Talking and Reading Tarot with Others Advice

[QueenOfTemperance]

Hi everyone!
I have been reading Tarot for myself and on forums for others for a bout a year now. A few months ago I began to read for my close friends in person. I've done about 15 - 20 readings for trusted friends in person and feel I'm kind of starting to get the hang of things.

So, my one friend told her family and friends about my Tarot reading and I've been invited to read at her sister's engagement party this month. At first I was really excited by the opportunity, but after meeting her family (who are wonderful people) I'm feeling slightly uncomfortable. Mainly because I realized that the people I've had the privilege to read for online are all familiar with Tarot, spirituality and psychic ability. I've shared a lot about my spiritual journey with the friends that I've read for and they are supportive and very open to my reading style and the messages I deliver. However, her family were asking me a lot of questions that kind of made me uncomfortable. I feel that my friend has over-hyped my abilities a little and now I feel like they view me as some kind of fortune-teller or something. I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed by their expectations and am not sure if it would be a positive experience for me to read at this party.

Does anyone have any advice or thoughts to share about reading for groups? Do you like it? How do you deal with people asking negative or really "out-there" questions (like "How will I die?")? Or people who say things like "I don't believe in that stuff, but let's see if you can tell me my future."

 

[Apollonia]

I always enjoyed reading for groups, but it is quite different from reading for a single person. There is often a more "fun and games" atmosphere and it was unusual to have anyone asking anything really serious or spiritual, although that did happen from time to time.

One thing I would suggest you absolutely decide right off the bat, and that is whether you will allow more than one person in the room as you do the reading. Often in a group setting people will want you to read in front of the entire group, or someone will say, "I just have to have my best friend in with me, she knows everything about me." Decide now whether you can handle that, because having others in the room as you read will affect the atmosphere a great deal, especially if that "best friend" is an out and out skeptic who sits there the entire time with their arms crossed and their lips pooched out. Or a would-be Tarotist who critiques every interpretation. I always told my sitters, "It's your reading and you can have anyone with you that you want," but I know many readers won't allow this.

For the, "When will I die?" crowd, you can say, "I never read on death," if that is true for you.

For the ones who want you to tell their future, just do the reading the best you can. They will often soften up as they see that you know what you are doing and aren't cowed by their purported disbelief. Or you can go the route of saying, "Well, I can see that very soon, you are going to make a perfectly nice person feel kind of bad--oh wait, that's the present, not the future!" Don't forget, and don't let them forget, that you are a person, too, and you have feelings.

Try to match the mood of the crowd--smile and have fun. And always keep in mind, for some of these people, yours may be the only reading they ever get in their entire lifetime, or one of just a few. You may be their only encounter with something magical. You are making memories for them, and that is a great privilege.

 

[SunChariot]

Hi everyone!
I have been reading Tarot for myself and on forums for others for a bout a year now. A few months ago I began to read for my close friends in person. I've done about 15 - 20 readings for trusted friends in person and feel I'm kind of starting to get the hang of things.

So, my one friend told her family and friends about my Tarot reading and I've been invited to read at her sister's engagement party this month. At first I was really excited by the opportunity, but after meeting her family (who are wonderful people) I'm feeling slightly uncomfortable. Mainly because I realized that the people I've had the privilege to read for online are all familiar with Tarot, spirituality and psychic ability. I've shared a lot about my spiritual journey with the friends that I've read for and they are supportive and very open to my reading style and the messages I deliver. However, her family were asking me a lot of questions that kind of made me uncomfortable. I feel that my friend has over-hyped my abilities a little and now I feel like they view me as some kind of fortune-teller or something. I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed by their expectations and am not sure if it would be a positive experience for me to read at this party.

Does anyone have any advice or thoughts to share about reading for groups? Do you like it? How do you deal with people asking negative or really "out-there" questions (like "How will I die?")? Or people who say things like "I don't believe in that stuff, but let's see if you can tell me my future."

I don't read in person at all, only online. But here are my thoughts all the same.

It makes me very uncomfortable reading for "skeptics". I've tried it before early on and it is not an experience I would care to repeat. If people already believe in the spiritual side of things or at least are open-minded enough I am fine.

But a situation where someone is skeptical and is wanting it proved to them that it can in fact work...can't happen. That is the worst for me, as if someone needs concrete proof there is not going to be any unless they are willing to suspend their disbelief first. If they want to make excuses why it is not really possible to get answers and why it can't work, they will make excuses no matter what you say or do. If you could show them a miracle they would think it was a huge coincidence.

From past experience, I don't put myself in that situation anymore. I am not here to proove what works and what doesn't, just to help people who care for my help. If they are asking you questions that make you feel uncomfortable, my guess is that there may be some of that going on. Some level of disrespect or distrust of what you do. I don't believe you can prove it to anyone. They have to come to their spiritual beliefs on their own.

So back to the last questions you asked in the last paragraph.... Please remember that as a reader you are not obligated to answer any question that feels wrong to you inside. In fact you should not answer any question (or read on any topic) that feels wrong to you inside for any reason at all.

Your intuition is hugely important in ALL areas of Tarot, not just in readings. If something someone asks you to do feels wrong to you, then don't go there.


I personally would absolutely not ask the cards when someone will die. Knowing that, if the person believed that knowledge, could be very hard to live with. Even if they don[t believe it now, but years later came to believe the reading...If they then see that time approaching and believed it I imagine it would lower the quality of their life. We are not hear to hurt others as readers, but to help.

