Reading Environment

How do you set up the space in which you're doing the reading for other people? Candles? incense? etc? I'm also curious on good scents to use.

That is a good question!

We've had a couple of threads on how we set up our personal space
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=116019

but I don't know that this has been covered in any depth other than some posts in Professional tarot forum.

I'd think simple is better but if I had a dedicated space I'd probably end up with something more than a table and 2 chairs

thanks aj

thanks for that link AJ! it was interesting and helpful to see that link of everyone's spaces! hopefully others respond about candle scents as well, i'm wondering if there are scents that really help. In my search through the forums, i saw cinnamon mentioned a few times.

rethinking about the scents. So MANY people these days have bad reactions to scents, I think if it wasn't your own home that is the one thing Not to have. ?

I don't use scents. Reading for others has been at renfairs or SCA events; either place candles aren't a good idea, though I sometimes have an unlit one for decoration. I do use a tablecloth, sometimes with a scarf over it, a little copper cauldron, a few small bags of stones (which serve as paperweights in a pinch), a couple little sand-filled critters (ditto). And a selection of decks (usually 3) and my runesticks. Oh, and two colored glass balls in their stands.

Depends where I'm working. Currently I'm reading out of a cafe: table number 1 near the kitchen is my usual perch, and if a customer has nabbed it (happens only occasionally) I'll go for number five under the big mirror. I prefer table 1 - sitting there, I can be seen from outside the cafe.

1) I blutack my laminated signs up: one on the outside cafe wall on the street, one on the inside-outside cafe wall inside the shopping centre, and one right next to the main cafe door.

2) I move the condiments, menu etc away, and cover the table first with a deep-blue sarong, then over that with a translucent white gossamer-ish thing with little gold stars on it. The combined effect is lovely.

3) I open up the selection of decks I bring (between four and seven decks, depending on impulse, although I make sure I always have at least one historical deck), make sure they are all showing the same Major Arcana card on top and that it's the next one along from last time I worked (except for 13 and 15, which I tend to skip for some reason!), and line them up facing the client's seat.

4) To my right I put my large hourglass which runs only half an hour, my "Wisdom of the Australian Animals" oracle deck (used only occasionally to round off a reading at the end) and my rutilated quartz-on-wool pendulum (not used a whole lot more). I don't use these last two every session or, probably even every week, but my setup is incomplete without them, and there are definitely readings when I'll need them and the reading will not go as well as it could without them.

5) I get the very lovely Sharon to make me a coffee, which I sit on for at least an hour (well ... no, I don't sit on it - coffee leaves nasty stains in fabric!). I also find that if I bring in to read a book that I'm completely engrossed in and really *want* to read, I get more readings than if I'm just filling in time, so I usually have something well worth reading on me.

And that's my setup! Takes me about ten minutes to get set up and to pull it down again, when I'm not dawdling, and it turns the table from an anonymous cafe table into a corner of the world where I manage the appearance and the energy as surely as if it were a separate room in my home or my office. That setup allows me to "own" the space.

When I'm just pulling cards away from "work", I'll just pull cards. No setup. My decks are always ready and happy to work.

thanks nisba

thanks for the info on your set up . this question is pulling out interesting responses!!

Moderator note:

This is awkward, and sorry to be a spoil-sport. If you want to discuss professional spaces, that is for reading for paying querents, then Professional Forum is the right spot. Just 'reading for others', i.e. friends, or even strangers but not professionally, here is fine.

Whatever has been posted can stay though.

Thanks!

Alta
co-Moderator, Talking Tarot

I'm sorry, Alta - I prolonged the thread. But when I read "reading for other people" although most of my readings for other people are a part of my income, that's not true of everyone else.

Sorry for making it seem blatantly about professional readings <contrite look>

my question

Yeah, I don't do anything professionally at this moment, I'm just wondering really about things that help people do better readings in general.