Unhappy reading for a friend...

I don't mean this in the sense that he was unhappy with the readings of the cards. I mean this in the sense that the whole reading was horrible. His attitude towards it.

We have coffee together every week, so he came over and I pulled out my cards and he acted interested in them. But then when I started to do a reading on him, he was quite aggravating.

This is how I set up the reading. I told him that I couldn't really interpret the cards into his life. I was only going to tell him what the card's position meant (i.e. meanings for each card in CC) and then tell him the meanings of the card.

We did do a reading on his cruise that he's going on next month. Then when I would tell him the meanings of a card that was drawn, he would interrupt and say, "Oh well that applies to..." some other aspect of his life. Then he would complain about how he didn't see how it fit into his life.

Even when I did a 3 card spread on his relationship, he then applied the cards to him buying a house.

It was just aggravating. I guess I look at the cards seriously and he wasn't really interested in trying to apply the meanings to his life in the way that they were positioned.

Did I do something wrong on my part?

Hi typhoonikan. No you did nothing wrong. Some people are just use to hearing what they want to hear. Which to me makes no point. Maybe he knew that you were right but did not want to admit what you were telling him. The most important thing is that you connected and felt your cards speaking to you, other than that nothing matters. You will sump into people like that. You just keep doing what you are doing.

I mean, I find it hard or impossible to look into anything and say, for example, "Oh, V of Cups. You're going to regret going on a cruise."

As opposed to "In the 'near future' position, I see the V of Cups which is a card that suggests regret or resentment"

I only read what the cards meant in regards to their position.
Is that incorrect of me? Maybe its just my novice reading skills.

You are only following you intuition, We have different ways of reading our cards, just as chefs have different way of cooking. So what feels right,

Nothing wrong in what you were trying to do, you just had a cranky "client" who really didn't want you reading the cards for him anyway.

It is always easy when you just read what is there. And sometimes energy does not like to be set in specific places. Tarot readings have a flow about them. So when you read, just read the flow of what is in front of you.
Allow the sitter to put the pieces together - no one knows a sitter's life better than a sitter, after all.

Well, you could have just folded the cards up and handed to him and then said, "Wow, you're really good at this! Do a reading for me, now! " in good humor.

Seriously, balenciaga is right that nobody knows a sitter's life better than the sitter. A reading is actually a dialogue between you and the sitter sometimes. If the sitter wants to take an active part, that's okay. It's whatever service you can provide for them that counts and if they want to take part, let them. It's frustrating to have everything you tell them denied and argued about but that's just our big ego grumbling. Maybe he needed to talk and have someone listen to him. Or maybe he wanted to deflect you from knowing you'd seen things in the cards he didn't want to admit you saw. You'll probably never know but what matters the most was that he wanted a reading and you gave him a reading to the best of your ability, which is what you were supposed to do. Good job!

I agree with Balenciaga and Grizabella - I know sometimes when cards are drawn for friends, especially if they are new to tarot, even though we are focusing on a particular question or situation (if it's not a general reading) - they will often input and add to where the card might apply.

Most of the time, I try to gently and very, very carefully guide them back to the fact that we asked on this specific question and why it might fit into this situation a little better, but as stated before - they know their lives!

And I believe that we as tarot readers are channels for the Greater Good and a different message might be delivered than what we interpret. I keep thinking that the cards "Tell us what we need to hear."

Maybe he needed to think that the cards fit for his house-buying decision, haha?

Maybe your friend should buy a tarot deck for him/herself...
Honestly!

John

Your friends sounds like he is suffering from the common backseat driver mentality of thinking he knows best and has to control what is going on. I too agree that he needs to pick up his own deck.