Professional Tarot Certification?

Re-reading the 'book burning' comment is see that (I am assuming - and you know what they say about that) in it's complete statement says that 'people would burn books and then rather use their intuitions to interpret.' That in itself is not an offensive statement, but it is the broad application to everyone here at AT doing so that makes it offensive.

And adding a smiley at the end does not absolve it.

I was offended because my first impression upon reading it was that the comment was somehow directed at a particular recent thread 'Dinner With Tarotbear' in which participants tossed a deck they could not connect with into a bonfire. This thread was a parody of other similar threads (Dinner with Waite, Crowley, Miss Smith, and Stu Kaplan - to be exact). The 'burning' at the end was strictly symbolic - a cathartic reaction carried off in the most humorous way possible.

The comment, however returns us to that historical anomaly of book burnings and Nazis destroying knowledge to keep the masses ignorant. Book burning will always and eternally be associated with Nazis, and the implication - intentional or not- that the members of AT ARE Nazis is deeply offensive, indeed.

We now return to our regularly scheduled thread ...

tarotbear said:

My 'Apprentice' certificate actually has an EXPIRATION date printed on it! Since when does knowledge expire?

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Dude, you are a fricking milk carton!

hehehehehe.

I would have thought the heavy hand of validation through certification would have established its self in either Australia or the U.S. first. Next I suppose one will need a police check and fingerprints to make certain that one is not a crimminal, posing as a reader.

tarotbear said:

My 'Apprentice' certificate actually has an EXPIRATION date printed on it! Since when does knowledge expire?

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My knowledge expires quite frequently. I think it’s because I have such a lot of it. Every now and then my brain seems to need to clean itself out and I have to start over…..

Certification

After over 30 years as a professional reader and teacher I need CERTIFICATION? Give me a break. Have checked out the various certifications and to get to my level they charge between $1,200 & $1,500. Now that really ticked me off.

Therefore, I am going to open a website for certification in the next six months. Certification will cost a whopping $10.00 (per level). The cost will go to offset the cost of the site. I may/maynot (tending toward NOT) offer my course (I have a drop out rate of 55% - it's a hard course) on line. Currently course is class room only.

If anyone would like to comment I would appreciate the input. Also what do you guys/gals think about the ones that couldn't afford the $10.00 (hey no laughing, or being mean or spiteful) I know professional readers that are great who barely make a living doing the 9-5, and I also know some pro's that got wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and they have ABSOLUTELY nothing.

Feedback would be fabulous - what say you Tarotbear

Well, bear in mind that you have already been undercut; the winner is Lillie, who is charging partly used chewing gum.....

Seriously - offering the course sounds great, but certification ? it's only worth it in any profession if there is a genuine charter and universally recognised qualifications, and there are none for tarot - and I'm not convinced there ever could be.

Ten dollars a level times how many levels?

I ask that in all seriousness because I have seen (not accusing you of such a scam) several places offer information at outrageously low prices and then have an outrageous number of requirements - each at a low, low price - which adds up to big bucks when you are done.

Once upon a time I subscribed to a sewing workbook offer - I was a professional theatre costumer - and new products, fabrics, and techniques come out all the time. Once a month you got a 'specially designed' package that had a 'specially designed' lesson/workbook that fit in their 'specially designed' folder or notebook. Everything was 'specially designed' for the tune of $15 a pop. Five months - six months goes by and although the info is of some value, it is hardly worth $15 and there seems to be no fixed 'end' to them. I finally called the company and asked 'when does it stop' and they said they were still working on future packages and they had about 100 of them planned!!!!! How fast do you think I said CANCEL ???

Wow.

Thank you all for your helpful & intsiteful replies.
Ive had a couple of readings from Tabi, they were ok...like the readings i currently give on another website. I guess i should trust my intuition more and not rely on the cruch of certification. Ive been thing about this so much lately. Ive been reading for a year, but in the last 2 months, ive been doing readings for people like a maniac, i cant get enough. The feedback i get is that my readings are very accurate.

My issues was (not anymore) is that my answers came from somewhere that was not necessarly the cards. Things that I pickedf up wernt following the standard intepretaions. I now now that this is cool & helping me tap into my intuiution.

Thanks again (expecially to the Tarot monkey )

queeny

TABI Free Reading - for Netzach and any other unhappy querents

Netzach said:

As far as certification is concerned, I've found this thread very interesting and useful. I had been thinking of getting (tarot) certified. In the first instance, I thought about TABI endorsement. So, to get an idea of the standard required, I requested a free TABI reading. What I received was ungrammatical, the spelling was bad, it didn't answer my question and, in places, it sounded like a horoscope from the Sunday paper. Being used to the standard of reading one gets in the AT circles and exchange which, on the whole, are very good indeed, I was not impressed.

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I have been asked by a representative from the TABI Committee to post the following, as regards Netzach's comments :

"I am surprised and more than a little concerned by your experience of our Free Reading service. Grammar and spelling is something we take very seriously and devote as much attention to this as to the content of the reading. Our aim in mentoring readers in the Endorsement scheme is to help them to develop a professional standard of reading, in terms of interpretation, ethics and presentation. A reader undergoing Endorsement would not have a poorly spelled and ungrammatical reading approved by their mentor and should not send a reading out until they have approval. The odd case of over-enthusiam or misunderstanding with new readers has been known, however. We also require Endorsed readers to complete and post at least one (anonomised) reading per month to the Free Reading group, so we do have an ongoing peer quality check whilst ensuring an ongoing population of Endorsed reader to staff the Free Reading service.

We don't discriminate against people joining the scheme on the grounds of grammar and spelling, as this is usually something that can be addressed during the endorsement process. Indeed, we count among our successes people who have joined with a fairly low standard of literacy and gone on to produce a very good standard of readings, with a lot of effort on both their part and their mentor's. Therefore, your remarks bear further investigation, as I can assure you that this is definitely NOT representative of the standard of readings.

I'm sure you can appreciate that your experience is very worrying for us and we would very much like to get to the bottom of it. I would appreciate your sending details (the original reading if you still have it, the reader's name and/or email address) to email address removed by moderator: see Forum rules and we will look into it."

Constructive feedback is always welcomed .

ribbit

Certification levels

This is for Tarotbear:

I think three levels: Reader, Master Reader, GrandMaster/Teacher

So all three levels of Certification would be $30.00 Certification until the day die - no expiration.

As I said before the money's collected would go to keep the site up to cover the cost of printing the certificates and mailing of course.

I would do it for nothing but I learned long ago, running something with no cost to anyone except me & my SO for over 14 years ended up costing $180,000. ( I ran and still run Ferret Friends of Indian River County Ferret Shelter and Ferret Friends Disaster Response) Yes we do wonderful things for the animals but we drive old cars, never go anywhere.

I have to add a note to the above. After the Hurricanes hit our shelter, Two large organizations and a large number of people gave us more than $1,800 to keep us going till we could get electric and water back on.

Boy I just know I'm going to get some negative post on this one.

Queenofkingh said:

Wow.
My issues was (not anymore) is that my answers came from somewhere that was not necessarly the cards. Things that I picked up wernt following the standard intepretations. I now now that this is cool & helping me tap into my intuition.

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It sounds as though you would enjoy the intuitive readings circles here. I don’t use the “card meanings” either – I can’t get on with them at all (even though sometimes what I read comes close all by itself….! But sometimes it – well, doesn’t ! I know just what you mean !)