Flying blind, or knowing the background?

I like to know what subject-matter the querent is interested in, but the less of the background I know, the better. Otherwise, how would I know what was a true intuitive message from the cards, and how much was my own life-experience and/or prejudice?

Over the years, I've honed my style so I can milk pretty much everything that seems immediately useful out of a Celtic Cross spread in 45 to 60 minutes, as long as I have a responsive sitter and the reading doesn't take a huge "left turn" into entirely new territory. I think the most difficult one I ever did took closer to two hours. I love the challenge of having to think on my feet and come up with inspirations and insights in "real time." Must be the natural story-teller in me. I wouldn't dream of attempting 15-or-20-minute readings "on the clock;" then I would feel like I'm missing too much of the potential in a spread. I don't do small spreads much, although I have a few 5-to-7-carders I like; the larger spreads give me a chance to stretch out and let querents "animate" them with their own observations. Another way to look at is that the interaction "breathes life" into the skeleton of the reading by coaxing the querent's back-story out into the open via a lively exchange of ideas regarding the cards.

I don't need background, and I usually prefer not to have any for a general reading (then it's the cards speaking, not my deductive logic skills).

I do require knowledge of the querent's gender and partner's gender for a relationship reading, but only for the comfort of writing (so i wouldn't have to write he/she every time).

If there is no background and no info, I can always to the OOTK or my personal Life spread to look into things.

SwordOfTruth said:

Hmm...after reading the responses here I think I came to an idea about this. I learned tarot by self-reading only. I started reading others about 4yrs ago. So thats probably why knowing the background doesn't cause me an issue or is something I like. But so saying that when I'm doing an in-person I ask them to tell me their question and thats it before we start. The cards get laid out and I'll start talking and most of the time the querent will chime in with their own little comments throwing a bit of background in here and there. Thats usually sufficient. Just feedback really to know I'm on track or if a card is stumping me I'll say well I'm confused about this card though...it usually means this or that, and then they'll chime in and say...oh yeah blah, blah, blah and I can interpret that card in context then.

Its that interactioon that I like. Who knows maybe one day I'll be able to glamce at a spread and tell the querent all about their life. But its a bit beyond me at the moment.

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I usually let the sitter supply whatever info they want surrounding the issue. Maybe I should specify "sketchy info around your area of interest" because sometimes people will tell me a very long story. All I really need is something like "I'm going through a divorce. What does my future look like romantically?" or "I'm moving out of country. How shall I best prepare and how will it go?" I'm thinking of getting Skype and using to learn it because then there's the interaction between sitter and reader that I like.

I'm also going to start doing more readings without anything but "I need information and help around my love life." Just a very brief area of interest like that. For now, though, I'm sticking to what works in my current Exchange thread. If I ever get through all those readings, I can switch and experiment.