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Tips for Tarot Readers: Look Deeper
The deeper you look, the more you see.
Tips for Tarot Readers: Look Deeper
I am often struck by the tendency of tarot readers to, in a reading, land on a clear interpretation for a card and then, refuse to see anything deeper in it.
Here’s an example to help you understand what I mean.
Imagine reading for someone who gets Justice Reversed in a past position. You might ask if there had been any unfair situations or dealing with legal matters recently.
Suppose he answers that, yes, he had just spent the weekend in jail and the charges were subsequently dropped.
End of story? It could be; the story fits the cards.
But then, imagine that, as the reading continues, you find out that a bit further in the past he was in an actual war. Not as a soldier, but as a civilian whose homeland was invaded. That would be Justice Reversed in the past as well.
Not every card that appears will reference more than one event, but some will. There are a couple of techniques that can help you discern if a card might be speaking to more than one thing, and therefore maybe even establishing a pattern.
First, you can always ask. “Is there anything else in your past that might show up as unfairness, or a harmful action regarding the law or government?” If the client says there isn’t, just move on.
Second, you can simply pay attention. Remember the cards that appear, even if you pick them up to perform another spread. If something comes up that resonates with a card you have already interpreted, there is no problem with going back and connecting more than one event or meaning with that card.
If you start to see a traumatic pattern you have the opportunity to read on that specifically, and help the client find ways to acknowledge, heal and release that trauma.
By letting the cards speak more fully we are able to give more complete readings.
Why Your New Tarot Business Might Fail (And How to Make It Work)
How’s Your Tarot Business Going? Here are four common problems and some sure-fire fixes from the author of Fortune Stellar.
Why Your New Tarot Business Might Fail
(And How to Make It Work)
As my friend Jenna Matlin says, tarot is having a moment. Psychism, of course, has been popular throughout history. There have always been seers, oracles and diviners. I often joke that if prostitution was the first profession, psychic reading was the second. (Although my midwife friends insist that the second profession was midwifery.)
Tarot, and cartomancy in general, are newer tools of the psychic trade. Long before we had cardboard and printing presses, we had stones, beans and bones. Perhaps tarot’s current popularity is borne simply of its modern accessibility.
Whatever the reason, I am thrilled that there are now more tarot decks, tarot classes, tarot groups and tarot readers than ever before in history. Yet, there is another trend that I see that is a bit more concerning. That is the trend of enthusiastic new tarot professionals leaving the industry as quickly as they came in.
Jenna and I discussed this in our last informal Tarot Biz Chat. Her take is that pro tarot readers can burn out quickly, and that many new tarotists don’t know how to protect themselves from burnout.
She has a point. I have seen burned out readers retire with drama and fanfare, although usually after several decades of successful practice, not several months or years.
Job burnout is a risk in any profession, of course. It’s also statistically true that any new business, in the first five years, has an equal chance of failure or success.
I believe there are a multitude of reasons talented new tarot pros often quickly throw in the towel, and some of those reasons don’t include burnout. Here are some of the problems I have seen in the ventures of my students and colleagues over the past twenty-five years, along with some advice on what to do differently.
You Started Pro Reading Before You Were Ready
This is an easy trap. Tarot teachers and business coaches will encourage you to be brave and get out there without evaluating whether you are truly ready. Psychic fair operators will push to get your butt in a chair as quickly as possible because they are under-staffed.
It might be that you felt encouraged because you did a few practice readings that went really well. Perhaps you had an immediate financial problem and felt tarot could be a source of much-needed revenue.
The solution here isn’t to quit, but to back off and brush up. Sometimes a tarot reading flows smoothly. All the cards make sense in their positions and appear to answer questions succinctly and definitively. It’s those readings that fool us into believing tarot reading is easy. When the cards don’t make sense at first, or the client communicates in a challenging way, we need to rely on our studied knowledge and the experience we gained from countless hours of practice.
You Aren’t Practicing Good Psychic Hygiene
This is where I think Jenna’s theory about burnout really applies. If you feel drained after a reading, or if you are having a hard time receiving intuition on demand, or if there are days you just don’t feel like doing a reading, it’s possible you aren’t doing the energy work that is necessary for professional tarot.
