reading tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Feb 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

cheekyminx	16 Feb 2003
When reading someones card, does the persons belief affect my reading? I noticed that if someone is open minded & has a little or alot of belief in spirituality & tarot i do i great reading, but if the person thinks its all crap then I can't really read....its like they put a block on it all. I'm more of a "I feel" person & most times don't even need to read the cards...... Is there any harm in doing another persons cards? (If they're not in the room) Don't I have to cut the cards with my right hand into three? What information do I have to give the cards? birth date, persons full name??? Cheers!

HudsonGray	16 Feb 2003
Everyone does it different, so cut & shuffle whichever way feels right. But I do notice that the receptivity of the person you're reading for can make a huge difference. Sometimes just nothing comes through. My sig. other did one for a guy at a convention who sat down, smirked & said no reader could do any kind of reading on him--and the cards came up in sequence, all the majors (in a totally randomized deck no less). The guy was trying to out-God God & it showed. So yes, the other person does have a huge impact on the reading sometimes. If they think it's hoey, why read for them at all in that case? Tell them you prefer not to & have them move on. You'll get less frustration. I use a person's name, be it screen name or real name, but don't need to know their age (or even gender sometimes). Reading on someone else without their permission depends on what you're looking at. If it's something too personal, there's no reason I'd want to go there. If it's a relationship spread where you want to see their point of view for the other person in the relationship, that's ok. Don't do it if it bothers you to think of doing a reading on someone. Listen to your subconscious & ethics.

cheekyminx	17 Feb 2003
I appreciate your comments. Cheers!

Mooness	17 Feb 2003
hey i used to live in bowral, near wollongong!! for me, i just hold the person's real name or computer username in my mind as i shuffle and ask for a reading for them. i can just hold the thought of a person and not even worry about their name, and that works too. the wise ones know who you're talkin about. gender, age, etc has never held any importance in my readings. i have never worried about which hand i use and cutting it three times, in fact i've never heard of it! i'm not that superstitious funnily enough... like hudson advised, your nbest guide is your own, so trust yourself!! if you feel better with a ritual like cutting it three times, go for it! it's all a very personal thing, divination, and i think the spirits are happy just to have us doing it, i don't feel they're worried about anything other than our openness and respect for this sacred gift of tarot. if you are using divination to get into the private lives of others, there is something obviously wrong with that and i doubt you would do anything like that. i guess maybe if a person doesn't want to be read, he or she may block you off anyway... problem solved!!

Trogon	18 Feb 2003
I would say that, as HudsonGray mentioned, do what feels right to you. I find myself varying my shuffling and cutting from time to time. Usually I shuffle 3 times, but sometimes more and every now and then less - just depends on what feels right at the time. As for cutting... if I do the cut myself (such as for my own personal readings) I just cut the deck once. When my querrents cut, I let them cut as much as they want, then "reassemble" the deck and hand it to me. Then again, I have one friend for whom I've been doing readings, who "shuffles" the cards by basically performing numerous cuts to the deck... when she feels it's right she hands the deck back to me... we've been getting good readings with this method too. As for doing a reading on someone who isn't present, I would say it depends on why and how you're doing the reading. You have got to decide this question based on your own ethical standards. HudsonGray mentions a couple of instances with which I agree where it is perfectly acceptable to include someone in a reading who is not present. I would say that, since you're asking the question, you already have a good idea of what would be right and wrong in the context of your own moral standards. The connection thing... I haven't really had a problem connecting with people over the internet or over the phone. It does help a if I already know them at least a little, but I have gotten good readings without a prior connection. And yes, I also find that the more receptive the person is, the better the reading. But there are a lot of other factors that seem to be involved, including the state of mind of the querrent, my state of mind, states of health, "interferance" (outside distractions), and so on.

The reading tarot thread was originally posted on 16 Feb 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.