Cult of Tarot Forum

Do you read professionally? How? On the street, in cafes, via Etsy, a blog or website, or for a company? Do you have advice for readers who want to become professionals?

I have this dream of sitting somewhere with my decks under some tree, reading for strangers. In reality, I'm much too shy and self-conscious to do that. I find it difficult even reading for others here; always expecting people to react badly

But I've been reading for a number of years for a professional website. They sell real invidivualized readings via a smartphone app. It's great fun and although I get little money per card, there mere fact that there are always readings waiting for me makes it easy to earn money with it. I can't do more than 20 cards per day but that's okay.

I get basic information about the sitter: gender, astrological sun sign, age, relationship status and employment status. There are different spreads the sitters can choose: from one card to four card spreads. For each spread, a different deck is used. It's all done on the app, I only have to write down the interpretation.

It's amazing that after such a long time, no reading really resembles the other. I always write from scratch. I take some time to get into the situation, to understand the reading, and then I write it all down.

I'm extremely happy that I found this job. It's a small but important source of income for me; I'm a freelancer in an insecure market but I know that I can always fall back on these readings.

If you have the chance to start working for such a company, try it. The only drawback is that I don't get feedback. For a shy reader like me, that's undermining my already weak self confidence further. The company says that if there are problems, they'll let me know, but until now, it seems people are content. But sometimes I see situations and development so clearly before my eyes - I wish I could ask the sitters whether I'm imagining stuff or whether I was right

How can one ever take the Fool's jump and start reading for strangers face to face?

This sounds like fun, doing readings through an app like that and getting paid a bit even better still!

I wonder how much time you need to do a reading usually. Doing it online like this, can you take a bit of time with it?

This is my big problem with doing in person readings for others (and why I don't do them), I get a kind of "stage fright." I just go blank like I've never seen the cards before, even if I'm using the deck I made myself!

I become overly sensitive to the idea I am being judged (which probably is rooted in something other than tarot reading:-)) and I just freeze.

I think part of the problem is I had the misfortune to be asked to do readings early on by people who were not serious and I sensed a kind of condescension or mocking. (did I say I "sensed"? They WERE condescending and mocking.) This did not give me any confidence.

I am hoping that doing some work here in the group readings and exchanges and such will help me get past this. I get so much out of readings I do for myself, I would love to be able to do this for others.

I read through Etsy, personally. It's only been about half a year since I opened up shop, but it's been picking up! Etsy is about to raise their cut and I did already feel like my amount of effort per dollar was stretched pretty thin, so I'm looking at options for breaking out on my own, or the necessity of raising rates :/

I rarely read in person, and then only for friends for free. I don't really prioritize setting up a physical space. I have this dream of going to a festival with a deck and reading one card readings for tiny treasures from people there - they keep the card, and I get a little trinket and all the trinkets can be used as like... Runes, almost, as their own form of found object divination.

Before I chip in here, I must stress that this is just my opinion, based on my experience.

I've been a professional reader - on and off - for almost 40 years. That doesn't mean I'm better than anyone, it just means that I'm experienced.
I've done other things, in between and alongside, tarot reading but for the last couple of years I've actually needed another income, as I can no longer make a living from tarot reading alone.

I believe that the main reason for this is because of the internet; the internet is amazing but it has certain disadvantages too - one of them being that, from my point of view, folk who would have perhaps come to see me now have the option to go online. Please, please don't think that I am being dismissive of on-line readers! I'm really not, but they are competition, if you are thinking about tarot-reading purely from a business POV.

My colleague at the esoteric bookshop (which also suffers because of Amazon) supplements her income by working on a tarot phone-line. The phone-lines have been around a while, but they has never felt a "competitive threat" as much as the internet has been, and this, I think, is because of the opportunity to receive free readings. Sometimes it's someone starting out who wants to practice; sometimes its a promotional offer; sometimes its an automated service. I think that its great for folk to practice, but it does impact on the marketplace; lots of folk will be drawn by the idea of a 'freebie' and I don't blame them.

