Guide · 4 min

Reading tarot with Gemini

Gemini knows the seventy-eight cards and writes about them well. What it doesn't have is a deck: when you ask it to draw, it chooses. Here is the prompt that gets the most out of Gemini, the limit no prompt gets past, and how to connect a real deck through Gemini's custom apps.

The Star, Rider–Waite–Smith tarot card
An example single card from the Classic deck, The Star. With Familiar connected, the card comes from a real shuffle instead.
  1. 01

    The prompt that gets closest

    Keep it to one card and one question, and ask Gemini to commit before it explains: “Pick one tarot card for this question, upright or reversed, name it, then tell me what it asks me to look at.” A single named card is easier to sit with than a spread of improvised ones.

  2. 02

    The one thing a prompt can't do

    A language model has no shuffled stack and no fixed odds for reversals. Ask twice and the “random” card can repeat or lean toward whatever the question hints at. The wording can be good; the draw isn't real.

  3. 03

    Give Gemini a real deck

    Google lets personal accounts in the US, aged 18 or over, add custom apps on gemini.google.com: Settings → Connected Apps → Add a custom app, paste the Familiar URL, and approve. Then type @, choose Familiar, and ask it to draw. The cards come from a true shuffle of seventy-eight, upright or reversed by real odds.

Add the deck to GeminiFree deck · Google's custom apps: US, 18+, personal accounts

Use a different assistant? The same deck connects to Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity, Le Chat, HuggingChat, and Muse. The connection guide has the per-client steps.