reading/fortune telling

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 19 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

wind	19 Mar 2005
Hi everyone! I would appreciate your opinion on this: if/when you have a client, how do you read? I mean, do you predict the future? Because I feel some people want you to do just so. They want answers on questions like: will I move to a better house, will I travel, will I finish my studies...How do you answer such questions? Some fortune tellers who also use tarot, can see so many specific details in the cards...like: an older woman has helped you but now she left you or something like that. How can they see such thigs? Do you see them? I am asking because in the near future I am supposed to give readings (I need money, so I took the challenge) and I am afraid I will not be able to see such things...and I don't want to predict the future but I am afraid people will want me to do that. I see tarot more as a reflective tool. So, if there are any professional readers here, can you help me? How do you read, how do you deal with clients? Thanks!

rainwolf	19 Mar 2005
I dont see tarot as "fortune telling" (i never use such a word) as much as helping others figure out problems with some possible predictions. I dont think it will help anyone if they just know the future-what will help them is if they know what is going on and how they can improve a situation, etc. When someone asks me a question of what will happen i ask them what they want to know about it, and i make positions that i know they are reallly asking-but didnt know i could answer. Maybe that is where the "fortune telling" is coming from-advice that turns into a helpful prediction. Just read however you read, and that will work just fine; predictions are for the people that cant work on problems and have to have a 'sealed' fate. In regards to how specific they get, they either know the cards well, or use surrounding cards to help them. Intuition is also a biggie for most people, and some usually know when to follow it. Some cards also come up often when certain questions are asked, so the variable cards that come up hint at specifics.

stella01904	19 Mar 2005
MM ~ What do I do? I ask! If you've been using the cards as a "reflective tool", then you know what they mean, just say "Will so-and-so do this..." and put down a few cards. Only three or so, or it will get vague. If you're not getting any sense out of them, draw a clarification card or two. BB, Stella

ros	19 Mar 2005
When people ask if I will tell them their future or if I'm psychic... I tell them I am a "card reader" and I'll explain to them the messages of the cards that they pick for a reading. Whatever comes out of a reading is what they needed or wanted to know. It's not fortune telling it's card reading. I agree with you all about the cards being reflective also. The cards are the reflection of their innerself which they are working on.

stella01904	19 Mar 2005
MM ~ Ahem! I think of divination as synchronicity, you're picking up on the patterns that are forming and will come to pass if things continue as they are. BB, Stella

rabidwolfie	20 Mar 2005
Well, more often than not, I have to agree with the cards as a tool for reflection alone, but on a few occasions, which seem to happen almost randomly, the cards almost seem to predict near events with great accuracy. A freind of mine, for example, was asking me for a reading & it told of several things which we laughed off. But then, about a month later, I talked with her again & she said everything the cards said happened. We thought it was very odd. But it's happened on at least 3 other occasions. Not always with the same person. It seems only once per person actually.

Shade	20 Mar 2005
I do read the cards for the purpose of prediction and forecasting the future but I do believe that "Will I..." is the wrong way to start a question because it can only go so far. If you tell them no, will they accept it? I would re-word the question as "How do I go about getting a house?" The answer may still be no, but you have a better sense of perspective this way.

psychic sue	20 Mar 2005
I tell my querants before I start, this is not fortune telling. I tell them its about influences around them and how they can be best used. I tell them I can sometimes see future influences and that I can sometimes get a psychic or spirit link, but this is not guaranteed. I tell them that their life is what THEY make it. The choice is theirs. Sue x

stella01904	21 Mar 2005
Shade wrote: I do read the cards for the purpose of prediction and forecasting the future but I do believe that "Will I..." is the wrong way to start a question because it can only go so far. If you tell them no, will they accept it? MM ~ I should have clarified further, I didn't mean "will I EVER". The reading only takes up to a year, at most, to play out. The correct answer to "Will I EVER...?" is "Do you WANT to?". For a reading, though, asking "Will I..?" (WITHOUT the "ever") is necessary to see if it is worthwhile to make the effort at present, in other words, whether circumstances will be favorable, or if one would be better off waiting. You don't want to take on house payments when you might have an illness or job loss around the corner. BB, Stella

Shade	21 Mar 2005
A time restriction certainly cleans it up a bit. I once asked will I ever find love and got the Three of Swords, not a great idea.

