"You Read Tarot? OOoo DO ME, DO ME!!"

Dark Artemis

magenta said:
I feel there is something so not appropraite in presenting the Tarot as an entertainement tool...it takes away the sacredeness of it and of the human spirit.
I think we need to always have some kind of respect for the energies we are working with and doing this type of work requires some responsability from us...but like in everything there are so many different ways of doing things...like in any profession.

One thing I beleive some people forget is that the Tarot is also a spiritual tool and jump into it oblivious of its power and ramifications.

You need to be careful about what types of energies you call into your life.

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Indeed yes...
I have long been an agnostic, and a more spiritual approach to life is still somewhat new to me..
But, I agree comepletely with you. Tarot *is* a spiritual tool, and it is also a tool for meditation. Just like I wouldn't discuss the the meditative state I reach while doing yoga with some relative stranger in a bar, so I wouldn't do a Tarot reading.
It is just too personal, and it mocks the spiritual aspect of Tarot.
 

WaterSong

///Indeed yes...
I have long been an agnostic, and a more spiritual approach to life is still somewhat new to me..
But, I agree comepletely with you. Tarot *is* a spiritual tool, and it is also a tool for meditation. Just like I wouldn't discuss the the meditative state I reach while doing yoga with some relative stranger in a bar, so I wouldn't do a Tarot reading.
It is just too personal, and it mocks the spiritual aspect of Tarot.\\\\

Yes Dark Artemis, no matter what your beleifs are about spiritual matters there is something about the privacy of it and its reaching into intimate parts of people's lives that makes it an instrument for a more respecful approach.

You wouldn't want to see your therapist in a bar, wouldn't you?

Some of the issues that come up in readings are just private matters that should be handled with care...who knows what will come up in a reading? How can you predict how the other person will react to it?( and maybe with some cups on them)

I can just hear the jolly laughter when the reader tells tough Jhonny about his hidden feelings of sorrow about his last breakup...oh brother.

cheers
 

deranged_walrus

I also find myself in this situation a lot, expecially now that I'm in a country that is really closed to this sort of thing. Everyone wants to take advantage of my presense and argue over who gets a reading first. In the States, my response was usually, "I don't have my cards." Wasn't that a lie. Then my friend would betray me again and pull out some playing cards and say, "It's okay, you said you could read these just as well." *strangling noise* I've learned by now to just ask them to cut the deck and pull a card, and I'll tell them what it means. Over in 2 minutes, and their own attention span (shortened by the alcohol) sets them on another path.

Why do I dislike this to begin with?

I'm going to be selfish and say that I go out to socialise. One reading, even a three-card spread, usually takes over 15 minutes for me, and ALL of my attention goes to that one person. I'd rather not spend my whole night in a dark corner of the booth focused on one person with my beer getting warm when I came out to meet new people and have a good laugh over a drink or two.

Plus, it draws a crowd. I sit there doing a reading for someone, and his/her friends (and strangers) crowd around to hear the dirt. During the course of a reading, I ask questions as they appear in the cards. But they're personal questions, so I don't want to make the querent answer in front of an audience. I've done it before, and I just get denial after denial (when I should've gotten confirmation) because 15 other people were breathing on the cards. That's not how a reading is done.

Then there's the usual problem of people wanting to prove how false it all is (but sober people want to do that, too) and that's not fun to deal with. Music and other people talking are distractions (I have a tendency to keep one ear on other conversations, then interrupt the reading to jump in on the other topic). As other have pointed out, the novelty of being a circus sideshow isn't fun to deal with either. I don't like arguing over free choice vs destiny, lives set in stone vs making your own decisions. I especially don't like answering the question that always pops up, "Do you really believe this stuff?" Yes, I do, and if you don't believe that I can help you see yourself, why are you asking for this reading?
 

Alissa

deranged_walrus said:
I especially don't like answering the question that always pops up, "Do you really believe this stuff?" Yes, I do, and if you don't believe that I can help you see yourself, why are you asking for this reading?
Amen!!!

I also agree that is a Tarot reading is A. extremely personal in nature, and B. extremely sacred to me, just as magenta and DArtemis mention, so I very much understand not wanting to have something we respect being treated as circus entertainment, or worse yet, a drunken philosophical question-and-anwer session. The Socratic method just doesn't work on drunks. :p

Great replies still coming, thank you all for contributing your thoughts thus far... it's very interesting to me.
 

