Tarot Question????

Hey everyone I would like to hear your opinion on something. I am a tarot reader but for some reason I cannot read my own cards so I decided to go to another tarot reader to get a reading. When she started the reading she had her tarot cards and a she had a tarot beginners book. I asked her what did she need the book for and she explained that she uses the meanings in the book along with her intuition. She said she finds it hard to memorize all the meanings so thats how she prefers to do her readings. So as you can imagine I was very glad at this point that the reading was free.

To my surprise she was very accurate with her reading. She did not ask me any questions at all and she was extremely accurate the only thing she ask for was my name and date of birth and that was it. Her readings was on point. So I guess my question is do you think its a good idea to use a learning book during a reading? I found it weird but again i'm skeptical because I am a tarot reader myself.

Anywho any feed back would be great! Thanks everyone

mytarotreadings9 said:

So I guess my question is do you think its a good idea to use a learning book during a reading?

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Post in the reading exchange to offer readings and nobody would know the difference. Of course if you mentioned using the book as your new and need to practice, I doubt anyone would object

I guess if it's free , and she's a beginner, and you know ahead of time that's what she's doing then that might be okay.

I went to a psychic fair once and the woman had me pull a card (t was the crystal deck) and then she turned to the page in the accompanying book with Fluorite on it (The card I had drawn) and said- read this I'll be right back, and she got up and walked off. To me- that was not okay. It was the first reading I had ever had and I was there to see what readers do since I was learning the cards myself and had never seen a reading before. Luckily, the reading I had after hers was better. I guess to answer your question, no I don't think it's a good idea to use a learning book during a reading- especially if it's a face to face, paid reading.

Paid is different. I'm talking free, like if you're practicing. Paid? No, I would not be okay with that.

Especially if they didn't even read it to you, that's double No.

mytarotreadings9 said:

Hey everyone I would like to hear your opinion on something. I am a tarot reader but for some reason I cannot read my own cards so I decided to go to another tarot reader to get a reading. When she started the reading she had her tarot cards and a she had a tarot beginners book. I asked her what did she need the book for and she explained that she uses the meanings in the book along with her intuition. She said she finds it hard to memorize all the meanings so thats how she prefers to do her readings. So as you can imagine I was very glad at this point that the reading was free.

To my surprise she was very accurate with her reading. She did not ask me any questions at all and she was extremely accurate the only thing she ask for was my name and date of birth and that was it. Her readings was on point. So I guess my question is do you think its a good idea to use a learning book during a reading? I found it weird but again i'm skeptical because I am a tarot reader myself.

Anywho any feed back would be great! Thanks everyone

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I have to admit, I would not feel encouraged upon seeing this, I would think the person was inexperienced. Of course there is nothing wrong with consulting the book from time to time, on a difficult spread for example, but the way I see it, if you still haven't gotten the basic grasp of the card meanings, then maybe you should not yet be charging for your services. If you look on youtube today, there are dozens of readers with very little experience advertising their Etsy "tarot reading shoppe". How would you even know if they were really reading the cards, or just reading the definitions from the book? That may not bother some people - but it would bother me. I can do that for myself for free.

Glad to hear that you were pleased with your reading, there are always exceptions - but in general, I would have an issue with paying someone who hadn't yet done the work of learning basic tarot.

Disa said:

I went to a psychic fair once and the woman had me pull a card (t was the crystal deck) and then she turned to the page in the accompanying book with Fluorite on it (The card I had drawn) and said- read this I'll be right back, and she got up and walked off.

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That's unbelievable!

you know, it's funny, I never did completely memorize the card meanings, but when I would take my deck over to a friend's house to do a reading, I would leave the book at home and just wing it. Now that I think about it, I was probably getting my toe in the water of reading intuitively by just reading what I saw in the card if I couldn't remember what the book said, or if what the book said didn't fit with the question, and I still gave darned accurate readings. Only one of my friends knew that I didn't know what I was doing and that was the one who got me into Tarot to begin with...

I think if you're going to a friend who's into Tarot but is still a beginner, and you know that, yeah, I'd be cool with them looking in the book but really, if you're doing readings for others, you should have at least enough of a rough idea of the card meanings that you can do a reading without the book.

That would be very off-putting for me. I don't think I would feel comfortable or trusting at all--paid or not.

On the other hand, professional musicians use sheet music when they play, and I've seen car mechanics consult manuals when fixing my car, so I don't know...I guess if it doesn't bother you as the client, why not? Especially if the reader was a beginner and told you that upfront.

But I suppose the difference is that one would at least have a go and then only at the end consult the manual. A mechanic is unlikely to go straight to the manual. Sheet music is slightly different, as even after hours and hours of practice, a musician still needs the sheet music. I have sometimes (with friends, unpaid) consulted a book right at the end but I've always gone with my intuition first. I just ponder on there being something else i might have missed, but even so, I invariably stick with what I initially thought.

I don't recall ever pulling out a book while doing a reading, but I must have way back in the very beginning, while practicing on family. I was reading a LOT of books in parallel with practice, though, so the "suggested" meanings (and related background material) were always on my mind. I personally wouldn't think it OK for a reader to use the book unless I was letting them practice on me and working with them to increase their understanding.

The thing about keywords and definitions, they're really only to get you going, kind of like training wheels. By themselves, they can no more make a truly spontaneous reading than throwing flour, eggs, sugar, milk, baking powder and oil in a bowl, waving a magic wand over it and saying "cake" will get you one of those. "Free-association" from the card imagery and symbolism (oh, yeah, and "intuition") overlaid on whatever foundation you may have retained from previous practice and study, is what "bakes the cake." I don't let querents sit there fat, dumb and happy, either; I make them help STIR!