Tarot as a profession...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 22 Feb 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Kosmos	22 Feb 2004
Ok, I have come accross a very interesting piece of tarot-related information that I would like to open up for discussion. I will try to express this as clearly as possible. I don't know if anyone has experience with what I am going to talk about, or if they would be willing to share if they did. I don't intend for this to be a painful or offensive thread in any way, it's just really interesting to me (so hopefully this thread is seen as tarot-related and not moved to a subsciber only board - sorry, don't mean to sound presumptuous or defensive to the moderators). As we all probably know, there is quite an industry based around call-in tarot readings and psychic consultations. A friend of mine told me a story about an experience she had in another city. She's been reading Tarot for a long time and she's great at it, so when she moved to this new city that she has since left, she tried to get a job as a call-in tarot card reader. The employers, however, said that it was mandatory that she first work on a phone sex line and that after she did that for a while she could apply to read cards. Now, here are my open-ended questions for those that would choose to answer or comment: 1) Is it in any way justifiable to mandate working in the 'sex industry' for a person who is qualified and honestly seeking to do something that is unrelated to the sex industry? It just 'feels' wrong to me. Also, people who use and find something in these readings might not be aware of the fact that they're supporting a phone-sex business, which I also don't think is fair, and quite manipulative of these companies (not that I'm that surprised by this fact). 2) To get a little more controversial, do you think that the experience of working on a phone sex line could/would increase someone's effectiveness when reading cards (regarding insight into certain aspects of desire, repression, etc)? I don't know how to articulate that any further so I hope the question is clear. I know that not many people put a lot of stock into pay-per-call psychic lines, but enough do that they exist. In fact, I think that's what a large portion of the population thinks of when they hear that someone reads tarot cards. Perhaps it's an unfortunate stereotype attached to tarot, but I've never called one of these, or worked for one, and I don't know how many opperate in the way described above, so I'm not in a place to judge - hence my asking what you all think of the issue. The perception of tarot readers by the masses and their treatment as professionals shouldn't necessarily be ignored just because its of a 'mystical' nature in my oppinion, and yet I can see why we might not want to politicize it either. It's a real bind from what I can tell.

tmgrl2	22 Feb 2004
Don't even need to draw cards to read this one...this is purely personal, but the whole idea of your friend being asked to operate as a reader on a phone sex line FIRST...is somehow abhorent to me. There are a lot of people "out there" doing readings, also, who shouldn't. I am new to Tarot, but studied for some time with a psychic in Florida (The Rainbow Oracle-T.Grosso) who worked with color mostly, some astrology and handwritings. He is amazingly gifted and used his talents to help police find clues to locate lost people and solve crimes. He was on a Channel 7 ABC special years ago..."Psychic Detectives..." He would often refuse to read for people, when it was evident from the outset that they were looking to him for something he doesn't do... Anyhow, I live on Long Island, New York. I am new to Tarot and there are only a few "readers" listed in our phone directory....and this is a very heavily populated are...several of the readers have stores...(haven't explored yet). Any chance your friend can just do readings privately? put out the word.... sorry ...this is a sore point for me...I would not consider reading in that situation. JUST MY OPINION

Star Spirit	22 Feb 2004
I was shocked to hear that. No, perhaps tarot call-ins are not the most trusted/popular methods to receive readings, but chances are that at least some of those readers are qualified (perhaps they all are, I wouldn't really know because I've never trusted or called one of those before). I think it's extremely unjust to make them work on phone sex lines, especially since that has nothing to do with tarot. I'm very surprised that they're even linked. To me, linking tarot with pornography just places more of a stereotype on it. We shouldn't be lumped into that category. I also don't see how working on a phone sex line would in any way be helpful to reading tarot. Qualified tarot readers learn everything they know from doing readings for all types of people with all sorts of problems. I realize that phone sex, psychics, and tarot are all seen as the most controversial infomercials on television. But I really don't think tarot readers should have to subject themselves to that kind of work before they can read their cards.

allibee	22 Feb 2004
Answer to question 1 - NO! Answer to question 2 - YES!!! At the end of the day, the more 'life' experience you have, the more facets you can apply to your readings, but to get a job doing something you feel debases you just to gain a deeper insight into tarot is a bit of a non starter really. Now, if you enjoy phone sex lines, then more power to you, and go for it .... got to help with the self confidence too :)

tmgrl2	22 Feb 2004
Right...As we all know, there are charlatans and gifted in any area of work, life, politics...

