Smart people fall for stupid ploys all the time. It's one reason why exploitive crimes are under reported. It's because the person can't imagine later how they could have fallen for it, and they don't think others will understand either but will condemn them instead (just as they tend to blame themselves).
One reason why crimes against minors are seen as so horrendous is because they can be so susceptible to those in a position of power. They can be talked into things (look what peer pressure can accomplish), even when they know better.
Imagine being a tarot reader at a fair and telling any teenager that fate has blocked them in some way from the things they want most, and that there might be a way to change that. Adults fall for it all the time. Don't you think such an idea would prey on a teen's mind, no matter what else they believe?
When I was in my early 20's (long ago!) a medical doctor during an exam for hypoglycema told me I needed to learn to relax more (made sense!) and that he could help me through a special kind of massage. When he closed the door and then started massaging too closely to the genital area (it was also my first "massage" by a professional) I ended the session with an excuse about having to leave. My father, who had recommended the doctor as a friend, was picking me up. I told my father, and he, clearly embarrassed, started defending the doctor - that I had obviously misread the situation.
I realized that, with nothing more to go on, I'd only be seen as a "hysterical" female (since nothing had "really" happened other than an unethically closed door, which in those days would have been seen as a minor oversight). The truth was that I didn't know for sure that my reading of the situation was the correct one, and my father had never steered me wrong in the past. I even questioned whether I was stupidly turning away real help from a respected physician. I remember thinking that the whole thing was somehow my fault - that I had falsely accused him, and that I must be missing something. But, I also never went back to that doctor.
When you want something badly - like I so desperately wanted to stop being tired all the time - you will try almost anything. What would I have done if I had been thirteen?
How many times have you read for a client and had them ask, desperately, what they can do to change a situation? Have you ever recommended something as a possibility and had the person follow it so literally (taking it as the ONLY solution) that it actually shocked you? The focused consciousness that often happens during a reading is also a kind of trance state that can be used effectively or criminally.
Furthermore, people often believe that a tarot reader has a solution they won't find elsewhere. So, would it be so untoward if that "solution" were a little out of the ordinary?
Compassion, not blame is what is needed in dealing with the victims of crimes where someone has unethically or criminally wielded power.
Also, although tarot was the tool, this kind of person will use anything that works - prayer, extra 'homework,' etc., etc.
Mary
