Do you read 'your' meanings when 'they' read for you?

[tarotbear]

In the thread on positional meanings in the Celtic Cross http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=181322 There are many great insights that people have developed as they worked with the spread through the years. These came about from 'making it work' for them and sometimes the results are amazing!

My question is this: When you have another reader read your cards, does your mind 'overread' what they are telling you? Even though they are doing the reading - do you start analysing it with your own private reading - consciously or unconsciously? If you have come to understand that Card #X is 'the effect of gamma rays on your retinas' card, but to your reader they have an understanding that Card #X is 'what happens when the social conglomerate goes to Disneyland' card - do you start doing your own reading in your head with 'your' positions and meanings?

 

[Kosjitov]

No. I have to acknowledge that:

1) I am not always the best reader for my case,
2) Someone else's conclusions are just as valid as mine or moreso, since they are freed from my narrowed down perspective on the issue,
3) Card meanings are sometimes fluid depending on the reader; each deck/card speaks to readers in different ways.

Will I ask them about things that are just polarly opposite from the situation/not relevant? Yes. But will I show them the courtesy of at least trying to see if it manifests in part or whole before trying to attempt my own reading.

 

[moonbear]

No, I never put my own readings onto their's. I like to see what others 'see' in the spread. That's the interesting part of having someone else read for you!

However, I have had it happen to me here when I've done exchanges. Sometimes my partner will contradict what I saw and say that for them, that card means such and such. Fair enough.

All part of the fun

 

[tarotbear]

My point in asking is that reading is such a subjective thing that you should always allow the Reader to do the Reading.

 

[Morwenna]

I do, or rather I have done (it's been a long time since anyone's read for me), just to myself; it's inevitable. I compare what's said to my interpretation. Sometimes one turns out to be an extension of the other. And it does sharpen my view of each card.

Maybe I ought to have someone else read for me again, with the caveat that I do NOT want any predictions!!! (I don't do them for myself; why would I want anyone else to?? Maybe it's an age thing...)

 

[toj]

I do, or rather I have done (it's been a long time since anyone's read for me), just to myself; it's inevitable. I compare what's said to my interpretation. Sometimes one turns out to be an extension of the other. And it does sharpen my view of each card.)

I agree with this because we are still needing to interpret what we are being told when we are being read to.

 

[Amanda]

Yes I do it for my own learning/comparison purposes. But I never run a reader over and basically do their reading for me for them, I think that's disrespectful and hindersome to them as a reader (especially if they're still of the studious nature), so I definitely focus on the message they give me when I'm giving them feedback. -They can sort out what the cards were meaning from my feedback in their own mind and in their own time. I've had people (not on this forum) get a reading from me and basically say, "Wow, your reading is perfect!" And then reinterpreted every card I pulled for them completely in their own way disregarding my interpretations.... and I'm thinking- Wow. Guess all I had to do was pull the cards for ya... because you definitely didn't even try to accept the message I felt the cards were giving!

 

[nisaba]

My question is this: When you have another reader read your cards, does your mind 'overread' what they are telling you?

<wince> I have a friend who reads - very badly - and as a courtesy to her, we swap readings every so often. She enjoys my readings and seems to get useable information from them that she applies to her life ... BUT ...

She did a five hour course on Tarot many years ago, and seems to have learnt nothing since. Her teacher told her she needed "protection from the cards", so she wraps herself and her client up in white shawls blessed by the Dalai Lama. Her teacher only told her very superficial meanings associated with romance for each card, so every time she tries to read for me there's nothing about my real life, there's nothing about my spiritual life, there's only her rather pathetic quest to find me a romantic partner that I'm really not interested in finding at this stage of my life.

The interesting thing is, I *do* get useful information out of the readings - by looking at the table! I'm usually very polite with her because she's emotionally delicate, and I sit on my hands, but last time, several months ago, I politely suggested that such-and-such a card might actually mean this-and-that which meant something in my situation, instead of what she was saying which meant nothing, and she was aghast.

That being said, when I have a halfway competent reader on the other side of the table, I listen, and absorb their take on it. After all, my imagery is my imagery, and works for me when *I* am doing the reading. Someone else is doing the reading now, and has their own different relationship with the deck. I have to respect that.

 

[WyrdRaven]

I always pay heed to everything the reader has to say. But my mind can't help absorbing the cards in its own way and examining the stories that reveal themselves. Two layers of possibility then appear, each with its own validity. This isn't a problem unless predictive meanings get involved, in which case I wait to see which scenario, if either, is the one that eventually manifests.

 

[Disa]

Hmm. I haven't had very many face to face card readings. When I have had them, I really didn't have any pressing questions and was just going as a learning experience to see what readers do when they read face to face. I don't remember trying to over read as I was being read. I remember the first time being a little afraid of what the reader would say, but I was much to nervous to concentrate on my own meanings. I did make a mental note when a card she read didn't seem to fit with what I thought and I tried really hard to make the associations she had, work in my mind.

I do remember when I read for a couple of my mom's friends, they also read for me. They each had a Rider Waite as their only deck and they both gave sort of standard, out of the little white book type of key word meanings for the cards and they both used the Celtic Cross spread. They really didn't seem to tie anything together. I remember listening intently and waiting for something wonderful to be said, then I remember hoping that when I do a reading no one walks away from it feeling like I did at the end of those two readings.

I'm not yet the type of reader I want to be, and I continue to strive to be better. It just felt like the readings I received were from people who learned a little and then stopped learning.