Help to perform readings onlin

[Kenny]

I read a fair amount on this forum and have discovered that there is no right or wrong answers. Recently (yesterday I think) someone asked me why I got back breaking work for a card that normally is joyful, that same card a few hours before I told someone else to be open and accept gifts...

Look at the cards and let them talk to you,
Kenny

 

[Eddie]

I urge you to refrain from reading for others, in the way you are, until you have the hang of reading without the support of your books. Give yourself the time and luxury of reading them as everyone has suggested, it will take a little time, but your intuition will start to kick in and your reading will improve beyond recognition. This experience is vital to a reader before you take on the huge responsibility of advising people who are in dire need and desperate situations.

Its one thing to read for friends and family, at the beginning of your tarot journey, using books and quite another to read publicly. Its a huge responsibility to read professionally, where you put yourself in a position of giving advice that people could and would act on.

I'm sure, that when you first started reading on the site, you didn't take this responsibility lightly, but I urge you to think twice before continuing. You will never stop consulting books, we all do, but when reading for others, never to the point of looking up Many of the meanings.

This is where this forum comes into its own. You will be able to practice on all of us, readings are taken on board with the full knowledge of how they are delivered. here, you can make mistakes and learn from them, safely.

Please don't be offended by what I have said, this is not how it was meant. I am sure you are a fantastic reader, I am just urging you to question whether you are ready to read on the site, when you are having to look up so many of the meanings, after all, if you where reading face to face, would this still be acceptable?
Good luck with intuitive reading!
Eddie.

 

[Onyx]

While I agree that before beginning to read for someone it is essential to have an understanding of the cards. But just as I would expect my doctor to have basic knowledge I don't want to limit him. I want him to check with other doctors and reference books for helpful insight and guidance.

I believe that the very nature of e-mail readings give the initial intuitive hit and response but it also allows time to check alternate meanings and understandings of the cards. In-person readings are more demanding in some ways that e-mail readings aren't. Yet the e-mail reading demands precision due to the written medium and limited feedback.

Only by performing actual readings can a reader gain precious skill and experience that no matter how long they read the best books alone can never aquire.

Allan

 

[Eddie]

Its one thing to refer to books and quite another to have to look up most of the meanings!
Eddie

 

[le fey]

Y'know.. my oldest daughter was funny when she was learning to walk. For months she wouldn't let go and walk on her own - it got to where I was considering find a medical specialist to check things out. Except it didn't look like a medical problem - sometimes she want to hold my hand, but more and more often I realized she wasn't really hanging on - she just wanted to be able touch me... fingertip to fingertip, and she could walk. Take away that little bit of touch, and she'd sit straight down without going another step.

It took her a long time to be able to let go of that touch, but I wasn't walking for her - she was doing it. She just wasn't trusting that she was doing it. And she's 27 years old now, and I've seen her do this a thousand times as she learns a new skill. Some people just do better if they can keep the training wheels around and it doesn't mean they *need* them other than for confidence.

Eddie, we don't know if this is a matter of having to look up meanings, or just needing a fingertip touch for confirmation and confidence. Going from book to no book isn't a one step process - over time there will be fewer check backs, I'm sure.

 

[214red]

if you know someone with msn or something like that it can be fun learning online as you can get instant feedback and clarification etc

 

[Apollonia]

Its one thing to refer to books and quite another to have to look up most of the meanings!
Eddie

I agree with you, Eddie.

From your description, Zingara12, I do not yet have a good idea of your process, so please bear in mind that my comments are meant in a general sense about reading on a professional/paid basis while still relying on books, not necessarily about you personally.

My question is whether you look up the possible card meanings for a reminder, to jog your knowledge of that card, and then use those book meanings as a general base for a more extensive reading where you provide your own input, or whether you simply quote verbatim meanings directly from the books. If anyone's Tarot reading could be replaced in its entirety by the reader saying, "Look at such a such a book page 54 paragraph three, " then that reading is, in my opinion, not up to professional standards.

