Biggest challenge when reading for others?

[espearite]

It's the wording for me. It can be difficult to "translate" the message into precise words without me sounding like I don't know any English.

 

[Grizabella]

When you're not used to doing live readings, it seems like a block is created. You look at the cards and know what they say, but finding the spoken words to relay it to someone else is very difficult at first. The reason is that the brain works from two different areas. One side of your brain deals well with images and ideas and the other side deals with logic---facts, math, etc. You're using the side of your brain that deals with images when you look at a spread. That information then needs to be converted to words by the other side of the brain, so the brain has to send the image info to the logical side of the brain where you can then figure out how to put it into words. That isn't a very natural process for our brains when we're new to reading for others in person, so we get stuck. It's compounded in difficulty by the fact that a reading isn't "this card means this and this card means that." You have to learn to combine the cards into what they're actually trying to convey as a unit on top of having to convert images into words.

 

[SunChariot]

What is your biggest challenge when doing a Tarot reading for someone other than yourself?

For me, its taking on the other person's nervous energy. Sometimes I find myself getting nervous and out of breath all of a sudden during a reading for no particular reason.

I don't read in person. Just by e-mail, so I am not in contact with the querent when the reading is being done. Usually not even in the same city or country.

I do read mainly intuitively and I want to be able to just listen to the message from the cards and nothing else. All I ask from a querent before a reading is their name and the question. And if the quesstion involves someone else, the first name or initials of the other person. That is all I want or need, That is all I want. I want to be able to see with a clear mind.

Sometimes they will send me paragraphs about the situation and how they feel and what they want and....And I am like Oh No! I don't want to know all that as it interferes. And I feel once they wrote it I should read it. And then I have to TRY to forget it all but I worry knowing it might unconsciously affect what I see.

I'm fine with discussing it in detail after the reading is done. But I don't want all that info beforehand.

Babs

 

[Barleywine]

The biggest challenge (but also the most rewarding exercise) for me is the handling of traditionally "negative" cards in a sensitive and constructive way, especially if the sitter has some prior knowledge of what the cards are "supposed" to mean. Focusing on the opportunities rather than the obstacles presented by those cards often requires considerable creativity and flexibility in interpretation.

 

[Disa]

Sometimes they will send me paragraphs about the situation and how they feel and what they want and....And I am like Oh No! I don't want to know all that as it interferes. And I feel once they wrote it I should read it. And then I have to TRY to forget it all but I worry knowing it might unconsciously affect what I see.

I'm fine with discussing it in detail after the reading is done. But I don't want all that info beforehand.

Babs

This. Too much info in an email reading gets in the way. I have a person that no matter how many times I say just ask the question, she gives me pages and pages of info and I have to dig through paragraphs to see what the question is.

I'm starting to think I might like face to face readings better, or the ones on the phone. I'm still trying to find my "voice" as far as translating the images to useful actual words. I think eventually I'll get there. But then again, I never like to talk ou tloud anyway, for meditations, or speeches, etc. anyway so it's not just a card thing.

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edited to add: I just received feedback from an online reading I did. I think now, one of the biggest challenges is not knowing the impact of the reading once I send it off via email. The feedback she sent sounded as though the reading really resonated, but at the same time it sounded potentially devastating to her. I don't like the fact that I am not there to "soften the blow" if it was, indeed perceived as a blow to her. I don't like that I can't see her reaction and comfort her if she needs comforting. Try as I might to deliver info in an impartial and diplomatic way, I can't be sure exactly how the info was received via email...and that's a challenge.