Pivot from the Anxious Question to Healing

A tarot reading, whether professional, casual, or self-reading, is very often about getting some questions answered, or some specific areas of concern addressed.

One of my favorite kinds of tarot reading is the one that begins without a question, when we are open to the wisdom of the universe. Even then, such a reading will usually produce questions that we need to contemplate both with tarot and within our own hearts.

One type of question that most ethical tarot readers worry about, and that scammer tarot readers use to their benefit, is the predictive questioning that is produced by trauma and fear.

There are some tarot clients, and some questions, that seem to want to repeat over and over again.

Many of us have found ourselves turning to our cards, day in and day out, asking the same question. Sometimes we even shuffle again and repeat the question in the same session.

This is not always a bad thing.

There can be times when a slight rephrasing of the question can make a repeated question worthwhile.

There are times when new information makes it worthwhile to ask a question a second or third time.

There are times when having the cards repeat an answer over and over can help us finally accept an unwelcome truth.

However, there are times when repeating the same question can lead to psychic addiction. There are times when working with tarot might increase anxiety rather than relieve it.

Many professional readers will refuse to read twice on the same question within a short period of time. Sometimes, refusing the reading may be the best policy for that reader in that situation.

Yet, there is technique that can be helpful. This technique won’t work for every reader, every client, or every question. A great tarot reader, either professional or casual, needs to have a lot of techniques in their toolbox.

Sometimes the anxious question is about love; very often about the hope for a reunion with an ex, or the reform of a partner who makes regular and repeated bad choices.

What happens when the constant question is “Will we get back together?” or “Will my partner start to treat me better?”

In a situation where we have worked with the same question several times, and the answer is consistent and not hopeful, why does a person continue to ask that question over and over?

Sometimes, as we said earlier, it is because they need time to process and accept the truth.

Does hearing the same answer over and over again help them do that? For some people, yes. For others, and especially in the professional setting, this can be expensive, frustrating and unhealthy.

Yet, the reader still has an opportunity to foster healing in a situation like this. With gentle and firm skill, sometimes the reader can pivot the question to get to the heart of the problem, and help the client discover a real path for healing.

Even in self-reading, if there is real willingness to heal, this pivoting technique can work.

The pivoting technique relies on the idea that there is something deeper causing the client to stay stuck in their thinking. It is not that they are pigheaded or blinded by love.

They are hanging on to their fantasy, or their version of this story, or their fear, for a reason.

The trick is to ask of the cards a question that will help you understand what that underlying fear or belief is.

Try asking the cards, “Why am I (or why is this person) so stuck on this situation?”

Pull a few cards and see what you see. This can very often take the reading in a direction with new questions that bring new hope.

Sometimes the client themselves will reveal a clue. They may say, “He’s a really great guy.” Then, you have an opportunity to ask the cards a question such as, “What sort of person is he?” You may discover a way to help your client, or yourself, understand that he really is not that great at all. Once that belief system is dismantled; healing can begin.

Even in self-reading, you can use tarot to examine your assumptions, and the things you believe to be fact. When you use the cards to make this examination, you may find the need and the ability to change your thinking and begin healing.

Tarot can be very good at revealing the flaw in our thinking. For the person who desperately wants a reunion with their ex, and the reader sees no reunion possible, there is a different kind of question that can break that cycle.

Ask the cards what the relationship would look like if they did get back together. Very often, the reason for the breakup is apparent in that answer. When the cards reveal that a second go-round would be nothing but more of the same heartache, healing and change can become more welcome.

There is a belief among some tarot readers and clients that the only fair question at the tarot table is the question that brought the client to the table. I believe that a good reader should know to ask the deeper questions to get the answers the client didn’t know they needed.

The key is to be quick enough, smart enough, and intuitive enough to ask the right questions of the cards at the right times. This creates an opportunity to pivot from anxiety and fear to healing and hope.

In the end, a great tarot reading can almost always provide healing and hope, even when there is no possibility that the original hope will be fulfilled.

Traveling with the Tarot Knights

I’ve been having fun writing about numbers and ranks in tarot recently. This week feels like time to explore the Knights!

The Court cards can be confusing because of their versatility; each one can mean so many things. This is especially true of the Pages and the Knights.

