Tarot - private or public matter?

[Saskia]

Hi all,

I'm new to this site and first of all, thank you everyone for being here! You share an incredible wealth of combined knowledge, skills, insight and passion/compassion.

In my 'real' life I don't mingle with other tarotists at all, partly because I don't know any and partly because it's important for my line of work (chief analyst) that I have a reputation of sharp, rational, direct and no-nonsense type (the ultimate Queen of Swords ) so I have to be a bit mindful about who to talk to about esoteric subjects like tarot. Finding this forum and a like-minded community has been a wonderful experience and I've pretty much joined every discussion I've found just to be part of this forum! It's like finding a foreign country I instantaneously fit in and whose values and customs I realise I've been missing.

My question is: do you others only use tarot privately for yourselves or are you open about it and mingle with other readers in real life too? How have other people in your life taken it when it first came up?

 

[AnemoneRosie]

My question is: do you others only use tarot privately for yourselves or are you open about it and mingle with other readers in real life too? How have other people in your life taken it when it first came up?

These are not mutually exclusive.
In my real life I am very quiet about it. While I'm currently a student my chosen profession is not as tarot-friendly as I'd desire and I don't want to get typecasted before I've had a chance to prove myself.

However, I do not read privately. I'm a professional reader although the vast majority of my readings are online (I will do face to face for a few friends). I struggle with reading for myself and do it very infrequently as a result.

 

[yannie]

Largely privately. I've only recently experimented with reading for others online here but have never given face-to-face readings. I prefer reading for myself, because reading for others takes a lot out of me - it drains my energy, gets me down and raises my temperature. I think I've experimented enough, reading for others is not for me.

I do not mingle with other tarot readers IRL, but I know/have known a few personally. Not every reader can be your friend. Eg I was colleagues with one, she read for me years ago when I hadn't gotten into it and we've since lost touch, and another is an industry rival. A couple of non-readers know I read and it's no big deal, we're all spiritual people.

Random strangers have struck up conversations about tarot and spirituality with me when they see me browsing through a bookstore's tarot section. Or they look at me like they want to say something but are too shy to.

I was reading by myself in a cafe the other day and caught a barista looking wistfully at me when I glanced up at some point

We come from all walks of life, and tarot is more accepted than some of us worry about.

 

[HallowedNight]

I'm generally pretty private with my tarot, unless it's with really close friends. I'm not worried about being judged or anything (I'm fairly confident in that respect), but I just don't see a reason or occasion to bring it up most of the time. I don't have any 'tarot friends' currently, but I wouldn't be against having someone to talk to about it! My friends that I talk about tarot too don't judge me, but they're not into it so they don't really know what I'm talking about half the time... It'd be nice to have someone to actually discuss in depth stuff with. c:

But then again, most of the readings I do both for myself and other people are pretty personal, so I probably wouldn't talk about it too much anyway.

 

[kduphily]

Well I'm pretty public about it, except with my dad, he doesn't like to hear about it. Which is fine, plus I own my own business so I'm fine with having my cards out, sometimes I will be doing a reading and have cards laid out on my table (I'm a dog groomer and my table is huge lol) and a client will come in, most are courious and will ask for a reading others ignore it. As fir knowing other readers in real life I know quite a few, most of my circle of friends either read tarot, runes, aruas, tea leaves ect.

 

[Morwenna]

Many of my friends are into one kind of divination or another, so that's no big deal. My husband's family knows. Some of my co-workers know, but I don't generally talk about it at work (and I'm not managerial, so there wouldn't be any problem with that). I used to read for the public a couple times a year, but I haven't in a long time.

 

[Ace]

I am very public about being a reader, but I can understand NOT being public either. When I worked as a Librarian, I didn't bandy it about. The word got out (mostly through the other staff telling people) but I didn't push it, myself. If I felt it was not going to be approved of, I said nothing. Most people are good with it, but occasionally you do meet someone whose religious beliefs won't let them accept you. So I would be careful around such people to be sure it didn't come out.

My feeling is it is no one's business but your own.

If you don't want to be "out" about it, don't be, come to us and talk instead. But never be ashamed of it.

Barb

 

[Tanga]

...My question is: do you others only use tarot privately for yourselves or are you open about it and mingle with other readers in real life too? How have other people in your life taken it when it first came up?

I"m very lucky to live in London - where all-and-sundry is acceptable really.
So - I am open about my Tarot interests, I'm a member of several Tarot study groups that meet in public to study Tarot, and I read too. Mostly by email. Face-to-face - with friends or people I'm familiar with (I"m working up to strangers very slowly ).

I work in a job where the majority of people I bump into are quite open minded about these sorts of things (I'm a therapist) - so if the subject comes up here - I will admit to being a reader and mostly enjoy explaining my interest and approach if I encounter people that are taken aback by it.
I will be cautious about talking about Tarot to complete strangers ('cause you never know if you might be talking to a fundamentalist who will then want to save your soul - or a future professional link that might then decide you must be a mad flake ).
However if I still lived in my native land - I'd most likely be working with Tarot more quietly, because the society there would be much less interested and accepting of it I suspect.

My mother has never been approving of my Tarot use. I'm still uncertain whether it's because she thinks it's an impractical expenditure of energy - or whether it's fear for me (because really - she's psychic herself but has never deliberately used her gifts, due to her cultural upbringing and her experience of it - including dreaming about dead people the night before they actually die).
I've no idea what my father would have thought. Probably would have told me I was being really silly (he's dead now).
My husband poo-poohed it for a long time. And so I just never talked about it to him and read only when he wasn't really there to see - plus kept the cards under the bed until recent years when I decided shock tactics where much more fun (I still didn't tell him about my idea to professionally start reading Tarot by email, until the plan was complete and in good process - just incase he attempted to de-bunk me ).

There's a whole previous thread here on AT where people who are "in-the-closet" have shared their experience of it, and reasons for it.
(sorry - I can't remember what the title of the thread was presently. Maybe someone else will... It was quite recent, perhaps 6 weeks ago.)

*Here it is - I found it: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=242796

 

[Zephyros]

While I don't flaunt it exactly, I don't hide it, either. In general, hiding things about myself is a touchy subject, since there have been times in my life when I have had to do exactly that, before coming out as gay. Once you've done that, you realize that hiding anything is just too tiring and not worth it. If a relationship with someone I know would suffer because of either thing, chances are it wouldn't develop in the first place.

That doesn't mean I necessarily rub everyone's noses in it. At work, for example, there are certain rules of decorum that need to be adhered to, and Tarot is definitely not a part of that. I don't feel it fitting or proper to bring my personal life into work with me. So although my friends at work know about my Tarot, it isn't something I bring up at every opportunity. Just as I leave my leather chaps at home when I go to work, I use and bring up Tarot where and when it is appropriate.

 

[SwordOfTruth]

My question is: do you others only use tarot privately for yourselves or are you open about it and mingle with other readers in real life too? How have other people in your life taken it when it first came up?

I used to be extremely closed and private about it. Until I did a few readings for coworkers as a bit of a boredom breaker. Fast forward a few years down the line and I'm recognised as one of two go-to people in my workplace when you have a problem. The other one is a medium and well known amoung coworkers as such. I work in a corporate job and was amazingly surprised how open and receptive people in my workplace are to having a reading done either by myself or the other person here.