I’ve been reading Tarot cards professionally for a long time, and I want to share with you what you can expect if you go down the Tarot for a ‘living’ route. Firstly, you may find that the joy of doing Tarot readings goes. Secondly, you can expect many of your presumptions on what a Tarot reading ‘is’ or ‘does’ to come under fire.
One of those presumptions that I had with the Tarot was that the Tarot helps people. I don’t know why I thought that, I just assumed, rightly or wrongly, that Tarot helps people on a Spiritual level; this in turn, I assumed, helps them on a practical level. After the first two or three weeks of reading professionally, this was challenged severely.
I’ve subsequently worked with the Tarot in most mediums; face-to-face, over the phone, text messages and emails. I have a fair background of experience with which to point out some things that doing Tarot readings for a career will challenge you with.
Personally, I assumed that the Tarot:
- Helps people.
- Develops your own Spirituality.
- The Divinatory meanings are important and the backbone of a reading.
All those presumptions of mine were wrong. You may find this to be the case too.
The Divinatory meanings of the Tarot cards are almost irrelevant to a successful Tarot reading and that’s because, what you may think a successful reading is and what the client thinks is a successful Tarot reading are two completely different things.
To go off topic for just a moment; I’ve done Tarot readings where I knew if I ‘went with the cards’; it would have been unsuccessful. In situations like that I just say what ever thought comes into my mind.
I’ve read, and can validate through personal experience that thoughts do not belong to the individual who thinks them; in fact nothing belongs to us. We own nothing; not our possessions or our relationships, other people or even our memories; and least of all our thoughts.
They say that Spirits are thoughts; separate intelligences.
It is in this sense that I will privilege Thoughts over the Tarot card divinatory meanings: consider this, certain anatomies of Tarot posit that Spirits are represented by the cards and that HRU governs the operation of Tarot divination.
The point I’m making is that the study of symbols, interesting though it is, is not required for a successful Tarot reading.
I mentioned earlier that I was under the illusion (and what isn’t an illusion?) that the Tarot developed Spirituality. This presumption is a contradiction. Yes, the Tarot does develop Spirituality (along with everything else) but it can accomplish this with only a few minutes a week devoted to the practice or every day like me; in other words, the frequency is irrelevant, as is the manner in which the Tarot is thought of or studied.
What is Spirituality anyway? I’m using the word to define an awareness of Self; I would also define this as Enlightenment.
I am not Enlightened nor am I Spiritual. In fact, I’m ruled by my desires, baser instincts and all other manner of things (ignorance is the greatest sin) which indicates a lack of awareness in a Spiritual sense. In this sense there is nothing that separates me from a client to whom I’m giving a reading for. I’m not convinced that this is actually helpful for a client – the fact that I can empathise and understand does not necessarily assist or empower the Client. There have been studies done in a Social Work context that illustrate this point. For example, imagine a woman who has been raped and is asked or pursues a mentoring position for other women who have been raped. It would appear at first sight that this woman will be of great benefit to the other woman because of the shared experience. However, evidence does not support this; in fact it can be damaging to both her and the other woman. It is now considered good practice to employ people who have no shared experience with the group they are assigned to mentor. This actually produces a better therapeutic environment.
I want to take a quick second to further clarify what I mean by saying that my understanding of the client may not be the best for them. I will illustrate this by a true story concerning a lecture I attended on Buddhism. During the course of the lecture the Buddhist mentioned the problems of psychism. He told us a story where somebody asked him if, during his many years of meditation (he spent many years mediating in a cave) he developed Psychic ability. He replied that he had indeed developed some Psychic ability. The person then asked if he could see the future; oh yes he replied. The person finally asked if he would use his abilities to predict what would happen for them in the future. The Buddhist replied: You will be miserable, and you will always be miserable.
Apart from making me laugh, this story perfectly explains Spirituality; ambition of any kind does not sit comfortably with Spirituality. It removes a person from being in the moment; and to be in the moment one must simply be aware. Spirituality is often compared to Water, because water is non-ambitious, it flows down stream; it does not seek to go up the mountain (consider the Devil card and the mountain goat).
It also implies that ambition is a necessary part of asking for a Tarot reading and that in some senses Tarot readings can remove us from Spirituality. The following video illustrates the problem with divinatory readings and its relationship with Spirituality.
