This year I am delving into the world of professional Tarot Reading on full throttle! It has slowly but very surely been picking up, with more and more reading requests as the year progresses.
At the end of March, myself and a friend organised another local Mind, Body & Spirit event in our home town.
As well as being the co-organiser, I also have my own stall for 15-minute tarot reading sessions. I did this for the first time at the last event back in September and sat with 7 clients. This time there were at least 17 in one day. For a newbie, this is quite a lot!
It’s a weird feeling when you are doing these types of events. I get nervous, excited and not really sure where the day will take me. You can have anyone sit at your table. Sometimes they feel drawn to you, some are very happy, others are in a world of sorrow and pain and need deep healing.
I went through an array of emotions from sitter to sitter….in fact I was in an energetic bubble, I had no idea what was going on outside of my table, I had friends and family that had come to see me but all I could muster was a quick wave if I saw them at all.
By lunchtime (I didn’t get to eat – I forgot to block out a lunch break on my appointment sheet and by the time I did stand up to go and buy a sandwich, the food area shutters had gone down) my appointment sheet was full until the end of the day!
What was happening? Why was I getting so many this time, was it because I looked busy? I started to think that and then each reader would sit down and say “I have come on the recommendation of my friend who just had a reading from you”…..and then the penny dropped. They like my readings! I finally had a moment of clarity that would push my self-doubt to the back of my mind.
I have a real issue with the ego in any form of spiritual work. In this business, you meet a lot of people who have what they feel is a gift from God and they literally float around like they are incredibly special people. This makes me feel very uncomfortable. I do not believe that anyone should feel they are “the chosen one”. Some people’s spidey senses just reach a bit further than others, it’s like some people are better at sports or the arts than others, that is all. No need to have a god complex. So because of this I always worry about the ego.
But as I am learning, there is a difference between ego and self-worth/confidence. As I sat there, reading those cards, communicating my strong intuitions on the sitter’s life journey at that current time, it hit me that not everyone can do this. I have a skill that not many people I know possess, and that is nothing to feel big-headed about, it’s to feel proud of.
I’ve spent twenty years learning the meanings of 78 cards. I’ve spent the best part of 5 years developing my psychic intuition to allow me to take those meanings further and deeper. This is my dedication and my talent rolled into one. So, of course, I deserve that many people at my table because I am helping them and that’s all I want to do, help them.
On that day I went from wondering if I could really do this to walking out the door feeling like this is my job now. There was something else that happened too.
I was suddenly saying it how it is, without worrying about causing offence. Don’t get me wrong, I have always been honest in every tarot reading I have ever conducted however I have always been cautious and protective of my client’s feelings. On that Sunday, I suddenly had balls that I didn’t realise I have! Of course, remaining professional yet assertive at all times. Here is an example:
A lady sat down at my table telling me that she had never had a reading before. This is always a good thing as they are an open book however there is also a lot more pressure. I made sure she knew what type of reading this is.
“This is a tarot reading, which means I am tuning in to your life, your energy on a psychic level. This isn’t mediumship so I won’t be connecting to any spirits today. Is that okay?” I asked, she said yes and eagerly sat down.
Now with the cards, normally the first one or two start to give you an indication of what is happening in the person’s life. I always start by talking about the meaning of the cards and then start to build the story with my own interpretations of their meanings. Every tarot reader should ask questions. Popular to contrary belief, they are not cold reading by asking questions. The reason for a question, as an example, is that they can feel male energy in the particular situation and they need to place him, he could be the son, brother or husband. So a quick “are we talking about your husband here?” can help the reader to then really delve into the situation. Of course, you will get the reader who needs no cards or deviation props whatsoever and will sit there and basically reel off loads of stuff about your life, this ability is rare and what I have found in my experience is that they are no holds bar psychics which will tell you someone will die in your family in the next 12 months (this has happened to me, it was horrendous and very unprofessional.). I am not that type of reader. I do hit on lots of stuff that I would not be privy of knowing, for example, I’ve read for a lady and I could see a hairdryer floating above her head, I asked if she was a hairdresser and she confirmed she was. But on the most part, we do need a bit of dialogue with our sitters.
Not with this lady! She said in front of me and shook her head “no” to everything I said. That’s interesting, I thought. These cards are strong emotions, in all the years I have had someone in front of me, they have never said no like that. I tried and tried and tried and all she did was shake her head and look puzzled. I realised very quickly that this could be because of three potential reasons:
- She was worried about opening up her private life to a stranger. She had never had a reading before so didn’t really know what it meant.
- She was testing the reader. A sceptic who believes that you don’t have to answer and that the reader must know every single detail of your life to be a real psychic.
- She was in some sort of denial to these situations, she probably needed help more than anyone that came to me that day.
After re-shuffling and dare I say it, feeling like I was losing my patience with this woman just a little bit, I asked her to ask me a question, because that should mean we get an answer that she can make sense off.
“Is my sister happy?” she asked.
Ok, I thought, I shuffled the cards and asked the question in my head. I could see from the card result that she hadn’t seen her sister in a long time, there was no communication. So I told her this.
“Well my sister is dead!” she said. I took a big, prolonged sigh and then collected my cards up.
“This isn’t a mediumship reading. I am not linking to spirit”. I said.
“Well I didn’t know that!” she said. Clearly, she didn’t really understand anything I had explained to her before she said down.
I smiled kindly at her. “I’m very sorry but I can’t read for you today. I won’t charge you, perhaps you should speak to either the lady next to me or the reader at the end, they can link to your sister. Have a lovely day” I said smiling at her. She thanked me and stood up “perhaps it’s me,” she said as she walked away.
I felt proud of myself for telling her that I would not be reading for her on that day. I also realised that yes, it probably is her or something meant our energies were not linking at that time. Out of 17 readings that day, she was the only blank face that I got. Everyone else was on the same page, hit after hit of information and intuitive guidance to help them at this time.
When I packed up that day, even though I was dizzy, hungry and exhausted, I felt like I was walking on air. This is the best job in the world!
Until next time,
Tanya
