firemaiden said:
Not sure what you are saying here, Fudu. Who exactly is this "we" you mention? Are you saying that all French and all Spanish and all Italian people are factual and detail oriented? (Allow me to introduce you to my cinematographer friend, Pierre, who traffics in dreams, my Spanish friend Hector... or... will just one example do? Or should I do a random sample of 10% of the population ... Should I exclude all Virgos? I hear that all Virgos are supposed to be factual and detail oriented too, this could really skew the poll...).
Are you saying that readings which are not aiming for accuracy in exact detail amount to psycho-babble?
I'm talking about most people who consult card readers in Latin cultures, who on the whole want accurate factual information and predictions, rather than counselling and psychological profiling. I wasn't talking about film-making. The questions I invariably get are: "will I meet a boyfriend? Will I change jobs? I want to travel more - how can I achieve that?" - and the expectation is that I answer the questions with facts - as detailed as I can. But these are very emotional people too, so I also need to work with extra compassion and love (I have to keep the kleenex nearby, including with the men). The further South I go, the more there is an expectation that I deal with the spiritual side of life. If someone like your Pierre consulted a good card reader at the beginning of his career, he was probably told that he'd be attracted to making dream-based films. But Paris isn't really the South or Latin in any sense - it's much more Northern European in feel and orientation (actually, I'm wrong: Paris is in a world of its own, and Parisians are more different from the other French than - say - Londoners from the other English). Perhaps my experience of Paris is different from yours, though: I know many Brazilians and South Americans there, and they definitely want their cards read the Latin way!
That's not to say psychology has no place in such a reading: simply, a reading is not a psychological or counselling session. It's a divination, which is both a spiritual and practical activity.
Reading cards for predictions and understanding of one's life is only one activity we can do with tarot, among many (though it's the one the general public consult card readers for). Reading for myself or close friends, I might use them for brain storming, storytelling, free association, etc. And every now and then I will have a querent who wants help in making up his/her mind about something, or compare several possible options and life choices, so we can explore them together, using the cards as a kick-off point. That kind of reading also needs to be accurate: it's important that what is said about option A, B or C be true!
Forgive me if I go on about Latin-style reading (in which I include the Southern Francophone cultures, like my own). But as this thread unfolded, I started to have the distinct feeling that I was divided by a common language from what many people - mainly from North America (though similar attitudes also exists in Northern Europe) - were saying. It was making me uncomfortable but I couldn't put my finger on it, and when Magenta pointed out that there are cultural differences in how divination is viewed and approached, it made sense to me.
The Latins are not the only one who use divination differently from the North Americans or North Europeans. Though I started to learn Tarot in England, most of my life since I started reading has been spent in Africa, the Middle East, and French-speaking Geneva (my home town) - and now in the South of Spain. With the exception of Geneva, where tarot readers are respected, but not central to life, all of these cultures use divination as a matter of course, in their daily lives, and for them it's both a practical and spiritual tool (but not spiritual in the New Age sense, since "New Age" doesn't exist in those countries!). Accuracy is measured by the truthful facts you can give about past, present and future, and the way in which you can help people, through such predictions, live what is objectively a very difficult life. There is a degree of fatalism in these cultures too, which simply doesn't exist in North America. I'm not saying it's a good thing - simply, that it exists and as a reader, that's what you have to deal with. Muslims believe things are written by God, pre-determined. They want you to help them find out what's written, what God has in mind for them so they can organise themselves, and face their fate calmly (or with excitement, if that fate pleases them!)
You see how different it is from cultures that believe that every second of every day, you shape your own life?
With that in mind, some of the most scarily accurate readers I know are North American. And as Lark pointed out - people recommend her for her accuracy, not because she's friendly (she is both
). So there you go - even in countries where people believe they hold all the power to shape their own future, they want accurate predictions!
