When Tarot Readers Get . . . Scary

MistressNatasha

This is just a fun post meant for laughs! Don't take offense. =] <3

Being a Tarot Reader, you and I both know that a lot of people have this Hollywood-like vision of Tarot and Readers. The average person, when hearing about Tarot (and Readers), will picture something mysteriously scary. We know that not all Readers are scary!

Here is my idea of a scary Tarot Reader:

An older lady with graying hair which is concealed under a hat of some-sort. There's a circular table on which she readers and it has a crystal ball, between 10-20 candles, and the table is covered in an old, dusty, purple cloth with tassels on the end. She's wearing, in addiction to the hat, a overly large dress or gown, which is maybe yellow or green with multiple patches and tears. She has a violet-colored sash around her waist that has pictures of the moon, sun, and stars. Her skin is too wrinkly for her age, and she has multiple moles and warts. She has gray eyes hidden behind half-moon-like spectacles. Her teeth are discolored, chipped, and missing.

*Shudders* Now, I don't look like that (or maybe I do but I'm hiding it from you) and I'm sure almost all of you don't look like that. To me, that's when Readers get scary. But, on top of that, there are things readers do that can be pretty frightening:
- Cackling after extremely bad news or extremely good news.
- Cackling. Period.
- Claiming to be a four-hundredth generation psychic tarot reader who has been reading since he/she was three, claims to know all, and says he/she has lunch with God the second Thursday of every month so they can catch up and then they go bowling.
- Believes 100% that they're correct and tries to shove it down you're throat, getting so worked up over it that it frightens you because they swear their life on it. ._.
- When they name their deck, talk to it, and actually hold a conversation as if it's normal to talk to a deck of 78 cards. It's almost like a person hearing voices in their head (no, not Clairaudients because I'm one XD) and talk back and the voice ends up telling them to go kill people and jump off a bridge. O_O

Those are just a few. XD So, now I ask you:

What is your idea of a scary Reader; both physically and by their do-ings?

Remember, this is just for fun . . . even though there are the scary Readers out there. *Shudders* =] Also, if you have met one of these scary Readers, please feel free to share! XD
 

SkadisPhoenix

It might not be what you're thinking about, but I think I unnerved a friend of mine recently. We work together as well as being friends (met through work technically, though now realise that we had a number of friends in common beforehand. :p).

However, after a work meal, we both went out, had a few drinks, got talking about tarot. I don't go anywhere without a deck of cards, and he asked me to explain how they work. So I did an example reading, just thinking about what would be the best way to show him what tarot is about. He got slightly freaked out about the accuracy. However, bravely, he asked for another one, this time about him and a girl he may have had a chance with, and what COULD still happen, what happened in the past etc. Again, he was freaked out by the accuracy (and this was with more than my fair share of drinks in me. I was quite pleased, I'd not attempted doing a reading after drinking. :p). So he decided, third time lucky, asked me about a mutual friends relationship, and I read cheating or suspected cheating. My poor friend decided he needed another drink at that point, because our friend HAD been cheated on, and he'd only just found out.

And I'm just me, brown hair, glasses, overweight... Nothing special about me really, I'm still amused by how freaked out he was! ;)
 

MistressNatasha

Hahaha!

Not exactly along the lines of what I was going for, but hilarious none-the-less!

I actually took friends out last Wednesday to Starbucks. I just got my own car and so I picked up three of my closest friends. I brought my Tarot cards and did a reading for each of them. It was pretty funny! I would say something and I'd look up from the cards. The querent would be staring at me, jaw wide open, and the other two wide-eyed, staring. And the querent would be like "Y-yeah, that's . . . right. [Enter Pause Here] How the HELL did you get that?" XD Yes, people stared at us, but it was fun.

We want to make every Tuesday a Tarot Tuesday. But we couldn't do it this week due to a school project. Hmm . . . maybe I could convince them to give me gas money in exchange for a reading. XD

Anyone else have anything to add to my initial post? =]
 

allecto

For scary-reader cliché, I thought that the episode of the Simpsons where the fortune-teller foretold Lisa getting engaged to the up-tight English guy ticked most of the boxes.
Definitely anything involving cobwebs, pointy hats, cackling and foretelling awful things.

This wasn't a scary-reader experience (I haven't had that happen) but I had a reading at a local markets a while ago and the reader had all the key-words for the RWS written in the white boarder around the cards and just basically recited them. I guess it would be difficult doing a lot of readings for strangers and you'd have to switch off to a degree so as not to end up totally drained, but I was quite disappointed by the lack of engagement that I felt from her.
 

214red

lol i am scared by alot of readers, often their tables are filled with mystical stuff that makes me want to run away!

sometiems reading i feel like a fraud as i dont have the paraphenalia associated with it, people are surprised i dont fish out a turban from my bag like mystic meg
 

nisaba

MistressNatasha said:
What is your idea of a scary Reader; both physically and by their do-ings?
A reader who can look like anything and do anything, but insists after knowing me a whole two minutes, that they know what I'm like and what my life is about better than I do, who has spent 48 or 49 years in close proximity with me, and some of that time almost even thoughtfully. Oh, and whose derivations of great knowledge of my life derives from her cards (usually Rider-Waite or Doreen Virtue), and whose discussions about the cards bear no relations to anything remotely resembling meanings of the cards.

<sigh>

Oh, and don't you hate *clients'* expectations? I feel *really* put out that I'm seen as an appropriate Tarot Reader only when I'm wearing tie-dyed tee-shirts or purple scarves above black pants, but when I'm in a new Aussie-animals tee-shirt, clean new bluejeans and runners I'm obviously not? GRRR!
 

