You lay out the spread, and.... nothing .... just... nothing

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 05 Mar 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Alissa	05 Mar 2003
I am still feeling bummed about the reading I did last night. In exchange for a fabulous set of runes, I agreed to read for a gentleman. We met at Starbucks (I have no prob usually working in such envirnoments). He picked the deck he wanted to use (Shapeshifter, which I've been using for reading for others a short time, but until now quite happily.) We talked a bit more about the nature of his question and decided on a spread (Dig Deeper spread, cant remember who that belongs to without looking it up). I shuffled, breathed, focussed. Did everything like I always do. Laid out the cards and ... just ... *looked* at them. It wasnt that I didn't know the cards or their meanings ... it just seemed that the reading felt disconnected. I focussed as well as I could, but after 2 long minutes of silence while my eyes search over the card (waiting for that *something* to jump out at me and spark my intuition) well... after so pregnant a pause I could barely get past the "well this card.. it's energy is like... it's hard to explain, it's feels like ..." Tongue tied??? ME??? No way, you say. I know I feel the same. Although we ended up pulling some clarifiers and he left feeling it was a helpful reading, I couldn't stop myself from apologizing at the end. My daily card yesterday? 7 swords, a partial success... and I made off with the better part of the deal. I pulled a card before bed too. It was the 7 swords again, reminding me. Ay me ... I know it just happens. But golly gee I'm feeling pretty bummed. Perhaps my energy is low, I've been working extremely concentratedly on other areas of my life. Perhaps, pehaps ... that sounds like a good enough excuse to me. What do you all do when (if) you get these episodes? I suppose I coulda wiped the spread and started again, but I didn't feel the urge to do that, per se. I felt the Cards just couldn't get through to me for some reason.

Jewel	05 Mar 2003
Alissa ... go ask your faeries ... I am not kidding.

Umbrae	05 Mar 2003
I love it when that happens! It is so cool! http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/articles/process_three.html

Alissa	05 Mar 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Umbrae I love it when that happens! It is so cool! you can keep that feeling then, as far as i'm concerned .... I thought there was something in the Process that discussed blank-outs, thank you for digging out the link for me.

Alissa	05 Mar 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Jewel Alissa ... go ask your faeries ... I am not kidding. Jewel, you may not believe this but the mood I'm in right now ... I dont even wanna look at my Fae cards. ( :eek: ) Thought that would never happen either, but so be it. But, your suggestion hits home and I will remember it for the time when I am ready to try again. They always have something to say (unless I've gone from clairaudient to completely clair-deaf now).

Diana	05 Mar 2003
Alissa: I'm sorry to hear you're feeling so down about the reading. But I do wish you would be kinder to yourself. There could be number of reasons why you blanked out. One of them could be that you were not meant to do that reading. That's what I felt when I read your post. I didn't reply at first, because it seemed to be such a cliched answer, but when I re-read it just now, the feeling hit me even harder. That's about all I have to say, although I sense something more here - something that is escaping me - like the reading escaped you. Like a missing link. It has nothing to do with your reading abilities.

scheherazade	05 Mar 2003
Perhaps something has happened that detached you from your cards in some way... if you're not opposed to the idea, perhaps you could perform some ritual to reacquaint yourself with them. Beginners are often advised to "anoint" their cards in some form or fashion that is meaningful to them. Did you do this when you began with your cards? Perhaps you could do something of the like again.

isthmus nekoi	05 Mar 2003
Oh... I've also had readings where I was just not able to connect.... In a situation where I've pulled a blank, I'll try my best, but if *nothing* is coming to me, I'll say: I'm sorry, I really can't read this one..... but I understand the pressure is different when reading for an exchange..... if the man uses runes, probably he'll understand that the connection wanes and waxes.... I'll second what Diana has said... it might be low energy etc but sometimes it's something out of your control/not meant to be.... I once did a reading for a friend and was having a lot of difficulty w/it. The High Priestess was sort of grinding the cross section of the c/c into the ground, but querent and I couldn't make heads nor tail of it. We kind of gave up on it! I later found out that his sister who wanted to watch the reading was a very strict Christian and didn't approve of the reading at all! Immediately, the whole spread made perfect sense.... Sometimes, other things you are unaware of can affect the reading...

Icestorm	06 Mar 2003
I encountered my first blank the other day reading for a friend... Its a very embarrassing situation, as everyone expected me to know what I was doing. I was doing a general reading and used a 7 card spread. Would you believe that every card was a major arcana! I have trouble reading more than 2 majors in a spread, so a spread with all majors completely befuddled me, I could not make links between the cards. I had no idea even where to start... My friends mocked me then, and I felt quite bad. Getting blanks is not cool, not cool at all :-[