Tarot is becoming more and more popular and populist. Suddenly, everyone has read an article and become an expert. It's easy to buy a tarot deck, a book to explain it. It's easy to find a willing audience to practise upon. It used to be a far more elusive and mysterious thing!

PLEASE PLEASE don't get me wrong! I absolutely do see the benefits, and I am always pleased to see it becoming more mainstream BUT I have seen this happen before; that tarot gets fashionable. The difficulty in finding a good reader is not the same as simply finding a tarot reader.

Where I have my - for want of a better word - Tarot-reading residency, we've been looking for someone else for almost 2 years. It's not enough to know the meanings, a good reader has to know how to talk to anyone; how to turn people away; how to deliver a difficult message; how to understand that people hear what they want to hear; how to choose appropriate vocabulary; how to turn down the ego-setting; how to mop up tears; when to suggest a doctor, or the police; or a lawyer. A good reader needs to know when to say no, but without making the individual who is asking feel upset or anxious. I KNOW VERY FEW GOOD READERS!

I don't do festivals, psychic fairs, pub evenings any more because I prefer not to. I used to love reading at music festivals! The reason I stopped was because I got too old to get so muddy! But never say never; I might investigate next year, maybe. British festivals tend not to be warm summer evenings, with fireflies and incense but rather rain and sheets of tarpaulin and unspeakable toilet facilities!

I hate psychic fairs with a passion! There usually seems to be some bossy person with an agenda and I find myself slipping into beligerant anarchist before you can say 'chakra balancing gem elixir'.

That leaves pub evenings. I do actually do these, but they are spontaneous and I get 'paid' in drinks!

I recognise that I seem to be coming over in quite a negative fashion; I think my intention was to be a voice of caution: tarot reading is wonderful, and I don't regret it. However, it's highly competive these days.

Wow, Velvetina, you sound like the classical tarot reader! I wish someone would make a film about a real tarot reader, just to see how you work and how serious it is and how you can help. I'm totally fascinated by tarot readers who are able to bring it all together, intuition, communication talent, empathy, self protection, honesty and deep knowledge of the cards - in front of a live audience. I don't know if I could do it.

I remember there was a tarot boom some 15 years ago but in our area, it ebbed away a long time ago. There used to be so many tarot shops - they either closed or nowadays sell jewelry or salt lamps but it's impossible to find interesting decks in shops. Well, I live a the end of the world but even in bigger cities, tarot is pretty much non-existing. I guess there is a tarot scene around here but I'm not part of it. I don't know how people get tarot readings.

Ah Nemia, I think that I'm just the draggling end of a bygone era!

After I wrote my post, I went for a walk, because I was concerned I'd come across as too negative, too woe-begone!
I thought about how once upon a time, a tarot reader would be sought out, and they might very well turn out to be a dreadful charlatan! Nowadays there is much more choice, which is a good thing really - the best readers will become sought after, and the rest will have to up their game! And that includes me! Reading opinions on forums (like you, I'm ex - Aeclectic) has really helped me; I've re-examined many old opinions through following forum debates!

Similarly, I've been working in bookshops for a while - many, many bookshops struggle and more vanish from the high street. Yet some still survive! The way we shop might have changed radically, but people still love the experience of browsing through a bookshop (the antiquarian and second-hand bookshop I work in thrives!). People love face-to-face readings, and that won't change. The free readings offer experience for the new practioner AND an opportunity for a curious seeker to have a go. The new practioner learns a thousand ways to say "you might be barking up the wrong tree" or "let's focus on what is working for you". Or they get bored and move on to something else. That's ok too; I've quit readings at least 3 times because I couldn't deal with the general public!

Another aspect is feuding and rivalry: and I think that this is rife in the occult/spiritual community. There's an awful lot of hair-pulling and name-calling which is ridiculous really. The bookshop I work in sells books; we don't pick sides. We sell books on Reiki, Satanism, aromatherapy, Christianity, animal communication, NLP - I'm sure that you get the idea! I'd rather everyone played nicely, but human nature being as it is I have been accused (by other local readers) of everything from casting death curses to prostituition! Happily, most of the other readers I know are good-natured individuals and we have a solid respect for one another, even if our belief systems don't exactly match up.

