Ever feel like the wrong cards have come up?

[Inghinn]

I did a quick 3 card predictive reading for a friend last week. The topic was career/work, she had been for a first job interview and got through to the next stage, and she asked me to do a remote reading but not tell her what the outcome was until after the 2nd interview. I guess there was an element of wanting to 'test' the tarot, or me. Or maybe she didn't want to rely on what the cards would come up with, in case it influenced her behaviour somehow. In any case, it doesn't matter, I agreed to do the reading because I was curious too.

Anyway, when I did the reading, I had a really quick look at the cards and I got the overwhelming feeling that the cards that had come up were wrong. They pointed towards a negative outcome, and I would have been happy enough to leave it at that normally - people get turned down for jobs, right? But I decided to go with my feeling and re-shuffled, and the new spread pointed towards a positive outcome, and the reading felt much more 'right' to me. We found out yesterday that she got the job, so the tarot was right, as was my gut feeling to reshuffle.

Has this ever happened to you? So far, I have always read the cards that came up at the first attempt, even if I sometimes felt like I had drawn a blank or that something wasn't quite right. After all, one of the mantras is that the cards don't always tell us what we want to hear and that not liking what we see is not a good reason for doing another reading.

I'd be grateful to hear your opinions/experiences. Thanks!

 

[Starri Knytes]

I always tell clients,
Tarot doesn't always tell you what you want to know, but it does always tell you what you need to know...

What I hear here is that you were asking the wrong questions.
What you should have been asking is should she TAKE the job?
The answer is No.

Watch and see, I'll bet she's either not a good fit for the company, or there is some other reason she is unhappy at the job in a very short period of time.

 

[Grizabella]

That's been my experience, too. The first cards drawn in answer to a question for a sitter will be the ones to go with, even if they're not the desired outcome. I agree with Starry Knytes about that. Sometimes the message isn't positive. And it's hard to tell our sitters what isn't positive or isn't what they hope to hear but there are many ways to make the reading a positive experience in spite of that. You can always draw a few more cards, asking the question "how can X turn this around to a positive outcome?" or "what positive results will come about in spite of this experience?"

However, there have sometimes been spreads that when the cards start coming out, they just don't make sense at all. On rare occasions I've picked them up and shuffled again for awhile. That's usually on my own spreads, though, and I'll be distracted to a TV show or something while shuffling instead of thinking about the question.

 

[Tanga]

Yes - I do occasionally get a "that's just wrong!" feeling. It will happen for about one or two cards in the whole spread and the feeling will be immediately upon my first look at it, when I turn it over. I never have it for the whole spread.

Sometimes - I'm sure I didn't shuffle sensibly, with the right focus (y'know - like nisaba said [correction - like Grizabella said] - perhaps at one point I had an eye on the telly, or my mind wondered to how on earth I was going to deal with the problem I had with Y... ). And sometimes, I can't explain it and don't try to analyze it - I just go with my feeling in-the-moment, and pick something else that "feels right" as I touch it (Or upright it, if it's reversed and there seem to be rather alot of reversals all-over-the-place).

If I "draw a blank" - i.e. I just can't figure out what it means. I leave it and come back a bit later, letting it bubble around in my head. I have the luxury of that because I read by email. Coming back later helps.
If not - I may share the card with the Seeker and see if anything strikes them about it.
In a face-to-face reading - I would explain to them what it presently means, admit it doesn't currently make sense to me, and again see if they have anything to say about it.

When readings aren't positive, the challenge is how to convey this lightly, underlining that hardship and struggle are a part of life and do facilitate our growing curves... and that the experience will ofcourse leave them a stronger/more enlightened/informed/confident person at the other end of it.

 

[alchemist1248]

I have gotten "wrong" spreads before. And you know it when the cards are coming up. Either reshuffle or use a different deck. I let the sitter pick the cards, and if they aren't open and willing, neither is the deck (mostly).

 

[Ace]

When I was taking a course to learn tarot (something I tell newbies NOT to do, but there it was!) I once laid out cards in class and got a reading that I felt talked about something that I had previously read about. I picked them up and reshuffled them better and got what I felt was a better reading. Some of the others said I should have left them play them as it lays is important, but I still feel I did right that time.

Otherwise, I would say, LEAVE them. If you think it should be a different card (as someone recently asked about, I don't remember the thread) you are looking for the message YOU want, not the message the cards are giving you. I would have made a note of the first set of cards and see if they were warning her of something that she needs to know about what she gets the job. But if you feel that they REALLY are wrong, then by all means, try again. But remember also: that if you keep getting the same message every time, it is time to stop.

barb

 

[Grizabella]

Sometimes - I'm sure I didn't shuffle sensibly, with the right focus (y'know - like nisaba said - perhaps at one point I had an eye on the telly, or my mind wondered to how on earth I was going to deal with the problem I had with Y... ).

I'm the one who said that. Nisaba hasn't posted in this thread----yet.

 

[Girl Archer]

I agree with what another poster here said about reshuffling or using another deck. Sometimes some decks just feel a little flat and lacking "the vibe" or if you have worn it out by asking one too many questions. That is why I have fifty plus decks Either that, or I am a tarot hoarder Back to the point, yes sometimes sleeping on it gives you fresh eyes on how the card could fit in or days later you could have a Taropiphany. Like.... Huh, so that is what that Tower was all about. Soon enough you will start seeing patterns in your day and correlations with cards, it can drive you crazy if you don't contain the....enthusiasm. Another point I would like to state is that websites for beginners often suggest you feel the card, maybe a warmth or a tingle/prickle or you are just inexplicably drawn to that card. So sometimes what happens at least for me is... Your mind is elsewhere and you are not feeling it, you pull cards and yes, they come up all wrong. However if your intent is clear and your mind is calm while asking, and you shuffle well... whatever you get IS your answer whether you( as in, your sitter) accept it or not. In your present case, it could be that not getting the job would have been a better way to go than getting and then having to decline or quit after a short while. In such cases what I ask next is... What must X be wary of if they decide to join/get the job? followed by: How can X resolve this situation or deal with it effectively?

 

[roseinthewinter12]

Its happened to me before but usually its more of I don't want this to be what it is. I've actually found one of my decks to only give negative readings. I am not sure why. Does anyone have a clue why that might happen? Is it possible I am not connecting with this deck?

 

[Inghinn]

Interesting input, thanks everyone!!

Like I said in my initial post, I would normally just go with whatever cards come up - I learned the hard way how the tarot 'operates' when I don't accept the message the cards give me, or look for what I want to hear insted of being open to the truth. So normally I would not have reshuffled and drawn new cards, just on that occasion I felt compelled to do it, who knows it might turn out to have been an error of judgement on my part, in which case it will be another lesson learned for me.

I have to say that when my friend got back to me yesterday to say she had been offered the job, I felt a little smug and thought, ha - I was right to reshuffle! This was before I posted my question. When I saw the initial responses from Starri Knytes and Grizabella, I thought... hm, I will have to keep an open mind but I'm hoping I am right and you ladies are wrong! My ego vs. your experience, huh? ;-) Anyway, later last night I talked to my friend again and she told me that the job offer had been informal and still needs to be approved by the company's HQ overseas. So there is still a lot of scope for things to go wrong, and it might well turn out that the initial reading was, after all, correct and that I was led by what I wanted for my friend, rather than listening to the cards properly.

I'll keep y'all posted! Thanks again!