Professional reading or what...?

Hi guys,
hope everyone is well. I was just wanting to share this experience as it's going round my head a lot! Yesterday my friend had a tarot reading which was recorded and she was disappointed afterwards. As my friend is nearly bankrupt I paid £30/$45 for this reading, which was supposed to last 30 mins. My friend said the woman pulled so many cards it felt devalued.

She gave me the CD and I listened to it. The reader even before these cards were pulled asked my friend questions as the tape starts off with her knowing about her financial situation. The first part of the reading was a Celtic Cross and was quite straightforward because she related most stuff to the financial situation, so this took 10 minutes.The reader then spent another 10 minutes bitching about everybody else at the fayre, including saying a Medium was a "so-called Medium" and a fake. She then pulled another 15 or so cards (she didn't say every card's name but I identified them by clues such as "This is the card of respite...etc.).

I'm really a mix of emotions over this because I think this reader acted unprofessionally in gossiping about other people there and I think she ran out of things to say so just kept pulling cards. What do you think? I don't like to judge anyone but this has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth tbh.

Great examples of what we, here as AT Professionals should never do.

First off, very sorry about the bad experience. Thirty quid’s a pocketful.

alli cat said:

My friend said the woman pulled so many cards it felt devalued.

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First warning sign: Too many cards. What occurs is what’s known in the con artist trade as a shotgunning. The ‘reader’ ends up throwing out so much general information that it sticks to everybody. This is supposed to give the illusion of ‘hits’, or accuracy (when in reality it is validation that is occurring).

alli cat said:

The reader even before these cards were pulled asked my friend questions as the tape starts off with her knowing about her financial situation. The first part of the reading was a Celtic Cross and was quite straightforward because she related most stuff to the financial situation, so this took 10 minutes.

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Second warning sign: Some genuine readers like to know the ‘back-story’ before the reading. I don’t. I call it a warning sign because Phishing for information can (but may not) be used to shape a reading so as to make it appear to be genuine.

alli cat said:

The reader then spent another 10 minutes bitching about everybody else at the fayre, including saying a Medium was a "so-called Medium" and a fake. She then pulled another 15 or so cards (she didn't say every card's name but I identified them by clues such as "This is the card of respite...etc.).

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Great Stuff here!

Complaining, bitching, revealing, explaining about other readers tells us that the reader was not there to read or help others. They were there to exercise their precious ego. Pulling 15 or so more cards plays right back into the shotgunning that the reader started with.

Now – to be honest, I love those kind of readers. Usually they are so cocky, they never bother to develop rapport with the sitter, they just tell tell tell tell tell tell tell cuz they are sooooooo good. (they read all of Richard Webster’s books). I love to sit with them – and develop rapport and take over. They never knew what hit them…but then thirty quid’s a lot for a lark.

Thanks Umbrae for that reply, it makes a lot of sense. Tbh I'm really annoyed by her lack of professionalism and almost feel like contacting the organisers about that. Never mind how the other workers there would feel if they knew she was calling them fakes etc.!

As for the shotgunning, that's it exactly. And she's really just pulling one card at a time in the second half, not making any real connections between them, so for example the King of Swords means that my friend's dad has slight health problems and there's no other possible explanation or link to other cards, and when my friend gets the Knight of Swords it's because she's got slight health problems. It's almost like she's learnt a sentence for each card and then repeats that verbatum. I've heard of Richard Webster through friends on the magic forums; have you read his stuff then?

Tbh it makes me feel uneasy as I get more into the tarot world and know the general public has some stereotypes associated with readers because this woman seems to be the epitome of all that, and I don't want to be seen like that myself. I guess painful though this was financially, it was a learning experience and I should reflect on that. Thanks for your input. Allicat xx

It's not a pleasent way to learn , but now you have a standard to exceed.

I find it fascinating that the "shtick" for the con job is so similar here to the one you describe there! It's almost like there's a con job school.

A year ago I "treated" myself to a "sign board tarot reading" in San Francisco where almost exactly the same things happened. She didn't get any information out of me about my economic situation other than the (honestly vast amount of) information she could infer from looking at me.

She laid out no less than 63 cards, made silly generalizations like, "Ah, the Fool card! But you're no Fool!" etc. She then told me there was a darkness around me, one that I couldn't lift myself without her help, etc. Sensing the advent of the $600 money-curse-removing candle, I politely declined.