Traditionally, Pages are feminine, and Knights are masculine. This has never proved true for me in my readings, so I prefer a deck where the Pages and Knights are fairly androgenous-looking. Intuitively I may see a Page or Knight with a gender in a specific reading. In another reading, the same card may appear as a different gender to me. Of course, on these sorts of reding techniques and interpretations, your mileage may vary.

There are some tarotists who assign to the tarot Knights a sense of courtly honor, like Arthurian Knights of the Round Table. That has never resonated with me but might be something to consider.

Like the Pages, Knights can be young people, or can give you a directive, or make a prediction.

Keywords to associate with the rank of Knight include travel, pursuit, goals, motion. So, a Knight might be a young person who is goal oriented. A Knight might be a person of any age who is single-mindedly pursuing a goal. A Knight might encourage you to pursue a goal.

The sort of goal, of course, is determined by the suit. The Knight of Swords might be pursuing truth, writing, knowledge, communication, or technology. The Knight of Wands might be pursuing fun, creativity, humor, athleticism or spirituality. The Knight of Cups might be pursuing love and romance. The Knight of Pentacles might be pursuing work and money.

Knights can also predict or encourage travel. The type of travel is denoted by the suit. The Knight of Swords might be a trip to learn something or discover something. The Knight of Wands might be a trip for fun, or to a concert or sporting event. The Knight of Cups might be a romantic vacation. The Knight of Pentacles would be travel for business.

One of the ways the pandemic has appeared in the cards of clients is a lot of reversed Knights, indicating cancelled trips, and no ability to travel at the moment.

Two of the Knights can have a special job of indicating timing, that is, how fast something will happen, or how quickly you should move to make something happen. The Knight of Swords is about swiftness, while the Knight of Pentacles indicates a slow pace.

When Pages and Knights appear together, they may talk about a sibling group, with the Knights likely to be the older siblings.

Very often, the Knights appear to tell us to get off our butts and get moving. They can be a gentle or not-so-gentle nudge from the Universe to move forward toward our goals. They are also a constant reminder that life is a journey. Given their particular messages, they can evoke some of the same emotions and information as the Fool and the Chariot.

Reading the Tarot Pages

You are being Paged! That is something I sometimes say when I see a few Pages in a tarot spread. Sometimes a predominance of Pages can tell us that the Universe is communicating directly with us. It is ‘paging’ us, if you will, to get our attention and give us our marching orders.

Other times, Pages can give different sorts of messages. While the tarot Court, in general, can be tricky to interpret, the tarot Pages seem to be the most elusive and difficult to nail down.

In recent years I have heard many tarot students compare the Pages to the Aces, suggesting that the Pages can represent something new, or something beginning. While the Pages certainly do carry the energy of youth, and therefore newness, I feel there are so many richer and more specific possibilities for interpreting the four Pages of tarot.

Regardless of suit, all four Pages have a few things in common. The Pages can represent children. The Pages can represent pets. The Pages can represent people of any age who are engaged in learning something new, reinventing themselves, or finding their voice.

In a reading about business, the Pages can speak about your web page and social media presence.

Keywords for the rank of Page include learning, study, school, youth and communication.

The Pages can predict that you will receive a message. The Pages can remind you of the importance of communication. The Pages can tell you to go to school.

The suit of each Page gives the interpretation more specificity. If the Page is indeed a person, the suit will give us a hint about their personality. If the Page is telling us to communicate, or suggesting that we will receive communication, the suit will tell us what the communication is about. If the Page is telling us to study something or learn something, the suit will tell us what the subject matter should be.

Very often, Pages in a tarot reading will give more than one message. That means that a particular Page might be about your child, but also might talk about a class you are taking. It might also encourage you to have a specific conversation you have been avoiding.

Since the Pages are so much about communication, it only makes sense that each one of them should communicate a great deal of information!

Are They Cheating? Handling the Tarot Reader's Dilemma

The topic of how to handle questions about infidelity has come up a few times in conversations with tarot students and friends recently. “Is my partner cheating on me?” is, unfortunately, a classic question at the tarot table.

Before I address how I handle that question, let me discuss some things a professional tarot reader should consider regarding the uncomfortable subject of infidelity.

First, I believe a good tarot reader needs to approach every reading absent of bias and judgement. As humans, we tend to have a great deal of bias and judgement when it comes to this particular topic. To be a truly fair, impartial, ethical and helpful reader, I find it helpful to embrace the following three practices.