I'm mentioning the bickering just to add another layer in the trifle! It really isn't all unicorns and glitter (but there is a good deal of that too!).

Libra - I love the idea of reading in exchange for trinkets and charms! You don't need to wait for a festival, perhaps you could set up a little area in your local park, with a sign to advertise yourself and a friend for company and to help you out.
I do that myself in summer - I sometimes do it in exchange for an ice cream!

Nemia - do you mind sharing where you live? Just out of curiosity. I'm in the North of England, in Yorkshire and I don't know of any other shops as well-stocked for tarot (apart from in London) anymore. I've noticed a lot of gift shops selling occult-decorated things, but not really tarot decks - one tends to see the same half-dozen packs in the likely shops.

Joan Marie - I completely understand about the stage fright! I still get it! Still! And I have been known to burst into tears after some customers have gone (unhappy customers always get a full refund btw) because they haven't liked their reading. Some people want a particular answer and can become very unpleasant if they don't get it - it's not always easy to shake their rudeness off!

I'm from Yorkshire too Velvetina. Where do you read?

I get paid for readings online via email, txt, or messenger. I don't work for a site or a service, my clients find me by word of mouth. But I'm more on the Medium end of the spectrum. My clients understand that the way I do things is a bit unusual so they don't mind that it takes me awhile to produce a reading. I never do in person readings because ^^ I need to do stuff. You know, pulling the cards can sometimes be the easy part. I can't even remember the last time I did a 30 min reading. I have to listen and write, and scry and draw on images. Sometimes I even need to dream before the reading is ready for the client.
I couldn't pay the bills with what I make, but I'm ok with that too.

I've read all of the comments on here with interest. I came back to reading tarot professionally about 4 years ago and read from a local wellbeing centre. I've found that as long as I advertise, work is steady. I've also started targeting advertising as I was to the point of tearing my hair out at folks who wanted the cards to sort out their lives for them. An average reading lasts 45 to 50 minutes. I do read at the dreaded psychic fairs - but only in my workplace one Saturday per month. Internet or skype readings tend to be for friends overseas, as gifts at special times or as a catch up and chat/exchange type affair.

There's no way I could live off my earnings as a reader as things stand at the moment - really, I'm a small town reader who loves the contact with the folks who come through my door.

There is definitely a different vibe to reading now than there was twenty or thirty years ago. I found that back then there was a certain mystique and enigma surrounding people offering Tarot readings, whereas now we are abundant and more people seem to be more clued up as to how a Tarot reading can be a useful and practical way to explore issues and work out ways forward.

I'm not at all sure what advice I would give to folks wanting to read professionally other than reading the Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' and taking its message to heart - most folks are lovely, by bejaysus there are some funny buggers out there!

I want to share something - I read usually at night in front of the laptop, my tarot brain works better at night when the rest of the world sleeps. And I experiment with all kinds of music. I found now the ideal music for tarot reading - Enya. I'm not a huge Enya fan but I totally underestimated the power of her music to unlock what even Chopin and Rachmaninoff didn't unlock. I find that darkness outside, a quiet house and Enya music in my earphones make me a better reader! She is the High Priestess, without a doubt! Magic! Why didn't I discover her before?

Do you people here have rituals, tips, music, incense etc?

Regarding the use of music, I found there is a whole gigantic selection of meditation music on youtube. Some of it is not my cup of tea, but some of it is really conducive to reading tarot for me.

One type I use a lot is the Tibetan singing bowls. Just do a search on you tube. There are many to choose from.
I also like a lot of the chakra meditation ones. And I can choose which chakra according to what my reading is about.

I use headphones or a bluetooth speaker and the sound quality is not bad at all.

I find it helps me focus without being distracting itself.

Old thread, but an important topic!

velvetina wrote: ↑19 Jun 2018, 15:14I've done other things, in between and alongside, tarot reading but for the last couple of years I've actually needed another income, as I can no longer make a living from tarot reading alone.

