Probably a silly question - card orientations to reader and seeker

[JulieK]

This is probably a silly question, but whenever I try to search for answer it comes up with reading card reversals.

My question is that if you are reading for another person face to face do you orientate the spread towards yourself or towards the reader.

Julie

 

[JulieK]

P.S. I apologise if I have put this question in the wrong place. I wasn't sure where to ask it

Julie

 

[rwcarter]

It depends on who you want to see upside down cards - you as Reader or the Querent. Most Querents could care less about what's on the cards, instead wanting to know what they say. Some Readers hate looking up upside down cards, especially a whole spread's worth. So I'd say orient them facing you.

But one way to completely avoid the issue is to have the Querent sit next to you instead of across from you. Then you're both viewing the cards from the same perspective.

Rodney

 

[Barleywine]

As Rodney suggests, I've always had the querent sit next to me so we see everything the same way (even if they have no idea what they're looking at). It helps when I explain reversed card meanings in the overall spread.

 

[JulieK]

Thank you for the answers Didn't think of sitting side by side

Julie

 

[Grizabella]

I seat them across the table. I'm not giving them a Tarot lesson, I'm reading their cards. Sitters almost always want just the answer I see in the cards, even if they're a reader themselves. They're not concerned with what the cards look like or how I arrived at my reading information.

 

[Laurelle]

I've been asked that before while doing an actually reading..."Are the cards facing me or you?" "Why are all the cards upside down except that one?" I reply with, "There not all upside down. They are facing me."

I read them facing me. The reader is almost always sitting across from me, but I have a round table so sometimes I do sit beside the person.

 

[Barleywine]

Interesting observations. I've never viewed it as "giving a tarot lesson," more like "querent engagement" in the process. But I also consider myself more a facilitator than an oracle, which is also why I always involve my sitters in shuffling and cutting the deck. I impress upon them their "ownership" of the outcome. (But if I were reading professionally, I might partake more of the oracular "mystique" that creates the aura of authority some people expect.)

 

[Amanda]

This is probably a silly question, but whenever I try to search for answer it comes up with reading card reversals.

My question is that if you are reading for another person face to face do you orientate the spread towards yourself or towards the reader.

Julie

Well... what do you hope to achieve with your client?

 

[JulieK]

Haven't got one in mind really, but it was more something I was wondering when I started to interpret reversals.

Hubby keeps wanting me to practice but I haven't yet. Kinda scared I see something bad I suppose. And I find it hard to see them objectively when reading for myself or for close family members.

But with my hubby I would sit next to him to do a reading.

Julie