what Do You Do

For any of you that do readings by phone how do you do the reading?
I am asking because a friend had a reading today (in Sydney,Australia).

The reader appeared to be reluctant to tell what spread was used & of course
what cards. Is this a norm?

I do not do phones yet since I dont have a separate line for that yet. However, I know how I WOULD do if I did it!

First of all I prefer that the client can actually see the cards so I would do the spread before hand so we could discuss it. So by this the spread and cards is allready revealed. If I would take extra questions or do a "clean" reading from scratch I think it really would depend on what I would do. Because in general the clients are paying for a certain amount of time and if they are not interested in the cards but only the message they are telling - I do not see any reason for me to tell them, right? BUT, if they asked and was curious - OF COURSE I would tell them!

/Anna

what do you do

I frequently will ask for a question or theme we'll be addressing from a phone client when the appointment is requested, as I think it's more efficient to do a spread before the actual session begins, and sort of "hit the ground running" with the most pressing question.
Clients usually are pleased that they get this extra attention and I like stepping into the reading in a powerful way.

I would be cautious of a Reader who won't elaborate on the spread used or the cards that come up...I LOVE to explain the layout and the cards to a client, and some Readers who cold-read are, obviously, unable to explain the layout or cards because there aren't any!

Alternatively, this might be a Reader who is primarily an intuitive Reader, and feels pressured or judged by questions like this from a client.
If this Reader has been accurate and useful for this person in the past, I would assume it might be the latter.

This is just my opinion and experience!
Valentina

In phone readings, I don't generally talk much about the spread or what cards are drawn, for the same reason Bloudwedd mentions--they are paying by the minute, and in my experience most querents simply aren't interested. But if they ask, of course I would be delighted to tell them.

The only reasons I can think of for being reluctant to give this information are that the reader wasn't actually using cards, or because she wasn't confident of her skills as a reader, and being asked about may have been an indication that your friend was familiar with the Tarot, which I've heard is intimidating to some readers.

Almost all of my readings are over the phone. Seldom does anyone ever ask me about the spread or the cards, but if they did, I'd give them all the info they needed.

What DOES happen a lot, is I'll see a card that just nails the reading in a kind of short hand form. Once I was reading for a woman who was having trouble with a female co-worker. In the spread they came up as the Q of P and the Q of C -- they looked like twin sisters and it was very clear to me that she needed to think about putting out the the effort to fix the situation at hand, rather than quit the job, for example.

Anyway, I put the two cards in my scanner and sent them to the client -- I hoped that she would see what I saw -- more things similar than not, between these two women.

Since then, I've done that a lot. My clients love it.

I don't do phone readings at the mo.....but if I did, I would ask the client if they would like an explaination of the cards first....if not then just go straight to the reading....

That way the client has the say in how much they wish to pay if the phone line is a premium one.

However, to do phone readings from my website, when I start that, the client will pay by Paypal as usual, and then ring me on a 'normal rate' line, where cost won't come into it so much.

Ang x

Many thanks for your insights.
After reading them and talking to the friend, it turns out that the reader's way
fits into much of what you expressed.Also I understand that the reading made her happy enough to consider seeing her again. :
Blessings
GMB !:

I just did a phone reading and I did everything I normally do for a face-to-face, except I called out the cards and described the bits that were applicable to her reading. It worked out really well.

She initially stood me up on an appointment at my office, so a phone reading was more comfortable for her.

I would love to do more.

valeria

I'd tell them the cards, describe what they look like.

But how do I describe the spread, “I’m using the 64 Galaxy 500 big trunk o’ fun spread”.

Like the guy on the other side of the phone is going to know what a ‘Seven Card Horseshoe’ spread is? I’ll talk about the positions sure.

However if the reader won’t talk about the cards – chances are – they’re reading from a script.

I ask people if they want to know the cards, and if they do, I'll tell them. I've had a couple of people who were readers themselves who didn't want to know, because they'd already read themselves crazy and were afraid they'd try to re-interpret the reading.

And there are some people who don't read who have no interest in the cards. But most do, and I'm not averse to mentioning them, or even e-mailing them a scan afterwards. I don't like to spend loads of time on card descriptions during a reading though - if something on a card is really standing out for me I'll describe it, but I've had phone readings myself where someone's spent way too long telling me every detail of every card - it can also be overdone by people who don't know how to read.

If in doubt - ask - it'll only take you ten seconds.