The same happened to me. I used to make my whole living from readings, but after literally years, the traffic dried up to the extent that I've had to get a "regular" job.

I believe that the main reason for this is because of the internet; the internet is amazing but it has certain disadvantages too - one of them being that, from my point of view, folk who would have perhaps come to see me now have the option to go online. Please, please don't think that I am being dismissive of on-line readers! I'm really not, but they are competition, if you are thinking about tarot-reading purely from a business POV.

The internet plays a part, but I don't think that's all of it. Or maybe it just took awhile to build momentum. I know I was doing OK until about five years ago.

My colleague at the esoteric bookshop (which also suffers because of Amazon) supplements her income by working on a tarot phone-line. The phone-lines have been around a while, but they has never felt a "competitive threat" as much as the internet has been, and this, I think, is because of the opportunity to receive free readings. Sometimes it's someone starting out who wants to practice; sometimes its a promotional offer; sometimes its an automated service. I think that its great for folk to practice, but it does impact on the marketplace; lots of folk will be drawn by the idea of a 'freebie' and I don't blame them.

We don't have esoteric shops where I live, other than botanicas, and those already have people doing readings and limpias. And my spanish is really bad. So that's out.

When I was reading full time, I used every other available platform - yes, including the lines. I was on Keen and some others, and I can tell you that when things dried up, those dried up too. There was a pile-on of "readers". Listings were getting buried.

I blame that for a lot of it, and it IS internet related. You see it all the time on facebook, etc.: People, if they ask about it, are always encouraged to go pro - even if they can't read their way out of a wet paper sack. There are legions upon legions of people out there billing themselves as "readers". They virtually always claim to have miraculous psychic powers, too. One woman who had been studying Lenormand for THREE MONTHS (it takes 5-7 years to get fluent) started selling readings on every platform she could find: her blog, Etsy, some others. And she copypasted my advertising blurb from my Keen listing to her blog! She didn't even know enough about what she was doing to write her own ad copy about it!

I posted a Cease & Desist to her blog comments where everybody could see it, and she took it down pretty quick. But the market is still flooded.

As for free readings, Keen used to offer three free minutes. We still got paid for those (I wouldn't have done them otherwise), the idea was to keep the client on the line. Sometimes you could. Other times, they didn't even have any money in their account. By the time they got their question out, there was often only seconds to answer them before you got cut off. I learned to read cuts and read them FAST, because these people will leave one star reviews if they're not happy - even though it's their fault for not buying a couple of extra minutes to give you time to answer.

If people are doing unpaid readings on the phone lines for practice, they have no business BEING on the phone lines, as they're not ready to go pro. Let them practice on their friends like we did.

There's no way to stop them, though. We can only let it run its course. Eventually they'll ruin the business and maybe we can start up again in the aftermath.

For now, I'm only selling phone readings through my blog, and working occasional parties. I don't do readings at the house anymore, either, since I live alone these days and I'm not about to hang out my shingle and let random people in the house. I quit Etsy a long time ago because you have to sell something tangible, and typing up readings and formatting them in a PDF is more trouble than it's worth, pay-wise.

Tarot is becoming more and more popular and populist. Suddenly, everyone has read an article and become an expert. It's easy to buy a tarot deck, a book to explain it. It's easy to find a willing audience to practise upon. It used to be a far more elusive and mysterious thing!

Remember when it was generally accepted that reading cards involved learning card meanings? Now people get upset when you say that.

We have the new age gurus to thank for that. "Anybody can do this. Just look at the cards. You don't need books. You have all the answers inside you. Just buy my course and be an expert reader in one week!", etc. While ignoring the meanings and just getting impressions from the images can be a good exercise to do for yourself, it's hit-or-miss with client readings. It's like a Rorschach - it says a more about the person doing the looking than it does about the person sitting across the table.

So a lot of people do it non-predictively. That way they're "not wrong". But the thing with clients is that they usually tend to want predictions, and when they don't, it's "How does he feel about me?" type questions.

That's why I say this whole thing is unsustainable.

