What do you expect to get from a tarot reading?
3 High Priestess Cards: Sasuraibito Tarot, Wild Unknown Tarot and Dreaming Way Tarot
One of the things that I've found strange when I tell people that I read tarot is what they actually imagine that I do and what they expect from a tarot reading. Many people think of tarot reading in a purely fortune telling way and these people tend to want readings where they are told what's going to happen to them as if they have no control over events in their own lives.
Many people think that because I have a deck of cards and have spent a lot of years studying how to read the symbols and imagery on them that I am some sort of all knowing seer who can peer through the veil and know their deepest darkest secrets. I know some tarot readers who can do that to an extent but even so, probably not to the degree that people think they can. Having said that, the cards often do pick up on some deep, dark secrets and that's one of the reasons I don't like reading for people I know.. There's definitely some sort of magic involved in reading cards.
I don't see myself as psychic and don't think that the future is mapped out for us by some great external force so I'm not going to lay down the cards and tell someone that they are going to meet a tall handsome stranger, marry at the age of 27 and have 3 kids; 2 boys and a girl. There are readers who do this and I've nothing against that, it's just not really part of my world view.
I think that everything we do has a consequence; cause and effect so I think for the most part we create our own destinies by the things we've said and done in the past and by the things we say and do now in the present.
My readings are for insight and advice, I started reading for myself to look into my own life as I think that knowing yourself and knowing what you're facing is the best way to tackle most of life's problems. For me that's what tarot does, it's like taking a snapshot of your situation or like holding a mirror up to something you're facing so that you can step back and really look at things from different perspectives and points of view. I have absolutely no clue how this works but I've lost count of the times when I've been despairing and really been at a loss about how to handle something and the cards that I've pulled have been exactly the right cards to very clearly show me what's going on and the way forward.
Involve yourself, your life and tarot are not spectator sports
I really think that if you want to get the most out of a reading you need to be open to the notion that you control your own life. I heard a story on a tarot forum a while ago about a lady who went to a tarot reader asking what results she was going to get in her exams, the reader told her that there was great potential for her to pass with flying colours so the lady went away and did nothing because she was going to pass, the tarot reader had told her so. She failed, of course she failed and she thought the tarot reader had been wrong but had she? I don't think so; the reader told her she had great potential to pass and so she did, at the time of the reading when she was working hard but of course it wasn't going to happen if the lady stopped working and decided that those good grades were just going to magically land in her lap.
I find that instead of asking what's going to happen to me, it's far more useful to ask what I need to do to make something happen. All the time I see people asking 'Will I meet someone who loves me this year?' or similar questions and I tell them probably but only if you put the effort in, you won't meet someone unless you get off the couch and go out and do something that will put you in situations where you could meet someone. Sometimes people are shocked by this, they expected the spooky tarot reader to tell them that yes, the guy (or girl) will magically appear who will love them for ever and they'll live happily ever after so now, when someone asks a question like that I work with them to formulate a question to ask how they can best meet someone who they're compatible with.
Be involved, your life is not something that just happens to you.
