Reading for Money

You know, I've been into Tarot for a long time now. Not as long as some, longer than others. About 10 years now I've been throwing cards around, and the runes have been with me since Christmas, 1979. (I'm not a rune expert. I was reading the wrong material about them...but I'm still loving them, still reading with them.)

Going pro was one of the scariest moment of my life. Was I ready??? Could I do it??? And I did it. I did it and it was like a homecoming. Every little piece of inconsequential knowledge that had been tucked into my brain suddenly had a reason for being there. Reading cards for people is like nothing else I've ever done. It is easy the way breathing is easy, and absurdly challenging at the same time. But now that I've broken thru the reading for strangers barrier I can't imagine not doing it. It is a gift I give myself, and a gift I offer others. Blessing flowing both ways. Magic.

When I think of all the readings I've done for people, continue to do for people, I'm amazed. All the talking, all the looking at cards, all of the mental gymnastics, books read, hours spent on AT...it is all so amazing. A journey.

So imagine giving it up. I stopped reading at the meta shop where I read weekly. Multiple factors played into the decision, and I just had to stop going there to read. And then I booked a party...this weekend two charity events are planned (the price is set by the organizers, I get half, they schedule my reads), and I have more parties and opportunities in the works. So, in a way, a door opened and I've had a bit of a burst in business. Encouraging, but still not enough, but thank you Tarot gods.

I need to make some real, regular money. And I decided to do it with my Tarot gift and I'm gonna try Keen.com. I know some folks do Kasamba and I know some of you have websites and so forth...and I'm eager to hear from all of you.

We go pro for so many reasons. We read for money for so many different reasons. For me, going pro was about a chance to take my reading to the next level. I wanted to learn things about reading I knew I could only learn by facing a stranger and taking their money and having to deliver, and deliver and deliver.

With the Keen.com gig it is the same desire, but honestly, I want to make money. I know my readings are good. I know I will help people. I know people will like my service, and since they are out there anyway looking for the service, why not be out there too, offering it?

You know, I don't think it is wrong to want to read for money. The kids gotta eat. They need shoes, they need clothes and hey, I'd like a vacation this year. We tend to go on vacation every three years. And last year was the vacation year...so there is not one planned again for a long time...no financing for it. So call me misguided, but I really think that if you can read the cards, and you are good, and you have a good service to offer, there is no reason not to also acknowledge you like to get paid for doing it.

...

Well, right now I dont read for money and I have only been reading tarot cards for 2 and a half years. I defiently do not think I am ready to go pro at all! But I think if you want to make money off tarot so be it. As long as your intentions are good and you aren't price gauging people than I think its ok. I just dont like these so called Psychic's such as "Sylvia Brown" charging 600 dollars to talk to her, I think that is wrong.

I mean you are providing a service to people and just like anything else Tarot Card readers do deserved to be paid. Usually its exactly what people need to hear versus going to the doctor and being pumped full of medication.

So if you have the skills and resources to do it as a career than by all means I say go for it. I can understand your desire for this, I want my own healing type center one day.

A~

Even the sparrow must eat to sing.

And readers who charge hundreds, would not do so if the market would not support it.

And anybody who tell you, that you are doing wrong - is wrong. They are simply playing ego games, attempting to inflate their own heart without honor.

I know you, and I know your heart.

You are good. Never allow that to be taken away.

It's a process...

Well said, Satori. I read for money too, and I think it's a righteous activity. Many years ago, when I first thought about getting paid for readings, the very idea gave me jim-jams and the gollywobbles, besides. I thought it was too Spiritual an activity--a gift, really--to take money for. I've learned a lot of things from that day to this, and one of the is that the Spirit has to live in the Body, and the Body needs food and shelter and all that, and some recreation besides. I've also realized that we are given our particular gifts for many reasons, and keeping ourselves alive and in good condition is one of those reasons.
I'm not saying that I was either right or wrong in feeling tarot was too spiritual an activity to charge for in those early days...instead I'm saying that I grew into it, as you did, and as most of us who get very good at it and aren't independantly wealthy do!

I too think it is okay to charge. I do get out of my pram when I hear sanctimonous non-readers say we shouldn't as we have been "given a gift from God"

I hope I am not coming across as blasphemous here, but that comment I cannot accept, particularly as the same people who say this wouldn't dream of offering their own service/trade free of charge.

Most of us have spent hours/days/weeks/months years in learning, and have also paid out to purchase the tools of our chosen trade. Too right it is acceptable to charge. (although ironically I have only had one paid reading in the last 4 years, all others have been for a forum I am a reader for - so I believe I can have a clear conscience with the fact I have offered my services for free now for a very long time).

I belive as long as we with with intergrity, honesty and respect of what we do, charging is okay.

just my two pennyworth

Davina

Why is it a problem for a tarot reader to charge for their time and expertise - the church (pick one, it doesn't matter which) charge for their 'services' and they are not condemned for it yet they are in a similar 'spiritual guidance' business.

Life here and now in the material realm requires that we charge a fee for the work we do, there are no stipulations as to what that work must or must not be so I don't see the problem.

Its an odd sort of fallacy we have now that somehow everything should be free. Parking, education, healthcare, spirituality, counselling . . . This attitude does however, fly in the face of nature with its balance and equal exchange.

