Tarot Master or Tarot Mistress????

Does anyone know, or have any opinions of what the equivalent of "Tarot Master" is.
There are lots of male Tarot Masters out there, recently I saw a lady advertising herself as a "Tarot Master" What do you all think? does this sound correct?
What would you call a Professional Tarot Consultant???
Doreen.

I think one of the problems is the connotations of mistress ie the lover of a married man. I am a Master of Arts and of course that is male but it seems that's the way it goes. I think Master has more of an academic ring to it than consultant, it sounds like you've studied for a long time to achieve that kind of status and have 'mastered' it. There's also the shifu of gong fu legend - the great master of kung fu. So it has some deeply ingrained connections that are difficult to escape. I think women need to take back the word mistress and give it some integrity.

I just can't get excited about it - just as these days everyone of all sexes wants to be called actor, author, poet rather than adding an "-ess". The ultimate nuttinesses IMHO are things like chairwoman........ I'm all for generic words - and when it comes to Master of Arts, which I also am, as well as being a Bachelor of Education - even though I am both married and female - I just can't see it as a live issue !

And as cari says - mistress can mean many things. As can master - not all of them pleasant.

and what about Tarot Grandmasters? (lol sounds like chess)

Personally I like the word 'Tarotist'. Nice and simple.

I just can't get excited about it - just as these days everyone of all sexes wants to be called actor, author, poet rather than adding an "-ess".

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Totally! I am so with you on this.

The ultimate nuttinesses IMHO are things like chairwoman...

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Yes! This is the best one of them all for utter silliness. For some reason women who run companies seem to want to draw attention away from the fact that they are women, which is something that I am unable to understand - because if this whole thing about not referring to '-woman' and '-ess', is supposed to be about feminism, which I suspect would have something to do with it, then should it not be a point of pride to have these suffixes at the end of one's title? It's just I suspect that it is feminism (PC is never far behind) that has brought this about, and yet funnily enough, it strikes me as remarkably anti-feminist.

I once had a job in which I refused to call the chairwoman a chair'man', because I found it utterly ridiculous and wouldn't use the term on principle because I find nothing more offensive that political correctness. I wouldn't call her a chairman, anymore than I would call a waitress a waiter, or a cow a bull.

I found it hard to understand why a woman would not want to have her femininity recognised and respected. A man would, why not a woman? I can only suspect that this is because '-woman', and '-ess', are associated with the 'weaker sex', perhaps it is that some women feel that they would be taken more seriously not having their sex verbally indentified - and yet this is quite tragic - and I don't perpetuate such terminology to allow this absurdity to continue in my world.

I even add '-ess' to ends of things that are not even in the dictionary as such, but which are indeed very appropriate. Why are female Christian priests, not called priestesses? How much more enchanting does this sound - and indeed, identifies the priest as female - and why shouldn't it?

Oh well, it's a male opinion anyway.

So yea, master or mistress, but what's wrong with Tarotist? Why have I never come across that term?

doreen, imo the term Tarot Master is probably good for both sexes. I just looked in my Oxford and it does say that the noun master usually refers to a man. But, then there is a verb, to master, and presumably either sex could claim that they have mastered a skill. Perhaps if used in that sense.

True. No one ever talked about 'mistressing' a skill did they?

Actually I meant more that I prefer not to give a toss what term is used.
Though if people refuse to call me a chairman I would rather be "chair" than "chairwoman" which I sort of see as patronising !

But that is a very good point, Marion. I see the same applies to actor, etc. They are just listed as "performers" - the day I see performeress.........

I would rather be "chair" than "chairwoman" which I sort of see as patronising !

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Yea, but why?

I believe in peopleism, not feminism or indeed chauvinism (I hate splinter/"minority" - for thus many women's groups have been described, even though women are in the majority !!! - groups of all kinds.)

I want to be seen as ME. Chairman is a term that's been used so long that I feel it has lost any "sexual" attribute. ChairWOMAN just draws attention to my sex, and suggests I think it is important. I don't see it as relevant; I would just like to chair the whatever without the sex of the person doing it being referred to in any way.

I also refuse to have "Miss", "Ms" or "Mrs" on my cheques and credit cards, which leads to some very strange automatically generated letters...... - but those are even worse - MEN don't have to advertise their marital status in their appellations, and I flatly refuse to either !)