Should tarot readers use books during readings? split from "Worst tarot advice received?"

[Lillie]

I have been paid for reading.
Does that make me professional?

It's not a profession, it's just something I do occasionally.

Anyway, no, I wouldn't use a book when reading for someone else, either for money or for fun.

I often look at tarot books though. Especially with the Thoth. Especially the Book of Thoth.
It's not the sort of book you can memorise. At least not the sort I can memorise.

But the stuff I am looking up then, and learning then is really nothing to do with the readings I do for others.
Those are all the usual sort of thing, love, money whatever, and I can do that easy without the need for books.

When I first started the tarot I used books, and I memorised the meanings.
I know the meanings now, they are second nature to me.
And because I learned those meanings out of a book I can now enlarge and elaborate upon them in a reading.
The meanings that I learned give me a framework within which my intuition operates.
I do OK readings. I don't think they are better or worse for having started off with book meanings, they are just mine, the way I do it.

There are many different ways of reading the cards. All are valid.

If I went to a reader and had my cards done, and they got out a book I would take into account the reading they were giving.
If they were just looking up every card and reading out the meaning then they are probably a beginner and everyone has to start somewhere.

If they were doing a more experienced type of reading and they said 'Oh, there was something about this card I read just the other day, let me check' and they reached up to their huge library of tarot books and took one down to check something that proved to be relevant I would be very interested in their reading technique and their book collection.

So, it all depends, don't it?

 

[Debra]

That's a real good example.

I was thinking of books on symbols, mythology, astrology, numerology and magick.

 

[Apollonia]

I'm a professional, and I would never, ever pull out a book during a reading. I adhere to professional standards that state this is simply not acceptable.

To use an example other than the medical profession, I wouldn't be very impressed if my hairdresser suddenly whipped out a book about how to cut hair in the middle of my appointment, because I expect that as a professional, she should already have a good grasp of how to perform the service I'm paying her for.

As far as doctors looking up information, I don't mind my doctor looking up something out of the ordinary that isn't in her area of expertise, but I wouldn't expect her to have to go to the computer to check on where a human's kidneys are located during my exam, and that's about the level of a supposedly professional Tarot reader looking up standard meanings out of a book during a paid reading.

Also, my doctor isn't being paid by the minute.

 

[Lillie]

Don't matter.

 

[thorhammer]

Some read using books all their lives. Many decks contain massive amounts of esoteric material; books are resources for interpreting it.

If I was a client, and my reader felt the need to check a book for this purpose, I would be most impressed, and grateful that they weren't too lazy to get off their butt and find the necessary reference in a book.

I read "esoterically" and yes, sometimes I need to check on a reference halfway through a reading. The fact that I'm not fortunate enough to read face to face for people very often and thus most of mine are done on the internet means that no one knows this; however, it does happen.

People read differently. Just because I don't "hear voices" or read "intuitively" per se, doesn't make me a lesser reader - of cards. Sometimes I might want that extra association or to check something that might take me in a totally new and advantageous direction.

\m/ Kat

 

[MareSaturni]

If I was a client, and my reader felt the need to check a book for this purpose, I would be most impressed, and grateful that they weren't too lazy to get off their butt and find the necessary reference in a book.

I read "esoterically" and yes, sometimes I need to check on a reference halfway through a reading. The fact that I'm not fortunate enough to read face to face for people very often and thus most of mine are done on the internet means that no one knows this; however, it does happen.

People read differently. Just because I don't "hear voices" or read "intuitively" per se, doesn't make me a lesser reader - of cards. Sometimes I might want that extra association or to check something that might take me in a totally new and advantageous direction.

\m/ Kat

Wow, you just read my mind!

I agree with every work you say. Seriously, I prefer professionals who double-check what they do than one who does what he believes is right and then is sorry when it comes wrong.

I don't hear voices or read simply using intuition. My intuition only developed after a long time of study and practice. I needed books back then and I don't think I'll ever reach a moment in which books are completely disposable....

 

[gregory]

If I was a client, and my reader felt the need to check a book for this purpose, I would be most impressed, and grateful that they weren't too lazy to get off their butt and find the necessary reference in a book.

Right on !

 

[Netzach]

It's like the mistaken idea that the only good doctor is one who can diagnose and treat without looking anything up.

As a doctor and a professional tarot reader, I cannot accept that there is a similarity between the two. Of course a doctor will look things up . . . the subject of medicine is enormous and the doctor needss to be able to remember huge numbers of facts. But there will be vast numbers of facts (concerning less common conditions, medications etc.) which he/she may have to look up. In addition, medicine is constantly changing and advancing.

Tarot reading, on the other hand, is not about learning facts . . . well, certainly not whole books-full. Yes, you need to know the basic meanings (but, come on folks, they're not hard to learn) but after that much of what you're telling your client is intuitive. If you look the meanings up in a book, you're restricting your reading and turning it into something that the client could have done for him- or herself. Reading tarot professionally, IMO, goes far beyond that.

 

[gregory]

As a doctor and a professional tarot reader, I cannot accept that there is a similarity between the two. Of course a doctor will look things up . . . the subject of medicine is enormous and the doctor needss to be able to remember huge numbers of facts. But there will be vast numbers of facts (concerning less common conditions, medications etc.) which he/she may have to look up. In addition, medicine is constantly changing and advancing.

Tarot reading, on the other hand, is not about learning facts . . . well, certainly not whole books-full. Yes, you need to know the basic meanings (but, come on folks, they're not hard to learn) but after that much of what you're telling your client is intuitive. If you look the meanings up in a book, you're restricting your reading and turning it into something that the client could have done for him- or herself. Reading tarot professionally, IMO, goes far beyond that.

Maybe it depends on the book. If I look up something - say, a symbol I never noticed before (it can happen, even in a deck one really knows) I CANNOT see that as a sin !

On the other hand looking up the spelled out book meaning of every card in one of those "this card means that" books is something else again.... The original question (from another thread and I may be confused...) did - as I recall - suggest that looking at a book in a reading was wrong. I think looking at a book sometimes is fine - but looking up every card's book meaning (a term I don't like, but which fits here !) isn't too hot....

 

[Debra]

I wonder if this isn't a very restrictive notion of what it means to read tarot.

What about Lillie's example, and Thorhammer's? What about consulting books on symbols, mythology, astrology, numerology and magick?

eta: Cross-posted w/ Gregory--it seems we have similar ideas, as great catz think alike