The trick to fix this is fairly simple. Make sure you do strong energy work to create sacred space for each reading. Connect yourself to both earth and heaven, and become a straw, or a conduit, for energy.
Give nothing of yourself to your client and take no energy from them. Serve them with the limitless supply of energy that you pull, as a conduit, from earth and heaven.
After the reading, shake your energy off, and consciously release your client.
You should emerge from a long day of readings feeling energized, not drained. If that is not what is happening, meditate, breathe, work with your energy and be a better straw.
You Aren’t Attracting Enough Business
Very often when I hear this complaint it is followed by a list of reasons excuses explaining why it just isn’t possible to gain new clients. Those excuses often include geography. That is, the belief that people where you live just aren’t into tarot, or don’t like getting readings, or believe that this stuff is evil.
I will be the first to tell you that every geographic area is different, and some are easier to work than others. However, the difference is not that people in some areas enjoy what we do and people in other areas don’t. The difference is that in some areas, people are more closeted about it, and therefore you have to work harder to identify and serve them.
On the flip side, if you are in a mystic-friendly location, you might feel the market is choked and there is no room for you. That’s an excuse, too. If you are a good reader, there will always be people who want to see you.
Another reason readers don’t attract business is they don’t present themselves with confidence. Clients will only be as confident in you as you are in yourself.
Another problem is you might be marketing to the wrong demographic. It’s amazing how often I see tarot readers marketing to other tarot readers. While we do sometimes read for each other, your tarot friends and students will not always be your best source of clients. The vast majority of your clients will be people who want answers and insight and don’t give two pents about tarot, metaphysics, spirituality or how you derive your information.
Your Goals Aren’t Clear, or Your Expectations Aren’t Realistic
Perhaps you attended a tarot party and watched a mediocre reader make a thousand dollars in an evening. Perhaps you believed a shyster tarot business coach when they told you that it’s easy to make a six-figure income with tarot. Perhaps you believe that memorizing seventy-eight key words is all it takes to give a meaningful tarot reading.
I have met many aspiring tarot pros with unrealistic expectations of both the earning potential of a tarot reader and the ease with which they could do the work and make the money.
Legitimate tarot reading can be moderately lucrative, but only if you are patient and work hard. If your goal is to make a lot of money, there are hundreds of better jobs to choose.
It’s important to be clear about your goals. Professional tarot offers so many different types of opportunities. You can entertain at parties, work on the phone or webcam, work in shops and psychic fairs, or find your own venues. A college student can often make more money and have more fun working psychic fairs than hustling fast food. You can read tarot as a side hustle or a full-time job. Just be sure about where and how you want your tarot business to fit in your life, now and in the future. Don’t expect a full-time income from a part-time effort, and don’t expect a full-time income when you first start out.
Most importantly, only choose to be a tarot professional if you love reading for strangers. You may love tarot and may enjoy tarot books, classes, art and friends. That’s a beautiful thing. Perhaps the best, most important use of divinatory tarot is for one’s own enjoyment and enlightenment. None of that, however, means that you will be delighted to have your job be reading tarot for clients. But, if reading for others does delight you, I promise there is no greater joy than having that be your livelihood.
If you are interested in taking the next step in growing your business, make sure you get a copy of my book, Fortune Stellar.
If you would like to work one-on-one with me to grow your skills and business, contact me about a custom mentorship program.
I hope you can catch Jenna Matlin and me as we present our Professional Development Day as an extension of the Northwest Tarot Symposium.
How to Discover your Inner Tarot Reader: An Eight-Point Guide
What is a tarot reading? Is it simply the process of interpreting some cards pulled at random?
Yes and no.
Any tarotist, and any tarot client, will tell that that something special happens in a good tarot reading; something beyond the recitation of standard card interpretation. A tarot reading is a process during which information is received, connections are made, truth is heard and inspiration happens.
A tarot reading is a separate thing from both the tarot cards and the tarot reader. A tarot reading has a life of its own.
The question is, how can you make this process, the process of tarot reading, happen? Of course you must study, and learn your cards. But you also have to practice actually giving readings. And, if you wait until you really feel like you know your cards inside out you’ll wait forever. You have to jump in and start using your cards. Here are some of the important points you’ll want to consider as you discover your inner tarot reader.
