ethical concerns in acting as professional tarot reader

I am not starting this as expert about this issue, I am starting this as I have deepening concern about how Professional Tarot readers are using tarot, esp ones who use it to predict. This concern comes from living for 14+ years in saturated community of psychics and alternative healing art practitioners. So I've met a lot of psychics, 100's. I also trained in psychotherapy. I did not stay in that field as i grew disillusioned about conventional therapy's ability to help people, and when i entered my own dark night of the soul, I went further off the beaten path to find real help. I began using oracles as way of conversing with Wisdom that helps me heal personally. and still does. About a year ago, I switched from using I ching oracle, which is oracle that uses words, to exploring the use of images, symbols as an oracle. and naturally gravitated towards tarot, as it has the depth that is missing in most oracle decks. I come to Tarot from having explored the psyche in depth. I am certified breathwork practitioner, where I learned how to use breath to lead a person into altered states of consciousness. Now in the readings I do, the way I do them, it pulls folks into altered consciousness. it just happens. I don't exactly understand how this happens, just aware that it does. is a side result of the way i set up the session and lead it. Which has led me to awareness that I need to learn more about how to stay ethical in this, as I am in altered place too. so how can I protect the querent? which I feel is my duty as the professional. I knew how to do this in breathwork. But I do not know how to do this (yet) in tarot. It rather surprised me that this happens with it too. I was not expecting this. I did not experience this with I Ching.

I know from my learning about the pysche, that the part of our mind that processes imagery is much faster than the logical mind. So by bringing pictures into the mix, now suddenly, I am aware of the danger of the imagery and or my words, my presence imprinting on the psyche of the person I am working with. due the fact that we have rapport, trust between us and both of us are in this joined altered consciousness place. I feel greater need to understand this so that I do not misuse this trust.

I stumbled across a book that seems to be addressing these issues more from the perspective of alternative healing arts practicers:The Ethics of Caring: Honoring the Web of Life in Our Professional Healing Relationships Paperback – June, 1995
by Kylea Taylor (Author), Jack Kornfield (Author) The Ethics of Caring is written for all caregivers, including psychotherapists, bodyworkers, medical practitioners, clergy, hypnotherapists, and acupuncturists, who want to become more conscious in their relationships with clients. It provides unique help to volunteer and professional caregivers who want to sort out confusing ethical dilemmas in seven categories including love, truth, insight, and oneness as well as the more well-known ethical issues of money, sex, and power. Ethical issues pertain to longings, feelings, and motivations which resonate at our very core. Powerful, shared experiences in the context of the therapeutic relationship can bring to the surface compelling fears, needs, and longings in both the client and the caregiver. It offers a new model of self-examination which deepens the therapeutic relationship and can prevent the harmful consequences of ethical misconduct.

I've ordered it for myself. and suggest that anyone who promotes themselves as professional tarot reader, explore this too. Not this book necessarily but explore this topic, esp. if you gravitate towards predictions. When a person lets down their guard and let us in, we have obligation not to misuse that trust by implanting our own beliefs there. I don't think we have the right to become a dominating voice in someone else's psyche. and yet there is great risk of this happening through the strong influence of tarot cards on the part of the mind that is the most malleable, open to suggestions. This is the part of a querent's mind that the tarot cards influence the most. So there is great risk of misusing this, esp. if one comes across in strong authoritative manner, which seems to be the dominant approach by most Tarot practitioners. I'm psychic and damn proud of it, If you don't like what I say, shove it. is the feels like of it. The challenge of having strength is in not misusing it. I think an awful lot of tarot professionals are using this tool without really understanding it themselves. without understanding the effect it and the way they use has on their querent. I wonder how many of them would go to themselves? I would. And the only person I've found helpful in terms of getting psychic guidance was a woman who also is doing her own work. does not present herself as a know it all. she is an adept. but not a know it all. and this is more the way I see myself and see the person that comes to me as my equal with perhaps other gifts.

In answer to your question (if I read you rightly) ; yes, I read for myself. That is mostly how I use the cards.

I think ONE dynamic present (at least) for the one who has their cards read (including when we read for ourselves) is that any 'dynamics', issues, patterns, etc. are now laid out before us, outside of our own 'subjective' view (to an extent) , that can 'change consciousness' ... or at least perspective.

Of course, many find reading for themselves is a trickier 'objective' exercise.

I'm not asking this of people that use for their own use. I am targeting the ones that say they are professional tarot readers, doing this for strangers for a fee. a spin off from another thread under tarot talk where people shared their experiences of going to professional tarot readers. The dominant theme there is that most people go to tarot readers who predict the future. and is this an ethical way to use tarot? given that tarot cards put the querent into malleable, suggestible state of mind. similar in some ways to hypnotic mode. The imagery of a lot of decks automatically lead a person's psyche there.

How can anyone know for certain what is going to happen to anyone? This ignores the myriad influences on a person both inner and outer. It totally ignores the possibility that emerge when one is open and receptive to being helped. when a person has a shift in awareness. totally ignores the influences of what I call Invisible Realm(avoiding religious wordage). My concern being how many professional tarot readers who do this for a living understand the issues I talked about in the beginning thread. Mainly targeting those who use it to predict. who believe that what they sense is the absolute only possibility. How do they know that it is just not the one that simply jumps out to them at the moment, the one the querent has been thinking about the most? How deeply have they explored how life works? do they really believe that life is predestined? I don't. I think we have certain things that seem to have stronger influence to happen, but there are always choices. and by targeting one and saying this is what is going to happen, does that not just simply increase the odds of it happening due to the reader imprinting it more deeply in their psyche.