First, release gender bias. Everyone is capable of infidelity, not only heterosexual men. Heterosexual women cheat, lesbians cheat, gay men cheat. Yes, in some cultures there is a prevalent norm that gives heterosexual men a pass and an expectation for cheating. That, however, doesn’t mean that every man cheats, or that women don’t cheat, or that cheating doesn’t happen in same sex relationships.

Second, release judgment. The person at my table who needs my guidance may be the person who has been cheated on. The person at my table may also be the cheater, or the person with whom someone has cheated. Everyone at my table deserves compassion, understanding, and grace without judgment.

Third, not all cheating situations are the same. There is a lot of common wisdom that says things like, “Once a cheater, always a cheater,” and “If he cheated with you, he will cheat on you”. While these things may be true some of the time, they won’t be true all the time. This is another sort of judgment I try to avoid at the tarot table. Rather, I do the reading for the individuals and their relationships and interpret it free of those biases.

How should we handle it when the question on the table is, “Is my partner cheating on me?”

It’s easy to see what a quandary this might be. The potential to do damage is immense.

Right away, we need to know what our client feels cheating is. We don’t all define cheating the same way. For some, wandering into an adult nightclub would be considered cheating. For others, a flirtation or conversation might cross the line. Some spouses equate porn use with cheating. For others, the line isn’t crossed unless there is full-on sexual contact with another human.

Then, we need to remember that there can be all kinds of dishonesty and disrespect in a relationship. The cards might reflect other kinds of insult in a way that would be difficult to distinguish from sexual infidelity. We may see there is disrespect, but can we be sure that disrespect includes infidelity?

We also need to remember that some people are just plain paranoid and suspicious.

When asked this difficult question, I will pull some cards to try to get a read on the relationship and the nature of the partner. Is it in the partner’s nature to cheat? How does the partner regard my client? What is the energy around the relationship? What is the client’s tendency toward dark imaginings and unwarranted mistrust?

I usually ask the client if they have particular reason to suspect infidelity. I see how their answer to this question reflects my read on the relationship.

Never do I want to say for sure that the deed has been done. It’s not my job to bust someone, and it is not my job to break up marriages.

However, if the offense shows up strongly in the cards, and the client can relay to me stories that are corroborated by the cards, I might say something like, “It does seem like a possibility” or “This is definitely something you need to speak with your spouse about” or “It may be time for marriage counseling”.

If I don’t see signs of the alleged behavior in the cards, I will say something like, “There is no evidence here to suggest that this is happening”.

It’s important to remember that to flat-out deny something is happening when it is could be just as devastating as suggesting something is happening when it isn’t.

Very often when a person is concerned about infidelity there are other obvious signs of relationship problems in the cards. Often the cards will reveal specific kinds of abuse and disrespect which the client will confirm. Often the client wants to hear that their spouse is cheating to justify ending the relationship. In a situation like that, it is easy to point to the laundry list of known offenses and suggest the client act on those.

The truth is, cheating doesn’t usually happen in an otherwise happy relationship. We, as tarot readers, can be helpful by focusing on the obvious dysfunction in the relationship.

If the dysfunction is that the client is suspicious and accusatory for no reason, we may be able to identify the source of that problem and offer opportunities for healing. If the dysfunction is lack of communication, lack of sexual connection, lack of time together, we can identify the problem and suggest remedies.

Another thing that can happen is that infidelity will make itself known in a reading, even if the question hasn’t been asked and the client isn’t suspicious. Sometimes the cards just scream it in a way that can’t and shouldn’t be ignored.

When that happens, I don’t usually come out and make the accusation. Instead, I might suggest that there are issues of trust or communication, or that there may be another person meddling in the relationship. If the cards are particularly pointed, I might ask if infidelity has ever been an issue, or a concern. Of course, I suggest communication and counseling.

Very often, tarot readers are the first line of defense for people suffering with relationship issues. It’s important that we each have a protocol for handling difficult situations which allows us to help our clients, while doing no further harm.

While we often offer that first line of defense, we should always suggest marriage counseling, and individual counseling, when we see issues of distress within a relationship. Understanding the limitations of our practice is just as important as understanding the significant benefits a tarot reading can provide.

Reading Tarot Out of Order

Reading Tarot Out of Order

One of the best ways to become a truly efficient and effective tarot reader is to learn and practice a number of techniques. In fact, the mark of a limited tarot reader is the word ‘always’. Try to avoid ‘always’ seeing and saying the same thing for a particular card, or ‘always’ using the same spread, or ‘always’ interpreting a particular spread using the same techniques.

