What makes a reading "accurate" to you?

berrieh

This is from another thread, but it was not wholly on topic to get into:

firemaiden said:
Maybe we could all take a minute to think about what an accurate reading really is? What does it mean to say a reading is dead on? I mean, how can you really know if it was accurate?

Isn't it up to the querant to apply it however? I mean if a reading is predicting the future --- how will you know if it makes sense until the whole future is over, like in 100 years?

And if you are predicting the past... well, that's just silly, only the querant knows his past... the past is done already.

If you are analysing the present, well -- I guess it's up for grabs.

Seriously, what does it mean to say a reading is right on?

The best I can understand, is either a reading resonates or it doesn't. You feel understood, or you don't...

Honestly, I am also very wary of the terms 'accurate" or 'inaccurate' with regard to a reading. You'll know if it was accurate when you receive that lava lamp, ten years later.

...quoted with firemaiden's permission. :)

I think this is an awesome question. So, folks. What makes an accurate reading. (And sorry if this belongs in "Talking Tarot." I couldn't decide between the two forums, but the initial thread it springs from is in here.)

I'd love to hear thoughts on this. I think the "being understood" feeling is such a great way to describe it... it's like there's this *connection* when a reading is really good, and I can feel it as a Reader, and a few times, I've felt it as a Sitter. I can even feel it when I read for myself sometimes.

What's the word for it, though?

And is validating the past important? I think it is, personally, as I like to look at it and validate it if possible (especially in live or paid readings). Do you validate the past in your readings for others? For yourself?

I sometimes look at the past cards in Spreads for myself for eons, much longer than I look at the future cards. How about you?
 

afrosaxon

Hmm...serendipity? Synchronicity?

This was a good question by firemaiden. For me, an "accurate" reading is the reader (if I'm the querent) picking up on things I hadn't told them with regard to my question...and if I pick up on things with regard to a querent's question. I guess I feel "accurate" when this happens between me and my querents.

The resonance of the reading helps, too...I've had readings that just hit me in my gut to the point where I was like, "YEAH!" :D Other times, I've had readings where I just looked at the reader (or the computer screen LOL) like, HUH? :confused: Likewise, I've had querents tell me that they had no clue what I was referring to in their reading.(oh well...can't win 'em all).

T.
 

autumnsdaughter

Yes, it is a gnarly topic, isn't it? I mean, for future stuff- all of that can change so quickly, dependent upon the choices made. So I don't really see outcome or future cards as being the crux of the matter- more as just how the energy is moving in this moment- where it is going.
I think the issue of accuracy has a lot to do with the purpose of reading tarot in the first place. For instance, I really am not all that interested in knowing what is going to happen- I enjoy surprises. I'm more interested in what the internal dynamics of a situation are- what makes it tick, what is necessary for change, who and what is involved, and how it has evolved. I like knowing this, because for one, it is fascinating to me, and it is useful.
So how do I know when I have received a good reading? I know by the feeling of recognition, the feeling of "YES!" - that it affirms what has been happening, and gives me an insight that just makes all the pieces come together.
But sometimes, I get a good reading, but don't know it, because I haven't got the experience necessary to recognize how good it is- things haven't fallen into place yet for real understanding to occur.
So, for me, accurate means "tuned in" to who I am and what I think and feel.
 

Baroli

For me, if someone is reading for me, it is an understanding at first of information given. If it is done online, then I will usually print it out, but if it is a face to face; well I am a notetaker. One of the best readings I got was a year or so ago, and I got a tape of the interview. I just played the tape again recently and there were things in that tape that I heard just now that makes complete sense to me now, but didn't at the time of the reading. So I think having the reading to refer to is key. (yes, and if reading for yourself, a journal is mighty handy). But through the course of everyday life there will come an "Aha! Moment" when something clicks in my head and the cards or the reading its self will come streaming back into my consciousness. Accuracy is only as good as you the sitter let it be.

Baroli
 

.traveller.

Good question. I feel, personally, that there are degrees of accuracy.

There's the "throw the can of paint at the barn"... yes, you'll get some paint on the barn. You can give or receive a reading that is so broad in scope that it is bound to have some relevance.
I wouldn't call this a good reading, but would be technically accurate in parts.

There's the "brush" method, it may not cover everything but what it does cover, it covers well. This type of reading may focus on an aspect that is important to the querent. Even though it doesn't cover everything, this would be a good reading and accurate for as far as it goes.

I've never received a "paint sprayer" type reading, which covers everything but I have heard rumors that some people have. :D

As a querent, a good reader will read MY cards... not parrot definitions out of a book or from memory. This will lead to an accurate reading, because to read MY cards a rapport will have been established.
Sometimes an accurate reading won't be a good reading, because of poor communication.
 

moderndayruth

berrieh said:
So, folks. What makes an accurate reading.

Excellent question! "Accurate" in my understanding (please have in mind English is not my first, not even second language :( ) is a reading that gives me new levels of awareness. I don't really need someone telling me the exact events from the past - i do need someone to help me understand lessons that were there for me in the past.
The same with the present/future. I am not so much into fortune-telling, i prefer so called "Anglo-Saxon" type of readings and when i say the reading is "accurate" i mean it resonates with me, it's meaningful for me.

berrieh said:
I'd love to hear thoughts on this. I think the "being understood" feeling is such a great way to describe it... it's like there's this *connection* when a reading is really good, and I can feel it as a Reader, and a few times, I've felt it as a Sitter. I can even feel it when I read for myself sometimes.

