Your journey into professional tarot

Logiatrix

intuition897 said:
...I guess I was referring to a worst-case scenario with someone in my local area whom I might find myself competing with...
I know you were speaking in worst-case parameters, but still, don't expect or accept that. I don't know about others here, but my experience in regard to "competion" is that such behavior eventually translates to a lack of focus on, or service to, the client. To be clear, I'm not talking about competitve pricing or marketing one's self based on personal skills or strengths. Rather, I have witnessed some very gifted-but-vain readers get punished by the tarot gods because of their competitve actions toward other readers. Because of the unfortunate experiences of those few, I learned early on that there is such a thing as a reputation within the local industry. Worst of all, if a reader is competitive, even clients will notice. So, as for competition, avoid it all costs and remain humble. Personally (this is just me and no one else), I try to keep my whopper ego beaten down with a sledgehammer and remind myself that things could have gone a completely different and horrible direction, had I not kept quiet and paid attention. It was good for me to just practice and learn for a while.
I wonder...

I work at a university. I wonder if it would make sense to maybe put a sign up on one of the many bulletin boards that I'll be in the local cafeteria on certain days during the lunch hour offering free quickie readings. If they asked to pay, I wouldn't accept payment (being at my workplace and all) but would suggest that they make a donation to a local charity instead. Students are very cause-oriented and open-minded...and they like free stuff. This kind of arrangement might appeal to them, and it would appeal to me: it would be so easy to do.
That's exactly how I started reading for "strangers" - at a college campus. It's the perfect environment for cutting your teeth on face-to-face readings. I didn't advertise or ask for donations; I just planted myself where I'd be seen reading for someone (a friend to start with), and in lieu of money, my only requirement was constructive feedback. That was easy enough for faculty and students, and it was better than money for my needs at the time.:)
 

intuition897

Logiatrix said:
So, as for competition, avoid it all costs and remain humble. Personally (this is just me and no one else), I try to keep my whopper ego beaten down with a sledgehammer and remind myself that things could have gone a completely different and horrible direction, had I not kept quiet and paid attention. It was good for me to just practice and learn for a while.
That's exactly what I want to avoid: competition. I feel presumptuous stepping up and charging what other seasoned pros are charging. I just don't feel that I've paid my dues yet. But at the same time, if it's possible for me to make money at it - even a little - I'd love to! To be honest, I'd read for free because I enjoy it and would welcome the experience. But when one table charges nothing (or next to nothing) for a reading and the next is charging $30+ for exactly the same thing (as far as the sitter knows from looking at the signs anyway), well...you do the math. I would love to work at a fair for the experience, but I'm having trouble finding that fine line of charging etiquette.

Logiatrix said:
That's exactly how I started reading for "strangers" - at a college campus. It's the perfect environment for cutting your teeth on face-to-face readings. I didn't advertise or ask for donations; I just planted myself where I'd be seen reading for someone (a friend to start with), and in lieu of money, my only requirement was constructive feedback. That was easy enough for faculty and students, and it was better than money for my needs at the time.:)
How did you make it obvious that it was okay for people to approach you about it? I live in Canada. We apologize to our furniture when we bump into it. Our respect for personal space and privacy in public is extreme. It would be considered pretty weird or even downright rude to interrupt someone while they sat alone at a table, because they usually sat alone to BE alone. And if they're involved with someone else at the table, it's still rude to interrupt. Do you have any suggestions on how to draw people to the table and make you approachable? Some sort of ice-breaker? And do you think the flyer on the bulletin board is unneccessary?

I sure hope it works. There'll be a good variety of people at least. The university is a hub of active thinkers, so I'm sure I'll get my share of nasty little skeptics. But like you said, a good place to cut my teeth. It's good to hear that it's a tried and true method!
 

