How to use the Tarot for fortune-telling?

I agree with Griz and Lillie. I am also self-taught, but reading for 40 years and it seems I can't get away from telling fortunes. It's the way I read. I think it has a lot to do with my perception of watching gypsy actors on TV when I was a kid. You know in shows like The Outer Limits or the Twilight Zone?

And I have to let you in on a little secret,.....I get really annoyed when a reader starts to do the Jungian symbology thing on me or tell me how I can be a better person through counseling or something like that, when all I want to know is "will I win the lottery?" I know, I know,...being silly here,....

Bottom line is that I like doing fortune telling with the Tarot, Oracle, playing cards, or just plain pendulum stuff or even (cue spooky music) Ouija boards.

Ahhhhh,.....I see a plate with food on it, coming to me in the next 20 minutes,.......cross my palm with silver.


ETA: As to how I do it? Well,....I guess I listen to the voice that talks to me as I am looking at the cards????

JSNYC said:

The question for the thread is: how does someone use the Tarot for fortune-telling and how is that different from how "everyone else" uses the Tarot?

Since I believe the Tarot is a powerful tool, I think it is absolutely plausible that it can be used for "fortune-telling". But what is that exactly? Is fortune-telling simply "predicting the concrete future"?

I must reference Jung, because that is how I understand this abstract stuff. Jung said that every perspective has a subject and an object. Because of the abstract complexity of the Tarot, I have interpreted the meaning of the cards very subjectively (and I think that is a limitation on my part). So I thought of creating a "fortune-telling deck" to play around with. And what I mean by that is taking one of my decks (that I haven't yet studied) and giving the cards objective, concrete definitions, to be used for fortune-telling, or predicting the concrete future. And since I believe the Tarot is always personal, at least to some extent, those definitions would have to come from me, I couldn't simply use someone else's definitions.

This also seems to be the whole idea behind the "Using Tarot Cards" forum, to provide tangible definitions for the cards. Or am I missing the whole idea of fortune-telling?

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I've never seen cartomancy, astrology, and other forms of divination as anything less than fortune telling, and I don't mean that in a derogatory manner. Some people are good at it, some people aren't, and it doesn't matter how anyone wants to label themselves. The study of these disciplines implies something about the nature of the universe that I think frightens too many people involved because its implications, IMHO.

ATrickyBusiness said:

,...Some people are good at it, some people aren't, and it doesn't matter how anyone wants to label themselves. The study of these disciplines implies something about the nature of the universe that I think frightens too many people involved because its implications, IMHO.

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That's another good point that you made. ANYONE can tell fortunes and I don't mean by memorizing pat meanings; that's cold reading and a no-no. I mean learning how to open onesself (is that a word?), to picking up the cues the cards give you so you can attach a future to it. I don't know if I am making sense here. This is the first time I am actually trying to describe what I do.

Baroli said:

That's another good point that you made. ANYONE can tell fortunes and I don't mean by memorizing pat meanings; that's cold reading and a no-no.

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Baroli, forgive me if I'm wrong, but cold reading as I understand it is when the card reader reads the person by throwing a few pre-thought-out 'messages' their way and watching their subtle reactions (body language etc.) to see if they've come close to truth, then expanding on those 'hits'. An ongoing process throughout the reading.

Pen

Like others have already said, I really like to do a reading with it being predictive in its entirety or at least some aspect. I think most people expect a prediction. The other type of reading which I call 'directive' is pointing a person in the right direction to achieve what they want, a purpose, etc.

To me, a cold reading is one where the querent does not ask a question, but just wants a reading. Certain layouts, such as the Celtic Cross are good for this.

Grizabella...since the earrings, scarf etc. will (not) help a predictive reading, then I will pass on it. On second thought, even if it did help, I would still pass on it lol.

~ C

goldenweb said:

Baroli, forgive me if I'm wrong, but cold reading as I understand it is when the card reader reads the person by throwing a few pre-thought-out 'messages' their way and watching their subtle reactions (body language etc.) to see if they've come close to truth, then expanding on those 'hits'. An ongoing process throughout the reading.