And for me, if anyone wants to check whether s/he is ready to read online on a professional basis, my question would be whether he or she would use the exact same process in a face to face paid reading. If not, I feel s/he is not ready to charge for online readings either.

I don't care what my doctor or lawyer does on his or her own time, they can read all the books they want to, in order to enrich their general or specific knowledge of their field. But I would not be happy if he or she pulled out a book and started checking on what they were doing halfway through my appointment. Just because an online client can't see what you are doing doesn't change that for me.

 

[le fey]

I don't disagree with you.. but I fully expect my doctors to pull out a book to check their memory if needed - I take a lot of medications, and if they *don't* check for drug interactions before giving me something new, I ask them to. That book is about 20 pounds heavy and no human being can possibly have it all in their heads.

(which is just to say that that may not be the best comparsion. One part of knowledge is knowing and using your resources and a lot more damage can happen from someone too sure of themselves to do so when needed.)

 

[Apollonia]

I don't disagree with you.. but I fully expect my doctors to pull out a book to check their memory if needed - I take a lot of medications, and if they *don't* check for drug interactions before giving me something new, I ask them to. That book is about 20 pounds heavy and no human being can possibly have it all in their heads.

(which is just to say that that may not be the best comparsion. One part of knowledge is knowing and using your resources and a lot more damage can happen from someone too sure of themselves to do so when needed.)

Good point, le fey. I should have stuck with my intial comparison of a hairdresser --someone who is rendering a service that they should know by heart before doing it professionally for others. I stand corrected, but I still stand by my feeling about doing Tarot for others, for money, whilst looking up the meanings.

 

[berrieh]

There is nothing wrong with study. However, looking up *basic card meanings* isn't like a doctor looking up obscure drug interactions (though you wouldn't want an ER doctor to have to do that for basic drug interactions, now would you?). It's like an ER doctor not knowing how to put in a central line.

Basic card meanings are an essential foundation. There's nothing wrong with continuing study and reading other points of view on card meanings in your own time, but if you see a card and don't immediately have a sense of its meaning (and a complete sense of that card, other potential meanings, and potential significant card combinations that include that card), then you should not be reading professionally as a Tarot reader. (Of course, there are some readers who are primarily 'psychic' and just use cards to jog their intuition... I won't speak to that type of reading, as that's a different ball of wax and can have no strict standards except past and present accuracy, since there's no formal standard to personal intuition.)

Sure, I believe you learn forever, but there should be some standards before hanging up a shingle. In the analogy, doctors have intense schooling and certifications to go through; Tarot readers do not, so we have to be vigilant in holding ourselves to high standards.

If you still don't have an extremely strong sense of each of the 78 cards (and some sense of the combinations between them), then it's not time to read for the general public. Free readings on a site such as this, where it's transparent what's happening, are good. Readings for friends and family are good. Readings for friends of friends (in college, I used to read at parties for people who thought it was a joke, for free of course, and that was GREAT practice on halfway drunk people who had no expectation!) is good.

Reading for strangers who are often in emotional situations, who need a counselor and might take your advice, whatever the legal disclaimer says, is a huge responsibility that is still out of one's depth at that stage.

P.S. I will also say that if you cannot read in person, you cannot ethically read professionally. Just because an email reading *can* be open book doesn't make it right, unless your clients know that you may be consulting a book. I have a feeling most sitters would not want their Tarot reader to consult a book, so this seems kind of sneaky to me.

Reading in person (for non-paying clients, who realize where you are with your craft---kind of like student hairdressers, I suppose) is also the best way to learn to actually read the cards!

As far as how to learn them all, there are any number of ways. Of course, books are good if you truly don't know the cards. What is best for you is really dependent upon where you are in the learning process. Books, knowledge, and study is excellent but only takes one so far; then, it becomes time to forge a personal connection with the cards. But if you're seeing spreads and coming up with no immediate answers, it's not yet time to read professionally.