I never really used I ching for other people too. but I have had some friends who asked me to do I Ching readings with and for them. and I never felt the expanded consciousness with I Ching, and interestingly now that I think about it, I do not experience this when i use the tarot for my own use. perhaps why so many people say they cannot read for themselves. I find it much harder to read for myself, not nearly as fun as it is when I am working with someone else. When two of us are using tarot, there is something that occurs that expands both of our consciousnesses, and the reading flows, unlike when i use the cards for myself. this flow seems to require another person.

I'm exploring this because more people are approaching me for readings. strangers. word of mouth spreading from people who experienced my readings at a small local wellness fair.

I feel growing concern to be responsible in the way I use this tool. and I don't see too many other professionals talking about this. most of the feedback I am getting is ridicule. outrage that I would even suggest that this be addressed? that it does not apply to tarot?

About all I want to say in response to this is that you didn't land in a pit of unethical psychics who are only out for placating their own ego and stuffing their pockets here. Let your mind be at rest about that, first of all.. I've been a member of this forum for over 10 years and I've never seen any sign whatsoever that there are readers like that here. And in fact, I've even brought up this topic myself before and we've discussed it at length.

Everyone here on AT that I've ever met is extremely ethical and many are more educated than either you or I in the areas you name and many more. I think if you just explore this forum, your fears will be put to rest. Then you can probably just relax and enjoy your membership among us without all this worry.

I still don't understand why you would imply Tarot readers have no interest in ethics. Maybe those who you met in your town don't, but I find it hard to believe. People on AT certainly are ethical, although they may not have your codes and ethics. Remember that contrary to therapists and other mental health professionals, who's ethics and codes are state mandated, Tarot readers have to do the best they can with what they have, and wing it from day to day. That there isn't one code of conduct doesn't mean all Tarot readers are evil, far from it. It simply means that everyone is different and deals with issues in their own ways.

So, really, I get the feeling that you aren't expecting merely ethics, but your ethics, and if that is the case, I fear you're in for a world of disappointments.

For some people, ethical reading means not reading about third parties. I don't believe in that, and often read about third parties. I can also justify that behavior as not only ethical, but mandatory. Others not so much, and I haven't been called an evil madman about that.

As I said before, for me the important thing in a reading is to raise a querent's level of independence and powers of formulation. All is subservient to that goal, to make them think for themselves. I can try my very best not to affect or influence them, but some of my own humanity inevitably leaks into the reading. I don't think that means I'm unethical.

The questions that you are asking, such as "How can anyone know for certain what is going to happen to anyone?", nobody can answer that.

It seems to me that you, closerwalking, are seeking answers to questions that we can only answer for ourselves and not for you. Although there may be some state laws we can look to, as it's been mentioned in this and other related threads, there is no body that sets standards or formulates model ethical codes related to professional tarot services. So, it's up to us as individuals, and perhaps as members of tarot guilds that may have their own internal code of ethcs. Additionally, you don't know what other skills readers have and what other training they may be drawing on.

Also, I think you're making assumptions based on your own experiences that aren't necessarily true for others. For example, my experience of having my cards read and of reading for others does not remotely resemble a hypnotic state. I have never felt so vulnerable or malleable and it's not my wish or purpose to make my querent feel that way either.

closerwalking said:

I feel growing concern to be responsible in the way I use this tool. and I don't see too many other professionals talking about this. most of the feedback I am getting is ridicule. outrage that I would even suggest that this be addressed? that it does not apply to tarot?

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Are you saying you're getting ridicule and outrage from us here on AT? I haven't been able to spend a lot of time here in the last few weeks but, like I said before, I've been a member here for a long time and I've seen tons of discussions like this one over the years and everyone I know here is very conscientious about how they use the cards and especially in being fair and doing no harm to our sitters. I haven't seen anyone ridiculing you or showing outrage over bringing up this topic. We don't usually resort to ridicule or outrage to begin with. I think we're a pretty level-headed, ethical, conscientious group of people.

Maybe if you do some searches on this topic you can bring up some of the many past discussions we've had and it will enlighten you a little better to what the norm is here. I don't have the knack with searches that some others here do or I'd bring some up for you.

Anyway, just familiarize yourself a little more with the forum and I'm sure you'll be much more at ease about this.

Hi closerwalking (great name!).

You ask if predictive readings are ethical, "given that tarot cards put the querent into malleable, suggestible state of mind. similar in some ways to hypnotic mode. The imagery of a lot of decks automatically lead a person's psyche there."

I read professionally for about a year and most people came because they wanted ideas and inspiration--messages, insights--about their lives now and in the future. I wouldn't say their state of mind was "malleable, suggestible"--rather, it was "open, introspective." The cards and the interaction with me--the reading, in other words--was an occasion for self-reflection in people who wanted that opportunity.

Are you thinking of the "DOOM! DOOM! is inevitable but for a fee I can light some very special candles" readers? That is: cons? They're not hanging out here, or if they are, they're brilliantly disguised.

As Grizabella suggests, do take a look at the "your readings" forum and the exchanges. You'll see a give-and-take and mutual respect that I think typifies contemporary readings.

ETA: closerwalking, I see now from reading your contributions to other threads over the past few days that you're seriously concerned that tarot readers deliberately or through irresponsibility exert unethical influence by making predictions, denying free will, seeming authoritative, using the imagery on the cards to permeate the sitter's psyche more directly and completely than the spoken word, etc.

My feeling is that people who are apprehensive about using tarot cards might experiment a bit if so inclined, and otherwise should simply not use them.