What is "accuracy" to you?

[annabel398]

It's when I look at the cards drawn for me and see the general themes, but then the way the reader expresses those themes, the words and phrases they use, are so very, very right that I hear the echoes of them in my head. Melisandre did this about a month ago here... I was very new to this board and gave a one-sentence description of my situation, but she read it stone-cold accurate, down to the very words I use when I talk about it with people who are close to me.

 

[Disa]

To me it's specifics that no one can guess.

My expectations of what a good reading should be are probably too high. I've not had a lot of readings, mostly because I'm usually disappointed. I have had 2 readings (both by palm readers), that did knock my socks off. This is the way I think readings should be, and this is the kind of reader I strive to be (though I am far from it at this stage)

I think it all depends on the sitter's expectations as to how accurate a reading is. I've done some readings where people tell me they felt it was very specific, but when I was doing it I felt as though it was very vague.

Most readings I have seen seem general and vague and as if they can apply to anyone, or the sitter can find a way to make it fit- sometimes it's a really big stretch... I don't think anyone should have to work so hard to make sense of a reading, it should just make sense.

 

[nisaba]

We see people here using the term "accuracy" quite often so I thought it would be interesting to find out what various people consider accuracy to be.

Is it generalities?

Nope. That's cold reading.

Is it specifics that nobody could ever possibly just guess?

Yes.

Is it of a predictive nature that you only find out later?

Yes.

Is it also being able to work through a spread on the table in front of you and feel as if you now know the inner workings of a complete stranger's life? Yes.

I dislike the term "scary accurate" a lot, but if you use it, what would your reading have to be in order for you to consider it "scary accurate"?

I don't consider accuracy to be scary at all. I'd be a hell of a lot more scared by an inaccurate surgeon or dentist than by an accurate one who worked on the part of the body or mouth where the problem actually existed. Ditto Tarot readers.

Being scared by accuracy is a diagnostic sign of idiocy.

 

[MissJo]

Accuracy is how well the messages the cards give me apply to the situation.

 

[Carla]

We see people here using the term "accuracy" quite often so I thought it would be interesting to find out what various people consider accuracy to be.

Try to analyze exactly what you'd have to have in a reading from someone else in order for you to use either of those terms about the reading.

As a sitter, to consider a reading accurate, I would want to see all the cards woven together into a story that makes sense in my life, even if it is taking me in a direction I hadn't thought of before. I don't need a reader to blurt out details like some kind of spoon bender ('Oh, I see your mother-in-law had a nervous breakdown in her early 50s'), and I don't mind them talking in generalities, as long as the generalities resonate in me like I'm vibrating to the striking of a great big gong. A chill and an 'a-HA!'--now that's accuracy. I've never had a 'scarily accurate' reading because I believe in the tarot and how adept some readers can be. I have had some 'Whoa! That really makes sense!' moments.

On the other hand, I've had some readings where the reader has got so caught up in weaving their story from the cards, they try to get too specific, try to make every card fit their very specific track which is headed in the wrong direction, and they divert from my life and the reading falls apart. When the reader starts talking specifics and those specifics are wrong, I lose all credulity in the reading. (Maybe they're going for 'scarily accurate'?). Those, I'm afraid, I would class as 'inaccurate,' but that's not the fault of the cards, but the way the reader has gone off on a tangent with their 'story' rather than seeing the variations inherent in the cards. In my opinion.

 

[Le Fanu]

Accuracy for me has to be just that: spot on. And predictive too. With stuff I (as reader) couldn't have known and no guessing from vague notions/known information of where the querent is coming from.

It has to be specific and it has to be stuff which is only relevant to that particular issue. So many tarot readings and interpretations could mean anything to everyone.

I know accuracy when I see it. For me it isn't, as someone said, "telling me what I already know" from a different perspective. I don't need cards to tell me what I already know. I presume we're talking accuracy as readers rather than querents?

I like nisaba's response: scary accuracy is a sure sign of idiocy

I think people toss "scary accurate" around to show how good a reader they are. Another one that really gets me is the "this deck isn't afraid to tell it like it is." Always makes me guffaw. Bah, humbug...

 

[Zephyros]

I know accuracy when I see it. For me it isn't, as someone said, "telling me what I already know" from a different perspective. I don't need cards to tell me what I already know. I presume we're talking accuracy as readers rather than querents?

I said that
But maybe I should clarify. I certainly didn't mean it in the way charlatans mean it, I mean, we all know what a cold reading is. What I did mean is how the reading flows, how well I make the cards flow into a coherent story and an exchange of, for want of a better word, "energy" between the querent, myself, the cards and vice versa. The better I can "map" the querent's life into my reading, I find the better it is, and the more exact my future predictions are. I find I get, on the contrary, inaccurate readings when the querent is a skeptic sitting there smirking and thinking "let's catch this weirdo in his folly." That's kind of blocking the reading, and I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall.

But I give credit for most people already inherently knowing what the issues their lives face are all about. I don't need to tell a woman who's husband is beating her that she is in a troubled situation. She may think that he can be better, that's it's her fault, etc.; all the delusions people live with every day. The "truths" in our lives are apparent, usually, it just takes a stranger to tell you that yes, this is an issue and that you should deal with it. For me, that's accuracy, that's what I strive for, finding the seed and passing it on the querent. If I can map out their past well, then it becomes easier to predict the future, but I see it as a bonus in any case, since it could change as a direct result of the reading itself, which is usually a good thing.

I believe you can make predictions with Tarot, but without that participatory element, the prediction is stale, since if you make no attempt to improve your situation or at least want to learn about yourself, you might as well have no reading at all.

 

[triple_entendre]

I said that

I said it first, but you said it better

 

[Nineveh]

Relative to readings I termed readers as accurate when that person was able to read events of the past (relative to the query) just as the event had happened. The person would then go on to describe the present situation in a manner which is consistent with reality and finally able to make predictions that actually materialize as stated during the reading.

There are readers who are too general for my liking. If I pay for a reading I don't want an answer that could apply to anyone's life given the scenario. Some readers also stray away from reading/making predictions and actually give advice. Thanks but no thanks!

Scary accuracy, in my opinion, is when I intentionally spare details as in sit down, call, ask, etc. and ask "what do you see for me and X". If the reader can tell me what's taking place/had taken place and make specific predictions that actually materialize, I'd call that "scary accuracy".

I've had a couple of readers to verbalize some of my most embarrassing secrets or mention that a certain relative has crossed over. that too is scary accuracy.

 

[The crowned one]

Relative to readings I termed readers as accurate when that person was able to read events of the past (relative to the query) just as the event had happened. The person would then go on to describe the present situation in a manner which is consistent with reality and finally able to make predictions that actually materialize as stated during the reading.

Interesting, as this is how I read to prove myself to the sitter, and to test the reading for me. I can have feed back on the past and present that infers truths in the future!