rwcarter
My partner's younger brother and his girlfriend stayed with us over the weekend. She's into astrology and when she saw my tarot collection, of course she wanted a reading. I don't often do readings for other people, so I gave a noncommital answer. We were discussing how one knew how many cards to pull and I explained about spreads and card positions and the like. To illustrate the point, I pulled out a book of tarot spreads, which I just happened to open to a New Relationship spread.
I left the room for a couple of minutes and when I came back she'd pulled the cards for the spread using the Gilded Tarot (my partner's copy that he'd pulled out to perpetuate the myth about the Fool). She wanted me to interpret the cards for her.
I was hesitant at first cause I have a shuffling ritual that I go through. And since I was out of the room, I had no clue as to how she picked the cards. I didn't feel connected to the selection process at all, so I didn't know how well I'd be able to interpret the cards. And while I love the Gilded, I've never actually used it in a reading before. Plus it was my partner's deck. I have two copies of my own. I would have used a different deck (Vargo's Gothic, the Robin Wood or the Navigators) had I been able.
I did a quick overview of the cards with her. I had a problem with a couple of the cards and had to find the companion book for the deck to get a better idea of what the intention behind the cards were. She seemed pleased with the overview, and I probably could've stopped there and she would've been happy.
Oh, but not me. I took the cards and the book back to the study where my laptop is and, using Excel, recreated the layout and typed up a more in-depth interpretation for her including elemental interactions for the various cards in the spread. It took me a good two hours to do (which is why I don't normally read for others) and ended up being three printed pages.
She was blown away, not only that I did all that, but also at how accurate I was about the things I said. (This was the first time I'd met her.) After reading what I'd written for her, my partner's brother was even more surprised at how accurate I was considering I'd only just looked at some cards and got all that information about her and their relationship.
All in all, a great, if not strange, experience. It definitely boosted my confidence for reading for other people.
Rodney
I left the room for a couple of minutes and when I came back she'd pulled the cards for the spread using the Gilded Tarot (my partner's copy that he'd pulled out to perpetuate the myth about the Fool). She wanted me to interpret the cards for her.
I was hesitant at first cause I have a shuffling ritual that I go through. And since I was out of the room, I had no clue as to how she picked the cards. I didn't feel connected to the selection process at all, so I didn't know how well I'd be able to interpret the cards. And while I love the Gilded, I've never actually used it in a reading before. Plus it was my partner's deck. I have two copies of my own. I would have used a different deck (Vargo's Gothic, the Robin Wood or the Navigators) had I been able.
I did a quick overview of the cards with her. I had a problem with a couple of the cards and had to find the companion book for the deck to get a better idea of what the intention behind the cards were. She seemed pleased with the overview, and I probably could've stopped there and she would've been happy.
Oh, but not me. I took the cards and the book back to the study where my laptop is and, using Excel, recreated the layout and typed up a more in-depth interpretation for her including elemental interactions for the various cards in the spread. It took me a good two hours to do (which is why I don't normally read for others) and ended up being three printed pages.
She was blown away, not only that I did all that, but also at how accurate I was about the things I said. (This was the first time I'd met her.) After reading what I'd written for her, my partner's brother was even more surprised at how accurate I was considering I'd only just looked at some cards and got all that information about her and their relationship.
All in all, a great, if not strange, experience. It definitely boosted my confidence for reading for other people.
Rodney