As for timing questions, they are very often not accurate as the timing of things can change so easily from any little thing you do. I would just tell them that. That I am not going to ask that question, but that the timing of something like that is too hard to pin down anyway. I might even say that Tarot is a beautiful spiritual tool and it is meant to help them create something beautiful in and of their lives, not to focus on negative things. Whether or not death itself is negative or a gateway to something better, the question itself is somewhat morbid and not especially positive.

If someone said They don't believe in this stuff by let's see what I can show them, again I would not read for them. I would tell them (but I doubt they would believe it) that they are not ready inside yet to have a reading. That Tarot is a spiritual tool, and if a person is unable to believe in things spiritual and needs proof first then there is no way to prove it to them. To see miracles, first you have to believe they exist with or without proof. And maybe to come back one day years from now if that changes and I will read for them then when they are ready.

Honestly, the best advice here I can give you is to TRUST your inner feelings and intuition. If YOU FEEL something is wrong in this situation then it is. Even if you can't pinpoint exactly what that doesn't matter. if you feel something is wrong, then it is. I would say personally, I would just refuse to read at that engagement party at all. I think if you are in that situation where it is an engagement party and your sister's no less, it would be hard to say no to anyone. Some don't seem to be showing respect for what you do.

It might be different in a group of strangers, but these are people you will see again. I find the situation would make me uncomfortable too.

Babs

 

[Grizabella]

Since it's an engagement party, you can probably plan on getting a whole lot of questions about love and relationships. You might want to find some fun spreads along those lines.

I read here in the Reading Exchange one year, using the Victorian Romantic deck, and I used a spread I'd found in a book that I think might have been called the Tarot Bible. That would be a fun one for that kind of party, I think. It was something along the lines of the sitter's question being about what kind of lover they were or that their SO considered them to be or something like that. If I can find that old thread, I'll pass the spread on to you if you'd like. I did it several years ago, though, so it might not be where I can find it now. I'll give it a try, though.

The whole idea is just fun, after all, since it IS a party. So my advice would be to keep it light. Take along (or make some) your business cards and you can then give them out and tell the attendees that you'll be happy to give them a reading on a more serious note at another time. I'd offer a discount for that further reading, just as an introductory offer to serious Tarot readings. That's if you're feeling ready to charge money. I forgot you said you're a beginner.

As for readings in front of a group, that's another reason I'd keep it light and fun.

 

[JoannaCrystal]

Hi everyone!
I have been reading Tarot for myself and on forums for others for a bout a year now. A few months ago I began to read for my close friends in person. I've done about 15 - 20 readings for trusted friends in person and feel I'm kind of starting to get the hang of things.

So, my one friend told her family and friends about my Tarot reading and I've been invited to read at her sister's engagement party this month. At first I was really excited by the opportunity, but after meeting her family (who are wonderful people) I'm feeling slightly uncomfortable. Mainly because I realized that the people I've had the privilege to read for online are all familiar with Tarot, spirituality and psychic ability. I've shared a lot about my spiritual journey with the friends that I've read for and they are supportive and very open to my reading style and the messages I deliver. However, her family were asking me a lot of questions that kind of made me uncomfortable. I feel that my friend has over-hyped my abilities a little and now I feel like they view me as some kind of fortune-teller or something. I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed by their expectations and am not sure if it would be a positive experience for me to read at this party.

Does anyone have any advice or thoughts to share about reading for groups? Do you like it? How do you deal with people asking negative or really "out-there" questions (like "How will I die?")? Or people who say things like "I don't believe in that stuff, but let's see if you can tell me my future."

Hey there QueenOfTemperance

My advice is very simple!!
You do what you know and like to do!

For example.. I read for a lot of Portuguese people, the major part of Portuguese people have no idea how Tarot really works.. They all think Tarot is only a fortune telling game and some are even afraid! What I do in the beginning of the reading is, I explain them that our future is not set in stone, and that the Tarot is a wonderful guide that work through energy, the same as Universe and everything around us! And I say that even the possible future that Tarot gives us it can be changed! So, I ask the customer what he/she wants to know, but I start given examples, trying to conduct the costumer! - for instance, you feel that your relationship is not good in this moment and you want to know what's really going on.. So I will ask my cards what type of energy you should put in this relationship, or what influence have your partner in your life..
You see? You just need to get what they want to know and put it to your style!!

You have in there a major opportunity to show everyone who doesn't know Tarot at all, how wonderful and magical thing it is!! And people will understand that your job is even more fantastic then they thought!!

So I would say.. Go there, trust yourself and in your abilities, and show the "world" what Tarot really is!!
And remember.. This is your job, only you know how to do it.. So, your job, your rules!!

Much light for you!!

Sent from my GT-I9301I using Tapatalk

 

[Achlys]

Set your boundaries on what kinds of questions you'll allow before the event. If you don't want to read on death, etc you never have to.
The first post in this thread sums up most things you'll need to look out for.

As far as reading for skeptics, I've noticed that it depends on the type of skeptic. If they're just wary, usually you can give them a good reading and that will be that. If they're aggressive about it or demand you prove anything to them, stay away. They're just bad news and even if everything you say to them is 100% accurate, they'll never believe you anyway.
Just remember that you're in control and can set rules and boundaries as you see fit.

Best of luck!