Is this an invasion of privacy?

Debra said:

I mean, what's the point of the cards if you don't use them for things that interest you, and why shouldn't that include other people's lives? Reading cards isn't reading someone's mail.

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Because its other people's lives and we would be better served focusing in our own unless we are being of service to those other people. Its a bit like saying its my business if I choose to peer over the neighbours fence into their backyard. Its your action for sure but its still rude and nosey. Its transgressing a boundary that we should observe in polite society. Most people have enough going on for themselves to fill three lifetimes with tarot questions, noseying around in someone elses relationship that has nothing to do with you just takes your focus from where it should be.

I dont care if someone is using tarot, binoculars or their kitchen blinds to peer. Its still peering and most people have an aversion to this practice for a reason. Boundaries, we all need them.

SwordOfTruth said:

Because its other people's lives and we would be better served focusing in our own unless we are being of service to those other people. Its a bit like saying its my business if I choose to peer over the neighbours fence into their backyard. Its your action for sure but its still rude and nosey. Its transgressing a boundary that we should observe in polite society. Most people have enough going on for themselves to fill three lifetimes with tarot questions, noseying around in someone elses relationship that has nothing to do with you just takes your focus from where it should be.

I dont care if someone is using tarot, binoculars or their kitchen blinds to peer. Its still peering and most people have an aversion to this practice for a reason. Boundaries, we all need them.

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Don't you think that comparing Tarot to something as tangible as binoculars or mail is a bit much?

chaosbloom said:

Don't you think that comparing Tarot to something as tangible as binoculars or mail is a bit much?

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Not really, no. I dont come from the school of stuff I can hold is real and everything else is imaginary. And if we are thinking that well its okay because its only tarot and so it isn't real anyway, why would be bother buying a deck in the first place? If you're of the belief that tarot can illuminate people, events and situatins in life, then you can hardly say it isn't tangible snooping. It is.

SwordOfTruth said:

Not really, no.

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Okay let's run with that a bit. You can use a telephoto lens and a camera to take photos of people without being seen and blackmail them with them. You can steal someone's identity by stealing their mail or simply reading them and getting the information. Can you do anything similar with Tarot?

chaosbloom said:

Okay let's run with that a bit. You can use a telephoto lens and a camera to take photos of people without being seen and blackmail them with them. You can steal someone's identity by stealing their mail or simply reading them and getting the information. Can you do anything similar with Tarot?

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Ah! Its the but my intentions arent bad argument. Can you harm someone by peering over their garden fence? No. But is it a polite or socially acceptable thing to do? Hardly. Just because you don't intend to steal or harm someone with it doesn't mean its a good thing to do. If you think its impolite or otherwise wrong to listen in to a conversation you're not involved in personally, then I cant see why you would think using tarot to listen in is any different. It all boils down to the same thing for me, boundaries.

SwordOfTruth said:

Ah! Its the but my intentions arent bad argument. Can you harm someone by peering over their garden fence? No. But is it a polite or socially acceptable thing to do? Hardly. Just because you don't intend to steal or harm someone with it doesn't mean its a good thing to do.

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No, your intentions might be actually pretty terrible. The problem is that the person or persons you're snooping on have perfect deniability. Whatever secrets you get to gleam through Tarot will never be verifiably true through Tarot alone, you'll always have at least some amount of doubt and the other person can simply deny everything if ever confronted.

I think it's the same as with online snooping. A staggering amount of people do it constantly but rarely admit to it publicly. I used to be disgusted by it but then I figured that humans are social animals and they're just being themselves. I'd actually rather have people doing spreads about me without my consent than to snoop on my various online profiles, given the choice.

chaosbloom said:

Okay let's run with that a bit. You can use a telephoto lens and a camera to take photos of people without being seen and blackmail them with them. You can steal someone's identity by stealing their mail or simply reading them and getting the information. Can you do anything similar with Tarot?

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You might if your intent is to break up a couple for some nefarious reasons of your own. Motive (or as someone said, intent) is everything. I apply the "need to know" litmus test. If a querent appears to be harboring an idle daydream about some object of infatuation ("Does he/she think about me/feel anything for me?"), I'll refer that querent to the "Lonely Hearts Club" school of tarot readers, who are sanguine about such things. There is too much intuitive guesswork involved for me to feel comfortable handling it.

I'm at the grey area here. On one hand, I do share the view that it's - if not unethical, at least not socially acceptable to peer into someone else's life. On the other hand, I think it also depends on intention. I often check cards to see how my overseas family members are doing to feel connected with them and check that everyone's ok, and I might consult my cards when I'm worried about my partner being out late (has something happened)? So that already is an invasion in a way, even thought the intention was benevolent.

I also read third party questions here at AT even though I know I can't get accurate feedback, because I think that for the querent, getting answers about a third party makes a difference and can help them to move on in their life, or help make an important decision or a realisation concerning the querent him/herself.

Re: lonely hearts club. I think that us people have a massive amount if intuitive knowledge tarot can trigger and if I as a reader present 'no chance' cards to someone who's querying about love interest, they usually have some hunch about whether or not this is the truth, or am I wrong. Same goes for the other way around: if I give green light to someone to apporach their love interest, that might actually help them muster courage and make a relationship happen.

But then again, the cards are not 100% correct all the time so I may get something that's not true at slightest or at least I interpret it incorrectly, so have I actually intruded in that case? This might sound like I'm explaining myself but I'm genuinely on the fence here because I don't think this issue is as black and white as some others feel.

Barleywine said:

You might if your intent is to break up a couple for some nefarious reasons of your own. Motive (or as someone said, intent) is everything. I apply the "need to know" litmus test. If a querent appears to be harboring an idle daydream about some object of infatuation ("Does he/she think about me/feel anything for me?"), I'll refer that querent to the "Lonely Hearts Club" school of tarot readers, who are sanguine about such things. There is too much intuitive guesswork involved for me to feel comfortable handling it.

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chaosbloom said:

If there is an ethical problem with this sort of thing it would be with what you'll do with the information you'll get.

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I don't really disagree with the principle of privacy, I am myself very private. I just don't see Tarot being as effective as literally peering through people's windows. I have the sort of mentality I have with gossip. I will never be able to stop people talking about me behind my back or making up rumors about me so I simply refuse to take this matter seriously when it's completely outside my control.

That's not to say that privacy as a concept isn't very complicated and to a large extend defined by each individual society. But there's no point in going there since the answers so far all seem to be coming from modern Westerners.

We've once again wandered into a heated and largely unproductive debate. I tend to stand very firmly with Gregory and the "don't do it" camp, but I think the question of "invasion of privacy" is a bit extreme for the reasons that Chaosbloom has already pointed out.

Still, I don't read about other people without their explicit consent, not because I might gain some harmful information about them, but because it is impolite to do so.

People here have mentioned a litmus test along the lines of "ask yourself whether you would be okay with someone reading about you". The problem with that is that some people genuinely wouldn't have a problem with this, whereas others (the people they're reading about) might. A better test, I think, is "ask whether the subject of your reading would be okay with you reading about them" on a case-by-case basis. And of course, the only way to really know whether someone would be okay with that is to ask them directly.

This is just a matter of personal opinion and practice. However, what I would say at the end of the day is that it's always more respectful to ask someone up-front if they would be comfortable with you reading about them. If they say yes, go for it. And if they say no, don't. But the way I personally approach the issue, it's not sufficient for a reader not to ask and then to say that their performing a reading is justified because no one told them not to.