To go back to the start of the reading where I mention the presumption that the Tarot helps people; I would say that this again is not a black and white issue. Firstly, a Tarot reader is unlikely to know in all cases if the reading helped and secondly, the cases where it obviously did help are in the minority. This is not simply confined to my own experience. I’ve talked with many Tarot readers who all report much the same. It makes it very difficult to accurately assess your own level of professionalism and effectiveness.
Finally, I was watching this video, which is meant to show you how to fake a reading, not just Tarot. I must confess that I saw no difference in their advice for the budding conman and the techniques that I myself use. Granted, I don’t use them often, but I still use them. I use this to build a rapport if I feel the reading is going badly. Although I never saw the Tarot as entertainment, in many ways it is.
Does this make me a conman and a charlatan? Yes, because a Tarot reading doesn’t provide what is needed by the people who seek a reading. A Tarot reading can predict the future; a Tarot reading can be therapeutic, yet the context and perhaps the implication of a reading itself, does not support this.
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“It would appear at first sight that this woman will be of great benefit to the other woman because of the shared experience. However, evidence does not support this; in fact it can be damaging to both her and the other woman.”
Could you site some reading sources for this as a follow up?
Thank you
Elizabeth
Certainly, a good place to start would be with group dynamics itself. A quick search of the internet brought up this website that covers some relevant ideas. The second reading source you might like to look at is Community services for rape survivors. This study looks at what happens to woman after rape. It indicates that the services that society provides can either increase stress or increase the well being of the people involved. It suggests that mental health services can be beneficial in the right context.
I was referring to women who have been raped and are then lead a group of women who share the same experience. The problems that were encountered (although to be fair there are studies that indicate that rape advocates, which is different to what I was referring to, can assist in the healing process by displaying anger and fear) are no different to a police officer who is ‘too close to the case’ and unable to detach and act professionally.
In the group context, Post Traumatic Stress was encountered which was counterproductive to helping the other woman within the group. It’s similar to Social Workers finding themselves involved in a Children and Families case that brings up difficult memories. This can distract them from being completely focused and responsive to the case they are involved in. Likewise counsellors tend to receive counselling themselves as part of their professional practice. This can help them work through any personal or difficult emotions that this type of work can bring up.
This is what I was meaning when I was referring to a general (there are always exceptions) rule in group therapy. If the person conducting the group does not have a direct experience of something as painful and devastating as rape then, in some sense, they are able to be more responsive. This is usually done through the staff members of these groups receiving continuous training and in some cases counselling to help them act professionally and in the best interests of the people they are helping.
Often seen on AT are questions about reading professionally and I’ve never seen a professional responder speak the truth in this manner as you’ve addressed it here. Good for you. I’ve never met a client yet who cared what deck I used or what the general ‘meaning’ of a card is. They just want their question answered.
All the best, Sharyn
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Like you, I also have never met a client who cared what deck I used or what the general ‘meaning’ of a card is. Almost all of them simply wanted to know the answers to their question. Unfortunately, because the majority of questions asked by clients are similar, it’s easy to, in the sense that the ‘job’ itself teaches you, learn stock phrases that ‘handle’ the client.
I’m currently experimenting with different ways around this but so far my only conclusions can be that the ‘talking therapy’ aspect of Tarot reading becomes the most important. What I mean by talking therapy is the dialogue that can develop around the answers provided to the client’s questions. In this sense it is much harder for a Tarot reader than it is for a therapist because a Tarot reader has to win the trust of a new client within the first couple of minutes of a reading (a therapist, as a general rule, doesn’t have this problem as the perception of a therapist over a Tarot reader naturally encourages trust). This situation can actually get much harder if most of your clients are over the phone, or via some other method rather than the standard face-to-face.
I think, because it makes it easier for both the Tarot reader and client if there is some level of mutual trust in the process, that developing a report with a client using techniques other than Tarot, are naturally learned by a Tarot reader (I’m actually very cautious about making this to generalised to include all Tarot readers) as means of encouraging this report – rightly or wrongly.
It was great hearing from you and I really enjoyed reading your comment.
Thought provoking! When we do a reading, we have to detach from the outcome and the client. Not easy to do! But if we concern ourselves with if the reading is “right” or “helps the client”, we become personally involved. Ultimately, all that matters is what the client gets (or doesn’t get) out of the experience. All we do is read, move on and remain neutral. Not easy to do.