Satori, don't worry!

Milfoil said:

Why is it a problem for a tarot reader to charge for their time and expertise - the church (pick one, it doesn't matter which) charge for their 'services' and they are not condemned for it yet they are in a similar 'spiritual guidance' business.

Click to expand...

Yes! In fact the Catholic is the largest corporation in the world and they don't pay taxes. Everyone should get paid for work. That is why it's called work. Otherwise it is charity. And newsflash: people who work in charity get paid too. Even saints had to eat. Gandhi was ABLE to do what he did because of his education and social standing.

Actually I think it's embarassing that the scolding "do it for love or suffer the consequences" threads pop up here from time to time featuring an insidious combination of moral superiority and willful blindness to the material mechanics of the world. Anyone who claims that a "gift shouldn't be sold" or that you should "share for nothing" either has a severe reality disconnect, a martyr complex, or a lot of family money earning 7.2% in a nice fat trust. Or a combination thereof. The smug, knowing passivity that would lead a sentient hominid to wave away a career casually speaks VOLUMES about their need for superiority and their obvious lack thereof.

I am a working writer. Everything I do changes my skillset and the efficiency with which I produce work that is worth presenting. Do you know who is always telling me I should write purely for love? Client-producers when they're negotiating a contract or amateurs who have never earned a nickel and resent the idea of being paid for work... In both cases, their eagerness to whittle away at my livelihood is a combination of greed, hope, and blindness. That is why I have an agent: so that he can be a barracuda and make sure I don't cave under emotional pressure or calculated begging. It is my BUSINESS. And two fingers to them says me.

Good for you, Satori, for taking a stand. And shame on people who elevate themselves by trying to compromise the certainty of your heart and the clearness of your vision. We do not become greater by clawing our fellows to ground. The world is full of such embarrassing smallness and it is our duty to rout it where we can. To paraphrase James Baldwin, "When little fish nibble on a whale, it does not make them whales. The only result is that there will be no grandeur anywhere, even at the bottom of the sea..."

Amen.

Scion

Thanks for the support everyone.
I have never felt bad about charging. I very much appreciate the chance to do what I love and get paid! How cool is that?

I think for some readers they feel that somehow the Universe will see them as bad if they want to read cards because they need some cash. It isn't like they suddenly lost their entire value system because money is involved.

So there is this idea that you should read out of a perspective that is purely altruistic, and if you get paid that is somehow secondary to the act of offering the reading. For some people if the readings begin to dry up, or your business suffers then there is some kind of punishment going on because you didn't come to the table with the "right" perspective. You read for money rather than reading for the needs of the client and out of spiritual selflessness.

I admit I'm getting redundant but that last sentence is what I was trying to get to. That if you read to get paid you are less than the person who reads to be on a spiritual path. My contention is why can't you do both? Who out there has the right to judge, and really, who cares as long as the reading is done well, and the client is happy.

My husband can't believe the amount of free readings I give. Even at fairs, someone will show up who can't make the fee and I have give the reading. Now please, I don't say that here to justify my position, I just know that even now after two years of reading pro, I still probably give more freebies than paid reads. I go over time and don't charge for the extra minutes, I add in multiple divinatory systems and I spend time with people talking about books or decks they might like to check out. All of this is my expertise, and there isn't a price tag on those important recommendations. And don't get me started on my friends who show up at all hours for readings...without even a bottle of vino!

Reading for money is a wonderful thing.

Money is not good or bad...it just is.(my crystal oracle just told me so! You think I would have gotten this long ago...)

I also think event readings are a great way to make money. Never tried Keen or any of those (although I did do the phone psychic thing once upon a time) but I hear they are good ways to suppliment your income.

but I honestly don't know how much you would like it. I have seen what a great reader you are...and I think, like me...you long to have that physical contact with the person you are reading for. you want to look in their eyes and see how you are helping them. You want to be able to hold their hand and tell then everythings gonna be allright... because the Star says so...

You want to touch their lives not just in words...but with a smile, and a reassursance, and the truth that sparkles in the space between you and them, across the table.

I hope you get a lot more event opportunities. I make all my money from these nowadays, with single clients being few and far between.

Tap ino a Mother's network...do home parties...sleepovers for grownups, and social gatherings. They really are more satisfying to a reader's soul than online or phone, I think. At least that's true for me.

It's funny that you talk about doing free readings...
I kinda started out being a professional reader...charging fellow high school students a dollar or two per reading...

and now, I love doing them for free. It feels right to me at this moment. Making money feels just as right...but I find I like making money with the tarot art lately, more than with the readings.

Maybe because I am such a hermit these days...and connecting for a reading helps me as much as the client.

Amazingly...everytime I offer a free reading, I instantly get a reading gig, or money to do one somewhere. So i think it all balances out in the end anyway.

I have been reading for Kasamba for over a year now and I am just now beginning to feel that grudging feeling about signing on. It's not the reading, it's the having to read because my needing to pay the bills depends on it. That's the only downside to this kind of reading, I think. I enjoy the cards, I enjoy reading for others. But I am beginning to feel this "resistance" now when I know I should be logged on to Kasamba. It's about "having to" versus "wanting to."

Ginny