Help/Advice On "General Readings"

I hope I posted this in the right place. Sorry in advance if I didn't

I am TERRIBLE at general readings, seems it's always been a weakness for me since I started reading. I think I'm worse at general readings than I am at reading for myself (another really weak area for me)

It almost fears me to do them because I just can't "get my head around it" for some reason. When I post threads in the reading exchange forum I dread looking at the response to my asking "do you have a question/subject/etc" you'd like me to read about?

"No. A general reading is fine!" (not... really...)

I want to improve at doing them but as much as I practice and try, I end up disappointing myself and getting frustrated. What's wrong with me and how can I fix it? Has anyone else ever had this happen? Maybe not my same problem, but similar?

General readings used to be so overwhelming for me. I'd get so stressed over wondering what would happen if none of the cards seemed to "mesh" together or if the reading was all over the board in terms of subject matter, etc. I had all these fears in my head that I was going to be totally off the mark and make myself look like a fool.

I think the key for me was to throw the LWBs out the window and start listening to the cards. I think that being too narrow with card meanings can really add to the overwhelming sense that comes with a general reading, because what if none of it makes sense once you put it together? After I learned to be broader with my ideas of what each card could be and once I really understood how one card can change and modify the one next to it, general readings stopped being so scary.

Promise said:

General readings used to be so overwhelming for me. I'd get so stressed over wondering what would happen if none of the cards seemed to "mesh" together or if the reading was all over the board in terms of subject matter, etc. I had all these fears in my head that I was going to be totally off the mark and make myself look like a fool.

I think the key for me was to throw the LWBs out the window and start listening to the cards. I think that being too narrow with card meanings can really add to the overwhelming sense that comes with a general reading, because what if none of it makes sense once you put it together? After I learned to be broader with my ideas of what each card could be and once I really understood how one card can change and modify the one next to it, general readings stopped being so scary.

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How many cards do you pull for a general reading? I usually pull 2 because if I pull 3 I know I will look at it like a "PPF" and read it like one too. I have trouble with "general PPF's" too. A past/present/future reading about... what? I'm a mess... LOL

I sit there looking at the 2 cards I pull for a general reading and my head says:

"Train A is leaving the station at 1:45 pm. Train B leaves at 2:30 pm. Both are headed west......."

I usually pull three cards and read them as a story, not necessarily as a PPF. Many times it turns into a "now, then, later" type of thing for me, but I really just let the cards lead it.

I think the biggest hurdle in the beginning is finding what works for you. Every single reader is going to have a different style, a different routine, a different format. If PPF doesn't work for you, don't use it. Experiment with something else for a while, see if that works better for you. Try not using a spread at all and see where that takes you.

Play around with it and find what works best for you. And if you're exchanging and don't feel comfortable with doing a completely general reading, ask if they have a specific life area they'd like to focus on. Just because they don't have a really specific question doesn't mean that there isn't something they'd like to broadly focus on, like a relationship or a job or a financial situation.

Maybe if you do a three-card throw and look at the center card as the the current situation, that one will tell you what the reading is about. (Generally, if it's a cup, it could be about romance...a pentacle is about the physical plane, etc.) Then the first card may tell you what led up to the current situation and the third card will tell you where the situation is headed.

Another way to determine what the reading may be about (in my experience and for my way of reading) is to look at the base card of the deck after the shuffle and throw. That may signify the energy that the seeker is bringing to the reading table, which may enlighten you to what is uppermost on his/her mind.

The method of reading the three cards as a story is a good idea, too, and you will only know if it (or any other method) works well for you if you do it a number of times and get feedback from your seeker.

You can definitely do a general reading with 2 or 3 cards. You could do a mind/body/spirit general reading, as in where the client is at the present time or what they need to know/work on. Or you can just pull 2 or 3 cards and let the story unfold itself. Trust your intuition. Practice on yourself by just pulling a few cards each day and seeing what it tells you. Then let the day play itself out. If possible, keep the cards somewhere where you can go back to them, or write it down in a journal, and at the end of the day, see if it made any sense.

crystal09 said:

I want to improve at doing them but as much as I practice and try, I end up disappointing myself and getting frustrated. What's wrong with me and how can I fix it? Has anyone else ever had this happen? Maybe not my same problem, but similar?

Click to expand...

I do have an answer (which will raise the ire of one or two other readers in these parts).

Learn to do general readings live and face to face pro bono with strangers.

You’ll be forced to toss the LWB and your fav reference materials…

Don’t try to do 30 or 60 minute readings. Shoot for three cards, three minutes. Learn to be brief. Verbosity is for insurance salesmen.

Trust me here – it’ll change your life, and your skills.

What I usually do is even if I someone asks me for a general reading, I come up with a question, even though its a general question it still helps me figure out what it is I'm looking for, usually its things like "what is something important the quarent should know?", so that narrows things down a little bit.

Afterward.... at first I look at the cards together and try to figure out what the reading is about before I go through it card by card. I try to do this as intuitively as possible and just get what comes to me. That way you don't get stuck with something not fitting or having to change everything you thought because of one card.

Hope these suggestions help.

You could also just say, 'No general readings, please think of a question'.

I usually pull no more than 3 cards for a general reading, from which I usually get "the main theme" of the reading like: ok, this is about your career, love life, mental state, spirituality. The theme usually pops up from the cards. Then the card in the middle is my "mile stone" with which I start. The rest two cards are just "a flavor of the mile stone"..

Or I focus on Body-Mind-Spirit theme (one card for each area).
I also say to my querents that if they want to get more detailed reading, they should ask me a concrete question or give me an area of their life to focus on...