Public Tarot Reading

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 07 Sep 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

HudsonGray	07 Sep 2003
I stopped today at a Wellness Fair & they had, among all the other dealers, a table in back with two tarot readers. Price was $10 (no time limit) and they had a break in customers so we got to talking. The guy was one of the readers at the Renaissance Faire that's south of here--it runs something like 12 weekends--and he says there's been both an increase in readers working the event (to the detriment of all, too many vs the number of customers, so nobody's making good money) and that the economy really hit hard these last two years - ie: reading seems to be taken as a luxury thingie so fewer people take the plunge when the cash is low. The lady next to him agreed, and said she'd seen a drop off at the local events in the Midwest here, too. I'm wondering if this is across the board now? The drop off in walk-up customers because of the cash situation I mean? Just curious. I'm wondering if they dropped their reading price because of it, usually it's $20-$25 a reading in our area. There's a Pagan Pride Festival coming up in 2 weeks, I'm going to go to that one too & check with some of the local readers there on this also. (Oh, the lady was using the Aquarian deck, but I didn't see which one the guy was using, it had a blue back with gold suns with those little wiggly 'rays' coming from them. The entire back of the cards were covered in rows of these. They wore regular street clothes, had a plain tablecloth in front of them & a computer generated sign behind with two other signs on the table, a pretty simple setup. Two chairs in front for the customers, and only one deck choice per reader -- for those who wonder about these things!)

Elle	07 Sep 2003
In the Northeast, casino gambling is so big, as well as lottery spending - we would not have that problem here - the problem of people not spending money on a reading. I just recently spent $45 on a one hour tarot/numerology/playing card reading. To tell you the truth, I was a fidget after 20 minutes. I don't like to discuss myself for that long - I find it boring! Hope business picks up for you out there. Warmest, Elle

Chronata	08 Sep 2003
I have had no problems with finding customers to read for, but then again, I am usually reading at specific one day events, local cofee houses, and retaurants, and such...where I am the only reader there. I also charge considerably less...$5 to $10 per reading...no real time limit. I do my readings in the Wisconsin/Illinois border-area, and in a few Chicago suburbs. I am not surprised by the Ren Faire, though... was this Bristol? Seems that they have a lot of artisans losing money there as well as the tarot readers...but I did actually see quite a few of them there...more than in the past years.

HudsonGray	08 Sep 2003
Yep, the Bristol Ren Faire right on the border between WI & IL. I've also heard that booth sales were dramatically down this year for some vendors there, but don't know about the previous year. Either way, that isn't good, that's for sure. Nobody wants to be running in the red with something like that, not for several years. I've no idea what kind of contract the vendors have (time limit wise) or if they can back out of the deal in cases like this. I know the MN Ren Faire did lousy in the weekends after 9/11 & closed early. Chronata, I had no idea you were in the area! I'm up in Milwaukee's north side. Nighthawk is 50 miles west of me in Watertown (home of the Ancestral Path Tarot, surprisingly). Bet there's more around, too.

catlin	09 Sep 2003
As far as in Germany reading fees can range from free (what is not common, though) up to unlimited prize. I usually ask for 30 min ca. 25$ and ppl get up to 3 readings in this time, usually the CC, a five cards spread and a 3 cards spread. I usually don't do free readings any more as I found out that ppl only use you or don't value your skill. I have done free readings for friends for ages some years ago and it really turned out that they wanted every time a reading when they were with me so I have stopped free readings. Besides, I have to pay for the reading room, decks, candles, incense stuff etc. so I think it is only fair to ask for money to cover my expenses.

The Public Tarot Reading thread was originally posted on 07 Sep 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.