Kosmos	22 Feb 2004
oooh, sorry, I should clarify that she is no longer looking to do this - its very much a past incident that just got me thinking. She has a job that she's great at now and its not even a question anymore, I just have to assume that this still goes on and that it must be more negative than positive for most of those involved. I really hate to think that tarot could be so damaging for peoples lives, but I have to assume that it can be on the basis that it has so much healing potential... It's kind of the nature of duality that where we find great goodness, well... you know what I'm saying.

sagitarian	22 Feb 2004
I read professionally at a local metaphysical bookstore in town. A lot of the people that work with me have had a history of working for as you call it "call-in tarot readings". I have yet ever heard them mention that they had to work for a phone sex operation first before doing tarot. I don't know what business persay she was looking into, but all the businesses that i've heard about are strictly tarot readings and that's it. I'm sorry that this friend had such a horrid experience, but if you are thinking about working for something of the sort yourself, and feel held back from doing so based on this one experience of someone you know, well, I highly doubt that it will happen to you as well. If nothing else, research out the company before you apply (not that your friend didn't).

allibee	22 Feb 2004
At the end of the day nobody forces anybody to do that because we all have the right to say NO, and look for other work or become self employed, but thanks for the heads up Kosmos ... it's important to know how some of these firms operate Dead Star, I REALLY have to disagree with this quote by the way: Quote: Qualified tarot readers learn everything they know from doing readings for all types of people with all sorts of problems They can learn a lot, but not as much than they can from experiencing life for themselves and then applying those experiences to their readings

jmd	22 Feb 2004
The example reflects more on the service provider and the ways in which they view Tarot than anything else! Obviously to them, the demand was especially for sex-talk, and possibly wished to fill spaces. From their perspective, it may be that anyone can do sex talks, but only some are going to be sufficiently talkative to be able to 'read' cards (I suspect the provider probably thought of Tarot reading as charlatanism, and hence would have had no qualms). I wonder if there had been greater demand for Tarot reading calls than sex-talk, whether the provider would have said to a person fronting up to do sex-talk that they first had to do some Tarot readings, and only later apply for the other!? It's a difficult situation when one is placed in a position of requiring the income, but needing to jump over hurddles which are inappropriately placed there by the unscrupulous!

Kosmos	22 Feb 2004
Glad to hear that it's not the common way of doing things... also, sorry if 'call-in readings' is a bad term. lol, I don't know what else to call it, or if there is a more official term. Thanks for the replies by the way.

Phoenyx*	22 Feb 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Kosmos 1) Is it in any way justifiable to mandate working in the 'sex industry' for a person who is qualified and honestly seeking to do something that is unrelated to the sex industry? It just 'feels' wrong to me. Also, people who use and find something in these readings might not be aware of the fact that they're supporting a phone-sex business, which I also don't think is fair, and quite manipulative of these companies (not that I'm that surprised by this fact). You have GOT to be kidding me. I don't see the connection between reading cards and sex line operators. To me, it seems the same as saying..."You can't write a book unless you write literotica." Quote: Originally posted by Kosmos 2) To get a little more controversial, do you think that the experience of working on a phone sex line could/would increase someone's effectiveness when reading cards (regarding insight into certain aspects of desire, repression, etc)? I don't know how to articulate that any further so I hope the question is clear. To answer with a question, would it make a person more effective as a reader to have had sex period? Or, more to the point, would it make them a less effective reader, if they were a virgin?

Star Spirit	23 Feb 2004
Quote: Originally posted by allibee Dead Star, I REALLY have to disagree with this quote by the way: Quote: Qualified tarot readers learn everything they know from doing readings for all types of people with all sorts of problems They can learn a lot, but not as much than they can from experiencing life for themselves and then applying those experiences to their readings Allibee-- sorry, I phrased that wrong. They don't learn EVERYTHING that way. But I think that is where we gain most of our reading experience, because not only do we know what we know from our own experiences but we learn from the experiences of others. And it is often much more accurate reading for others than for ourselves. Perhaps working in a phone sex chat could add some small part to this, but what I meant was I really don't think it is justified for that to be manditory, because it really has nothing whatsoever to do with tarot...

allibee	23 Feb 2004
No need to apolgise, these forums are for airing opinions :)

Osher	23 Feb 2004
I found this whole thread very strange, the idea that someone needs to do work a sex-line to work a tarot-line. Obviously it means that the company has no regard for Tarot. It also means that being a man I could never read Tarot for this company! However, in the back of 'Prediction' magazine are many adverts for Tarot readers. I assume this means that they are looking for serious readers, fair enough. However, Tarot is an unquantifiable subject, and not an exact science (how often have you found someone you can't read for ?). Therefore, if you are struggling, and unable to read, you have still charged someone for your time, but not provided a service (as they charge by the second). Something feels wrong in short.

STARGAZING	23 Feb 2004
I have a freind who unfortunately is working for a phone sex website based business. She is doing this for a short period of time, to then read Tarot on the same site. Her reasoning behind it is, it is a job and pays the bills right now. She removes herself from her work, puts in her time, and cant wait to finally read Tarot for people.

The Tarot as a profession... thread was originally posted on 22 Feb 2004 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.