I’ve experienced Tarot reader burnout several times in my career, and I’ve got to tell you, it’s not fun. At its worst, I’ve looked a client straight in the eyes, reached for my coat, and headed on out the door.
Tarot reader burnout can happen to anyone; whether you’ve been studying the Tarot intensely, or whether you’re a professional Tarot reader, it doesn’t matter. It can affect anyone, at anytime.
If this is left unnoticed, it can take months before you’re able to look at a Tarot spread with any kind of interest.
The longer it has a grip on you, the harder it is to rejuvenate your passion for Tarot. Below are the 7 early warning signs of Tarot reader burnout.
1. Spontaneous fatigue that occurs during a Tarot reading
Have you ever been in the middle of a Tarot reading and everything is going great? I mean, really, really great?
You’ve been reading for over 30 minutes, the client and you have connected very well, you’re enjoying the process and then all of a sudden, you feel completely fatigued? You simply have no energy left.
This is a classic early warning sign that you need to take a break.
As soon is this happens, adjust your plans in order to allow yourself a short holiday from the Tarot.
If you’re aware of this as soon as it happens, then a couple of days off usually does the trick. However, if this has been occurring with greater frequency in a short period of time, try to take a longer break.
2. Illness
Do you notice that you are feeling worn out, run down, sore throat, headaches or upset stomach? This could be, if other signs point to it, that you’re profoundly in need of a break. Tarot readings, or Tarot study, can be draining and any symptoms of illness should be acted upon immediately. Your body is very wise, and we should try to listen to that wisdom.
3. Irritation
If you notice yourself feeling uncharacteristically irritated when clients ask questions, or when they act in a difficult manner, this could be a sign of the “burnout” to come. This doesn’t always just contain itself to situations involving the Tarot. This can easily spill over into other areas of your life. Like most things, when one aspect is not in harmony with the rest, it tends to have a knock on effect, and before long, all areas of your life are affected.
4. Difficulty with motivation
If you’ve scheduled three clients for the day, but find yourself reaching for the phone to cancel, then you know that you’re well on the way to burning out.
A lack of motivation is a very real sign that things are wrong. If financial circumstances allow, the best thing you can do for yourself is to take a break. If that’s not possible, I would recommend you try to work for a short period of time – secure the required finances, and then take a break.
5. Problems sleeping
This can happen in such a way that it’s very difficult to make a connection between burning out and a change in sleeping patterns.
A change in sleeping patterns can be caused by many different factors; stress at home, problems with relationships and financial considerations. These are all things that can indirectly affect your ability to sleep.
Whatever the reason for the difficulty in sleeping, this will always, if it lasts long enough, affect your motivation to read Tarot cards. By taking steps to ensure good quality and regular sleep, you will be combating Tarot reader “burnout” before it takes a firm hold of you.
6. Concentration problems
This is another early warning sign that can be caused by something outside of the Tarot and it doesn’t really matter if it was caused by the Tarot or something else, because the inability to concentrate will very quickly take a toll on your experience of life, and your ability to provide quality Tarot readings. In a sense, difficulty sleeping, feeling fatigue and concentration problems will quickly create a snowball effect that will leave you burned out.
The best solution is to tackle certain “lifestyle” choices. You may be able to alter them enough to start counteracting those early warning signs.
7. A complete loss of interest in Tarot readings
This is usually caused by more than one of the previous warning signs affecting your day to day life.
Rejuvenating your interest in the Tarot is possible, but it usually requires an honest assessment of your current lifestyle. By ensuring adequate sleep and rest; by paying attention to your current diet; by taking time to have fun with your close circle of friends and family; by spending quality time with your partner; by allowing yourself to spend time doing whatever it is that interests you; all of these things can completely reverse any possibility of a burnout.
Prevention is better than cure, and for all of these warning signs, the best prevention is to take a short break away from the Tarot.
The above list is by no means exhaustive. What have I forgotten to add? What have I missed out that absolutely must be included? Have you ever experienced Tarot reader burnout? Did you agree or disagree with me? I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences. I’ll see you in the comments 
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28 comments… Let's discuss
This is a great “advice column” for readers- you can burnout in anything but sometimes can’t find ways to get out.
