Talisman : Heh.. I thank you very kindly for the comments. Were you to know me before I started Tarot you would swear I was the world's largest jerk. This thing has taught me a lot about myself and what I can do to help others and it is something I feel will be a part of my life for a long time to come .
Now.. on to the high horse thing. I really didn't want this thread to turn into a knockdown drag out fight. But, as I go to bed and watch Miss Cleo offer her services for $240/hour, and I see her ads on MTV (young) , BET (minority), and following Infomercials for "Degrees from home" (not necessarily stupid, but educationally under privellaged, possibly through no fault of their own).. I cannot help but wonder why a company charges $240 an hour for a task it pays at most $12 for. Right now, just right now, Miss Cleo told what sounded like a 24 year old black woman that starting her home based business is a great idea, and that it all seems like it'd work out. We're in a down economy, this woman was raising a single child, and Cleo tells her to go for it.
We have a duty to those we read for. In fact, we have a duty to all those who even KNOW what we do. I told a family friend that I read cards.. I got recation #4. "Oh, you mean like Miss Cleo?" I told my mother. Reaction #2. "That's satanic." Father. Reaction #3. "That's nice." (I love my father. He says that's nice, but he means something completely different. Could be bad, could be good.. I never know.) The general response though, is that we charge a high amount of money for a service that has a questionable history. You cannot go by a day without hearing of some psychic phone scam MLM or pryamid scheme involving card readers and 1-900 lines. People like Stephen Glass are diving in and rightfully turning crooks on their heads.
The reason I have a code of ethics, and the reason I stick to those codes, is because I watch so many readers on these 900 and 800 lines who do NOT have these ethical codes. I watch what they are, and what they have become. Some of them are good readers, and I cannot fault them for working for their bread. However.. I cannot sit there by the same regard and watch them charge $240 per hour, and only get $12. That's unfair for the reader and the seeker. The difference between me and the many "psychics" I've called to figure out what it's like is that they will tell me ANYTHING. I ask them for lottery numbers, and I get them. I ask them for good luck charms, and I get told to give $1000 to the very next person I see after my watch beeps at 10AM. I ask for a hex to be put on my neighbor's dog.. and they'll do it.
You know what's really sad? When you tell people you are a tarot reader, you get put in that category. When you tell them you are a tarot reader with a code of ethics, you get put outside the category. You get put above that category, whether you think that should be the result or not.
1-900 and 1-800 numbers can get away with telling people to do inane, stupid things to themselves, their money, and their futures by simply putting the words "For Entertainment Purposes Only" at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes I have to wonder whose entertainment it's for.
Magnwa.
PS. I am not trying to insult those of you that work at pay numbers, even if you work at them for $240 / hr. My point is that I have run into readers who outright tell me that I am doomed if I don't call them back every day. That's abusive, and a code of ethics followed prevents that.
