tarotgirlfl said:
Hi, I'm still a newbie and student.
I've been recently pondering, can a person ever get a "bad" or "wrong" reading? And if so, how would they know? I mean, if a reading gives the possibilities of the near future, and we have free will, then even if the cards say one thing, we can change it. So a reading may have seemed "wrong" only because we changed our course and what the cards said never came to fruition. So... CAN a reading ever be wrong or bad?
Also, what about card reading ethics? What if somebody pulls some cards, and goes "no...", and then pulls more cards, and shakes his/her head, then pulls more cards, stares, pulls more cards, and more cards, and more cards, and more cards, until he/she has pulled almost every card in the deck, and then goes "now that's interesting, I've never pulled that card!". Well, yeah, if you pull 45 of your 50 cards you'll eventually get that card, right? To me that seems unethical.
I'm just curious if you all had any thoughts on this. Being new, I want to make sure to understand as much as possible.
Yes it is possible to get a bad reading (if by bad you mean inaccurate). I do very much believe that the right cards always come up, but reading can be quite subjective. And depends on the skill of the reader. A lot of things can sway a reading. One would be reading on a topic you are feeling emotional on--the reader may tend to sese just what he/she wants to see for example.
If it is a reading about the future or near future, there is no way for the querent to know immediately if it was correct or not until the future indicated in the reading has come and gone. Short of having another reading done by someone else to verify that it says the same thing.
And of course if the events spoken on in reading about the future don't come to pass, that does not mean the reading was inaccurate either. The future shown in Tarot readings is just the future the querent was heading towards at the time the reading was done. Very many things can come along and change it. So if the events shown in the reading never come to pass, it may just mean that something changed. Something as little as teh reading itself can change the future. If a reading depicts a future that the querent does not wish to have, they may just go "No Way!" inside and become deterimined to change that future. And they could very well succeed in changing that future in that way.
What you said about Ethics...well not sure if it's unethical, but it sure shows a reader who does not know what they're doing. I would not trust them if they were doing a reading for me. Even if I knew nothing about Tarot first, that would look suspect me me. Then again, I see your point, maybe you should not read for others until you're sure you know what you're doing. Because people do have emotional reactions to what we tell them, and you don't want to cause someone any pain when you don't know what you're doing, so yeah, that could be unethical. I can see your point there.
Speaking of bad readings, to me, a reading can be accurate and still be bad. Getting back to ethics here, a Tarot reader is there to help the querent, to enrich his life in some way, and help him/her create a better future for him/herself. I do believe this in my heart that it is part of what we do to improve people's lives and never to worsen them. I find it a sign of a bad reading when the querent leaves saddened or frightened, rather than enlightened and hopeful.
And every negative situation has a positive side to it. It is wrong in my opinion to show just the one side and not the other. We are here to help the querent see how to balance their lives, not to make them go OMG, this is horrible.
Let's say you see the Death card comes up about someone's job. Sure if you see their job ending you tell them, but you don't just stop there and send them home. The Death card always has the aspect of reincarnation in it, of something ending to make room for something better. You don't just say your job will end (leaving the person scared of what they will do next). You tell them the whole story, that it is ending to make room for something better (a new and better job) that will come into their lives. You can even say that in a sense that is why they lost their job now, that the universe wanted them to be ready for the new one. After all if they had not lost this one, they would not have looked the something else that will soon be sent into their lives.
IMHO, a lack of compassion can create a bad reading. I live by the golden rule. "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you". I mean how would you like to have a reading done and leave feeling miserable. To me that's a bad reading.
Babs