PLEASE PLEASE don't get me wrong! I absolutely do see the benefits, and I am always pleased to see it becoming more mainstream BUT I have seen this happen before; that tarot gets fashionable. The difficulty in finding a good reader is not the same as simply finding a tarot reader.

Trends always hurt whatever is trending. The market gets flooded with poor quality examples, people get tired of whatever it is, and in the end, whatever was trending ends up worse off than when it it just had a little niche of fans. Example:

Crocs are ugly, but good for gardening and they're comfortable. You can just hose the mud off and leave them at the door.
There was a huge Crocs trend. People wore them when they were out and about. Celebs were photographed wearing them. The stores were full of Crocs.
Cheaper knockoffs started to appear. We saw these everywhere too.
Everybody got very tired of seeing Crocs.
Crocs company almost went bust and had to scramble to start making various different kinds of shoes to keep from going under.
Crocs are still around, but people no longer mainly associate them with gardening. They tend think of them as tacky "People of WalMart" shoes.

Or think of dog breeds. It's horrible when a dog breed trends. You see a lot of badly bred ones, severe health and temperament issues, unwanted ones...I wish there were no trendings of living beings.

Cartomancy didn't have the best reputation before all this happened. I think the aftermath could be really bad. We might have to fight to convince people that we don't believe in indigo children or solving the worlds' problems by holding a crystal and thinking happy thoughts.

Where I have my - for want of a better word - Tarot-reading residency, we've been looking for someone else for almost 2 years. It's not enough to know the meanings, a good reader has to know how to talk to anyone; how to turn people away; how to deliver a difficult message; how to understand that people hear what they want to hear; how to choose appropriate vocabulary; how to turn down the ego-setting; how to mop up tears; when to suggest a doctor, or the police; or a lawyer. A good reader needs to know when to say no, but without making the individual who is asking feel upset or anxious. I KNOW VERY FEW GOOD READERS!

Amen to that.

A good reader also keeps their mouth shut and does not discuss what a client tells them in confidence. A good reader WILL refuse to help someone who wants help raping, stalking, etc. (yes, we get those people sometimes) and will break confidentiality to report crimes of that nature. A good reader is not judgemental - I've actually seen a woman many consider to be an "expert" (she has a youtube channel, wahoo) say that someone in an open relationship was "cheating". And a good reader doesn't NEED to devise an elaborate "code of ethics". Ethics are not something to be turned on or off depending on whether you have a deck in your hands. Card reading ethics are the same as regular ethics: if you talk about your partner with friends, or your friends with other friends, or your friends with your partner, you can do "third party readings"

I hate psychic fairs with a passion! There usually seems to be some bossy person with an agenda and I find myself slipping into beligerant anarchist before you can say 'chakra balancing gem elixir'.

I never did one, we don't have them locally. I don't think I'd like them. A friend told me he was the only playing card reader at one, everybody else was reading angel cards. The Doreen crowd.

That leaves pub evenings. I do actually do these, but they are spontaneous and I get 'paid' in drinks!

Nothing wrong with a little barter, as long as they don't take advantage. 1 question, 1 cocktail!

I recognise that I seem to be coming over in quite a negative fashion; I think my intention was to be a voice of caution: tarot reading is wonderful, and I don't regret it. However, it's highly competive these days.

Yes. People see the price of readings and think it's super profitable, but you don't get as many as you would need to be anything approaching comfortable, much less prosperous. The only way around that is to actually BE a celebrity, and those are people doing some kind of psychic/medium thing rather than card readers, more often than not.

katrinka wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 00:14
For now, I'm only selling phone readings through my blog, and working occasional parties. I don't do readings at the house anymore, either, since I live alone these days and I'm not about to hang out my shingle and let random people in the house. I quit Etsy a long time ago because you have to sell something tangible, and typing up readings and formatting them in a PDF is more trouble than it's worth, pay-wise.

Could you sell an mp3 and then just have it be basically like the phone reading?

