"Natural" blocks we keep in place when reading ourselves/others

"Natural" blocks That Occur When Reading Ourselves/Others

I have been reading a long time and have heard from other reader's over the years about natural blocks. Though I never really explored starting a thread or asking them in depth about it. I think we all have these blocks to some degree, and they are often in place to either protect us, our higher interests (maybe a moral code thing) as well as to protect others...

One common I have heard is not being able to read yourself. Knew a few readers who always tried, but never could successfully. I chalked that to that person's desire to remain objective in all that they do... but they very gifted and often used their abilities to help others and didn't seem to have any qualms about not being able to read themselves. It is refreshing.

Another less common one, is not being able to read others. I think this is one is kinda weird... because I think we all do sense each other on some level, so probably there is only a block to the point of not "forcing" a connection that isn't initially there... because don't we all get gut feelings about those we are around? For example, getting a gut feeling that a person you are around is a bad influence or just knowing you or someone else connect well on some level... or don't. Maybe this is an objectivity thing as well... because when we don't force conclusions, isn't that when we are usually our most honest selves?

I have some of my own natural blocks but they're more situational and often depends on the querent and their sense of well-being. Like I won't even open to those who I know it will be detrimental to do so. Anyway, I don't want to make the OP so long that nobody replies ...

Does anyone have any experience with this type of phenomenon?

Hmm. I wouldn't define these as "natural blocks that we keep in place" for ourselves...
Or perhaps I've mis-understood your expression here.


I mostly don't read for myself - because I know if I have a serious question - I'm too invested in the answer being one that I'd like to hear, and so I end up reading wrong - or attempting to "force the interpretation to fit".
In this case - I ask someone else to read for me (which isn't very often nowadays).
I can read for myself if I'm light hearted about it, and so a daily draw (though it's not strictly daily) on "how this card is relevant to me today" - or if I jovially ask my guides what they have to say to me through the cards - this works quite well.

I would imagine that if a person has decided not to read for someone else - either they can see that that sitter is in some way "unsuitable" for a reading - or their spider sense (intuition) tells them that for whatever reason - it's unsuitable.
Or perhaps it may even be that at that moment they themselves are not in peak condition to read for whatever reason.

Tanga said:

Hmm. I wouldn't define these as "natural blocks that we keep in place" for ourselves...
Or perhaps I've mis-understood your expression here.


I mostly don't read for myself - because I know if I have a serious question - I'm too invested in the answer being one that I'd like to hear, and so I end up reading wrong - or attempting to "force the interpretation to fit".
In this case - I ask someone else to read for me (which isn't very often nowadays).
I can read for myself if I'm light hearted about it, and so a daily draw (though it's not strictly daily) on "how this card is relevant to me today" - or if I jovially ask my guides what they have to say to me through the cards - this works quite well.

I would imagine that if a person has decided not to read for someone else - either they can see that that sitter is in some way "unsuitable" for a reading - or their spider sense (intuition) tells them that for whatever reason - it's unsuitable.
Or perhaps it may even be that at that moment they themselves are not in peak condition to read for whatever reason.

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Interesting what you mentioned about reading yourself. I've not had too many issues with cards in reading myself, but I find that the cards help me stay humble as an intuitive... as I tend to read people without cards anyway. I've always used them to help me to find the true pinpoint of a feeling or just to check the general health of my gut or for self-bias... that last one being very important in my practice as self-honesty is integral to my spiritual life.

I have trouble with wording sometimes, especially my own practices with energy work, but "natural blocks" I would define as something that is deeply automatic for you for a reader. So in the case of people who can't self-read, they literally cannot self-read. At all. Like they won't get anything if they try, it's like the well is empty and the cards read back as blanks. On the other hand, these same people can perform readings and divinate for others to an impressive degree... so it's not like they are not familiar with their energy at all. They just say for whatever reason it's not possible. It makes sense in a way to be honest, in terms of practice, because they're less likely to compromise their readings of others and keeps a nice wall between their personal situation and their readings of others. Almost like a true separation of work life and home life, but spiritually speaking.