However, I considered the reading very instructive to me as professional reader. This is what we aren't, what people think we might be. I felt I got my money's worth in that lession even though I didn't engage in the fun that Umbrae describes.

I would give the tape to whoever her "boss" is. But I'm mean like that.

And your poor friend, what a crappy reading.

I must be lucky that I've never had an experience like that. Although I have quit seeing professionals since I realized that I could do it better, and I do.

alli cat said:

Hi guys,
hope everyone is well. I was just wanting to share this experience as it's going round my head a lot! Yesterday my friend had a tarot reading which was recorded and she was disappointed afterwards. As my friend is nearly bankrupt I paid £30/$45 for this reading, which was supposed to last 30 mins. My friend said the woman pulled so many cards it felt devalued.

She gave me the CD and I listened to it. The reader even before these cards were pulled asked my friend questions as the tape starts off with her knowing about her financial situation. The first part of the reading was a Celtic Cross and was quite straightforward because she related most stuff to the financial situation, so this took 10 minutes.The reader then spent another 10 minutes bitching about everybody else at the fayre, including saying a Medium was a "so-called Medium" and a fake. She then pulled another 15 or so cards (she didn't say every card's name but I identified them by clues such as "This is the card of respite...etc.).

I'm really a mix of emotions over this because I think this reader acted unprofessionally in gossiping about other people there and I think she ran out of things to say so just kept pulling cards. What do you think? I don't like to judge anyone but this has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth tbh.

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I think you should get what you pay for and if she charges £30/$45 for a 30 minute reading ALL of that time should be on helping you and on the reading. You are paying her for her time. If she spent 10 minutes talking about others (besides it being unprofessional as you said) you deserve a refund for those 10 minutes. 10 minutes is 1/3 of the time. It is not right to charge you to listen to that, why would you want to pay her for that?

When I read it is different as I don't charge for my time. I charge per card. So I do completely go over each card. But when you pay for time, you deserve the amount of time you paid for devoted only to you.



Babs

Thanks all, some really good points raised there.

Definitely it was instructional as to how people operate without standards or maybe even morals! If it hadn't of been so expensive I could put it down more easily to a great learning experience - which it was - it's just now I'm feeling the pinch of £30 gone when our finances aren't great. I think I was so hoping for really good stuff to come up for my friend, it feels even worse, because her issues are a lot around bankruptcy etc. - how's that for the irony of getting fleeced by a con artist?! <alledgedly ;-) >

Marcia, 63 cards - that's just madness! Although this was 10 + 15ish so at 25 she's got a third of the pack out. <shakes head> Awful behaviour.

Sinduction - she doesn't have a boss as she was working for herself (and getting paid handsomely when you work out her daily earnings minus costs) Grrr!

Sunchariot - I agree re the timings, I feel like asking for my money back for those minutes she yapped on about everybody else. And when she asked my friend questions like "Do you dream?" My friend says yes but she can't decipher what the dreams mean and she says "Well that's the problem isn't it? Now the Page of Pentacles ...." etc.! So she asked obvious questions and then didn't have anywhere to go with the answers. There are so many examples of this it's actually almost laughable.

Just out of interest, how do you charge per card? Do you ask people how many cards they want or just say eg. "$20 for 3 cards" and get the answer within that number?

Thanks everyone for replying to my thread, I feel less bad about it now and it's nice to have honest friends to discuss these things with. Allicat xx

i have been surprised by the back biting in the tarot and spiritual world, it took me back when i first realised how widely spread it was.

Likely she isnt a con artist, she simply isnt very good a reader, or was until she stopped bothering.

sadly the tarot world is full of people who read as badly as this woman, and from my experience they seem to be the majority, it saddens me that this is happening to something i love...but from newer readers keep coming up with the same bad habits

Hi Red, thanks for the reply. Yes, I think you could be right...she isn't a good reader and had stopped trying anyway. It's a shame as I had a reading for half the price with a guy and it was so short but specific I felt really happy.

I guess the tarot/spiritual world is much the same as any other industry where people have to deal with very practical realities of paying the bills alongside immersion in more enigmatic matters. Still, we must hope that people take the moral alongside the practical and raise standards, not lower them.

Best wishes, Allicat x