Charlie Brown wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 00:32

katrinka wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 00:14
For now, I'm only selling phone readings through my blog, and working occasional parties. I don't do readings at the house anymore, either, since I live alone these days and I'm not about to hang out my shingle and let random people in the house. I quit Etsy a long time ago because you have to sell something tangible, and typing up readings and formatting them in a PDF is more trouble than it's worth, pay-wise.

Could you sell an mp3 and then just have it be basically like the phone reading?

That's kind of brilliant. No, scratch that - flat out, unvarnished brilliant! I hadn't considered it. Thank you! It would definitely work for Etsy.
I have some clients in other countries who call me using Skype - we don't Skype per se, my connection is too slow for that - but there's a way to make phone calls on Skype. Unfortunately, they're static-y and tend to drop. I think an mp3 file would be perfect for them, too. And my laptop has a voice recorder. The mic isn't all that great, but it works. An external mic would be better - my laptop doesn't have a dedicated jack for a mic, but apparently there's hacks to get it to work (I just googled - there's TONS of them! I love finding workarounds.) Will definitely be offering these on my readings page.

There are also USB mics for podcasting I think the price has gotten pretty low.

Charlie Brown wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 04:53 There are also USB mics for podcasting I think the price has gotten pretty low.

Oh my, yes. USB Mics
Thank you!!!!!

A great topic Nemia! So interesting to hear everyone's experiences and insights in this area. The internet as certainly made tarot more accessible, both in obtaining information and getting readings. But naturally that brings out both the good and the bad. I'm inclined to think there's a downside to the type of quick paid or free readings available on places like Keen etc. as it's probably less possible for the reader to give good insight and advice for the sitter in such a short time (I've heard other readers who have worked on that and other sites talk about how it works and how fast you have to be and their experiences with that). As vevetina says:

velvetina wrote: ↑19 Jun 2018, 15:14 It's not enough to know the meanings, a good reader has to know how to talk to anyone; how to turn people away; how to deliver a difficult message; how to understand that people hear what they want to hear; how to choose appropriate vocabulary; how to turn down the ego-setting; how to mop up tears; when to suggest a doctor, or the police; or a lawyer. A good reader needs to know when to say no, but without making the individual who is asking feel upset or anxious. I KNOW VERY FEW GOOD READERS!

I totally agree. To give a good reading in my opinion you need to be able to do most of that. I don't think reading for others should be taken lightly as you can really affect how that person feels once they leave, and that can impact how they are going forward and their perspective on their life or related questions asked. It's kind of like being a therapist. It's a responsibility! If you get a challenging card like the Tower for example how are you going to convey that? Tell them their life is about to come crashing down around them, or explain things may change radically but it may be so that you can let go of what's not needed anymore and something new and more suitable can arise, and how they may best approach that change to make the transition more smooth (yes a simplified example I know, trying to keep it short...) . My personal take on this is that the reader has a lot of responsibility because of the impact their words (and sometimes the card imagery) can have on the sitter. The reader needs to be aware of their communication so as not to make the sitter fearful or anxious.

Yes I think you can still do this in a quick 3 min reading to a limited extent but probably not to the extent that might is needed or which would give the sitter a much better insight and so deal better with whatever issue is at hand, which you could do if you did a face-to-face or online reading where you send them your interpretations written down. So I don't think people probably get what could really benefit them in a tarot reading from a fast 3 min one. But I'm open to being corrected here, and would be happy to hear if you have found that not to be true at all (and I'm not critising here those who do these readings).

I also think this fast and cheap way of doing tarot can give the wrong impression of just how helpful tarot can be - that tarot is just about quick maybe easy answers to life's problems, when it can be so much more helpful offering insight and understanding which can help the sitter far more.

The responsibility is the main reason I have thought I would never offer readings as a professional online, and I even have stopped doing free ones for now (plus I think I would dislike constantly getting questions like "Will he come back to me" or sitters that only want to hear the answers that they want to be, rather than gaining true insight to their questions). I love reading cards and would like to help people with them if I could, but it's a bit of a minefield in my opinion. I guess it's a matter of perspective. Some might see it just as a simple service and that it's up to the sitter how they respond and go forward. For me it's tied to how you treat people and how you can choose to help or hinder them in life.

katrinka wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 00:14

Tarot is becoming more and more popular and populist. Suddenly, everyone has read an article and become an expert. It's easy to buy a tarot deck, a book to explain it. It's easy to find a willing audience to practise upon. It used to be a far more elusive and mysterious thing!