In my own case, I can't change the reversal meanings for me... I have a history of denying my intuition and have led a double life in this respect. So it seems for eternity I am doomed to reversals that mean aspects that I need to channel further as the first bits are already there to dive in further. I'm left to "trust" my intuition on whether a card is ill-dignified or not, etc. So for me, Tarot is a diagnostic tool used in conjunction with intuitive practices I've had prior to using the cards... though sometimes occasionally a reversal is the negative aspect of that energy so reversed... it's usually up to me to determine that a card is so ill dignified that--oh it's so ill-dignified, even more than I thought, that it's practically spinning in space So yes I call this a natural block.. as it's a practice I can't drop and though I've tried, it never sticks. It just manifests the same way.

BTW I changed the title a bit. Maybe that is clearer.

energyPipes said:

I've always used them to help me to find the true pinpoint of a feeling or just to check the general health of my gut or for self-bias...

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Yes. I find them useful in this way too. One of my practices is to do a 2 card draw - how do I feel now, how would I like to feel? - contemplate.
Another is a 3 card draw - My perception, Devine perception, what to do to make it through humbly and honourable triumphant.
I even have a particular deck that's good for "my nervous system" Dame Fortune's Wheel.
But - If I have a huge "life question" and am trying to decide what to do about it - I wouldn't do a whole Celtic Cross spread on it for myself. That doesn't work for me. I get too flustered, so I ask someone else.

energyPipes said:

So in the case of people who can't self-read, they literally cannot self-read. At all. Like they won't get anything if they try, it's like the well is empty and the cards read back as blanks.

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Really - so they don't even go through a process of attempting to analyse why they've drawn a blank? (which IMO would be - that they are getting in the way of their own reading ).

Honesty is always best - if you can't read, you can't read.
I wouldn't say that such people are less likely to compromise their readings for someone else because they have a complete full stop on reading for themselves. I think that depends on the individual (again - maybe I mis-read you here. - It's too early in the morning for me).

energyPipes said:

In my own case, I can't change the reversal meanings for me... I have a history of denying my intuition and have led a double life in this respect. So it seems for eternity I am doomed to reversals that mean aspects that I need to channel further as the first bits are already there to dive in further.

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I would say most of us at some point fight, or have fought, with denying our intuition - it's drummed into us that it's just fantasy for the most part.
Nothing wrong with reversals reflected as aspects that you need to work on. Lol.
What's dooming about that?

Tanga said:

Yes. I find them useful in this way too. One of my practices is to do a 2 card draw - how do I feel now, how would I like to feel? - contemplate.
Another is a 3 card draw - My perception, Devine perception, what to do to make it through humbly and honourable triumphant.
I even have a particular deck that's good for "my nervous system" Dame Fortune's Wheel.
But - If I have a huge "life question" and am trying to decide what to do about it - I wouldn't do a whole Celtic Cross spread on it for myself. That doesn't work for me. I get too flustered, so I ask someone else.

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I've never had an issue with reading myself, as mentioned, Tarot helps me when I desire to examine my intuition on a more objective level. It's a peace of mind thing.

Really - so they don't even go through a process of attempting to analyse why they've drawn a blank? (which IMO would be - that they are getting in the way of their own reading ).

Honesty is always best - if you can't read, you can't read.
I wouldn't say that such people are less likely to compromise their readings for someone else because they have a complete full stop on reading for themselves. I think that depends on the individual (again - maybe I mis-read you here. - It's too early in the morning for me).

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I think we're misunderstanding each other.

Natural blocks are exactly that. Natural. They're not something you can fight and you can do all the energy work, aura unblocking work, etc to remove them. It's still there after the fact, just the same.

As for the benefits of a natural block. I know some who purposefully (i.e. not a true block) refuse to read themselves, as it feels "wrong" given the fact they do get signs without their own intervention that help them in life. So they feel they have more of themselves left to give others... not that it "taints" readings or anything... but that it keeps their channeling purposes explicitly for that road, which is improving their gift--again--to help others......

