Optimistic readers... Or not. (AKA: Types of tarot readers.)

Following on from a comment I made in a different thread, I was curious to find out if you think there are different types of tarot readers out there? Not so much the method used or the cards or where a reader reads, but rather the outcome or final reading itself.

I often find that I rarely read anything too negative in my readings. There is some negativity but a lot of it would be advice or good news or some such.

Do you get optimistic and pessimistic readers? Does this affect the reading or the outcome of the reading?

I did have a moment where I questioned my ability to read the cards at all if I seem too "soft" or too happy-go-lucky as it were.

I think you get what you focus on and everyone wants good news, right? So it's logical to think that most readings will come out more or less optimistic... There're always people who freak out at the sight of certain cards and worry about them constantly even if they're not a big deal. I think that's the real issue.

(I'm optimistic, can you tell?)

You have to expect that there will be both good and bad news from the cards and be willing to tell it like it is with empathy and compassion. If you can't bear to see and relay the negative stuff, then maybe you need to examine whether or not you're ready to read for others.

There's nothing wrong with being "yippee Skippy" in your regular life. But people who come to you want to know what's going on and what to expect so they can be prepared for everything that comes, both negative or positive. If you sugar-coat or tell only the good stuff, then you're not offering them a service they can really make good use of in between visits to you.

When it comes to reading for people, I always try my best to give it to them straight. I try not to sugar coat anything to make them feel better, because, like Grizabella said, people who are there are coming to get an answer and are likely prepared for either good or bad (because otherwise, why would they really come to you in the first place?) The one thing I do, though, which I guess in a way can be seen as a tiny bit of sugar coating, is let them really know how they can grow from the situation. Bad things are bound to happen in life. That's just how things work. But the important thing is to know that you can still learn from it and grow from it, as opposed to letting it consume you.

On a side note, which I find weird about doing readings for myself, is that the cards I draw tend to reflect almost perfectly my mood. If I'm feeling optimistic or content, the cards I draw will almost always be something fairly decent (there might be some negative cards here or there but there will be a positive card at the end that gives a weird comfort to it all). And if I'm just feeling down in the dumps, I tend to get the darkest and most foreboding cards. Maybe it's because of my mood that I see things differently, I just always found it interesting, which is part of why I've pretty much ceased reading for myself.

People have all kinds of lives, positives and negatives. You can't change their cuircumstances or even their likely future outcomes by the force of your own personality, good or bad.

Instead of fretting about whether I am positive enough or not, I concern myself to give the message that is there, rather than jollying it up, warts and all. When problem-areas are identified, I also concern myself
(and the deck) to find possible ways to deal with those problems in such a way as to promote likely best-case outcomes.

Now, in some lives a best-case outcome may look pretty grin, but is infinitely preferable to the outcomes they may have had if they had not had a reading, had continued drifting aimlessly, and had taken no action at all.

Edited to add: I think the Hyppocratic Oath is just as relevant to readers as it is to medicine: it commences with the four most important words:

FIRST, DO NO HARM.

First, do no harm. I agree.

You have to understand, as a reader, that if you only tell them the good stuff when there's a storm brewing, they're going to walk right into the storm unprepared. You're not really doing them any favors to pretty it up and not tell them how it really is.

my readings, both giving and getting, are usually a mix of good and bad. i've only had one really happy reading given to me where everything was postive. if i had a reader who just gave me the goodnews for get about it, i would stop going because i want to know the bad stuff too.


however, i've only had one negative reading where it was really bad news like the end of the world kind of reading and what she did was let me pick a "cheerful deck" (the first deck was a rider deck) and then did a reading about what i could do to help myself through this dark period, so it really positive. it really helped since i wasn't leaving with all this gloom but some tools to cheer me up.

i use that some idea now if i give a reading to a friend or something that is bad news i make sure they have some hope at the end that they can find ways to manage it. but usually the cards are a mix and i just tell it like i see it in the cards. sometimes it's hard to tell a friend that something is coming that might hurt or w/e but then again, it's not me it's the cards telling it to them.

idk, just my two cents.

Me too, I tell it as it is and hope I channel the cards' messages satisfactorily. No bias whatsoever (hopefully), and it's never been a problem since the cards all know what to say - or what to have me vocalize. I gotta say, my deck has a lot more sense, knowledge, tact and a balance them all than I do.

Nope. No problem calling a turnip a turnip. Most sitters are too astonished Tarot really works for real to critique what I was actually saying anyway, even if I were reading the cards and chanting out messages of heartbreak and devastation that's been going on for a while. Sometimes, I feel so used to tarot cards revealing miraculous truths as expected, I forget it's still a novelty to new sitters.

Thanks for all the responses... (Albeit now wondering whether I'll ever get the hang of reading these cards....)

It's not so much I sugar coat them, it's just more of the fact that I rarely read truly negative things in the cards.

It would either be, "well you're in for a hard financial time but it's going to look up if..." or something along those lines. Optimistic rather in the reading itself and the meanings that come through instead of the happybunny readings...

I find my reading are sort of "counseling-ish".

Rarely do I flat out see a negative... this will happen sort of thing. More like "you need to change this NOW, or something negative will occur".

They tend to have lots of suggestions for people... actions, introspection, etc.