What's the word for it, though?
I don't know what the word is... and if there is any, but i know exactly what you mean :)


berrieh said:
I sometimes look at the past cards in Spreads for myself for eons, much longer than I look at the future cards. How about you?
So do i :) We can learn so much from our past and, btw, that prevents the "lessons" being repeated... in a "harsher" form.
just my 0.2 USD :D
 

serenaserendipity

...

hi berrieh

i was just wondering if you were catching the jane austen special on pbs. maybe its just on my local pbs station but they are showing all the jane austen novels in succession every sunday over the next month.

i thought it might be fun, if people didn't know the stories of jane austen that well, if they could try taking breaks from either reading the book or watching the show to do tarot readings on the plot.

then you could come back and REALLY test the accuracy of the reading!

s.
 

berrieh

Baroli said:
For me, if someone is reading for me, it is an understanding at first of information given. If it is done online, then I will usually print it out, but if it is a face to face; well I am a notetaker.

Yes! I do, as well. :) I ask live Sitters to take notes. Or I offer to tape the reading. Personally, I like to be held 'accountable' to some degree (not for their actions or what they do with the reading, but for the reading itself), as it helps me develop. I like it when Sitters communicate, even if it's to say, "You were totally off. Here's what actually happened..." (Usually they don't tell me when I'm wrong though, as they just don't come back...unless it's a friend or something.)

I like the note-taking method a lot.

traveler said:
There's the "throw the can of paint at the barn"... yes, you'll get some paint on the barn. You can give or receive a reading that is so broad in scope that it is bound to have some relevance.
I wouldn't call this a good reading, but would be technically accurate in parts.

There's the "brush" method, it may not cover everything but what it does cover, it covers well. This type of reading may focus on an aspect that is important to the querent. Even though it doesn't cover everything, this would be a good reading and accurate for as far as it goes.

I've never received a "paint sprayer" type reading, which covers everything but I have heard rumors that some people have.

The "paint sprayer" readings are few and far between, from both sides, and they are a blessing to Read and a blessing to Sit for, I think. But yes, they do exist. I've had a few and done a few, and if they were all like that, I'd never do anything but Read and Sit, and I'd become thoroughly addicted.

For the others, I call them "energy" (throw the can) and "event" (brush) readings, myself. It's easy to find the energy in a reading, but harder to describe it into specific terms. You have to take a leap of faith to get to the brush, and sometimes you fall on your face. :)

The paint sprayer readings are just given. I don't know where they come from. Somewhere magical.

moderndayruth said:
The same with the present/future. I am not so much into fortune-telling, i prefer so called "Anglo-Saxon" type of readings and when i say the reading is "accurate" i mean it resonates with me, it's meaningful for me.

Interesting. I think I mix the two points of view. I tell fortunes (or try to). But, at best, I think we can only tell the path-of-least-resistance, which has to do with all that past lesson stuff. But I have trouble with 'spiritual' types of Tarot for some reason, even though I am spiritual, as a person.

When someone goes on about karma, they often lose me. I just don't get it, man. Yes, I know life is full of lessons, but I just don't speak that language. I speak the language of energies, actions and reactions, so to speak. So, I often have to look at 'What happens if I do this?' and 'What happens if I do that?' and in those possible futures, along with the reading of the past, I think I begin to see Lessons and guidance in my own way.

serenaserendipity said:
i was just wondering if you were catching the jane austen special on pbs. maybe its just on my local pbs station but they are showing all the jane austen novels in succession every sunday over the next month.

i thought it might be fun, if people didn't know the stories of jane austen that well, if they could try taking breaks from either reading the book or watching the show to do tarot readings on the plot.

I didn't know it was on, but I am totally watching it now. :) I've never read Northanger Abbey, though I have the cards, so this will be interesting. Though not sure how like the movies and the books are. Mansfield Park, for example, is a completely different thing in movie form.

I wonder if that would be meaningful, as an experiment. Do you have experience with 'story' readings for things you've never read? I'm a bit strange...I often guess the twists in twisty movies and whisper them the first few minutes or so to my friends viewing it with me. I ruin movies all the time and get quite yelled at, but I don't think it's anything magical.
 

serenaserendipity

...

i do this too! i always guess and love to gossip about "what's going to happen".

today, i also did this while waiting for persuasion to come on. there was a poker show and i guessed that the woman who did not have a good hand was going to win by bluffing and she did.

by the way, i try not to encourage this side of myself, but i am VERY good at gambling and have always done well when i have tried my hand at it. i always tried to stick to blackjack because i liked the classical rules, and was mostly good enough to stay alive for hours at a time (starting out with only $20) but then i was not gutsy enough to bet big enough to win big. but the first time i played Roulette, omigoodness. i won a pile!

i quickly realized this was a dangerous thing to be good at so i didn't go again to the speakeasy.

i do think success at prediction it might be related to tarot/clairsentient abilities, just like predicting plots of movies!
s.
 

Aoife

This must come back to, to quote the Ubiquitous Umbrae...

Why do you read?

To suggest that a sitter is in denial because they cannot relate to a reading seems a shocking arrogance, but I suspect it is more a reflection of the reader's lack of confidence.

Rather than imposing a reading, allowing it to be an interactive process not only involves the sitter and takes away the pressure to perform, but also allows for far greater growth for both reader and sitter.