Point 1. Understand this important truth. There is no one right way to perform a tarot reading. It’s good to try different techniques, and even to invent techniques.
Point 2. How much tarot knowledge you may have is not as important as your ability to tap in to your intuition and to be an open channel. When you go to your cards it should be second nature to breathe, focus, ground, center, pray, create sacred space, invoke elements and entities, meditate, or do whatever works for you to make sure that you are in the proper space to give a reading.
Point 3. How you begin your reading is up to you. You can ask a question, or start with an overview. You can lay out cards in a spread, with designated positional meanings, or a pattern with no specific positional meanings.
Point 4. How you interpret the cards is up to you. The techniques you can use range from classic interpretations to allowing yourself to intuit your reading based on what you see in the images and how they make you feel.
Point 6. There are correlations between tarot and astrology, numerology, Kabballah, the Four Elements, and other esoteric and philosophical systems. You can use any of these you want in your interpretations, or none at all.
Point 7. However you arrive at your card interpretations, you must interpret the cards based on the position in a positional spread, the question, if indeed a question was asked, and the surrounding cards. These contextual concerns are what makes the ultimate difference between a reading that feels personal, specific and on-point, and a reading that feels general and uninspired.
Point 8. Keep your personal opinions out of the mix. This can be difficult. You will form opinions based on what you see in the cards – that’s the point. But you will probably have other opinions too, based on your own personal experience. No matter what the subject matter, interpret the cards and give the reading. Leave your soap box at home.
When you enter into the process of tarot reading, you will tap in to internal resources you didn’t even know you had. When you find your inner tarot reader, you will also find your inner confidence, creativity and spiritual connection.
As you can see, there is no one right way to do a tarot reading. However, you must have a sense of what techniques work for you, and how you, personally, perform your best readings. Practice, study and innovation are all important parts of learning to give a great tarot reading!
If you are truly interested in being the best reader you can be, make sure you check out my upcoming premium webinar, Sharing Wisdom – Reading for Others!
Answers to Your Questions about Tarot: Advanced Tarot Reading
Today’s question is from a serious tarot student. He writes:
I had someone tell me that as I grow more proficient with tarot, I'll find that I can see patterns before I even have time to logically interpret the cards. It’s kind of like there's less reliance on the concrete qualities of the deck itself.
This makes sense. In many ways, there are things that come up in readings that aren't always pinpointed by the card, but seem to be right on point. What are your thoughts on this?
What a great question, thank you!
This brings up the ongoing discussion of intuitive tarot versus interpretive tarot. I have a lot to say about that, but I first want to address a less-often-discussed phenomenon of tarot reading referenced in this question.
Can we know our cards and our process so well that we are able to draw information from them without have time to think about the cards or their symbols logically? Absolutely, yes, we can.
However, I would not say that this process is necessarily less reliance on traditional interpretation. Practice, use and confidence allow us to interpret the cards quickly, without having to think about them cognitively. It is the difference between knowing two plus two equals four, and having to count it out on your fingers. Either way, you will arrive at the same answer.
Something happens in a tarot reading. Words seem to flow from us. Sometimes we seem to be channeling wisdom and information from another, higher, source. I call this occurrence “being in the zone,” and equate it to other “zone experiences” we have, perhaps playing sports or making art or music.
Something even more happens in a reading. This is something beyond being in the zone or knowing your cards super-well. Perhaps it really is channeling. Perhaps it really involves communication with the spirit world. I truly believe that the cards can function as a psychic gateway, allowing us to commune with those in spirit.
As you become more proficient with tarot, a few things can happen. You can know your cards so well that you won’t have to think to interpret them. You can enter the zone; a state where your energy is truly flowing and elevating your process to a higher level. You can also become an open channel for spiritual forces who speak through you, and through the cards.
Now, let’s talk intuitive tarot and interpretive tarot. There are many tarotists, even professional readers, who have never actually studied tarot, nor memorized a key word, nor learned a particular set of associations. Intuitive readers let the colors, images and psychic nature of the cards guide them.