FaeryGodmother

Hmm. Yet again it looks like I'm going to be the odd one out. I actually don't mind doing readings in "public". Though with a few conditions. Some of the best palm reading experiences I have had have been public affairs. For example I was once lining up for sausage sizzle in amongst a large group of bikies. Not the first group of people you can imagine who would be into that sort of thing. Chatting with the guy behind me it came up in conversation that I knew how to read tarot and palms amongst other things. Well this turned out to be not only a fascinating palm to read but he was so excited (for a guy who wasn't into these things) that he dragged his mate over and made me read his palm. Turned out the first guy was thinking of starting a million dollar business. The guy who he dragged over was the guy that was going to be managing the operation and everything I said just confirmed what he was thinking and already knew. So for me (as i was still learning at the time) this was a pretty fantastic experience. I won't read at night clubs or in bars, though I'm happy to read family at family gatherings. I make a point of making those readings fun and light hearted though. Funnily enough those are he readings my family remember best (probably because everyone else remembers them too). In club or bar situations (which in my life occur rarely) it simply hasn't come yet. No one who has found out I read in those situations has asked me for a reading there and then. When it has come up in a situation where it was impossible for me to read (like at work or said bar/ club) I simply say," sure, give me a call.." Palms though, I'll do anytime, anywhere. Mostly because i love looking at peoples palms. :D

love
faery
 

abella

Imagine a clueless person with visions of:
"dance for me psychic, DANCE!~"

When I'm feeling a bit cantankerous I will say this to myself or my partner to lighten up the mood. *grin* If no one is around but he and I a dramatization occurs of a belly dancing psychic with full shimmying effects and my hands wholloping about my crown chakra while he says: "dance for me psychic, DANCE!~". We then start cracking it up with laughter! lol

So yes, I don't like to be outed or asked to a party and then expected to read (for free) -- it does happen and it's annoying. I do get the, "what am I thinking?" routine or the "here's my palm, what do you see?". Well, I'm not always "on" and I don't read palms in any great capacity! *grin*

Alissa said:
How do you feel? It's a big social gathering, and you've just been outed as a reader. Now folks are curious. They may or may not be inebriated. It may or may not be a quiet atmosphere you're in. But regardless... are you happy to oblige, or angry for being bothered?

This is an exceptional quote:
Alissa said:
No one gets a reading from me for free - you have to at least Pay Attention.
Hear hear!!
 

abella

Umbrae said:
I'm not a performing monkey
You are all cracking me up!!

Umbrae said:
It's an opportunity to do a one or two card reading and drop a business card on them...

however at holiday parties with friends I try to explain that it (the reading) would suck due to distraction and we'd have to go off someplace more private and that'd be kinda rude...and I drop a buisiness card on them, "Call me!"

and at the same time I'm not a performing monkey...

But there are other times when someone comes up and asks and I look in their eyes and...

Well...

Great suggestion/idea!
 

abella

Helvetica said:
Doctors and lawyers are faced with the same problem...

In the days when I practiced law, I'd always get asked about people's divorce or dispute with the neighbours over a dodgy gate. Then, not long after I started to read tarot, the same thing would happen.

That actually makes me feel good. This IS a professional service worthy of being paid appropriately. :)
 

abella

Great ideas!

Chronata said:
I know it's a lot harder with palm readings...because the excuse of not having your tools is nonexistant!

A magnifying glass is a tool for palmists especially under dark lights. :) There's the out in that one: "I can't see your lines!".
 

Kiama

Sometimes I relish these opportunites to read for people I haven't met before - it keeps me in practice with reading, keeps me on my toes, reminds me that I don't read Tarot to make money but because I very much enjoy it. When I feel up for a reading, I'll say "yeah, sure, go on then!" and make it a short reading (unless the question is really deep, in which case I'll either make it a bigger reading because, as Umbrae says, sometimes you just gotta do it).

Other times though, it annoys me because I just want to relax with my friends, have some fun, and take a break. Tarot reading can be tiring, so if I don't feel up to doing a reading (or I just can't be bothered), I'll tell them the truth: "I'm having a night out and a night off, so I'm sorry but Tarot readings aren't possible right now. You could make an appointment though..." })

I don't mind discussing Tarot with others or being 'outed' by people. Tarot is my favourite thing to talk about, and it sure beats talking about what happened in the last episode of Eastenders, or what so-and-so said to whats-her-face last week.

Kiama