Skeptical Resistance at the Tarot Table

This article is about client skepticism that sometimes happens during professional tarot readings. If you are a professional reader, or an aspiring tarot professional, you may find this helpful.

If you are a tarot client, or a prospective client, you may be interested in this exploration of skepticism from the point of view of a professional tarot reader.

Very often, tarot readings work best as a conversation. Sometimes clients are uncomfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings about the cards, or about our interpretation of the cards. Sometimes this discomfort is based on a trauma history that is appearing in the cards. Sometimes the client is truly skeptical of tarot readings. This can cause a client to be resistant to the tarot reading process.

Skepticism at the tarot table often seems rude and off-putting to the reader. We have all had a client fold their arms and snidely say, “You’re the psychic, you tell me.”

Another oft-heard skeptical statement is, “Well, that is true of everyone, isn’t it?” This is particularly infuriating when it follows a very specific observation.

Some clients do not want to say anything at all during a tarot reading session, in order to avoid influencing the reading.

It is often hard to immediately discern whether a client’s resistance is borne of their genuine hurt, fear, or trauma, or whether their behavior is entirely based on their lack of buy-in to our process. Either way, that resistance can cause a reading to go bad quickly and irreparably.

Learning how to handle client resistance with grace, humor, and dignity, and to nonetheless give a great session, is an important skill for every reader to develop. It has taken me years to learn this skill. After much frustration, here are some things I have figured out.

We need to stop shaming our clients for being skeptical. I know readers who refuse to read for ‘non-believers’. To me, this makes no sense. How can someone believe in what I can do for them if they have never experienced it? Tarot, itself, is not a thing to believe in, nor to disbelieve. The value of the reading is determined by the skill of the reader, not the cards themselves.

There are many reasons for a new client to be skeptical. There are more scammer psychics than there are legitimate readers. There are also plenty of well-intentioned tarotists who went professional way too quickly and simply have not acquired the skills to give an impressive reading. It is very likely that your skeptical client has had a bad experience with a tarot reading, or that they know someone who has.

We need to understand that clients may be acting with resistance and skepticism because of their own personal issues. If they come to us with skepticism, they might be shocked when we share their painful truth with them. That shock can show up as resistance,

No matter what, we cannot make their resistance and skepticism be about us. We, as readers, cannot take their attitude personally. It took me years to learn this!

These days, when a client displays skepticism, I praise and encourage their critical eye. Right away, this improves the energy between us and sets the stage for a good experience. This is a huge shift from the days when client skepticism felt like a personal assault on my integrity.

The job of a tarot reader is to give a reading that is thought-provoking, inspiring, comforting, clarifying, and perhaps, entertaining. Skeptical resistance at the tarot table does indeed make that job harder. This is for three primary reasons.

The first is energetic. When a client crosses their arms and states the intention, either internally or aloud, that they “don’t want to give us anything”, they close off their energy and make themselves harder to read. This feels to me a lot like going to a hair salon and asking the stylist to give you a great new do, but instead of sitting in the chair, you prefer to stand on your head.

If you want me to read you, why are you intentionally making it harder?

I think they believe that if we can do the reading while they are resisting being read, we prove our talent to them.

Here’s the solution I have found. Rather than correcting their posture or admonishing them to open their energy, I remember that I am indeed a good reader, and I can get through the barriers they have imposed. Sure, they are making me work harder. Rather than resenting or ridiculing this, I accept it, and do the work.

The second reason skeptical resistance makes our job harder is that their attitude can shake our confidence. This is entirely on us, and not on them. We cannot make our clients responsible for our own confidence.

The solution here is both energetic and psychological. We very naturally meet their resistance with our own resistance. Instead, we need to breathe and allow the energy of the reading to flow regardless of their words and demeanor. We need to stay in our confidence and meet their resistance with acceptance. This keeps strong both the energy of the reading, and our confidence in our abilities.

The third reason skeptical resistance makes our job harder is that, often, we rely on the client to provide the context in which we interpret the cards. Since the cards can mean so many different things, individually and in groups, we often look to the client to help us understand what we are see. We can see the energies around the client, the client helps us understand why those energies are present.

If the client does not want to contribute to that conversation, we have an obligation to continue. We must rely on our intuition to supply the context, and on our skill in delivery to make the reading understandable.

This is not most readers’ favorite way to work. Yet, we should be able to perform this way. If this is how our client wants us to work, we should still be able to give them a solid reading, even without their verbal input.

There is an added benefit to us here. I have, on several occasions, been asked by a client to deliver a full reading with no input from them. This means that I simply tune in psychically and read the cards, trusting that what I am saying makes sense to them.

Each time I have been asked to perform this way, the feedback at the end has been magnificent.

These days, when someone says, “You’re the psychic, you tell me”, rather than becoming angry or resentful, I say “okay, fair enough!” And I tell them.

Would it be easier to do the reading in a more conversational format? Of course.

Might there be times that the information derived from a more conversational format would be more nuanced and complete? Sure.

Yet, sometimes when we just dive into a reading with courage and confidence, we can come up with extremely profound and helpful information.

There are ways the skeptical and resistant client can actually help us find our confidence. When we are forced to do the reading in less-than-ideal circumstances, when we must go with our gut rather than with guidance from the client, we learn to trust our intuition, and our knowledge of the cards.

When we disabuse ourselves of the notion that skepticism equals disrespect, we open ourselves to a better experience for our clients, and for ourselves.