LucyD

In my earliest days as a reader I put an ad in the local college newspaper that said "There's a Tarot Reading in Your Future" and then followed with where I would be and when, for 'free, entertainment-style readings.' Keep it light. Ask for feedback. It's a no-pressure setting in the student union and will draw a lot of curious people.
 

intuition897

LucyD said:
In my earliest days as a reader I put an ad in the local college newspaper that said "There's a Tarot Reading in Your Future" and then followed with where I would be and when, for 'free, entertainment-style readings.' Keep it light. Ask for feedback. It's a no-pressure setting in the student union and will draw a lot of curious people.

That's another great idea. I'd have to think about whether or not it might be considered inappropriate or "unprofessional" as one of the staff at the university to be doing Tarot readings - free or otherwise - for students who may potentially wander into my office for academic reasons.

You know, maybe I could volunteer at the hospital which is only a two-minute walk from my work. No conflict there. And it might help liven up the day for some folks for whom the highlight of their day would otherwise be a sponge bath by Eduardo.

Just an update. I posted a flyer with tear-away tags at the local grocery store advertising free readings by email or over the phone for the practice. I came back the next day and saw a couple of tags were taken. The day after that, all the tags were gone. So far no emails. So I'm smart enough to not be too excited by the prospect of my inbox being flooded with requests: some bible-thumping idiot has decided to single-handedly save the souls of at least 8 wayward sheep who might have otherwise fallen into my satanic trap. That'll teach me, won't it? LOL No, I'll NEVER figure out how to put up another one. It just galls me that someone can be that self-righteous and deny others the right to think and choose for themselves. It just reeks of ignorance. But that's the community that I live in. The ratio of free-thinkers to bible-thumpers is tragically skewed in their favour.
 

SunChariot

Well, I'm not sure where to start this answer. I'd say what others said that you don't seem ready yet to go professional. The way you said you know your cards ...sort of and that sometimes things seem flat...you do seem to need more practice.

Of course you do not have to do in person (face to face) readings to be a professional reader. I am one and I only read over the Internet. So that is a choice you'd have to make if you would want to do your work online or in person.

Then of course there are the legalities of registering your business and taxes.

As for my own story, I did not do anything to prepare myself to be a a professional reader, when it came to learning. I just loved Tarot and was fascinated by it. I read all I could, did tons of readings and journaling. But I had no idea I was going to become a professional reader at the time. I just did it because I adored it so much. In fact at first I had no intention of EVER reading for others. I just thought my cards were the greatest self-improvement tool of all time. Like a self-help book but personalized to your life. Personal growth has always been an important part of my life goal.

I read only for myself the first 6 months or so until an AT friend begged me to read for her. About 25 times too until I agreed. Then I started reading more and more for others. Years later I started getting everyone I read for telling me that I have to or must go professional. I was hearing that every time. Still I shrugged it off. Then my cards started telling me the same thing, that I was meant to be a professional reader. So I took it (just a bit) more seriously. I set up a web site to do readings from. But with my full time job I was mainly too tired to adveritise it much...and I kept putting it off. I guess because my reason for working to become a professional reader was coming from outside of myself, not from inside myself.

But during that time, I came to have a true desire to do this for myself. And it's been there and strong ever since. So it's only been a few months that I have been seriously working on this and I very much intend to make it my full time job. And of course then following my Tarot newsletter.

So it was kindof funny with me. It's not like I knew I wanted to be a professional reader. The universe just kept hinting at me over and over (prodding me and pushing me) until finally years later I took the ball and ran with it. LOL I do think now that it really is part of my life purpose to do this and that is why my life was so relentless in telling me in all kinds of ways that I needed to do this.

What I have done recently to advance my Tarot career is...when my company I was working for laid everyone off a few months ago...I took the time to work on my Tarot business (build my web site, take marketing courses, read all I could about running a business, and eventually about how to run a newsletter). But then I needed to go back to work and make some money. This time I thought to myself....what am I going to do if I get a full time job and I get more and more readings coming in? I can't keep taking the day off when I have readings to do as I'll get fired....So there had to be a better solution, and I just found mine last week.

