Getting it right....

Yesterday, I did a couple of readings for people on the forum. Some I was quite precise with. With one though, I pulled three cards and thought of totally two different scenarios for what they could have represented. It could have gone either way, but it turned out to be the second one I thought of, that was the correct one. So I gave my interpretation for that, but I was still quite off. What I'm basically trying to ask is, in general readings how do you know what is right? How come you can so often get it right, but sometimes get it very wrong? Does this only come through learning and experience?

The challenge of email (or forum) readings is not getting feedback in real time. When I am reading in person or via chat I can ask which situation is more applicable. For example, the Hierophant yesterday meant traditional gender roles, but it was by asking my sitter if that made sense that I was able to springboard into the rest of the reading from that. If I had not been able to ask I am not sure the reading would have been as cohesive.

That is the special challenge of reading in this way.

don't think the readings are necessarily wrong at the time...
it could be the timing of the event in the cards...or in the case of 'opposites', maybe a decision is to be made by the sitter...numbers on the cards come into play, as far as timing...
best thing for any sitter, if this happens...is to write down the cards that came up and events foretold,with the date of the reading...then wait to see what unfolds, and make note of it...

Having not read much face-to-face, I can only tell you that I just ambush my own brain and gut with as many questions that pop up, and keep going back-and-forth in my mind and between my gut until something stands out more strongly. It's tedious, and tiresome, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do that in person. I'm a bit socially awkward anyway, when the spotlight is on me (otherwise I can be myself a little more- more open and friendly when the spotlight is not on me) and so, if I asked questions like Manda suggests that she does, I'd probably come off as incompetent and not knowing what I'm doing... because there is that added element of stress, knowing they are watching and waiting to see what I'm going to say or do. Perhaps I need more practice to get more used to myself and how I'd do face-to-face, but for now- getting it "right" comes much more easily if no one is around, and I can battle this out internally with unscrupulous logic, and overflowing emotional intuition. A third element (another person speaking and making suggestions) would just throw me way off. Yes, I'm wound tight, I guess. LOL

So, experienced online tarot reader? Yep.
Experienced face-to-face reader? Nope.

My answer is experience would play a big part, yes. If you asked me for a face-to-face reading right now, I'd probably bomb it horribly.

I agree with a previous poster that in a face to face situation you get more feedback as the reading progresses and it develops into more of a conversation. In online readings you are often very much on your own but it seems a nice test of your intuitive abilities as long are you are prepared to get it wrong at times.

Magicienne said:

In online readings you are often very much on your own but it seems a nice test of your intuitive abilities as long are you are prepared to get it wrong at times.

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This is what I like most about tarot readings online. It gives you a chance and opportunity to feel around in the dark and (hopefully!) get it right. I actually think its better practice for reading face-to-face because you won't necessarily need to rely on their direct input to sway the reading.

But there is of course, the chance that you're wrong and well... it happens

Manda said:

The challenge of email (or forum) readings is not getting feedback in real time. When I am reading in person or via chat I can ask which situation is more applicable. For example, the Hierophant yesterday meant traditional gender roles, but it was by asking my sitter if that made sense that I was able to springboard into the rest of the reading from that. If I had not been able to ask I am not sure the reading would have been as cohesive.

That is the special challenge of reading in this way.

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I completely agree with Manda .

I don't do a lot of face to face readings because I just don't really get the opportunity to do them but with on-line readings you just have to choose the way you're going and go with it... Sometimes you'll be right and sometimes you'll have gone down the wrong path and there's no way of knowing until your querant gets back in touch and tells you you're either spot on and have helped a lot or you're way off and haven't helped at all.

I think looking at the spread of cards as a whole helps you to see which way to go with individual cards. Often you can see which way to interpret a card because only one way will fit with the rest of the cards. Having positional meanings in spreads when doing online readings helps too. When reading face to face I tend to have a conversation with the cards and lay them out in threes with no positional meanings but when reading online I like to use spreads because it gives more of a pointer about which direction to go in.

I did one very large spread on AT about the future of a relationship. There was a position for what the other partner saw in the relationship's future. I drew Death. If I had talked in real time, I would have been able to discuss the card with her.

I interpreted the card to mean that the male partner did not see a future in their relationship. This was enforced by other cards that indicated he was keeping their relationship a secret - something I didn't share because I thought it was too negative - and he was planning a big transition in his life.

I apologized profusely about how negative the spread turned out.

When she replied to me, it turned out that he was not leaving her - he was moving across the Atlantic to live with her. Death represented the cutting off of his old life. As it turned out, he was hiding her from his friends and family who disapproved of long-distance relationships.

If I had had her sitting across from me, I could have cleared up the intention of Death and read the rest of spread correctly. While I did pick up on every aspect of what was going on, I read it in the wrong manner - the relationship was ending, rather than taking a drastic change.

I combat this by reading up on the cards. The more potential applications you know, the more you can hone in on what is correct (for example, up until that spread, I always considered death to be a hard ending. I never considered it to be a hard change). But sometimes there really just is an either-or thing. When that happens, I present both possibilities.

I find that when I look at a card or am laying down a free-form spread, I get a small "whisper" of what a card means or how the spread should be. It's incredibly easy to lose the whisper in my own brain garbage, but it always ends up being correct. If you focus, you may find out that your first flicker of intuition holds the answer before your thoughts can crowd it out.