I’m always pumped after taking a walk in the evening- it’s very clearing especially with all the trees and beautiful yards here.
If it has more to do with tarot itself, changing things up can help. Break out a deck you haven’t used/liked in a while, find a new spread or reading system.
Hi Svetlana,
Thanks for dropping by
That’s a really cool point. After I got my dog, and started taking him for long walks, I started to notice a new found clarity.
Agreed – changing decks, spreads or reading systems can create a challenge. Sometimes, a challenge is all we need to start feeling reconnected.
Very important article, Douglas. Pacing yourself is important and yes, time off the tarot is a necessity.
Hi Theresa,
Perhaps because I had some ridiculous notion of “everything is cool with me Jimmy” I never took the required steps to offset the burnout. I’m sure it’s a Scottish thing – ignore it and the problem goes away
Having said all that, I’ve learned the hard way that you have to pay attention to any signs that something is wrong, and, “…pace yourself”.
Thank you for your comment
Hi Doug – I’ve had a couple of Crises of Faith with my Tarot over the years – mainly due to being too stressed by other things going on in the background rather than by too much reading.
If your heart sinks instead of sings – time for a break
If you look at a card and have nothing to say – time for a break
Good posting.
Best
AX
Hi Alison,
Thanks for dropping by
Awesome! Couldn’t put it better myself.
It’s odd, but I get all those feelings when I haven’t read for a while. I read primarily at events so go for periods not reading at all, then doing 10+ in a day. Sometimes I feel a reluctance to start and almost hope I won’t get any clients, but as soon as someone is in front of me and the reading is underway, I just get a terrific buzz. Any tiredness and lack of energy is usually due to genuine exhaustion from working hard and some emergency chocolate usually helps with that
Hi Gwiazda,
Thanks for stopping by
It’s interesting that you get those feelings when you haven’t read for a while. I tend to be the opposite – perhaps this is something that everyone experiences completely differently?
Haha awesome! I’m gonna try it
Hmmmm…yes burnout can occur in anything but I can equate tarot with therapy…and as a therapist one can burn out from dealing with the intense feelings associated with a session….same with tarot….there’s a lot of “stuff”….I used to say that sometimes I felt like a “sin eater”….and no one wants to eat the sins of the sin eater….in other words people want a therapist or someone to guide them etc…but often people in those professions or “roles” have few others to “be there” for them…so yes take a break from tarot (or oracles…lol) BUT also look for ways to build up your own support network…to destress…as needed.
Hi Ginger,
Great comment!
The link you’ve made between Tarot and therapy is very interesting. I remember reading (at least I think I did) that Counsellors in the UK, as part of their practice, must make time to schedule an appointment with another Counsellor. This is a safe guard put in place to help them manage some of the difficult emotions that their job inevitably brings up.
Good point!
I guess I’m one of the lucky ones. Though I’ve not really had burn out, I have had the odd experience of arguing with my deck. Of course, it’s always right, but confidence, (or lack thereof), often seems to get in the way of acceptance. This is especially true if I’m doing conversive cuts.
Ask, shuffle, cut three or four times using subject/predicate keyword variance to form an answer, then call the deck stupid. Heh…in reality just calling the self names.
Another time, while using the Voyager deck, (which is really only good as a pictoral key…IMO), I was trying to write a short story about a summer relationship on the beach. About six hours into it I had come to the conclusion that on September 27th, there would be an earthquake that would cause a tsunami somewhere in the Arabian Sea. I promptly ran to the restroom, vomited, and passed out for about twelve hours. I should have taken a break in the middle of the reading but couldn’t tear myself away from the cards. If I had I might have gotten the timeline and location correct.
I too, have found that vigorous exercise helps us to more easily connect with the cards. Definitely make sure that you are getting enough sleep and doing some alternative reading as well. The worst thing I think we could do is try and rush the answer in an uncomfortable situation.
Another great post.
Love and light,
Bul
Hi Bul,
Thanks for this awesome comment
LOL I think I may have had similar experiences.
The experience you had with the Voyager deck is intense – really intense. It’s interesting that you feel taking a break might of helped get the time line and location correct. However, just through reading the description of what happened, I think that would take enormous self discipline.