I found a second part time job working at home. I am now working for myself (but with a team that teaches me how) and I can set my own hours. I decided to work 15 hours a week on that job and 15 hours on the Tarot business, advertising and all. And I need time to write the newsletter....I do believe I will be able to make the same money in 15 hours I was making in the 32 I was working before. And of course as more readings come in I am free to work less hours on the other job if I wish, until I can one day phase it out completely.

As of course I have no intention of putting an advertisement in this thread, if anyone wants to know more, just PM me. :grin:

I wish you all here all the best with your careers. :heart:

Babs
 

intuition897

SunChariot said:
Well, I'm not sure where to start this answer. I'd say what others said that you don't seem ready yet to go professional. The way you said you know your cards ...sort of and that sometimes things seem flat...you do seem to need more practice.

Again, I probably could have phrased this better. When I said I "knew my cards...sort of", and that they sometimes seemed shallow or flat, what I meant was I know my cards well enough to be able to use them adequately, but there are some - SOME - cards that I only have a passing acquaintance with. If my cards were people, some of them are like those friends you love to sit down with over coffee, and the conversation comes easily. Others are like those people you know from work. And still others are those people you see every day and maybe you know their name, know that they live 3 doors down from you, know that they have 2 kids and a dog that poops on your lawn...but you've never seen the inside of their house. You don't know much about them beyond the face they put towards the world. And you KNOW that there is so much more to the story. Each card, like every person, is unique and has its hidden mysteries. And just like people, the nature of their character is subjective and depends on whose opinion you're asking. So, while I could put together a working profile of that 3-doors-down neighbour with the naughty dog based on my observations, and I know I could be accurate, I still know that my readings would be so much more effective/accurate if I could get to know those cards on a deeper level.

For example: the 9 of Pentacles. The keywords that this card brings to mind are Luxury, Decadence, Art, Education, the Finer Things, Almost Independently Wealthy... I can't seem to get beyond this. I KNOW that there is more to this card than this simplistic interpretation. There are many more layers, many more facets. Maybe it's adequate, maybe it's not. All I know is the fewer keywords I have to work with for any given card, the more likely it is that I'll mis-read it or fall into the habit of automatically jumping to one default keyword instead of letting them all simmer in my mind and plucking up the one that bobs to the surface the way I'm supposed to. It's like the difference between being a handyman (or woman) - who can get the job done - and being a fully apprenticed carpenter of fine furniture. Am I capable of reading for others in a lighthearted manner, giving them some insight and a little entertainment to boot? Sure, why not? I've done it already and had a blast with it at the roundtable. Rapid-fire readings, under 3-5 minutes each. I actually prefer F2F readings in this manner than over the web; without the time pressure, I tend to second-guess and over-analyze my responses and they don't turn out as well.

I know that the Tarot goes much deeper than I have delved thus far. It's going to be a lifelong study, and one I fully intend to follow. I'm just starving for some F2F readings. My long-term goal is, whether I discover I like some of the cards or not, to get to know each one deeply the way you get to know a good friend.
 

SunChariot

I didn't mean anything in a bad way of course. Also depends on how you read. I personally don't even have the foggiest idea what the 9 of Pents or any other minor are supposed to mean. I don't know keywords or the book meanings for the Minors. But of course there are so so many ways to read.

My personal way is I refer the number back to the Major card of the same number...9=The Hermit and add in my basic meaning of the suit and combine (Pents for me are about our life goals of just our goals for the moment, what we hope to achieve and what work we are willing to put in to make them happen. So the most basic meaning of the 9 of Pents to me means something like the querent needs time alone to think about what he really hopes to accomplish in the situation and to develop a strategy that he can put into action to bring it to life. Then I get all the rest of the answer from the card image.

I just do that with any card in any deck. There is no real getting to know you period with me with cards. I just use the same method on any deck and it works well enough for me. But then for me I'm a bit too lazy to learn all those meanings. LOL

Babs
 

intuition897

SunChariot said:
I didn't mean anything in a bad way of course. Also depends on how you read. I personally don't even have the foggiest idea what the 9 of Pents or any other minor are supposed to mean. I don't know keywords or the book meanings for the Minors. But of course there are so so many ways to read.

