Should tarot readers use books during readings? split from "Worst tarot advice received?"

This thread was split from this discussion: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=2330993

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greatdane said:

Debra - I put "readers" because this post is more about professional readers and if a professional reader thought each card always had a set meaning like a Monopoly game, that, to me, isn't a reader. There's nothing to "read" there, they're just memorizing, so I added the cheat sheet on the lap. To me there's a vast difference between people who are just learning, or who read for themselves, friends, family and professionals who charge. If someone is professional, then I would think they should know how to read. Just a thought.

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Gosh, there are so many threads on how to decide if you're ready to be a pro...a topic that isn't a part of the original question:

greatdane said:

What's the single worst bit of advice you've ever received regarding reading tarot or oracles? Did you know instantly it was bad advice or realize it after it didn't work?
GD

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Don't we usually refer to people who read cards as readers?

Some read using books all their lives. Many decks contain massive amounts of esoteric material; books are resources for interpreting it. Furthermore, a "book meaning" can help people who cannot distinguish between intuition, imagination, projection, and wishful thinking. Guide books can ground them and keep their reading from turning into airy-fairy "this is what I feel this means" bs. Both are legitimate reasons to use books, in addition to using them when one is learning.

It's like the mistaken idea that the only good doctor is one who can diagnose and treat without looking anything up.

No need for disdain.

Just a thought.

I read books......

CONSTANTLY.

They may or may not affect my reading of cards. I have no idea. The last was a shocker about an au pair girl. If anyone gets a very scary reading from me in the next few days - that will be why.....

Now, tarot books rarely affect my reading, I think.....

And I used to work for a GREAT doctor. He quite often looked things up - openly, in front of everyone. The patients who got the best possible treatment as a result thanked him. No-one can keep up with everything.

I agree, Gregory

Books can lend new insight, give us new ideas we hadn't thought of.

I do see a bit of a difference between a doctor looking up things and a tarot reader who is giving me a professional reading while looking up meanings, and that's who I was referring to, a professional DURING a reading. A doctor looking something up would inspire confidence, as I would think he wants to double check something (I've had doctors look things up while I was there), but a reader who was flipping through a book while I was getting a reading because they don't know basic meanings by heart...not so much.

What's the essential difference ? The confidence inspired is what counts.

Professional Readers? Question here

OK, I really would like to know the thoughts of professional readers.

My thoughts. Well, a reader looking up meanings in a book WHILE giving me a reading wouldn't inspire much confidence in me, Gregory. I guess I wouldn't feel they were very experienced or intuitive if they looked at the cards and then started looking through a book or notes to try to figure out what they meant. That's just me though. Perhaps that would inspire confidence in others. I would want a more intuitive, confident reader and I would think someone who had been at reading awhile would know the basic meanings in the books by the time they started reading professionally. Or maybe readers DO refer to books or notes DURING giving a reading?

EXPERIENCED readers....do you ever check notes or books while actually GIVING a reading?

While I'm not a read everyday professional, just when I get the occasional gig. I would never look at a book. I wouldn't really feel the need to. And it would seem rather unprofessional to me.

I don't look at books when I'm actually doing a reading for myself or for anyone else.
If I went for a tarot reading and the reader was using a book I'd be appalled, in fact I think I'd be so appalled that I probably wouldn't pay for the reading. Anyone can look up a meaning in a book, not everyone can give a useful and empowering tarot reading.

In my opinion a tarot reader reads the cards.
What's the point of having tarot readers if they're going to look up their answers in a book? You may as well just buy a deck of cards and a book with all the answers in yourself.
Tarot reading is an art and is so much more than a load of fixed meanings; it's like learning to speak another language.

I read books about tarot often but never whilst reading.

Oh for cryin' out loud. I am not talking about paging frantically through "Tarot for Dummies" in front of a paying client.

As a professional reader, I don't look stuff up while I'm doing the reading, but this is only because I do not do esoteric readings.

Doctors consult books while formulating a differential diagnosis. They'll call other doctors and ask for opinion. Surgeons will call pathologists and ask them if they should remove the whole tumor or not (in case it's benign).

Engineers will consult books if they don't know whether this machine, or that structure, could work well. Architects will consult books to get inspiration from new designs.

Even teachers will consult books to confirm an information before passing it along to their students.

None of them them are deemed incompetent for that. Quite the opposite.

I don't see why a tarot reader could not consult a book. Even during a reading. Maybe it's because people see tarot as "mystical", and mystical things should not need book.

Crock of cr*p. Tarot requires study too.

The problem is becoming dependant on books. If a surgeon can't perform a procedure without looking at the anatomy book, something is wrong. If a pathologist cannot diagnose a simple gasthritis without consulting 3 books, hum... we have a problem. If a tarot reader need to consult a book to read every card on the table... maybe they should study for a little longer before reading for others.

But books themselves are not bad.

Sulis said:

I don't look at books when I'm actually doing a reading for myself or for anyone else.
If I went for a tarot reading and the reader was using a book I'd be appalled, in fact I think I'd be so appalled that I probably wouldn't pay for the reading. Anyone can look up a meaning in a book, not everyone can give a useful and empowering tarot reading.

In my opinion a tarot reader reads the cards.
What's the point of having tarot readers if they're going to look up their answers in a book? You may as well just buy a deck of cards and a book with all the answers in yourself.
Tarot reading is an art and is so much more than a load of fixed meanings; it's like learning to speak another language.

I read books about tarot often but never whilst reading.

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Exactly what I was going to say.

It is a completely different language, and one not found in a book, in any book. You have to decipher it for yourself as it is different for everyone.

If a reader opened up a book for a reading I paid for, I would get up and leave and take my money.

The meanings are not fixed, which is why no amount of book reading will make a card reader. It's in practice and learning from the cards, that's when one becomes a reader. It has so little to do with the actual cards, it is in the person deciphering them.