This is a very effective reading technique. In fact, if you can’t allow that sort of flow to happen in a reading, you aren’t ready for professional reading.
There are intuitive readers who warn against the practice of tarot study, saying that memorizing interpretive values will confuse you, and take you out of your intuitive mind and into your logical mind where the flow doesn’t happen.
This is why I think what this person said is so smart. Tarot confusion doesn’t come from tarot study. Tarot confusion comes from not studying enough. When you know the cards cold, you can rely on your inner knowledge of their traditions and interpretations, and open yourself to the flow of the reading and the wisdom of Spirit.
A final point speaks to the comment that often information is revealed in a reading that doesn’t seem to correlate to any particular card. If I see someone might visit China, it is clear I didn’t see a “China” card within the tarot. Where did I get that information? A small element within a card image may have triggered a memory, or a thought, or an image in my mind. That’s how it usually works. That’s why I prefer colorful tarot decks with intricate designs.
That’s how my process seems to work, and how I interpret what you were told, based on my experience. Other people have different tarot experiences, I’m sure. The more we can talk openly about our experiences with the cards, the more we will learn about the seemingly limitless ways in which tarot can work.
Thanks for a great question. If you have a question about tarot, please email me.
Christiana Answers a Question about Advanced Tarot Reading
Video of Christiana Answers a Question about Advanced Tarot Reading
Tarot: Try it Standing Up!
Tarotists, here’s a question for you. Have you ever done a tarot reading standing up?
I’m often hired to entertain at cocktail parties and receptions. Sometimes I choose to stand at a cocktail table rather than sitting at a traditional table.
In the cocktail party setting, keeping the client standing helps keep the line moving quickly. It also allows me to use my body more in reading.
How does one use their body in tarot reading? I can think of two ways. First, the psychic connection happens as energy flows through the chakras along the base of the spine. When we stand, the spine is straight. Our feet are firmly on the floor, connecting us to the grounding and sustaining energy of Earth. As we connect to spirit with the crown chakra, the standing body forms a straight line of energy.
I have to think this standing posture is helpful in handling the psychically-challenging work of tarot reading in a party setting.
The second way I use my body is in expressing the reading. While standing, it becomes possible to act out scenarios and use body language to make the reading more entertaining and understandable.
This weekend I had the experience of performing longer private readings from a standing position. I was working a private party, and the table provided for me was a large, high drafting-type table. The chairs were low folding chairs. It was impossible for me to sit in the low chair and do a tarot reading on the high table – the angle was all wrong.
So I had my clients sit, and I stood at the table, kitty-corner to my client’s chair. From there I moved the cards around, laying them out, pointing out the images and moving them like puppets around the table. Sometimes I felt like a military general playing out scenarios over a model battlefield.
I was on my feet for four hours. At the end of the party, I felt energized. Think about the posture of the Magician. Surely, this is what I felt like, giving readings at the standing tarot table.
There are limited opportunities to perform tarot readings standing at high tables. When presented with a high table, even unexpectedly, take off your heels and give a full-body standing tarot reading.
As your perspective over the cards changes, your ability to see things might increase. Your standing posture will energize you, and connect you more easily to your psychic guidance.
Is a tarot card stalking you?
It can happen that a particular card might follow you around for a while. We call this a repetitive, frequent or recurrent card. When whatever life situation the card is referring to resolves, the card takes its normal place as one of seventy-eight in the deck.
There are a few ways a card can stalk you. Having the same card turn up for you, at random, in readings repeatedly, is a common phenomenon. If you pay attention, you will notice your recurring cards earlier and more often. Once you notice your recurring card, you can spend time in meditation with it. You can journal about it. You can discuss it with you tarot friends. The one thing you must remember is this. This card is here to help you. Find a way to use its energy to ease the difficulty of whatever transition caused it to appear.
Cards can recur in other ways, too. Sometimes a card might just be on your mind. You might hear songs that remind you of it. You might dream of it. Many tarotists always have a card or two they are currently contemplating.
Sometimes we will see things in the world that remind us of a particular card. The world is full of tarot symbols, both intentional and unintentional. The power of symbols suggests that, regardless of what prompts you to call a particular card to mind, once that card has been summoned it bears meaning for you.