This past Sunday we had our monthly Tarot Meetup, Cards and Conversation, at Panera Bread in Palm City. I was thrilled that over twenty people were in attendance! Our monthly meetups are a great place to meet old and new friends, share some readings, and learn something about tarot.

Since Sunday happened to be the day of Saturn and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn, an event that won’t happen again for more than five hundred years, I decided to design a series of exercises using the three Major Arcana cards associated with Saturn, Pluto and Capricorn, which are the World, Judgment and the Devil, respectively.

One of the questions I asked folks to consider was what those three cards might mean together in a reading. People came up with some great messages. Yet, I was struck by the fact that most, if not all, of our students and readers felt the need to designate an order to the cards and read the cards in that linear order.

Reading a group of non-positioned cards is a standard tarot technique. Designating an order to the cards (usually the order in which they were pulled) and reading them in that linear fashion is also, obviously, a standard technique. And, it’s an effective technique. Typically, that linear reading becomes a timeline, which turns a non-positioned group of cards into a de facto Past, Present, Future sort of reading, or, a Situation, Obstacle or Action, Outcome sort of reading.

However, there is no rule that says that tarot cards have to be read in a linear fashion, describing  a timeline, cause-and-effect, or a situation, action and outcome. While we must be able to read this way, it’s important to know that there are other ways to treat a non-positioned group of cards. The more techniques we know, the more information we can derive from the cards.

It became very clear to me that I have been in remiss in my group leadership. I have not taught my group other methods of handling groups of cards. Guess what we will be doing in our next meeting?

In the meantime, here are some ways to handle a non-positioned group of tarot cards that aren’t linear. These techniques can work with groups of cards as small as two, or as large as five or more.

Let’s use the example of the three cards from our meetup, the Devil, Judgement and the World.

When we read these cards in a linear fashion, we see a story of empowerment that comes from acknowledging and releasing our limiting behaviors.

How else might we read these cards?

We might see the state of the actual world here, where some want to end certain behaviors or traditions (Judgment) while others want to hang on to them (Devil).

We might see a reference to the World Wide Web (World) that connects us all, where we all have a chance to be heard (Judgement), yet also can become addicted and diminished by the attention we pay and the time we waste (Devil).

You can see that when you don’t attach to the order of the cards, the number of stories we can tell expands exponentially.

Other techniques for reading groups of cards include looking at what the cards have in common, to see if there is an overarching theme. If the cards have a similar message, that message can become the overriding takeaway from the reading. If the cards express opposite messages, you may be shining a light on a conflict.

Sometimes similarities in the coloring or images of the cards will give a specific message. I saw the Magician and the Nine of Cups from a version of the Waite deck recently and was struck that both cards had a yellow background, while the Magician’s cloak and the Nine of Cup’s hat were both red. I saw these cards, then, as speaking together with a message of boldness and confidence.

Sometimes cards within a group will be completely dissimilar, sharing neither messages, coloring nor themes. A good technique for blending dissimilar cards is to consider the keywords for each card and see how those keywords can work together in a sentence.

When you release your attachment to the order in which the cards are draw or laid out, or the numeric order of the card sequence, you open yourself to many additional opportunities to receive information.

Five Ways We Use Intuition in a Tarot Reading

Five Ways We Use Intuition in a Tarot Reading

The best tarot readings, whether for self or for others, involve knowledge of the cards and intuition. Intuition is an important part of card interpretation. Intuition informs other aspects of the tarot-reading process as well.

It’s important to differentiate the intuitive and psychic process from our desires and fears. Sometimes we might mistake common wisdom and internalized beliefs for spiritual messages. When we do this, we have circumvented the sacred process of divination.

Meditative exercises that involve a focus on the breath, and on grounding, centering, and clearing are typically the best way to stay connected in the intuitive process.

When the entire reading process, from the first shuffle to the final insight, is guided by intuition, we are likely to have a legitimate and helpful divination experience. The ways intuition can guide a reading are infinite. Here are five ways intuition makes its way into the tarot-reading process.

How We Shuffle, Cut and Pull

How many times we shuffle and cut, and how we pull the cards, can all be guided intuitively. If we engage intuition from the very first moments of our interaction with the cards, we infuse the cards with our energy and intention, and we easily choose the cards we most need to see.