Hi Theresa,
I’m glad you liked the post. I agree with you about detachment. A friend of mine has a saying, “bag it, and bin it”! He told me this right at the beginning of my career. It was only much later (very recently in fact) that I finally understood:
Bag the reading, and when it’s over – Bin it!
This is very similar to your statement, “All we do is read, move on and remain neutral.”
Although it’s not easy to do, I do think it’s one of the most valuable skills to learn in reading Tarot cards.
Thanks for sharing
Hi Douglas,
I’m really glad I came across your post by pure chance today
, because it expresses my own feelings about doing Tarot ‘for a living’: it’s not that rewarding any more, mainly due to clients’ unrealistic expectations. I’m not prepared to make some duff predictions, which may well come true but are certainly not based on any ‘psychic’ skills. Then of course I get accused of being a conartist, which isn’t true, as I always explain to clients in advance how I use the Tarot, and what sort of skills I use to interpret the cards for them. These skills include psychology, empathy, intuition, life experience and knowledge of the cards all combined. I always stress that I’m not ‘psychic’ 
A conman is someone, who deliberately wants to extort money from people by trickery. there’s something malicious about a conman. As long as you are honest to your clients about how you use the Tarot, then you’re not a conman.
Anyway, as a result of my shift in thinking about providing readings, I have found myself getting more involved in teaching tarot, which I find much more rewarding. Helping people to help themselves and understand the system of Tarot. Demystifying the mystical, so to speak
Showing people that tarot is really just a game – the game of life. People over the years have come to me to learn tarot and without realising at the time embarked on therapy. In the process of learning tarot, they started healing their lives. For me this is a new and exciting way to go along my tarot path.
I find it increasingly hard to deal with clients who want to know what will happen in the future; these people lack confidence and faith, have doubts, feel insecure, need reassurance, have worries etc. – predicting the future will not help them, especially when they’re told they’ll be miserable – LOL!
Thank you also for posting a video of Osho, my hero. He was such a wise man; shame he succumbed to accumulating material wealth back in the 80s (look at the watch he’s wearing – Cartier I think…;-)) But he never lost his wisdom. Love the Osho Zen Tarot.
Best wishes,
Christiane
Hi Christiane, thank you for dropping by and sharing your experiences and thoughts
Reading Tarot cards for a living is really tough; it drains you mentally, emotionally and sometimes, spiritually. Part of the reason I set this blog up was to re-find my love of the Tarot; I’d lost it after a particularly intense six month period of giving non-stop readings. My love of the Tarot had become obscured by my experiences with the clients I was reading for.
This is similar to the approach I take. I’d rather give a client back their money than continue with someone that has unrealistic expectations. One way I found to combat this type of experience was to charge clients more money. I found that this helps them decide whether or not they want to have a reading by me; essentially, it helps them focus on what type of reading I offer, and whether or not they want to continue.
This is something that I’m enjoying through writing this blog. I can totally relate to the sense of satisfaction that teaching other people brings. Although I’ve taught people before, its never been an area that I’ve fully branched into, yet it’s certainly something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
Haha how true. A Buddhist was once asked, if through his long years of meditation, he could predict the future. He said, “yes”. He was then asked if he would predict their future; he said, “your life will be terrible, it will always be terrible”. When I reflect on his statement, I can’t help but think he’s right. Projecting desire into a future fantasy will not help anyone find happiness in the present.
Osho is a brilliant writer and teacher. I’ve been doing his Dynamic Meditation every day and can honestly say that I’m feeling better about stuff. I’m able to express my emotion without rationalising it’s consequences. In many ways, it’s down to this meditation that I’ve been able to find some balance again as a Tarot reader.
Thank you once again for sharing your experiences with us
All the best,
Doug
Hi Christiane,
I actually had to read this article twice. It definitely has me thinking. You have some very valid points. However, I think what’s really important to remember is that the client is always their own best counsel. I think the best readings are the ones where both parties (reader and querent) participate. I do not feel that there is anything wrong in asking a client to participate by including their own interpretations in a reading.
Best to you,
Carolyn
Tarot reader and Webmaster of http://tarotreadingpsychic.com