Make friends with your tarot card stalkers. They will help you through hard times. Sometimes they will be the tools you need, even before you know you need them.
Answers to Your Questions about Tarot: Being Objective in Self Reading
This week’s question comes from a new tarot student who is developing a self-reading practice, but is having a hard time being objective in interpreting the answers she receives from tarot.
This is a common question. In fact, it’s one I address in my premium Webinar, Personal Tarot – Reading for Yourself.
I would add that objectivity is not just a difficulty for self-reading, it is also hard to be objective when reading for anyone you care about – friends, family, even long-term clients in the professional setting.
Some readers say that, since it is hard to be objective, we just shouldn’t read for ourselves or our close friends and family.
I don’t like the school of thought that says we should avoid things because they are difficult. Learning to do difficult things well takes time, but the results are always worthwhile.
Learning objectivity allows us to access the wisdom of tarot in self-reading, and makes us better readers for our clients.
Today, let’s focus on some basic things we need to do to stay objective in tarot.
Overall, you will have an easier time if you make these three practices part of your life.
- Recognize your own bias, and your own fears.
- In order to negate fear, we must first acknowledge the role fear can play in interpreting the cards.An anxious or pessimistic person is likely to interpret a card in a more negative way than an optimistic person will. A person who doesn’t want to face hard truths might sugar-coat an interpretation.
- Be aware of your particular tendencies. Be aware of your fears.
- Adopt an attitude of surrender when confronting that which is out of your control.
- Trust that the Universe is unfolding as it should, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the moment.
- Be as proactive as you can be to create what you want in life.
- If you have done everything possible to help yourself, you can relax and be open to what comes next!
Practicing these three steps will help you to release anxiety and unhealthy attachments.
Before you begin even the most casual or short tarot reading, make sure you create sacred space. Release your worries, focus your mind, and invoke your spiritual guardians. The more serious you are about divination as a spiritual practice, the more you will be able to tap in to the wisdom of the Universe.
When you are ready to read, make sure your question is as open-ended as possible. “What do I need to know about…?” Is better than “Will this happen?”
Likewise, make sure your question is of a spiritual nature. “What is my lesson from this relationship?” is a better question than “What is my ex doing right now?”
Here is an exercise to help you maintain objectivity in your readings.
Look at each of the twenty-two Major Arcana cards.
What lesson does each Major Arcana card have for you about maintaining objectivity?
For instance, perhaps the Fool maintains objectivity by living in the moment and not worrying about what comes next. Perhaps the Magician keeps a good inventory of resources in order to be prepared for whatever comes.
If you like, share your exercise in the comments, or make a video about it!
And, if you have a question about tarot, send me an email!
Christiana Answers a Question about Objectivity
Video of Christiana Answers a Question about Objectivity
Logic and the Lovers
Major Arcana Six, the Lovers, is an interesting card in that is has many more possible interpretations than its name might suggest.
If you look at some modern depictions of the Lovers, there seems to be a lot of passionate embracing going on in the card. This is a very different concept from A.E. Waite’s, and also from earlier depictions.
Many tarotists, both modern and ancient, ascribe the concept of love and marriage to the Lovers.
In Waite’s “Pictorial Key to the Tarot,” he speaks of his own transformation of this card. Waite presents his Lovers as replacing a card depicting marriage. About that transition, Waite had this to say.
6. The Lovers or Marriage. This symbol has undergone many variations, as might be expected from its subject. In the eighteenth century form, by which it first became known to the world of archeological research, it is really a card of married life, shewing father and mother, with their child placed between them; and the pagan Cupid above, in the act of flying his shaft, is, of course, a misapplied emblem. The Cupid is of love beginning rather than of love in its fullness, guarding the fruit thereof. The card is said to have been entitled Simulacyum fidei, the symbol of conjugal faith, for which the rainbow as a sign of the covenant would have been a more appropriate concomitant. The figures are also held to have signified Truth, Honour and Love, but I suspect that this was, so to speak, the gloss of a commentator moralizing. It has these, but it has other and higher aspects.
Related to the sign of Gemini and the element of Air, it makes sense that Kabbalistic tarotists ascribe qualities such as balancing and integrating opposites, discrimination and intelligence to the Lovers.
