Umbrae
Damn Sheri - what a brilliant post!
What she said!
What she said!
why cant people say what they do....
franniee
Sheri said:
ALWAYS!re-pete-a
Does that mean the TAROT OLYMPICS are off ?
Who gets to proudly hold up the naked plucked rubber chook and shake it .
Who gets to proudly hold up the naked plucked rubber chook and shake it .
satinangel
Moderator Note
Please stay on topic.
Please stay on topic.
Logiatrix
Yes, I agree with you, especially on how you say you read; I can really relate with a similar method of my own. Yes, the focus should be on the message, and the sitter should only care about "Did I get a good reading?" And I also agree people and life shouldn't be so easily categorized. However, it doesn't always work that way.Sheri said:The focus should be on the message itself and not on the method of delivery or if the reader giving the message is performing all the prescribed items on a sitter's mental checklist of what "psychic," "Tarot," <insert additional labels here> readings should be made up of. The only criteria the sitter should care about should be "Did I get a good reading?"
People and life shouldn't be easily categorized. To do so is always diminishing to someone.
Sheri
I was hired at a meta shop as a tarot reader primarily because the owner was getting requests specifically for tarot. My boss could read without any tools, or with angel cards, and she always got positive validation from her sitters (those that simply focused on the message). She also had another reader that used an oracle deck, and did very good card readings combined with a bit of numerolgy. Nevertheless, some picky people still wanted tarot. They wanted that basic card-by-card session with those familliar images. ('Traditional tarot', perhaps?
)I saw it for myself after I got there, with my colleague and her oracle deck practically being chased out of the room a couple of different times, because the sitters wanted tarot and nothing else. I also saw it with people of certain cultures and their very specific notions of the 'proper' cards. Some wanted to see a Marseille or similar deck, others expected playing cards; I learned to keep both handy at the store. I also experienced those attitudes regarding other 'labels' that customers expect...
Customer: Do you have a medium here? I'd like to see someone about contacting my brother; he died two years ago.
Me: Yes, I do mediumship in my tarot sessions.
Customer: Well, no, I want someone who can communicate with my brother.
Me: Okay, I'd be glad to help you.
Customer: So, what do you do?
Me: Well, I typically open up the session with some cards...
Customer: But I don't want cards, I want a medium.
Me: I understand. I can contact your loved one with other methods.
Customer: But are you a medium?
Maybe it's just this very metaphysically 'novice' region where I live; a lot of people here are just dabblers. I don't mean to label the labelers, LOL. There just seems to be an influx of curious seekers, and they come with certain expectations created from pre-conceived notions, pop culture and limited (if any) knowledge beyond those general labels. Yes, we shouldn't need those labels, but in my experience, they are unavoidable.
PEACE,
Tauni
gregory
I suppose the only thing to do there is to ask them what a medium is for them. And then see if you can fit and explain to them how you fit. If not - you'd have to send them on.
Kind of like buying anything else - will the store let you look in the package, as there is a critical aspect of it not covered on the box - if not, don't buy. There's no point trying to offer something to someone who - however wrong - "knows" they don't want what you are offering.
Kind of like buying anything else - will the store let you look in the package, as there is a critical aspect of it not covered on the box - if not, don't buy. There's no point trying to offer something to someone who - however wrong - "knows" they don't want what you are offering.
Gloria Jean
rachelcat said:
This is what I tell people when I do readings. I just read the cards.
One thing that you should realize though is that every tarot card reader has their own system. The cards speak TO THE READER not to the person being read.(The sitter) They will tell the reader about the person being read so the reading is for the person being read... but the cards are speaking to the reader.
Gloria Jean
gregory said:
Good suggestion. I know what the sitter is looking for. In my case, I would have to have said, I do not talk to the dead. LOL
I have a friend who can do that though. I consider her to be a medium. I am strictly a Tarot reader.
Sheri
Logiatrix said:Yes, I agree with you, especially on how you say you read; I can really relate with a similar method of my own. Yes, the focus should be on the message, and the sitter should only care about "Did I get a good reading?" And I also agree people and life shouldn't be so easily categorized. However, it doesn't always work that way.
I was hired at a meta shop as a tarot reader primarily because the owner was getting requests specifically for tarot. My boss could read without any tools, or with angel cards, and she always got positive validation from her sitters (those that simply focused on the message). She also had another reader that used an oracle deck, and did very good card readings combined with a bit of numerolgy. Nevertheless, some picky people still wanted tarot. They wanted that basic card-by-card session with those familliar images. ('Traditional tarot', perhaps?