Pen

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Cold reading: 'I see a man coming into your life in about a month's time. He is tall with dark hair and very handsome. He will ask about you,....yada, yada, yada.' Yes, and then watch the reaction of the sitter on the info that's given out. Notice that the info was generic in nature and most likely a tall dark good looking man will come into that person's life in a months time. You got it and as I said, 'that's a no-no.'

That's not what I do. When I talk about picking up on cues the cards give me, I am talking about (again I am trying to 'splain what I do), is when you do a reading and you're looking at a card,...say you pulled the 6 of pentacles from RWS deck. We know this card has pat meanings, we can read them here in the learning section. But what if the sitter asked about her health? I pull the 6 of pents and I am looking at it and I am hearing in my head not about charity persay, but "she's gonna need some major bucks because she is going to be operated on for colon cancer." I tell the sitter that she may be giving out some money for an operation (or I would probably say something a little more diplomatic),....but that's what I mean by opening up yourself to get cues from the cards. It's "reading into the card" if you will. At least for me it is, for you it can be something else.

The other thing is, you have to trust what your little voice is telling you and not second guess. Granted, you're gonna be wrong a lot of times, but you're gonna be right as well. That's where practice comes in and reading constantly. You learn to "Trust the force, Luke."

Hope that helps

I used to think cold reading was reading for somebody you'd never seen before who didn't give you a question or any other information about themselves, who just sat down and you went from there with just the cards to go on, but then Umbrae clarified it for me as Baroli just did.

I never do the "you will meet a handsome, dark-haired stranger" thing, either. I think that's one for the movie myths and legends just like the infamous Death card.

I've been cleaning all day and now I'm too tired to do much of anything but sit and stare listlessly into space so I'm going to come back to this thread tomorrow.

Grizabella said:

I never do the "you will meet a handsome, dark-haired stranger" thing, either. I think that's one for the movie myths and legends just like the infamous Death card.

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I would!

And I would do that little gasp when the death card comes up.

What I would really, really love to do is to do a fortune telling stall on a travelling fair telling gimcrack fortunes for fun and profit.

Whole hog. shawls and earrings, crystal ball on the table, the whole kit and caboodle.

If you're selling an experience you may as well sell a good one.

Well, yeah---under those circumstances, I'd do it, too. LOL It would be great fun, wouldn't it?

But would you sell candles and remove evil spells for big bucks? Now there's a question! That I wouldn't do at all and I don't think you would, either. If I could figure out how to make some kind of gag out of it just for fun and pretend I might, but not for real.

For fun and as long as it's obviously just part of a traveling pretend situation, I suppose almost anything goes as long as it's not dishonest and doesn't cheat people out of their life savings.

No. I wouldn't do that.

I wouldn't cheat anyone.

I'd read the cards straight, I'd just dress it up proper fortune teller style.

I would say 'tall dark stranger' unless I saw one in the cards.

I wouldn't gasp and warn of danger unless I saw that in the cards.

But somewhere like that, where people are going for fun, it's a show, isn't it? They don't just want their fortune told, they want to have the experience of having been to a fortune teller too.

But I don't do bullshit.
I don't lie and I don't cheat.

I'm not going to take money from people to remove curses that I don't believe in.
And anyone who is asking that of someone like me is vulnerable, they shouldn't be ripped off.
I'd probably turn a few cards and tell them that either there was no curse or that they could get rid of it by taking an egg and writing on it what was bothering them and then burying it beneath an oak tree.
Or something like that. Something for free, something so they don't go to someone else and get ripped off.

I'm sure I heard somewhere about curses and eggs...
Or was it potatoes?
Anyway, half of it's the intention, so it don't really matter.

Eggs are better, there is something stupid about spuds.
You couldn't take a spud seriously, but an egg is something strange. It comes out of a chickens butt and then a chicken comes out of it.
How weird is that?

Edit.

I might sell candles and goth jewellery for a fair price.
People like tat like that.
If they are going to buy it they might as well buy it from gypsy Lillie's fortune telling and tat emporium...