Uncomfortable moments during a reading...

[hazlit]

Have you ever had uncomfortable moments during a reading? What happened?

My example - in my very early days as a reader I read for friends (a married couple) and I thought I could see the woman having an affair and the couple separating. It was exquisitely uncomfortable, because I didn't know how to articulate what I saw without seeming to speak doom and gloom for them. As I remember it, I managed to scrape through with some generalisations, but I was ultra-relieved when it was over. It turned out that the reading was quite accurate. Within a fortnight they split up due to the woman having an affair. I'll never forget that reading, or the lesson it taught me.

I'm really interested in finding out what has happened for others... if you don't mind sharing your experience/s.

Thanks

 

[ilweran]

I had an experience very similar to yours except it was a family member I was reading for and it was her boyfriend I saw as being potentially unfaithful. I didn't say anything and focussed on what she'd actually asked about.

The other uncomfortable reading was one I kind of got forced into by a supervisor in work who wanted everything to relate her dead son and didn't really listen to anything I said. A few years later after I'd left that job I bumped into her and she told me how wrong the readng had been and proceeded to list what had happened and it all pretty much matched to what I'd said was likely to happen.

 

[Alta]

I have and fairly recently too. The tarot just swung a door open waaay too wide and finally I couldn't make the words come out any more and had to stop.

 

[nisaba]

Yes of course, we all do. I've had many. Depending on the context and the nature of the situation , I'll either plough on and try to disregard my feelings, or I'll be ultra-tactful an d try to deliver the message in the nicest possible ways heavily using understatement and euphemism, or I'll gloss over the problematic bit, or I'll refuse the question, or very occasionally (probably three or four times in thirty years) I'll completely refuse the client.

Just depends on what's happening.

 

[Le Fanu]

It has happened to me but - as always - it is because you have hit the nail on the head. You have hit upon what the reading was really about. Best thing is to be sensitive, discreet and secretly smug at how right you were in your hunches and interpretation...

 

[hazlit]

Thank you for your responses

ilweran - it's amazing how people like that supervisor use their institutional power to get what they want and then direct criticism at you when what you say is different from what they wanted to hear. Your 2nd example prompted memories for me of alike moments

Alta - I remember similar situations where I've stopped too. It's always those words (or lack thereof!) that seem to confound, isn't it? My experience has been that sometimes even diplomacy and tact present as transparently obvious...

Yes of course, we all do. I've had many.

Nisaba I'm sorry if I framed the question to reflect that maybe some of us don't have uncomfortable moments No such inference was intended.

Le Fanu - Hitting the nail on the head can sometimes feel like one has hit one's thumb instead of the nail

 

[hazlit]

Clarification of OP

I'm realising now that my question might be interpreted as an enquiry about how other readers may have handled any uncomfortable moments whilst reading cards for others.

While I much appreciate any insights people have into how to handle these situations, I was looking more for descriptions of what readers have seen that have led to any uncomfortable moments.

And I realise that many readers may have had lots of uncomfortable moments... I quoted one that particularly 'stuck' in my memory - do you have any that really stand out in your recollection? If so, what was it that you saw that led to the uncomfortable feeling?

Thanks in advance for your responses {(~_~)}h

 

[nisaba]

do you have any that really stand out in your recollection? If so, what was it that you saw that led to the uncomfortable feeling?

That's one I *can* answer! I've had many that spring to mind over the years, but this one was most recent: a few months ago I was reading regularly in a cafe, and an elderly, very well-groomed, obviously affluent woman came in off the street for a reading. She told me that she made her money herself, both by working and by marrying and being widowed by three husbands and inheriting their stuff: she's always valued her figure so she'd always refused to have kids in case she got fat (saying this to a fat Tarot reader!); and her current husband, husband number four (otherwise known as The Old Coot) was showing no signs of dying. She wanted him to die first because she didn't want him to inherit her wealth, and because she deserved to inherit his because she had endured "the old coot" "slobbering all over her" for upwards of 15 years now.

I was pretty penniless at the time - I didn't want to refuse her. But what do you say to that?

I prevaricated, telling her that because he wasn't here I couldn't read on his health, but I could read on hers. Rather to my chagrin, all the cards I pulled pointed to a long and robust life. She walked away, satisfied. Despite the fact that she never said anything, I was left with a horrible feeling that somewhere in that town was an elderly man, devoted to his old but beautiful wife, who thought their life together was bliss, but who was slowly being poisoned by - oh, I dunno, arsenic or lead compounds - in his morning coffee every day.

How do you tell the cops "I had a client whose name I don't know, who has a husband whose name I don't know, whom I'm pretty sure she's poisoning"? And the cops ask you "How do you know", and your only answer is "I pulled a few Tarot cards for her and that's what I got"? They'd certify you for insanity.

And even if one of them believed me, without any names or addresses who will he warn? Who will he arrest?

 

[hazlit]

who was slowly being poisoned by - oh, I dunno, arsenic or lead compounds - in his morning coffee every day.

Was it this that you could see in the cards? If so, ouch upon ouch If that was me I would have been uncomfortable for a wee while (during and after the reading). A difficult one to put to rest in one's mind - how did you go about filing that one away in your memory banks?

 

[hazlit]

Is anybody out there?

Any more out there who have had really uncomfortable moments during readings for others? Any particular one/s that really stand out? If so, what was it that you saw that led to the uncomfortable feeling/s??

Looking forward to further responses >>>bump