Sulis	21 Mar 2005
Hi Wind, I agree that many people want you to tell them what the future is going to be. It's easier to think that the future is mapped out for ; it takes the responsibility away from the individual. I believe that we're all responsible for our own future - we make our own destiny. Wind wrote: They want answers on questions like: will I move to a better house, will I travel, will I finish my studies...How do you answer such questions? Explain to them that you don't feel that the future is set in stone. Explain that nothing that comes up in the reading is something that they cannot change. I'd also explain that questions such as 'will I move to a better house?' are a bit limiting; the cards are best at describing situations and trends, they're not so good at giving yes or no answers. Try suggesting that if they change the way the question is worded they're likely to get a much more helpful answer. Practice rewording questions yourself; Will I move to a better house?' would be better expressed as 'What do I need to do in order to move to a better house?' Stress that you use tarot as a problem solving tool, a way to see a situation from many different angles and not for predicting a definate future. Love Sulis xx

Raven Reed	21 Mar 2005
I am a rank newbie at this but... I had someone ask if it was a good time to take a certain trip. I changed the question to "what happens if I do/what happens if I don't take this trip at this time" and it worked just fine. In fact, the reading was very accurate to the situation.

NPMSteve	21 Mar 2005
Hi WInd, wind wrote: Hi everyone! I am asking because in the near future I am supposed to give readings (I need money, so I took the challenge) and I am afraid I will not be able to see such things...and I don't want to predict the future but I am afraid people will want me to do that. I'm in a very simmilar position myself, eg just begining to do paid for readings. I've found some very helpful insights on this forum, theres a very comprehensive list of threads here http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=15119 Some tales of my personal experioence with this, for what it's worth. Previously, I have very rarely used the tarot to attempt divination of specific future events (in fact, I can count the times on my fingers). Somewhat shockingly (to me at the time), on every occasion, it was 100% bang on target, based on interpreting the cards strictly by their 'book' meanings. As a for instance, I once performed a reading with a friend to try and see the possible future of a software company for which we both worked. We used a straight line layout, with the left end representing "now" and the right end representing the "future". I forget the actual details of all the cards (although I'm sure I have it written down), but prominent ones I do recall along the timeline were "The Tower" (we interpreted this as bankruptcy (a la Banzhhaf & Theler's "Keywords for the Crowley Tarot). This came to pass (to be fair, twas a bit of a no brainer given the circumstances, but the fact that the card came out AT ALL in this context is interesting) Another significant card along the timeline was a Knight (of disks I seem to remember), which, following the same procedures, we saw as a man who would continue the business. (I'll have to go look the spread up, but I've moved house at least twice since then, and am still somewhat burdened with boxes of apparantly random things, so don't hold your breath!) This to came to pass, one employee set up his own business to provide continuing support of the software we had created to our existing customer base. All this happened within two months of our reading. At the end was some other portent of doom card, suggesting the enterprise would ultimately fail. This to, sadly, came to pass, although quite some time later. My friend, who had just acquired his first deck, was utterly amazed, I (who had been playing with the tarot for a few years by then) was pretty amazed at the sheer accuracy that a "quick and dirty" reading, using simply "book" meanings, was able to provide. More recently, in the spirit of performing such an experiment again, I drew a three card spread the day before visiting an opthalmologist for a very important consultation. In this case, I chose to take a more "intuitive" approach, rather than employ strict "book meanings", often perilous with the Thoth deck's unsympathetic keywords! In this case I drew Six Of Swords (Science), 8 Of Wands (Swiftness), and the XXI The universe. My "quick and dirty" interpretation of ths spread was thus : 6 S : The consultant will know his stuff (sadly not always the case in my somewhat unusual circumstances) 8 W : He will be able to come to a decision very swiftly XXI : His decision (whichever way it went) would be suffciently authoritative that it would enable me to successfuly get on with the rest of my life (as opposed to leaving me hanging on further consultations, etc) And indeed, did all THIS come to pass as well. In fact, in less than twelve hours from the time on this post, this same man will be aiming a cutting laser at my head to perform a "Posterior capuslotomy", which despite the ominous sound of it, is a *really* good thing. As a further tantalising glimpse of the way the cards can (or can seem to ?) represent specific future events, the first card out for my next perosnal reading (a more general one, the details of which are not relevant here) was the 6 of Disks. In the Crowley deck this card is titled "Success" (yay!), and more importantly, the image on the card conatins (amongst a wealth of other things) a number of shooting 'beams', lots of bright 'light', and most significantly all, six shining disks arranged (roughly) in a circle. The purpose of a YAG Laser Capsulotomy is to burn a series of holes in the rear of the lens capsule *IN A CIRCLE* Blown away ? You betcha. (I'm still a skeptioc at heart, despite six years experience to the contrary) I will be bearing these events in mind when I start my readings for paid clients, although in their case I will certainly be erring on the side of caution ! Thanks for raising some interesting questions, its certainly focussed my mind on how to apporach my clients. May peace be upon you '-)