I would say most of us fight with denying our intuition - it's drummed into us that it's just fantasy for the most part.
Nothing wrong with reversals reflected as aspects that you need to work on. Lol.
What's dooming about that?

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Reversals for me show up as aspects I need to do more detective work on, i.e. there is more information to channel here which would clarify the query for the querent... not aspects I need to work on. If I were to pick that up intuitively, then the cards tends to feel like it is sitting upright very intensely staring into my face like I have a sense of humor about most everything and it often reflects back in my personal readings...

energyPipes said:

I think we're misunderstanding each other.

Natural blocks are exactly that. Natural. They're not something you can fight and you can do all the energy work, aura unblocking work, etc to remove them. It's still there after the fact, just the same.

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It's the definition of natural.

energyPipes said:

As for the benefits of a natural block. I know some who purposefully (i.e. not a true block) refuse to read themselves, as it feels "wrong" given the fact they do get signs without their own intervention that help them in life. So they feel they have more of themselves left to give others... not that it "taints" readings or anything... but that it keeps their channeling purposes explicitly for that road, which is improving their gift--again--to help others......

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Yes. That's what I meant by it's the individuals choice and belief.

energyPipes said:

Reversals for me show up as aspects I need to do more detective work on, i.e. there is more information to channel here which would clarify the query for the querent... not aspects I need to work on. If I were to pick that up intuitively, then the cards tends to feel like it is sitting upright very intensely staring into my face like I have a sense of humor about most everything and it often reflects back in my personal readings...

Click to expand...

Oh - so you were speaking of reading reversals for another person.
Well - nothing wrong with what you've described here either in the use of reversals (is what I was saying).


...I suspect we might start going on a bit with this mis-understanding stuff. Lol.

So ahh -

Interesting discussion, and it kind of goes along with the concept of being a "sensitive." Since my early days with esoteric studies and practice, even when not actively consulting any of the methods of divination, I've found that my first impressions and hunches about people and external situations almost invariably have a large measure of truth in them. Tarot helps me zero in on where it seems to be coming from in each case. So my natural inclination has been to trust these early hints and cautiously "go with the flow" until facts start to emerge that either reinforce or discount their accuracy. The "blocks" become more like "filters" that screen out less likely scenarios, shaping what's left into an increasingly coherent profile.

But when reading for myself, I trust astrology more than tarot, since I find it more objective. Since I believe that tarot operates mainly on a subconscious level, too often it can become a "self-fulfilling prophecy" when applied to oneself. In other words, we see what we want to see without really being aware that we're doing it. I think I prefer the term "blind spot" rather than "block."

I don't think anyone can read for themselves to start, it's a learning process through spiritual development and self knowledge and once you can read for yourself you can read for others imho unless you choose not to.

To my way of thinking if we develop our tarot skills around reading others only we learn little of the self and the growth process, rather like studying for a degree in psychology and applying it to those around us not ourselves in the first instance, we may know our psychology but it's useless because if we're blind to our self we just project our shadow onto others which is also what we do during a reading.

When we do a reading for someone else it will also apply to our self whether we're aware of it or not but we need to look deeply, it seems to me we ARE reading for ourselves so ultimately it doesn't really matter which way round you go but one looks to be a fast track compared to the other, I believe the key of the tarot is given once we've achieved self knowledge and mastery and we can't do any unknown damage to others operating through the shadow which we're blind to.

When I read for others, spirit moves through me and half the time I don't know what I'm saying until I say it. My intuition is really strong when reading for others in person. But my intuition is not nearly as strong when I read for myself. I usually take the cards in a more literal way. I don't know if this is a block or just that I'm so careful to avoid seeing what I want to see ... that that shuts off my intuition when doing self readings.

"Fortune telling" culture (and also question asking culture in general) is also different in my new country compared to my old country. So for those raised in my home country I won't read on "fate" or yes/no questions. But I will for those raised in this country. This took some adjustments when I first started reading tarot here! So maybe it is a block I overcame in a way!


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