How Do You Choose a Deck For Your Sitter?

Well, I have a couple decks in varying levels of frankness:

Enchanted Arthurian RWT Dame Fortune Thoth

Gentle Nudge<<<<<< <>>>>>>>>>Slap in the Face

I personally like to use the more frank cards in my own readings, but sometimes when I do readings for others (I do them for free for practice) certain decks make people uncomfortable, and other decks don't give them enough information.

I know when people want a relationship question I immediately turn to the Enchanted, but other times I've used Dame Fortune or Thoth and the sitter actually got upset and started crying....awkwaaard....

So how do you decide which deck is best for each sitter? Do you discuss choices of decks with them? I don't want to make them upset or discourage them from using tarot again, but I Do want them to get a satisfying reading.

Thnx in advance.

Show the sitter the decks available and let them choose ?

I think you can just let your intuition guide you.

If you think your sitter needs more brutal honesty, or needs more gentle nurturing you can certainly choose accordingly.
Think of your decks as your friends...each comes from a totally different background, and each has their own brand of advice and perspective.

Sometimes you may need advice from more than one!

I have been doing readings at a fair for the past month, and I have four decks on my table. (Minute, Hanson Roberts, All Hallows and Madame Endora)
Sometimes I'll pick a deck up, meaning to read with it...but at the last second, something pulls me to choose a different deck.

And it's because that deck has symbols that I can easily explain to that particular sitter.

Show the sitter the decks available and let them choose ?

Click to expand...

Which would take a whole year in Gregory's case.... lol!

Personally, I only have a few decks, so I go with whichever one feels right to me to use for that person.

I would let the sitter choose, and if the sitter put the ball back in my corner I'd make a quick decision.

Seeing others' responses to this and other similar threads, I think I need to bring a wider selection of deck flavors next time I read in public. I've tended to go with my three favorites, which are all quite similar.

well if I don't know the person well enough or they aren't a trusted friend I go with the more fluffy deck. I don't want to be "nosey' with my mother when she asks me to read for her so i go with the fluffy decks too, maybe on occasion Dame Fortune.

I'm guessing everyone just makes an assumption on the person's preference just by your first impression?

Since I don't read in person, it's not possible to show people my deck's first. i choose for the querent.

But in my mind it is not a matter of which deck will suit the querent best, but instead a question of which deck will answer the question in the best way.

Since 95% of my answer comes from the card images and each of my decks has very different artwork, I need to FEEL which deck will give me the answer to that particilar question in the best clearest way. Because of the way I read, the same card in each if my decks will give me a very different answer, so the choice of the deck is very important.

It's intution to me. I read through the list of all my decks and when I get to the right deck for the reading, it just feels right.

Babs

It isn't the deck that delivers the message, it's you---the reader. You can make it "in your face" or read with diplomacy and tact. It's up to you. Just because you think a particular deck is in your face or, at the other end, syrupy doesn't mean it has to be that way. It's all in how you, the reader, present the reading. If your deck seems to hit you, yourself, with a very frank and hard-hitting answer doesn't mean you can't temper it to come across with more compassion for your sitter.

I don't give choices of decks. I just read with whatever deck I have with me or whatever one appeals to me at the time.

Awesome post, Grizabella.

I have to remember that I am in control of the cards, and not the other way around.

thanks to everybody else.

I read with the ones I want to. I'm not professional but it's us here that get carried away with all the fancy cards and beautiful artwork and nice cardstock. They want us to read with a deck which enables us to read as well as we can.

What's the point of the querent chosing a pretty deck which gives you a substandard reading? You have to read with the deck you're in the mood for.

Just before a reading I ponder on which one I'll use; it's usually one of 3-5 and I know that if I want to give a good reading, it's gotta be either the Thoth or the Victorian Romantic. Problem is, whenever anyone sees the Victorian Romantic, they want that one.

Also, I don't believe in this idea that such and such a deck is "frank" or "tells it as it is". I don't think decks are that loaded. It comes from your interpretation skills...