I saw it for myself after I got there, with my colleague and her oracle deck practically being chased out of the room a couple of different times, because the sitters wanted tarot and nothing else. I also saw it with people of certain cultures and their very specific notions of the 'proper' cards. Some wanted to see a Marseille or similar deck, others expected playing cards; I learned to keep both handy at the store. I also experienced those attitudes regarding other 'labels' that customers expect...
Customer: Do you have a medium here? I'd like to see someone about contacting my brother; he died two years ago.
Me: Yes, I do mediumship in my tarot sessions.
Customer: Well, no, I want someone who can communicate with my brother.
Me: Okay, I'd be glad to help you.
Customer: So, what do you do?
Me: Well, I typically open up the session with some cards...
Customer: But I don't want cards, I want a medium.
Me: I understand. I can contact your loved one with other methods.
Customer: But are you a medium?
Maybe it's just this very metaphysically 'novice' region where I live; a lot of people here are just dabblers. I don't mean to label the labelers, LOL. There just seems to be an influx of curious seekers, and they come with certain expectations created from pre-conceived notions, pop culture and limited (if any) knowledge beyond those general labels. Yes, we shouldn't need those labels, but in my experience, they are unavoidable.
PEACE,
Tauni
I understand what you are saying here. It is very common everywhere. I am always asked what I do. "I give readings. What can I help you with?" Every interaction is an opportunity for me to help educate the community. This is REALLY important because the more educated the public is on what readings are (and aren't) the less likely they will be taken advantage of by con games.
I would never try to force a person who wanted a Tarot reading to have an oracle readings or vise versa so I am not surprised that the oracle people or others were "run out" when people were seeking Tarot readings. The problem you illustrated is a great example against labeling as it seems the problem you were having was that you were "labeled" as the Tarot reader and as such, the customer couldn't understand how you could be a medium based on their "mental checklist" of what a medium should be and what a Tarot reader should be. Your label worked against you because it is not accurately describing what you do. I think removing labels would be MORE important in a "novice" area...they don't know any better than going with the labels they are provided and are confused when you are presented as one thing and then say you do other things.
It's OK for the owner of the shop to want to offer Tarot readings. Hiring a "Tarot Reader" (labeled and implies only thing they do) versus hiring someone who can DO Tarot readings (no label so implies they can do other things too) are very different.
SheriLogiatrix
That's just semantics. When we met, I was a tarot reader, and that's why I got the job. I wasn't labeled anything amongst those of us in the shop. We didn't have name tags or titles. I was hired because nobody there could read tarot, and I got the job because I could. I did a helluva a lot more than read cards when I worked there, believe me.Sheri said:I understand what you are saying here. It is very common everywhere. I am always asked what I do. "I give readings. What can I help you with?" Every interaction is an opportunity for me to help educate the community. This is REALLY important because the more educated the public is on what readings are (and aren't) the less likely they will be taken advantage of by con games.
I would never try to force a person who wanted a Tarot reading to have an oracle readings or vise versa so I am not surprised that the oracle people or others were "run out" when people were seeking Tarot readings. The problem you illustrated is a great example against labeling as it seems the problem you were having was that you were "labeled" as the Tarot reader and as such, the customer couldn't understand how you could be a medium based on their "mental checklist" of what a medium should be and what a Tarot reader should be. Your label worked against you because it is not accurately describing what you do. I think removing labels would be MORE important in a "novice" area...they don't know any better than going with the labels they are provided and are confused when you are presented as one thing and then say you do other things.
It's OK for the owner of the shop to want to offer Tarot readings. Hiring a "Tarot Reader" (labeled and implies only thing they do) versus hiring someone who can DO Tarot readings (no label so implies they can do other things too) are very different.
The circumstances just sometimes turned to where a customer would want a reading, didn't know exactly what or how, and then when they didn't see tarot cards like on TV or what their great aunt used, they would be disappointed. Likewise, there were other instances where a customer sought a reading, but didn't want to see tarot cards at all...but angel cards or other oracles were acceptable. Or, they wanted a 'real psychic', so expected the reader to not use any cards or other tools at all. Truth be told, we all had multiple skills, and different psychic/intuitive/whateveryoucallit abilities. None of us fit any singular label, nor did we adhere to such concepts. But my point is that the customers often did want to categorize the services we offered between us, whether we liked it or not.
Tauni
