6-Week Wonders

Okay, everybody. I'm sorry. I'll pull my head in. Obviously I'm out of balance on this particular issue.

I'm reluctant to even post here, but I have to say this. I'm a former poster-child for the uneducated masses who have to compete with degreed people in the workplace. I know from experience that there are idiots walking around with advanced degrees, and many brilliant people without them.

I worked for years as a technical writer and editor, and then went into management, where I supervised people with degrees. I proved myself there, but not without certain people telling me to my face that I didn't deserve my job, in spite of my years of experience and the best production stats in the organization, simply because two or three additional years of my life weren't spent sitting in classrooms soaking up "higher learning". Please don't tell me now that I have to meet some arbitrary standards to be a Tarot reader.

I truly believe higher education has its place. Heck I'd have stayed if I could have decided on a major, and I'd go back now if I could afford it and still had the energy I had at 18. I wouldn't want to have a surgeon operate on me who wasn't formally educated -- and preferably top in his/her class.

But come on ....

Those who read Tarot without gaining the needed knowledge and experience to do a decent job of it are either naive, or dilettantes, or con-artists. Don't lump everyone who isn't certified in with them. That's what local governments do when they require licensing -- lump honest people who love Tarot in with criminals and make us pay for their evil deeds.

The piece of paper isn't meaningless, but neither are natural intelligence or ability, and experience.

And yes, I have a rather belligerent attitude about this.

ResilientWench said:

We have a phenomenon in the dance world called "6-Week Wonders", where someone who has taken dance for 1 session (often 6 weeks) starts giving dance classes and calls him/herself a "teacher". This, to the chagrin of many instructors who have studied years before evening considering teaching or performing.

I understand that reading is a highly intuitive practice and some may possess a high level of comprehension of the cards that may enable him or her to give readings relatively early on in their experiences with the cards, and charge for it. Just as there are some exceptionally gifted dancers who can start teaching and performing after a very short amount of time, compared to others.

I wondered if there was such a thing in the world of professional* tarot readers and your attitudes toward this?

(*Charging for readings.)

Thanks for your thoughts!

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I suppose it would depend on your background education/knowledge base to some extent. Fields of relevant knowledge could certainly bee-line into a pretty quick understanding of the cards. A public speaker with a degree in history, art or philosophy might do good pretty quickly for a simple example. The cards are strictly intellectual, no real physical movements involved beyond basic manipulation( you do not even need to be able to shuffle ) You can read books on how to fix a car, or drive a truck with air brakes...or dance, but actually doing it well takes a lot of time. This is not necessarily true for tarot, in my mind. That said quick studies are still the exception not the rule.

If I had to go sit and read in front of a committee I'd never be a tarot reader.

Some people can pick up a deck and read it. So what? As long as I get someone who is accurate to a degree, doesn't try to scam me, and doesn't read meanings from a book, I'm all good with however long they've been reading.

Some of us are just naturally intuitive and I don't believe there is an accurate test or regulation for that. Nor do I believe there should be.