The Questions We Ask

Even when reading for others, we, as readers, should use our intuition to help our clients choose the questions that will be most helpful. We must also use intuition to break down a single question into multiple parts, and to rephrase questions in order to gain the most insight from the cards.

The Spreads and Techniques we Employ

There are so many different techniques for tarot reading. A good reader will be competent at many techniques and spreads. Intuition, as well as experience, helps us decide which spreads and techniques will yield the best results.

Which Classic Interpretations Fit Best

Each tarot card has multiple classic interpretations. Yet, in a reading, some of those interpretations will fit, other won’t. Intuition is an important part of choosing the most appropriate interpretation for the reading.

How the Tarot Images Reflect the Situation

A picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes the tarot images will spark an entire story and will give a great deal of information that goes much deeper than any classic interpretation could. It is intuition that allows this process to unfold.

What makes the difference between a card reading and a card interpretation?

Here's a technique that can be incorporated into any introspective cartomancy reading style, whether tarot or other oracle cards.

One problem I see with card interpretations both amateur and pro, for self and for others, is that often, all that is delivered is vaguely general warm and fuzzy advice based on keywords.

The reason this seems to happen is that we latch on to the keywords of a card and don't take the reading any further.

For example, imagine a general reading one-card pull. The card received has a primary keyword of 'patience'.

In a self-reading, upon receiving such a card a person might say, "I guess I need to be more patient".

That's great advice for anyone, but is it a great tarot reading? Not at all, exactly because it is great advice for everyone.  A tarot reading must be specific and individual to be truly meaningful.

The next step, that all-too-many tarotists miss, is to turn the interpretation into a hard-hitting reading.

One way to do that is to allow that key word to lead to the next logical question. This process of finding and forming questions is in itself intuitive. The answers can come from within, from logic, or from further divination.

To continue with our example, the question might be, "What is going on in my life that is particularly trying my patience?"

The answer might come from surround cards, the answer might be obvious, or might require some introspection or divination.

Further questions might include, "Why is this tying my patience?" "At what point should I be more proactive?" "What am I to learn from this"?

Very often this process will require more divination than that original one-card pull; I always say that if a reading is worth a single card, it's worth as many as you need.

That an idea, theme or concept like patience, success, communication, goals or relationships appears in a reading is standard. Yet the reading stops being a recitation of keywords and general bland advice and becomes a true process of personal exploration when we interpret not only the card; we interpret why we received the card.

The message is always important, but it is the reason for the message, the timeliness of the message, and the context of the message that makes a reading most valuable.

Advice for Tarot Readers: When the Final Outcome is Clearly Not the End

Every tarot reader has their own reading style. Some of us use a lot of cards in a reading, other try to dig a lot of information from a very few cards. Some of us use a specific spread, others simply lay out cards and read them, or design a custom spread for the individual reading.

This post is specific to tarot spreads, either traditional or custom-made, which have a last position designated as “final outcome”, “future resolution” or “future events”.

If you use a spread like this I am sure you have noticed that sometimes the card that falls into that final position is poignantly on-point, offering a vision of a hopeful future with wishes fulfilled. It’s a logical end to the story portrayed in the reading.

Sometimes the card that falls into the outcome position can be interpreted as advice – what you have to do to have the desired outcome, versus a specific future prediction.

Sometimes the card that falls into the final outcome position is clearly undesirable. It may suggest an outcome that is less favorable than desired. It may suggest coming to a place of being stuck, with no outcome other than a continuation of what already is.

Speaking as a professional reader, I have to say that this is a lousy way to end a reading.

If you read in a card-by-card linear fashion, that final outcome card may be the way you close the reading. If the card that appears there isn’t a great note on which to end, what can you do?

I believe in ending a reading on as positive a note as possible. I don’t think this is sugar-coating, fluffy or Polly-Anna. I think it’s spiritually appropriate.

There’s a pertinent quote attributed to John Lennon. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

I believe that my job as a tarot reader includes giving people a message that is uplifting and hopeful, even in dark times. That doesn’t mean I advocate giving false hope, but it does mean that, just like John Lennon, I want to glimpse forward to the time and place when things will really be okay. Or, at the very least, I want to show the gift that is present in the shadow, and the opportunity that comes along with challenge.

There are a number of ways to continue a tarot reading past an uninspiring final outcome card.

Here are my three favorites.