Remember when it was generally accepted that reading cards involved learning card meanings? Now people get upset when you say that.

We have the new age gurus to thank for that. "Anybody can do this. Just look at the cards. You don't need books. You have all the answers inside you. Just buy my course and be an expert reader in one week!", etc. While ignoring the meanings and just getting impressions from the images can be a good exercise to do for yourself, it's hit-or-miss with client readings. It's like a Rorschach - it says a more about the person doing the looking than it does about the person sitting across the table.

One positive thing I would say about tarot being more populist now is the potential to help more people get in touch with their intuition or clairvoyance. I don't think that's a bad thing. And if it generally helps someone also get more in touch with their spiritual side as they may become more interested in the esoteric field I think that can be beneficial too.

I think having a grounding in card meanings is a good idea but that doesn't mean you need to stick to them going forward. You can use cards to 'scry' in a sense, and I've seen this done very well before by someone who can take a non-tarot deck of cards which has imagery and read from it straight away (but they are well developed in their abilities).

I use a mixture of both, that's just how my skill has developed over time. I didn't intentionally set out to do that. I know the meanings but when I read sometimes I'll get something a bit different from the imagery of the card, and I've learned to go with that and not try and shoe-horn the traditional meaning in when it's clearly not what the card is telling me! Sometimes it does align totally with the traditional meaning. For me it's about the symbology, the imagery. That's just how my mind works. Not everyone needs to read the same way, you have to go with what works for you, and if it's not traditional that's fine. Just be honest if it doesn't work though lol otherwise you'll never learn to read the cards.

BlueStar wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 07:43I'm inclined to think there's a downside to the type of quick paid or free readings available on places like Keen etc. as it's probably less possible for the reader to give good insight and advice for the sitter in such a short time (I've heard other readers who have worked on that and other sites talk about how it works and how fast you have to be and their experiences with that). As vevetina says:

velvetina wrote: ↑19 Jun 2018, 15:14 It's not enough to know the meanings, a good reader has to know how to talk to anyone; how to turn people away; how to deliver a difficult message; how to understand that people hear what they want to hear; how to choose appropriate vocabulary; how to turn down the ego-setting; how to mop up tears; when to suggest a doctor, or the police; or a lawyer. A good reader needs to know when to say no, but without making the individual who is asking feel upset or anxious. I KNOW VERY FEW GOOD READERS!

I totally agree. To give a good reading in my opinion you need to be able to do most of that. I don't think reading for others should be taken lightly as you can really affect how that person feels once they leave, and that can impact how they are going forward and their perspective on their life or related questions asked. It's kind of like being a therapist. It's a responsibility! If you get a challenging card like the Tower for example how are you going to convey that? Tell them their life is about to come crashing down around them, or explain things may change radically but it may be so that you can let go of what's not needed anymore and something new and more suitable can arise, and how they may best approach that change to make the transition more smooth (yes a simplified example I know, trying to keep it short...) . My personal take on this is that the reader has a lot of responsibility because of the impact their words (and sometimes the card imagery) can have on the sitter. The reader needs to be aware of their communication so as not to make the sitter fearful or anxious.

As with everything else, there IS a downside to fast readings. And we should try to be helpful if we can - not just as readers, but as human beings. I don't agree that we're responsible for how other people feel or what they do, though. I read about a case where a reader took the advice of a psychic and stopped her husband's cancer treatments. He died, and the woman sued. The judge threw it out on the grounds that the woman should have listened to his doctor, not a reader. (A little common sense is always in order.) It's actually very difficult to sue a reader: https://exemplore.com/paranormal/Can-Yo ... c-Lawsuits And most of us don't claim 100% accuracy, anyway. A hit rate like that would make us omniscient rather than human.

