Sorry if this comes across dumb but I’m

I'll route this to the right place — it's a "what is tarot / does the method work" question, not a request for a draw, so divination-edu is the better fit. Let me load that skill.

Not a dumb question at all. Yes — online tarot works the same way physical cards do, because the symbols and the moves are identical.

What's actually happening when you draw a card

You're half-right about the "self-gazer" part. The mechanism has three pieces: a random card (or three), a fixed set of symbols on each card (the standard78-card Rider–Waite deck), and your own honest reading of those symbols against the question you brought. Two people drawing the same card on the same question get different readings because they bring different lives to it. The randomness isn't magic — it's just a way to interrupt your usual thought and put a specific image in front of you. The cards give you a structured prompt; you supply the meaning.

Online vs physical

The medium doesn't matter for the reading itself. Same deck, same meanings, same reflection. What changes is the feel — printed cards in your hands have a ritual weight; a screen doesn't, and that's fine for getting started. And you genuinely don't need to spend money:

• Free: many apps and sites draw the same deck; this skill can pull a card for you right here, no app needed.
• Cheap: if you ever want physical cards, public-domain PDF prints of the Rider–Waite exist (the images are ~115 years old and out of copyright).
• Skip: sites that push a "free reading" then upsell a paid one, or promise specific future events. Tarot is a thinking tool, not a fortune cookie.

If you'd like, tell me one thing on your mind and I'll pull a single card and walk you through how the reading works — easiest way to feel whether it's useful to you.