1. End on a Major.

 If the final outcome card is not a Major Arcana, continue drawing cards and laying them in a path from the final outcome card, until you get a Major Arcana. Interpret the Major Arcana card as the final outcome, and the cards that came before as the path to get there, and advice along the way.

2. Let the Spread Give Questions, Not Answers.

If you perform a comprehensive spread such as the Celtic Cross, you can find many questions within that spread. Interpret the spread to give whatever information you see, but also find within those cards questions, and areas where you want to dig more deeply. Which cards make you say “I want to know more about that?”

Then, pick up all the cards, shuffle them, and use the cards to answer those questions, one at a time, in a dialogue, or in a series of small spreads.

This way, the reading is over when the questions are all answers, not when the final predictive card is read.

3. Clarify the Final Card.

If the final outcome card is a dud, you can ask specific questions about it and pull cards to clarify it. Simply place one or a few clarifying cards next to the outcome.

As you pull the clarifying card, you can ask a question like “How can we change this?” or “How can we mitigate this?” or “Where is the gift in this?”

Let those clarifying cards answer those specific question in regard to the outcome, or simply blend their meanings together to give a broader view of the outcome than you had before.

Many modern tarot readers shy away from predictions, recognizing that the future is never set and that free will matters.  Nonetheless, many of our tarot spreads include these pesky “future” positions which are clearly predictive.

Even an intentionally non-predictive spread sometimes foretells the future when a card appears that describes nothing from the past or present, but clearly makes sense in retrospect, after the event or condition it predicted comes to pass.

Whether or not we strive to predict the future, the cards will often reflect our upcoming events, opportunities, solutions and resolutions, and sometimes will give helpful advice for getting there.

If our focus is to help our client stay positive and proactive, we can use these interpretive positions to offer possibilities and perspective, rather than a doom-and-gloom prognosis over which the client can have no control.

Tarot Filters: What you See Versus What you Say

Sometimes, at the beginning of a reading, clients request that we filter information. Some people will say, “Don’t hold back! I want to know everything, good or bad.” Others will say, “I don’t want to hear anything bad.”

Of course, when I hear these requests I want to launch into a discussion about how we often create our own future and how there really is no such thing as good and bad, but I don’t. My clients have a right to request the sort of knowledge they are seeking. And, as much as I hate to admit it, they are correct about one thing.

We do filter our readings. There is an inherent difference between what we see and what we say. That sounds terrible, since people trust us to tell them what we see. However, the tarot filter is a necessary part of a tarot reading.

When we do any kind of psychic work, most of us experience the information we get on a visceral level. In order to translate that into useful information, we need to find the words that our client can hear and understand.

Sometimes we have to pick and choose which information we share. But how do we decide what to share, and when to stay quiet?

First, we need to consider the client, and the context of the reading. An entertaining reading at a fancy dinner party is not necessarily the time to delve into gory details about your client’s colostomy. A client’s anxiety disorder will not be improved if we merrily tell them of their impending job loss.

But we do need to deliver the truth of what we see, don’t we?

Of course we need to share the truth. Our filters help us decide the way we will share the truth.  Often, when we see something undesirable coming for our client, we can ask more questions and pull more cards to find ways to mitigate the problem.

For instance, if you see job loss, it’s easy to read further and see the resolution, or something good that comes from the loss. Aiming your vision a little further down the road will help you give the positive prediction of “a new opportunity” or “a reduction in stress”.

Time is another factor that may cause us to filter readings. In a professional setting, the length of time a particular reading takes may be limited and inflexible. In this situation, the key is to filter out the less important information in favor of what will be most helpful or most interesting to the client.

Sometimes, our clients want us to lie to them. They really want us to see a happy future in the love relationship that, from the perspective of the cards, is truly doomed.

While it is important to remember that no one can know the future with 100% certainty, it’s also important to tell the truth about what you see. “I am sorry I can’t confirm that for you.” Is a nice way to give disappointing news without completely dashing a client’s hopes.

While we do try to listen to our clients’ requests, we, as readers, have the ultimate authority to conduct our work in the way that feels best. The person who wants to hear everything, good or bad, may not be as thick-skinned as she thinks she is. The person who doesn’t want any bad news may be very capable of discussing strategy to handle an upcoming stressful problem.

A tarot reading isn’t just the rote interpretation of cards in positions. A tarot reading is a transformative process. As readers, we are fully in charge of creating and overseeing that process. Using the right filters at the right times helps us create the most informative, helpful and insightful experience possible.