change the subject.
Testing Demon Spotting vs Tarot — 1 John 4 (NIV)
This is not my test. This is scripture’s test. And it answers the question completely.
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us. But whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood."
1 John 4:1-6 NIV
Let’s apply this test to Demon Spotting.
Does it acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Yes. 🙏
Does it point toward Team Trinity — Holy Spirit, Heavenly Father and Jesus? Yes.
Does it lead toward forgiveness, healing and the River of Grace? Yes.
Does it consult familiar spirits, mediums or the dead? No.
Test passed.
And notice that the bible passage encourages you to test the spirits. Not the symbols or the tools. And there’s no mention of whether cards are involved.
Which team is being consulted?
Whose voice is being amplified?
Where are you being led? River of Grace or River of Shame?
The question is never, “Are you interpreting symbols?”
The question is always, “Which team are you consulting?”
White Belts: Start with basic questions. “Why these 3 code words? What are you showing me?”
The woman who warned me was not wrong to test the spirits. That is exactly what a spiritually mature believer should do. The bible passage from 1 John 4:1 commands it.
From the perspective of Demon Spotting, she is a White Belt (beginner) looking at something unfamiliar and applying the only framework she had available. That is what we humans do.
But here is what I want to say to every White Belt who encounters Demon Spotting and feels uncertain:
You don’t have to understand it to test it.
Bring your three code words to Holy Spirit. Ask Him — “Why these? Why now? What are you showing me?”
And then sit quietly. In the River of Grace. With your tea and your notebook.
See what He reveals.
Because Team Trinity is the only team Demon Spotting has ever played for. And if I ever meet you in person, know that I will test you too. In a nice way, of course.
Jesus says, "The one who welcomes Gwyneth, welcomes Me. And the one who welcomes Me, welcomes the One who sent Me."
Matthew 10:40 NIV
Yep! That’s me, doing the Eddie move on you. I don’t walk alone. 👀😎
The Short Answer given one more time, clearly and briefly.
Is Demon Spotting tarot?
No.
Tarot consults cards for information from the dark side.
Demon Spotting consults Holy Spirit using code words as vocabulary.
Tarot predicts.
Demon Spotting receives revelation.
Tarot’s goal is hidden knowledge.
Demon Spotting’s goal is forgiveness.
Tarot is a tool, and so is Demon Spotting. Two sources, one holy and one demonic, lead to two different destinations. River of Shame or River of Grace. You choose.
I’m on the same team as Joseph, Daniel and every prophet who ever said, “God has shown me what He is about to do.”
Team Trinity. Always. 🙏
Gwyneth Ragsdale is the creator of Demon Spotting™ and founder of DramaGuru Academy. In 2017, Jesus urged her to walk away from New Age practices. With Holy Spirit’s guidance, she built a practical framework for spiritual warfare — revealing the patterns of demons who interfere with you and your loved ones.
Demon Spotting is designed to help you discern whose voice you’re following.
Following God’s voice leads to forgiveness.
Listening to demons lands you in sticky traps.
To learn how to escape those traps, please come and find me.
Tweet me! @thatgirlisfunny or @DemonSpotting
By the way, I’ve chosen substack as the place to gather and chat. Twitter got too noisy. X is too quiet. I found the sweet spot on Substack. Come have a real conversation with me! Subscribe with a free account.
