New to Tarot... Reading for Others

[Alta]

I really distrust folks that say they are 99% accurate. Weathermen and stock market analysts never even get 99% accuracy ratings.

hahaha, weathermen are MUCH better than stock market analysts. And even they usually claim a modest 70%.

Precision versus accuracy (the way I see it anyway).

Precision: you have precisely 2 children by your first husband and 3 more by your second. ("oooohhh! How did you know?")

Accuracy: There is a problem around children. Shall we explore that? (you 'hit the mark' on the problem area and will now help the client address it)

 

[Moonbow]

Hello Darren,

Yes, the world is small sometimes!

I'm not sure I understand your question about how I would actually do a reading. Its quite personal and each one can vary depending on the sitter. Some people give allot of information (sometimes too much) and I've had some who say nothing. Its the latter which is difficult to guage as to how the reading went. I don't always use a spread, and I don't always read the cards in order, sometimes one particular card can feel like the pivotal one in the reading so I focuss on that and the reading works around it. I learnt allot from using the Lenormand deck (fortune telling).

You will find useful information in the Professional Tarot forum but you need to be a subscriber to have access. Or, scan Talking Tarot forum and the other forums here, for advise. And...... practice, practice, practice.

 

[Keigh]

thoughts on how to do a reading

Hi Darren,
When I "do" a reading in person, the first thing I do is have the person I'm reading for take a few moments to relax....to try and clear their mind of all the noise and clutter. Basically, I just tell them to take a moment to relax, take a deep breath, then I ask them "What is it, specifically, that you want to know?" Then we work together to form a clearly articulated question. Usually, they have an unspecified area of concern that overlaps into several questions, often yes/no types. For instance, they'll say, "well I keep having these struggles with my daughter and she's always yelling at me and I don't know what's going on with her at school and that boy she's seeing and I just don't know what to do....." very unfocused. I help them distill what "specific" part of their life or the situation they want advice about. Such as, do you want to know what steps you can take to help your daughter with school? ....or what you need to know about her situation in order understand and support her? etc. They'll quickly hone in on the question they really want to ask. Then I ask them to "focus" on that question while I shuffle the cards. Once I'm done shuffling I ask them to use their "left" hand "the hand of the subconscious mind" to cut the deck into three piles, then reassemble them in whatever order feels best. - That way, they connect their energy with the cards and feel as if they've partnered with me in the reading. It makes them feel more vested. Then I lay out the spread and begin reading.

Sometimes, I'll ask the querent look at a card and tell me what it means to them before I talk about it....such as asking - who do you identify with in this card (five of swords is a great one for this....are they in the foreground, victorious, or vanquished in the background). Questions like this keep them involved in the reading process and help me to focus in on the message they need to hear.

Every reading and every querent is a bit different for me...so I follow where the energy and my instincts or intuition lead me. So far....so good.

Listen to your inner voice and it WILL guide you.

Best,
Keigh

 

[rebecca-smiles]

Get out there, make mistakes. It adds to your experience on how to guage things, and stops you getting locked into thinking you are failing if you get it wrong. It takes away the need to always be right, and by that token you will be prepared to take risks and say what you really think. As long as you are tactful and kind and do nothing that could harm the sitter (like giving advice on a rash reading) then nothing is lost by not being accurate except pride.

As Marion pointed out; there is a difference between accuracy and precision. One of the readers here i noticed really has precision is Meewah: i've read her interpretations before there has been feedback, and no matter if she was accurate for the querent, she nailed every card and the relationships between them with precision, given the context of the question. Sometimes a card clearly means something in that context that few readers would disagree with, yet for the querent it was not accurate.