The Golden Dawn’s “Book T” gives the Lovers the esoteric title of “The Children of the Voice; the Oracles of the Mighty Gods.” “Book T” also gives this as a brief interpretation: “Inspiration (passive, mediumistic), motive power, action.”
So how do we interpret the Lovers in a reading? Of course this card may describe or predict a love relationship. But if our understanding of this card begins and ends with romance, we miss a lot of the complexity and wisdom this card has to offer.
The Lovers reminds us to have self-esteem. We must nurture a good relationship with self.
The Lovers reminds us to make good decisions, and stresses the importance of good communication. These are two incredibly good pieces of advice for any love relationship.
The Lovers speaks of integration. In any sort of relationship, we must weave our lives together with another person or people. The Lovers does not tell us how to accomplish this, but reminds us that it must be done carefully, in a logical and fair way.
That the Lovers is related to the element of Air is paramount in understanding this card.
The element of Water is related to emotion.
The element of Fire is related to passion.
Either of these elements would seem a more appropriate choice for the Lovers card.
Air is the element of logic, reason, decisions, intelligence, integrity and communication.
One can see the greater wisdom of this, when we consider how often we are illogical, unreasonable and stupid when it comes to love!
Situational Spreads
A Situational Spread is a spread that we use to handle a specific situation. Decision-making spreads are situational spreads. We can have situational spreads that we rely on and use when needed. The “Help and Hinder” spread is a popular example of a reusable situational spread.
We can also design custom spreads for one-time use to work with unique situations. We can design these spreads on our own, or with the help and input of our clients. To work with a client to design the spread and then perform and interpret the spread is a very proactive and empowering approach to tarot reading.
What Situations Demand a Custom Situational Spread?
You can design a custom spread for any reading. Simply ask the client what their questions are and who the major players are and design a spread. You might want to pull some cards to help give insight regarding positions and the greater spiritual purpose of the reading.
Specific situations could include interpersonal issues, complex decisions, spiritual questions and questions of personal growth.
You might decide to create a spread after doing an initial general spread and discovering a complex issue. Get as much information as you can from the initial spread, then pick up the cards, shuffle, and go through the process of creating the situational spread.
How do you Design a Situational Spread?
Use a pen and paper, or a computer. The graphic layout of the spread is important. Be creative in the way you layout the cards as well as in your questions. Think about the layout as a flow chart, a graph or a chart.
If you design the spread neatly you can fill in the names of the cards that appear and give it to your client to take home.
You may use tarot divination to help inspire the right questions.
You may choose to design your spread in Sacred Space.
You may create positions for each person involved, and for each possible decision. In a decision-making spread it is wise to include a position for options that have not yet emerged, as well as positions for known options.
If you want specific information about a specific person you can make a position such as “What Does Sally Want?” You can do this instead of or in addition to a general position for the individual.
You may use standard positions, such as Past, Present, Future, Final Outcome, Hopes, Significator, Challenge, etc.
Remember that creating a position uses the same skills and considerations as phrasing a question. Open-ended questions are better than yes/no questions. Questions that empower the client and teach the client to be proactive often yield the best results. A question such as “How can I discover the truth?” is sometimes better than “What is the truth?’
There is no specific number of cards to use, but remember that tarot spreads tend to become cumbersome after 15 cards or so.
You can create “dynamic” positions to describe the dynamic between people. For instance, if you have three kids and want to know the dynamics between them, have one position for each kid and see how the cards relate to each other in that context.
Your position questions can be as general or as specific as you see fit.
Performing the Spread
Perform and interpret the spread as you would any other spread. But, remember that the creative, introspective, spiritual process that went into designing this unique spread will infuse the reading with a great deal of power.
Interpreting “People Positions”
When you use a position to generally signify a person, remember the card that comes up could indicate that person’s role in the situation, that person’s current attitude, that person’s current worry or mood, as well as give information about that person’s personality.
Interpreting “Future Predictions”
In any spread, use future predictions to get a sense of possibilities, and to create proactive solutions.
Compare, Contrast, Contemplate: A Deeper Way to Learn Tarot
Tarot is more than divination, more than prediction, and more than interpretation. Tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom in picture form.