My personal way is I refer the number back to the Major card of the same number...9=The Hermit and add in my basic meaning of the suit and combine (Pents for me are about our life goals of just our goals for the moment, what we hope to achieve and what work we are willing to put in to make them happen. So the most basic meaning of the 9 of Pents to me means something like the querent needs time alone to think about what he really hopes to accomplish in the situation and to develop a strategy that he can put into action to bring it to life. Then I get all the rest of the answer from the card image.

I just do that with any card in any deck. There is no real getting to know you period with me with cards. I just use the same method on any deck and it works well enough for me. But then for me I'm a bit too lazy to learn all those meanings. LOL

Babs

See? You've just added another facet to the 9 of Pents for me. Something else to add to that card's pool of possible interpretations: its numerical quality. I don't know much about astrology, so I don't do anything with that, but I have used a little numerology. So if I had to combine the numbers/Major Arcana aspects to the meaning of that particular card and its suit, the Hermit denotes a period of thoughtfulness, introspection, reflection or study. A soul-searching time to really get down to the business of figuring things out when the answer is just on the tip of your tongue. It's the "almost" number, 10 being the full completion of that leg of the journey. The 10 - the Wheel - is the epiphany, the Eureka!, the AHA! Things suddenly make sense...and the answers we find prompt new questions which moves us along to the NEXT leg of the journey, cards 11 through 21.

No offense taken, SunChariot. And you're right, reading is a highly individual thing. Some people are real sticklers for using spreads, for example, whereas I usually have 2 or 3 favorite simple spreads (like the Cross of Truth). Highly structured spreads do not appeal to me because I find they don't allow the message to flow. I sometimes find "conversational" spreads to be fun. I ask a question, flip a card, get the immediate impression/answer (just like you were talking to someone), ask another question, flip another card...each answer prompts another question in a conversational manner. Whether this is tuning in to my higher self or just listening to a guide or angel, I don't know. All I know is, the answers are usually not what you want to hear, but what you knew was true all along. I'm not sure if/how you could use this when reading for others, but for personal reading, it works really well.
 

SunChariot

I don't use spreads at all.:grin: I am sure it would work to use that conversational way of reading when reading for someone else. I sometimes do my meditation where I enter the card and ask the figure in the card my questions and just "hear" the answer, which is also a conversation of sorts. I use it as an alternative way of reading (not in person of course). But I can ask them questions abotu someone else as well as about myself and it all works.

If you wanted to study all the possible meanings for a card, it would be an endless study. To me, there may well be an infinite number of meanings each card could have. I don't know if they even could all be learnt in one lifetime. And there are 78 of them too. I just find it easier to feel the meanings inside me that to take them from things I have learnt when it comes to that. An image can say almost anything. And each deck has different images.

That's how I see it anyway.:grin:

For what it's worth, I personally think all my answers come from my angels.
 

intuition897

SunChariot said:
I just find it easier to feel the meanings inside me that to take them from things I have learnt when it comes to that. An image can say almost anything. And each deck has different images.

That's how I see it anyway.:grin:

For what it's worth, I personally think all my answers come from my angels.

I couldn't agree more! That's why you can read with whatever deck you want - even a deck of ordinary playing cards - and still come up with profound truths. It's like I keep trying to tell my superstitious family: the magic isn't in the cards; they're just cardboard after all. The "magic", if you want to call it that, is that the person using them as a mere jumping off point or prompt is tapping into a well of universal knowledge that EVERYONE has access to instinctively. That's the big secret. We just choose to veil ourselves from it. Some people - the psychically gifted - just have more trouble convincing themselves of the lie. I'm not psychically gifted...but I'm working at increasing the skill level.

You can use any deck at all and even partial decks (sanitized decks) because I believe that angels/guides DO influence which cards you or the sitter draw. They help you to choose the most appropriate card in the deck according to your understanding/knowledge of the cards. I don't think they are ones to let lack of experience or knowledge stand in the way of communication of divine messages when all that's really needed is a willingness to be a humble conduit.