Satori	21 Mar 2005
Hi Wind, My answer comes to you in five letters: TRUST and FAITH When you sit down to read, as you learn and grow as a reader you will find yourself seeing the very things you can't imagine seeing now. In fact, because you are asking about timing my guess is you will learn this soon, because you just might have a string of people asking about this. In my experience, if it niggles me, it is coming thru the door.... So don't worry about if you'll be able to see and say it. If you need to tell it to the sitter you'll see it. They don't always get what they come in asking about. Your job is to show them what the cards are saying in the best way you know how. If they like you and you are honestly trying to connect with them they will feel that. Don't worry. Something always happens when you start laying out cards and you are with a sitter. Always. hugs, elf

mnemosyne7	21 Mar 2005
When I first meet a client, I ask if they've ever had their cards read before. No matter what the answer is, it gives me the opportunity to tell them what to expect from our time together. The whole spiel is best left for another thread. The bottom line is that I let the querent know that I don't tell fortunes. No judgement passed on those who do. I simply don't. This concept really came home the other night. My 11 year old son has his own deck. He had a friend over for dinner one night (nice young man from a verry Baptist home). During dinner, the friend lit up and said, "Philip, you have Tarot cards. After dinner you can tell my fortune." My son, without batting an eye or skipping a beat, said, "Mark, we don't tell fortunes in this house. We tell possibilities." I love that kid! He has reduced my 2 minute spiel to two short sentences. Mnem

stella01904	22 Mar 2005
mnemosyne7 wrote: This concept really came home the other night. My 11 year old son has his own deck. He had a friend over for dinner one night (nice young man from a verry Baptist home). During dinner, the friend lit up and said, "Philip, you have Tarot cards. After dinner you can tell my fortune." My son, without batting an eye or skipping a beat, said, "Mark, we don't tell fortunes in this house. We tell possibilities." I love that kid! He has reduced my 2 minute spiel to two short sentences. Mnem MM ~ Me too! Can I borrow him for a bit? (Just kidding!) I once had a client ask me what my "powers" were, like I was a Marvel superhero. :) BB, Stella

mnemosyne7	22 Mar 2005
Hi Stella, I keep telling my Wild Child that I'm going to sell him, but borrowing/loaning is out of the question. It's all or nothing. Just kidding. He's a great kid, and I'm a very blessed Mom. Mnem

The reading/fortune telling thread was originally posted on 19 Mar 2005 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.