As for the Tower, I would choose the interpretation from the context: the question, and the neighboring cards. And if their life were, indeed, to come crashing down around them (that's very seldom the case, though) it's my responsibility to give them a heads up so they can prepare. You have to deliver bad news gently, but it's important not to lie or sugarcoat. When people suspect something is being kept from them, their imaginations can run rampant. Look at all the conspiracy theories that get passed around: that's because people don't trust their governments and institutions to be honest and forthcoming.

Yes I think you can still do this in a quick 3 min reading to a limited extent but probably not to the extent that might is needed or which would give the sitter a much better insight and so deal better with whatever issue is at hand, which you could do if you did a face-to-face or online reading where you send them your interpretations written down. So I don't think people probably get what could really benefit them in a tarot reading from a fast 3 min one. But I'm open to being corrected here, and would be happy to hear if you have found that not to be true at all (and I'm not critising here those who do these readings).

I also think this fast and cheap way of doing tarot can give the wrong impression of just how helpful tarot can be - that tarot is just about quick maybe easy answers to life's problems, when it can be so much more helpful offering insight and understanding which can help the sitter far more.

I think it's important to remember that we aren't therapists, we're fortunetellers. The vast majority of us don't have the necessary certifications and degrees for a licensed practice. And a licensed counselor or therapist could get their license revoked for using cards to diagnose or treat their patients. I see a lot of people billing themselves as some kind of counselor, and that's legal - anybody can call themselves a counselor - but it's unethical, and, to my way of thinking, fraudulent. A lot of people don't even know that a counselor without state certifications probably isn't qualified. They go to random readers with pretty websites, "Christian counselors", etc. with real problems, spend money, and things go badly.

Let's look at the word "fortuneteller". A lot of us have reclaimed that title (there's a faction who prefer "diviner", but we have no way of knowing for sure what, if any, divine forces are at play.) Even the link I posted above calls "fortuneteller" "derogatory". But the dictionary defines "fortune" as "chance or luck as an external, arbitrary force affecting human affairs". That's what we tell people about: their luck with getting what they want, and avoiding problems as much as possible. "Fortuneteller" is an accurate term, it's honest. The best readers I know call themselves fortunetellers: Andy Boroveshengra, Madame Nadia, so many others. And I love the word. It conjures images of working the midway at an old timey carnival. I think going to a carnival is a lot more fun than sitting in some counselor's office would be.

The extent of my responsibility is to 1. Know the cards well, and 2. Relay what they're saying to the client.
Sometimes I'll preface an answer with "This isn't what I would think, but the cards are saying..." and remind the client that, like with everything else, there is a margin of error. That puts the responsibility squarely on them, where it belongs.

katrinka wrote: ↑12 May 2019, 00:35 Let's look at the word "fortuneteller". A lot of us have reclaimed that title (there's a faction who prefer "diviner", but we have no way of knowing for sure what, if any, divine forces are at play.) Even the link I posted above calls "fortuneteller" "derogatory". But the dictionary defines "fortune" as "chance or luck as an external, arbitrary force affecting human affairs". That's what we tell people about: their luck with getting what they want, and avoiding problems as much as possible. "Fortuneteller" is an accurate term, it's honest. The best readers I know call themselves fortunetellers: Andy Boroveshengra, Madame Nadia, so many others. And I love the word. It conjures images of working the midway at an old timey carnival. I think going to a carnival is a lot more fun than sitting in some counselor's office would be.

In German the term is "Wahrsager" which literally translated means "truth-teller!" I kinda like that.

One thing I don't think I saw mentioned anywhere yet is Skype or Facetime readings.

It seems like that might be an interesting way to do it, sort of the best of both worlds, the distance and safety of a phone call, but still being face-to-face.

Is that a thing? Has anyone here done it?

It's definitely a thing, and I used to do Skype readings when I lived where higher speed internet was available. It's fun. But even then, the connection was a little unstable.

I like "Wahrsager". They have a similar concept in Scotland, Thomas the Rhymer and others claimed to have "the tongue that cannot lie."