Mentors and Apprenticeships

What has been your experiences with having a tarot mentor or apprenticeship?
If you had one:
How did you find/identify them?
How did you benefit from mentorship
Would you encourage others to seek mentorships?
Do you currently mentor others? why/why not?

If you did not have one:
Did you try to find/identify one?
What type of learning community did you seek or form in lieu fo direct mentorship?
Would you encourage others to seek out mentors?
Do you currently mentor others? Why/why not?

I know I know there are a million ways to learn tarot and practice tarot. Tarot is not monolithic. I understand that completely. I am interested in learning about people's perceptions/experiences/ and thoughts about tarot mentoring/apprenticeships.
I know that I would personally benefit from such a relationship but realize it is not easily accessible to me.

Thank you for sharing!!
BMB

No way in the world would I have paid someone money to teach me read cards ... and now with the zillions of resources available I think it is redundant.

You learn by doing - this forum is a great place to practice.

A bunch of us here in the Chicagoland area teach for free- check meetup.com and see if here are groups near you - save the money and please don't feed the egos !

nicky said:

No way in the world would I have paid someone money to teach me read cards ... and now with the zillions of resources available I think it is redundant.

You learn by doing - this forum is a great place to practice.

A bunch of us here in the Chicagoland area teach for free- check meetup.com and see if here are groups near you - save the money and please don't feed the egos !

Click to expand...

I don't mean paid mentors- that's not truly mentorship in my opinion that's an instructor/teacher/supervisor/trainer etc...

Mentor: I mean someone in your community or life who introduced you to tarot OR who taught you more about tarot OR poured into you some wisdom/insight etc. in some capacity and subsequently one would identify them as a mentor.

In MY community we attract mentors in various capacities in various areas of our lives because of the nature of our community and resource sharing and this was driven by the elders or more experienced and desired by the youth or less experienced.

I hope that clarity helps.

blackmoonbee said:

I don't mean paid mentors- that's not truly mentorship in my opinion that's an instructor/teacher/supervisor/trainer etc...

Mentor: I mean someone in your community or life who introduced you to tarot OR who taught you more about tarot OR poured into you some wisdom/insight etc. in some capacity and subsequently one would identify them as a mentor.

In MY community we attract mentors in various capacities in various areas of our lives because of the nature of our community and resource sharing and this was driven by the elders or more experienced and desired by the youth or less experienced.

I hope that clarity helps.

Click to expand...

Aaah gotcha -


In my experience the people in my tarot group will have been together 10 years in July and everyone brings something to the table. We seem to mentor each other - the newer readers may sit back at first but can just as often say something that the more experienced readers find fantastic.

So I guess to answer your post, I wanted a group of tarot people to hang with and since there was none in my area (that I knew of in 2007) I was willing to be the 'mentor' - in time we had quite a few readers and it became much more of a commune than a mentor or apprentice dynamic.

I have a close friend who I feel has a similar spiritual path to me. I've often thought about being her mentor, but, as close as we are, I don't think she would be a very good student. She's argumentative and stubborn, even (or especially) when she knows she's wrong.

But I still try... I think she teaches me patience, if nothing else. I do readings for her to help empower her in some way. I do believe that everything can be a teacher, but if there is someone in your life who clearly knows things that you don't, there's no harm in asking to be taught. In my friend's case, I honestly think she's just too proud, and maybe blind to it.

So it's a two-way street. The perfect student or mentor may never come, but you do what you can to learn, or teach (maybe both), in the imperfect situations.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by mentoring. Do you just mean friends in common in the real world who also know and use Tarot? Or do you mean someone who can pass on their knowledge when you have questions?

I've found that this forum is a gold mine of mentoring all by itself. I've never thought I needed anything more than what I find here online on the forum.

I like the thread where you post your readings and let others have at it.

But I wish i did have a mentor. It takes a while for things to sink in. the only problem is belief issues. My mentor would have to have similar tarot beliefs. does that sound strange.

I found that the book that comes with spellcasters has some great ideas in them. and now, I am convinced the wands are air and swords are fire. of course, you don't change the cards to how you feel but how the card presents wands and swords.

I'm open to mentoring someone, but the few times it was tried, that people came to me and asked, it didn't work out. They just didn't do their homework and it petered out.

The thing I said before about my friend... yeah, scratch that. Turns out that she thinks I act really superior to her and my tarot readings are just an excuse to talk down to her.

Ouch. Lesson learned. Don't help people.

suk said:

The thing I said before about my friend... yeah, scratch that. Turns out that she thinks I act really superior to her and my tarot readings are just an excuse to talk down to her.

Ouch. Lesson learned. Don't help people.

Click to expand...

YIKES so sorry to hear that. Hopefully in time your friend will recognize your good intentions and generosity.