MistressNatasha

Yikes!

allecto said:
Definitely anything involving cobwebs, pointy hats, cackling and foretelling awful things.

Maybe add bubbling cauldrons and old brooms that spiders are crawling over. XD

214red said:
people are surprised i dont fish out a turban from my bag like mystic meg

Hahaha! I will have to try that some time! Ehh . . . or I'll just do a reading after I wash my hair; same effect. XD

nisaba said:
A reader who can look like anything and do anything, but insists after knowing me a whole two minutes, that they know what I'm like and what my life is about better than I do, who has spent 48 or 49 years in close proximity with me, and some of that time almost even thoughtfully. Oh, and whose derivations of great knowledge of my life derives from her cards (usually Rider-Waite or Doreen Virtue), and whose discussions about the cards bear no relations to anything remotely resembling meanings of the cards.

That would be the know-it-all reader that knows you better than you know yourself. O_O Honestly, it seems a little stalker-ish! o.o

nisaba said:
Oh, and don't you hate *clients'* expectations? I feel *really* put out that I'm seen as an appropriate Tarot Reader only when I'm wearing tie-dyed tee-shirts or purple scarves above black pants, but when I'm in a new Aussie-animals tee-shirt, clean new bluejeans and runners I'm obviously not? GRRR!

And, yet, as creepy as we find know-it-all readers, it seems like clients expect that from us, too. When people start asking for specific dates, I just end up saying "This, I don't know." Occasionally if it's within a month, I'll try to look around the card for something that might stick out. But, that rarely happens. That's when I say "Remember the whole time thing I was talking about? You should have taken advantage of that and put a time limit on it like a month or even a week." =\

I've had people ask me about names, places, dates, time, etc. And, most of the time, I just don't know! Then they get upset and go on saying I should know and I should know everything about the situation. Oh, really? My bad. I thought I was a Tarot Reader, not a stalker. O_O Honestly, I tell the querent that the more information they give me about the situation (if the question/spread is focussed on one), then the more I can give back in the reading. Sometimes I read for people who tell me nothing, and sometimes for people who spend an hour discussing it. But, really? I wouldn't want to be a know-it-all! That's just creepy! o.o
 

Grizabella

I know this is just for fun, but I felt a little bit bad about this and I'll show you why:

An older lady with graying hair which is concealed under a hat of some-sort.

Yep, that's me. I wear a hat when I go somewhere because I take a couple of medications that cause me to have to stay out of the sun.

[QUOTE She's wearing, in addiction to the hat, a overly large dress or gown, which is maybe yellow or green with multiple patches and tears.[/QUOTE]

Well, I don't wear patches usually but I do have tears sometimes, except I do sew them up. Guilty of the overly large dress or gown---I'm overweight and lumpy and bumpy in all the wrong places and "overly large" conceals a lot of sins and is just plain comfy.

She has a violet-colored sash around her waist that has pictures of the moon, sun, and stars.

But I LIKE sashes with moons, suns and stars! :rolleyes: :D

[QUOTEHer skin is too wrinkly for her age, and she has multiple moles and warts. [/QUOTE]

Escaped the moles and warts so far, at least on my face. But prednisone weakens my immune system and I do get those things, I'm very sad to say. And hey---when you're over 60 and can't afford plastic surgery, you do get shrivelled.

She has gray eyes hidden behind half-moon-like spectacles.

What's wrong with grey eyes? But I have brown ones so I guess that's okay, huh? No half moon spectacles but how about ones with bread tie wires holding them together at the outside corners? I can't afford new glasses and don't have insurance to cover any.

Her teeth are discolored, chipped, and missing.

Yep, because I can't afford dental work and my health insurance doesn't cover that, either. I went through a lot of years of abuse that caused fractures of my teeth and then prednisone sapped calcium from my teeth and bones, so here I am in all my scary glory.

I know you didn't mean this to be hurtful so I don't hold hard feelings. I know when you're young, you take a lot of things for granted and just don't understand that not everything old, imperfect and ugly on the outside is bad and scary on the inside. Maybe there are other people here like me, though, who felt a little twinge of sadness about this post.
 

gregory

I would leap on on your side, Griz - had you not recently posted a pic of yourself. You do NOT look like that - and I can actually imagine the kind of person MistressNatasha means here. I am not aware of anyone here who fits. (Though I do know someone who does.... and she also has a beard... :bugeyed:)

Not even me - hazel eyes, yes, but scruffy as all get out, grey haired, overweight and positively evil looking.

And with a whacking great solar keratosis on my face which even scares my own grandchildren :D (though not since I was able to convince them that it doesn't hurt at all...)

Wrinkles ? Don't get me started !!! I have wrinkles on my wrinkles. And I don't CARE. Of course - I never read f2f, so none of my sitters who has not been unfortunate enough to meet me in person is aware of all this...
 

Grizabella

You didn't see me smiling face on, gregory. I try not to smile or laugh anymore around anyone but my family. I have one front tooth and most of my back ones missing, which I'm very self-conscious and even sad about, but I've been getting a crash course for the past quite a lot of years in how vain I once was in this aging and illness, so I choose to consider it an exercise in self-improvement. It's been hard because my abuse all my life made me feel that my worth was solely in how I looked. Not having that anymore has made me feel like a piece of trash not worth taking up space and breathing air. But AT has helped me to feel so much better and within the last six months, I made up my mind to just get out of my house and live whatever life is left to me. I used to be so full of fun and laughter and energy and ambition and I want to just be that again. Life is truly too short to let anything hold us back.