However, experience does seem to tell us two things. One, how we could have handled something differently and two, by providing us with a challenge or a call to greater self discipline.
It’s interesting the way excercise can play such a vital role in every area of our lives. I suspect though, it’s the first thing that people stop when times get tough, and yet it is the one thing they need to keep doing in order to maintain a sense of balance.
I agree with you – rushing an answer in an uncomfortable situation is not going to help matters.
Great comment
During my first few days of studying tarot, I slightly felt exhausted… maybe because I started thinking of possibilities from the meanings of the cards and my mind was everywhere. And then some cards entered my dream… which woke me up every time.
Then I just realized that I’m starting to obsess with my new interest. It started when I made a nine card spread just to test it…. and while I was able to interpret it with my own understanding, it overwhelmed me. So after that, I slowed down a bit. But I’m still doing daily reads to keep me motivated.
Hi AJ,
Sounds like you’ve got a strong connection to the cards. Did you write those dreams down? If not, sketch down what you remember – years from now, that will come in useful.
I remember Jung writing that most people have a couple of powerful dreams around the age of 4/8 yrs old. He claimed that those dreams indicated what our life would become; or be about. In a similar way, having dreams when you first start a spiritual practice can signify what that practice will become. In a sense, those dreams indicate an initiation (a beginning)!
Exhaustion would be part of that initiation process.
Keep pacing yourself and you’ll develop your abilities in a very natural way
Thanks for the tip Doug. I think I should put a notebook and pencil nearby from now on. I jotted my dreams before but ever since I got busy, I forgot to update them. I should start anew I guess.
I know this is a bit “off topic” …lol…..but several years ago when I was trying to do some dream work….it was suggested that you put this slip of paper under your pillow with some little saying on it about remembering your dreams…and you were to read it several times before going to bed and then slip it under your pillow….The first night I did it I was awake ALL night long…not really thinking or anything just tossing and turning and unable to go to sleep….someone suggested that subconsciously I didn’t want to remember my dreams or perhaps feared what they might “tell” me…IDK…but I found it a rather interesting experience,.
Hi Ginger,
Interesting question. I would need to know more about this situation in order to answer it with any confidence. However, if this only happened once then I think it’s far too early to make those types of assumptions. It takes time for the unconscious to know what we’re asking of it and doing it once, in theory, shouldn’t make a difference.
On the other hand, it is possible that some type of resistance to remembering dreams is present, but I think you may be able to determine this from other similar events? It would be unlikely, if such a resistance is present, to manifest itself to only one specific time.
Nightmares can be terrifying but it is possible to tackle these nightmares and transform them (and thus yourself) into something understandable.
Hi,
I have a question to ask wether u know how to answer me or not…
I had played tarots before, and took it seriously … but not too seriously. And i did reading on myself and it seems that what i predict to happen, or want to happen comes true, but then it is not the reality,
i think that i might have wanted something so much that i made the tarot cards to follow what im thinking, and not really giving me the real answer. what do u think might have happened?
thanks
Hi Maz,
Thanks for dropping by
Do you mean that you made a prediction that did not come true?
Everyone is biased to one degree or another. When you’re reading the cards for yourself, it’s even more important to try and remain objective and detached. When we are objective and detached, we are less likely to interpret the cards in accordance with our wishes, and are more likely to read them accurately.
It’s possible that you were very keen for something to happen – that you didn’t allow yourself to open up to all the possible meanings.
Hope this helps
It’s funny I have never suffered from this even when I was studying tarot intensely I use to put in three hours or so a day for about three and half years. I guess I’m just lucky. I’ve certainly never experienced it reading for others, I get a great sense of enjoyment and satisfaction out of reading for others and helping them to see what alternatives exists… nope no burn out for me, not yet anyway LOL
Hi Helen,
That’s awesome! I want your secret
Maybe you’ve hit on something that I’ve long suspected. It is really important to keep that sense of enjoyment and satisfaction alive. Perhaps that’s the best cure (or should I say prevention) of them all.
Thanks for sharing
Hi Douglas,
Yes , thanks so much. I think I see it now. My emotions affected the tarot cards and it shows what I wanted to see, not how it Could become.
I guess You are right about being detached and emotionless and remain objective when tarot-ing.
Thanks
It is so nice to see this really exists!
