Reading that doesn't seem to fit

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 25 Jul 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Armande	25 Jul 2003
(I hope I am posting this in the right category.) I do online readings for people, which works really well. So far at least. This evening I tried to do a reading for someone but it just didn't seem to fit the question. All the information was right but I got the impression I was getting an answer to another question. Now this may not be a problem if you are reading for someone face to face, but it's a bit tricky now. So does anyone have suggestion for this? My plan was to just try again tomorrow and look at it fresh.

wavebreaker	25 Jul 2003
Could it be that the querent isn't asking the right question? Maybe not saying what the real problem is, or maybe he or she doesn't even realise what the real problem is?

MeeWah	25 Jul 2003
Armande: Greetings & welcome to Talking Tarot! I have encountered this in both in-person readings & those at a distance (via e-mail). Agree with TarotLady that any of what she cited could be contributing to your impressions. For one reason or another, a querent may be reluctant to express the actual concern & thus," talks around it". A reading can refer to something the querent is unaware of or address a matter of more priority. In view of the possibilities & the wisdom in listening to one's inner voice, ye can always just tell the client that the impressions seem to concern something else (or in addition to the stated query) & see what the response is.

allibee	25 Jul 2003
Hello Armande:O) I definately have to agree with the wise words of Meewah and Tarotlady here, but I also think laying more cards/starting over may confuse the issue. If you feel the first cards have a message for the querant, then you are probably correct with this instinct. Have you considered posting the reading on the 'your readings' board here ... perhaps we may be able to help you more that way :O) Allibee

Elle	26 Jul 2003
I had a wierd problem tonight reading someone who did not want to reveal anything at all - so I did not know what I was saying - sort of stream of consciousness responses. I kept looking up at the woman to see if I might be on the right track, but she was so private it was hard to tell. I guess what she wanted to know from the cards she did not want divulged to my conscious mind. Upon reflection, I do not remember a word I said. Very strange, Elle

Armande	26 Jul 2003
Thanks for the input. I think I will do another reading this morning and then see where I get. I didn't write the other one down. My procedure works as follows: I lay the cards and generally the whole story just flows as I look at it. So I can write it down in one go really. If the story does not pop up, it may mean I need another deck. So I didn't do a complete reading so far. Will report back on what I find.

Armande	26 Jul 2003
Okay, did another reading and that went fine. :) I just changed the procedure a bit and also incorporated what I saw yesterday. Basically I always find that if I do several readings to one subject, I get the same story every time, just with different cards. And the highlights may vary a bit.

Centaur	26 Jul 2003
Armande, This has happened to me too. Sometimes I have been reading for someone, and it has had no relevance whatsoever to that specific person. Then it turns out to be relevant to their friend who just happens to be sat in the same room. My theory on this, is that I must be picking up on the very strong energies of the other party, therefore influencing the reading. I have also had this occur when there is just myself and the querent in the room. I have found this to be whenever the querent is very worried about another person or has been thinking of another person frequently. C

Umbrae	26 Jul 2003
This is an opinion, based on a few years of reading. When a person is asking about one issue, and another issue is indicated by the oracular device of the day, there are usually underlying issues the person is in denial about. The most common these days is a person asks about love issues and the spread is about work issues… Chances are they are ‘married’ to their job.

Armande	26 Jul 2003
Thanks for the input, I'll keep that in mind next time something similar happens. This was a reading about a new careerpath but what was seeping through were issues about her roots. She is not from this country and she was either in denial or confused about where she belonged. I worked that into the reading.

baba-prague	26 Jul 2003
I've had the experience of reading for someone and finding that every reading (there were three in all) just kept addressing the first question, rather than the subsequent ones. The conclusion I came to is that the answers to the first question hadn't been acted on and so the later readings were, in a sense, just saying "no point in moving on to other questions until you at least begin to resolve the underlying and biggest issue". In fact, looking at what has happened to this person since those readings, it was absolutely true that they needed to keep looking at the first and most important question - rather than denying that and trying to go on to consider more trivial issues. But when these things happen it can be difficult - you can end up with a querent who feels frustrated that you aren't addressing the "real" subject - it's important to explain what you think is in fact happening, as I think even if they can't accept this explanation at the time, they may recall it later and see that it makes sense.

full deck	26 Jul 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Centaur . . . Sometimes I have been reading for someone, and it has had no relevance whatsoever to that specific person. Then it turns out to be relevant to their friend who just happens to be sat in the same room. My theory on this, is that I must be picking up on the very strong energies of the other party, therefore influencing the reading. I have also had this occur when there is just myself and the querent in the room. I have found this to be whenever the querent is very worried about another person or has been thinking of another person frequently. Yes, this has happened with friends of mine too. One fellow was a bit irritated too since he had come there for *his* reading. :-)

Elle	26 Jul 2003
Yeah, it's hard to explain to querents sometimes what the cards can or will do and vice versa. Many people don't quite understand the purpose of Tarot - they just want to see into the future - a fortune teller reading. Elle

Centaur	27 Jul 2003
I agree Baba-Prague, querents often get frustrated when this happens. They come for a reading on one thing, and they get a reading on another. LOL. And it is very difficult to explain that you cannot 'make' a reading happen. LOL @ Full Deck. Very amusing. I can relate to that! C

Armande	28 Jul 2003
Well, querent was very happy with her reading, so all's well that ends well. She even had a follow-up question that she would like a reading on. (I did explain to her that I cannot go and down readings ad infinitum but this one seemed logical, also because something typical had happened)

sagitarian	28 Jul 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Elle I had a wierd problem tonight reading someone who did not want to reveal anything at all - so I did not know what I was saying - sort of stream of consciousness responses. I kept looking up at the woman to see if I might be on the right track, but she was so private it was hard to tell. I guess what she wanted to know from the cards she did not want divulged to my conscious mind. Upon reflection, I do not remember a word I said. Very strange, Elle I couldn't tell you how many times this has happend to me. If for whatever reason, I need my client to open or loosen up, then I'll ask them "does this make sense, or do you understand that?". Usually I use "does this/that make sense?". And they'll usually nod or they will tilt their head to one side and say "well, no, not really, see...." and go on from there. In fact, yesterday, I had a lady come in for a reading, she wanted to know about her relationship. So I laid it all out, and I honestly haven't seen a better relationship reading in all my life. So at the end of the reading, I asked her "Does this fit with what's going on? Usually when people want to know about relationships, it's either, they want to know when they will find someone, or they just started a relationship and want to see where it will go, or there are problems in the relationship." she said, "honestly, no, this doesn't fit my relationship at all right now, it used to..." and went on from there to describe some personal issues that I will not post here. In any case, I thought it very odd that the cards came up as a better then perfect relationship, and in actuality, they were on the verge of splitting up. So with that information, the best advice I could give her was "well, perhaps he's worth giving another chance? I wouldn't give up on this relationship so easily, but honestly, the best advice you will ever get in regards to such personal emotional matters will always come from your family and friends.". Honestly, I really dislike doing relationship readings, but that's mostly what people want to know about, so...shrugs, I do them. As far as the forgetting readings, man, there are very few readings I remember, I forget them constantly. People come back to me and say "remember what you told me last time about this...." and I have to look them in the eyes and say "I do so many readings, that honestly, no I don't remember, I apologize, but I don't remember. I'm interested though on how things worked out for you, so please, do share what you remember and tell me what happend" or something to that effect anyways.

The Reading that doesn't seem to fit thread was originally posted on 25 Jul 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.