book that address ethical issues

closerwalking

I've not read this book, I found out about it on another website. I am ordering it as it addresses the ethical issues that one must consider if one is offering services that affect a person's psyche, esp. services where one is working with a client in an altered consciousness, which is what usually happens in my readings. the way I do them. Highly recommend professional tarot readers explore this aspect, also learn about transference, etc. ie learn some psychology.

The Ethics of Caring: Honoring the Web of Life in Our Professional Healing Relationships Paperback – June, 1995
by Kylea Taylor (Author), Jack Kornfield (Author)

The Ethics of Caring is written for all caregivers, including psychotherapists, bodyworkers, medical practitioners, clergy, hypnotherapists, and acupuncturists, who want to become more conscious in their relationships with clients. It provides unique help to volunteer and professional caregivers who want to sort out confusing ethical dilemmas in seven categories including love, truth, insight, and oneness as well as the more well-known ethical issues of money, sex, and power. Ethical issues pertain to longings, feelings, and motivations which resonate at our very core. Powerful, shared experiences in the context of the therapeutic relationship can bring to the surface compelling fears, needs, and longings in both the client and the caregiver. It offers a new model of self-examination which deepens the therapeutic relationship and can prevent the harmful consequences of ethical misconduct.
 

Alta

To be fair closerwalking, if you haven't read it then you really can't in honesty recommend it. Lots of useless books out there.
 

closerwalking

ethical considerations of using tarot with other people.

I've never gone to a professional tarot card reader, I have gone to two different professional psychics and have my favorite astrologer, that blends astrology and psychic input. but I have never gone to professional tarot card reader. Reason being I instinctively recognized the power that images put in the mix. Pictures, images, symbols impact us much more profoundly and faster than words. The part of our mind that thinks in words processes things much slower than the part of our mind that "thinks" in images, symbols, pictures. This is the main reason pictures speak a thousand words. So when one brings tarot cards into a helping session, one is amping up the influence on the person's psyche. often without them being consciously aware of this influence. Also as soon as one sets themselves as an expert, the moment someone sits down for a reading there is usually a subconscious imbalance of power happening in that instant in both people's mind. you know more than me platform, which leads the querent to be in passive, receptive mode. Vast majority of folks that sit down, genuinely want something, are searching. and most of the time what they say upon arriving is rarely the real issue. So to blunder into this using a tool that packs a wallop of influence, requires the professional to understand this and learn how to work with this in ethical way, don't you agree? If you truly want to be taken as a professional, then act like one. esp. when going into someone's psyche with a loaded tool.
 

closerwalking

To be fair closerwalking, if you haven't read it then you really can't in honesty recommend it. Lots of useless books out there.

I am posting this not as expert but letting people know what I have discovered so far in searching for books that address this issue. anyone else that knows of other sources about the ethical considerations is welcome to jump in. I mainly want to encourage tarot professionals to look into this. if one is going to call oneself a professional, there are certain standards that go with that, the basic one being above else do no harm. Ethics address that.
 

Alta

That is mostly your opinion and nothing more. I think that the rest of us are equally entitled to their opinions.
 

Zephyros

That is mostly your opinion and nothing more. I think that the rest of us are equally entitled to their opinions.

I agree. I actually think there is a danger in becoming too ethical, in essence, elevating a reading beyond its scope and importance. While a Tarot reader may seem or act like a mental health professional, they aren't, one isn't the other. The ethics in this situation is to know one's place and have humility in that and admit that there are some things that are simply too big for the scope of a reading. Once you start messing around with transference and amateur psychology is where things become unethical. A professional therapist has received extensive training in both their field as well as ethical treatment while a "professional" Tarot reader is merely someone who takes money for readings. Querents need to be educated on the dangers and responsibility inherent in receiving a reading.

Even when you're psychic or whatever, Tarot is primarily an article of faith, and should be treated as such. It is never true, merely true for you.
 

avalonian

The reviews of the book on Amazon lead me to think that it might be rather heavy-going, I'll be interested to hear how you get on with it, and whether it is really relevant to Tarot readers.

I would say though, that as someone who has readings from Tarot Readers, I have never felt that they were, as you say, "going into my psyche with a loaded tool", any more than I would if I were talking over my issues with a friend.

:) :) :)
 

gregory

I've no idea whether this book would be any good- but I would NEVER recommend a book I hadn't read. I coud be horribly embarrassed later, to say the least.
 

Zephyros

I've no idea whether this book would be any good- but I would NEVER recommend a book I hadn't read. I coud be horribly embarrassed later, to say the least.

In the OP's defense I think the crux of the post was the subject of therapeutic ethics in Tarot readers in general with the book as backdrop. That being said, I think that it is very dangerous meddling with those things at all. The second those kinds of ethics are even called for is the second the reading ends and the person should be referred to a professional.
 

tarotbear

I mainly want to encourage tarot professionals to look into this. if one is going to call oneself a professional, there are certain standards that go with that, the basic one being above else do no harm. Ethics address that.

I hate to sound trite, but all this proselytizing about 'ethics, ethics, ethics', -

There are many threads in AT where 'ethics and card readers' have been - and are still - discussed. I agree (as most of us would) with your thoughts about this, but reading your other posts makes me wonder just what your agenda is, and if Tarot is really 'right' for you ... given the way you rail against us as a faceless, ethics-less mob.

Just my two cents as someone who has heard all the arguments before ... and ONE book that address ethic issues for one thing may not be as universal for the next thing...