I had it badly for years, but mine came about from reading something horrible for a friend, and it HAPPENED. We had both laughed it off, and said it couldn’t possibly happen, and I must have been tired, or made a mistake! Lo and behold, I lost a very good friend from it, and swore I would leave the cards lie….Well a new friend bugged me for the last couple of days to do hers, and I tried and tried to talk her out of it, and warn her, etc. Even telling her what happened to my other friend.
She woke me up this morning, came over, and puppydog eyed me into it. She asked 3 questions, all 3 done in the “Cross” pattern and the last one, the synthesis made no sense to either of us (the Knave of pentacles, for news brought by a young boy?), so once again I wrote it off. Then we went for a walk, and we met someone who was pregnant with her boyfriend’s son!!!!!!!!
After all that time being afraid, and or burned out it was such an affirmation that the cards NEVER lie, and you CAN get burn out.
In conclusion, I think fear may also contribute to this list Everything else is bang on….That is why I have always tried to limit my client’s answers to 3, with a good rest afterwards. Worked for me.
P.S. Does anyone out there know what you have to do to hang your sign out in the State of New York?. I worked in CT…I am now back and I missed it!
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for sharing your experiences
What you’ve described sounds horrific, and I can fully understand why you didn’t want to look at the cards after experiencing such an event.
I would never have thought of that, but I think you’re right. Fear, despite its obvious associations to a “draining and unpleasant emotion – a reaction to “event” stimuli”, is also used in certain Shamanic practices to produce altered states of consciousness.
In some senses, the fear that you’ve been experiencing as a result of “the cards NEVER lie”, has not only produced burnout, but its possibly opened you up to more psychic impressions.
I’m not sure what the situation is in New York, but I’m sure someone else could help
I think I’m burnt out for sure! I’ve had holiday after holiday, and it’s not helping. I’ve been reading professionally for ten years, and for three years it’s been my full time job. I constantly hover between doubting my abilities and feeling like there’s literally nothing else I’m capable of doing, as I now feel too detached from the “mundane” business world to work there.
Debts are preventing me from giving up reading as they’re a constant pressure (which I know doesn’t sound at all spiritual!), plus each time I make moves to stop, clients are devastated, and I feel I can’t let them down. I feel pressure to keep going and going, and pressure of readings to the point of vomitting before my day’s work begins, and as you mentioned before, not being able to sleep! I dread it so much. Weirdly, I read best in that state!! as I’m so exhausted I’m beyond thinking.
I’m sorry for spreading this very negative tone, but I just feel I’m on a treadmill I can’t get off. I need an alternative to readings … having built up the business skills to a degree that I think if I only had a new way of presenting help to people, I’d be good! Though I’ve had some memorable and incredible successes, I think it’s the doubt of being a psychic “on demand”, the daily self-doubt … knowing I get things wrong and worrying about it, worrying how that effects clients’ lives, knowing that they are making HUGE decisions based on what I’m saying, that all hurts me most.
If I could take that away from the readings …. perhaps getting people to choose their own cards? … I’d be happy, maybe. I’m looking for an alternative way to still help people, but to “read themselves”, with my guidance and help. Any thoughts on methods?
Hi K,
I can certainly relate to how you’re feeling.
Looking back on it now, I think it happened to me for two key reasons. The first is that the joy of reading Tarot cards went, and the second was having constant doubts (and still do) about being a psychic “on demand”
Doing Tarot readings out of necessity instantly removes any enjoyment from the process and creates its own blocks. There’s no easy solution to it. If you can push through this then you may find some level of joy coming back into it.
Grounding techniques helped me. Perhaps they would help you as well?
A variation of the white light grounding technique is to do it in the shower.
A) Because you’re already in there and not having to do anything separate or special for it.
B) Because it’s easy to visualise washing all that crap (troubles, psychic debris) away.
Then proceed to ground yourself in white light, while you’re still in the shower.
Katrina Wynne has successfully developed a reading style and technique that is based on what you would like to do – that allows the client to read with you. I recommend checking out her articles, and perhaps contacting her for assistance with this.
I wish you all the best and please let me know how you get on
P.S: this is an awesome site!
Thank you!
Hi K,
Thank you for your kind words
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