Jewel	06 Mar 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Alissa Jewel, you may not believe this but the mood I'm in right now ... I dont even wanna look at my Fae cards. ( :eek: ) Thought that would never happen either, but so be it. But, your suggestion hits home and I will remember it for the time when I am ready to try again. They always have something to say (unless I've gone from clairaudient to completely clair-deaf now). Could it be that maybe you need a break? a bout of burnout perhaps? that happens to me every now and again and I just need to step back, do some other things like read fantasy books or do art stuff for a while. I was so disgusted not too long ago that I just did not care to add decks to my collection ~gasps~ and even wanted to trim down the collection severely ~gasps again~ ... I am still contemplating the trim down, but have 3 decks on pre-order so I believe I am achieving a balance *LOL*. Hope you get to feeling better soon, perhaps Diana is right and you were not supposed to do that reading, you knew it, and now you are being affected by it. ~hugs~

Astraea	06 Mar 2003
I don't know why that reading worked out in just the way it did, but one thing I've learned from the tarot is that there's usually (and probably always) a very good reason for everything that happens in a reading -- even if what happens includes drawing a blank! It's happened to me, and I don't know of a more sinking feeling. The only thing we can do at such times is either not continue the reading (which would have been very awkward in a trade situation), or draw on our backlog of information about the cards -- we are probably more disappointed when that happens than our querents, because we know how much the cards are capable of saying. As others here have stated, sometimes the cards are quiet (and our brains to match) when there is a good reason not to do the reading -- the frustrating thing is that we might never know what that reason is, and it's natural to doubt ourselves at such times. Yet your querent was not unhappy with his reading, so I think that you probably gave him just the information he needed -- maybe he would have been overloaded with more. When the muse seems to flit away from me, I try to remember to be as gentle with myself as I would with any child who is learning a skill, because that's really what I am -- no matter how old I grow or how many years I've studied, I'm always learning and sometimes the lessons are harder to process than others. Persevere, and know that the muse will return (and she probably never left at all).

Alissa	06 Mar 2003
Thank you all *so much* for the fabulous feedback. Today is a new day, and I'm not beating myself up quite so much any more. Umbrae, next time I'll remember to stop and look for a dust mote. Diana, truth be told, I hadn't even considered the obvious ... that perhaps the reading was not meant to be done (or done at that time, or what have you). After reading your post, I immediately felt a sense of relief. (You mean it *isn't* all my fault? :)) isthmus, you know... come to think of it... a couple of cops came in early on (right around the time I laid the cards down) and were 2 tables away having coffee during a good portion of the reading. While they neither said nor did anything that would make make me feel unwelcome ... I don't know ... sometimes just the presence of others (esp. who might arrest me for laying down Tarot cards) probably can disrupt the reading. I hadn't thought about that fact either. Icestorm, you know what? This was a 6 card reading and 4 were majors. While ++majors hasn't thrown me off before, your words made me stop and consider that as well. Thank you as well for making me consider that. Astraea, your muse anology makes so much sense to me. You can't make her appear, only be thankful when she graces your presence. I continually need to remember not to beat myself up so much (since I usually interpret any failure as a personal fault, by my own nature). And Jewel, you know what? I didn't ask my Fae directly about the issue ... however, later in the day yesterday a friend came by and wanted a mini (3 card) reading, like I often do for her. I told her all about my bad night and my extremely Tarot-irritable mood of the day so she graciously demured from pressing me for one. BUT ... BUT ... I decided to go ahead and try a little one ... but ONLY WITH MY FAERY CARDS. I didn't even wanna look at a Tarot card yesterday. And it was a good reading, very easy on the psyche, the Faeries did the talking for me. And I felt better for having got back on the horse that threw me. Again, my thanks to all who responded because you each made me stop and reconsider, and in doing so I learned from the experience (so at least yesterday's extremely bad mood wasn't all for naught).

Jeanette	06 Mar 2003
Well, I am so happy that you are "back on the horse" so to speak! Sometimes when I look at a spread and it makes no sense, I try writing it down. I guess when I look at the cards all spread out in front of me, it's too much to process at once. When I start jotting down each thought, I start making much more sense of the cards. I write down anything that seems important at the time; which suit dominates, recurrence of certain numbers, positions, everything! Sometimes I start getting ideas faster than I can write them down. Then the story emerges and makes sense. Plus, if you were to write a reading on paper, the querent would then have something to remember it by. Just my suggestion......

Jewel	06 Mar 2003
Alissa I am so glad to hear that today is brand new day and you are on your horse :P ... after reading your last post it is quite evident that there were several things going on that would have certainly disrupted me (the cops for sure! *LOL*). Anyways ... glad the Faeries mounted the sattle back on your horse so you could keep riding.

Astraea	06 Mar 2003
Alissa, so glad to hear that you're feeling better and your confidence is restored! That was a daunting experience, but it served whatever purpose the universe had in mind in that moment -- and now your Faeries speak, and you hear each word! Wonderful.

Icestorm	07 Mar 2003
Well, you know what Alissa, Every day you grow just a bit older, and with that growth you learn new things aided by your experiences of the past. Everybody has days when they are down, but its ok because there are other days that are much better. Im glad that you felt alot better the next day, keep on working at it and dont give up! (Im not sure who im trying to convince now, you or myself :-p)

The You lay out the spread, and.... nothing .... just... nothing thread was originally posted on 05 Mar 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.