Here is a new tip for those that reads themselves.
It is always good to read yourself now and again so you have more experience in understanding the cards. Now this is good if you are new so you understand how to do spreads and how to connect the dots. However, it is also important to not over think your reading.
For example, you give yourself a reading and got the ten of swords. Then you think that death will take you in the near future or so. But instead of you, it was one of your friends that died two weeks after the reading. This example happened to me when I was just starting out. I gave myself a reading and thought I was going to die because I just looked at myself. I was also excited about it in a way.
The thing is, people have wants. So when you give yourself a reading, don't read what you want; just read what is the most logical sense.
Here is another example, you give yourself a reading and you get a card that says you will be very lucky. So you buy yourself lotto tickets with your pay. But the cards wasn't talking about your lotto winning, it was talking about something smaller than that.
This shouldn't be a big issue on most people, but there are people that want their lives to be different and more special. So for those people, don't make a big deal about a reading and try to look at it first at a smaller view than look towards the bigger view.
Here is a little something that is interesting about the cards. The tarot has the Major and Minor Arcana but there is something special about the Major Arcana. Have you ever wondered about it's order? Why it starts with the Fool and ends with the World? Well the cards tell a story.
If you lay out the cards, starting with 0 (Fool) and ending at the World in order you can read yourself a story. Sure it won't consist of names or the type of conflict, but you can still add those in to make more sense of it. Once you understand what each card means of the story then it will be easy to give out readings without looking into your little white book so much.
You can even go to a party, use only the Major Arcana, shuffle the deck, and pull each card out individually to tell a story. It is really fun and learn your cards better.
Fantastic thread, Nash! Thank you for all these helpful tips. I have been doing tarot for 6 years now and from this I have still learned something new.
I have been learning for about 6 years too and I have always kept notes of my mistakes and see what I can do to make it better. And there you have it I noticed something that some people should do. Don't walk away when your reading has failed, look at it and see what you can do to make it better. But thank you for reading.
Here is some common sense that may or may not need to be heard. This way people that do readings and people that get readings will understand what is acceptable and not.
*If you, the reader, is tired, sick, or over stressed. It might be best to not do the reading.
*It is all right to ask the person on insight on a certain card. Doing readings can be hard if you don't know the person or don't know body language.
*If you do not want to give a reading, you don't need to. Also don't force a reading on someone else. Those two kinds of readings never end well or misinformed.
*Be sure to shuffle the deck before using it. While doing this don't think of anything of your problems or else you will be giving yourself the reading in most cases.
*Try not to damage your deck. Keep it safe with black clothe (either bag or a folding clothe). Bending the cards, water damage, even spiritual damage can effect your readings.
*Always be on their level. This means you shouldn't use words that will leave them in confusion.
Last thing. Always do it the way you feel is the right way. When I first got into Tarot, my friends have all ready beaten me to it. I tried to do it their way but it never felt right. Than I tried something that would be cool and very interesting to watch. It never really worked because I didn't really understood what I was doing. So then I did something I best understood, energy working. After that I became better on the readings.
What I am trying to say is that do what you feel is right. Don't overdo it with something that looks cool or copy someone else.
It has been awhile but I though of something that maybe important information to other tarot readers.
While you are out doing readings either for money or for free, you are going to get some boring questions. I don't mean boring as in the topic, but boring to you because you know (or feel) that the answer isn't anything special. Here are a few examples...
"Will I be able to go home after this vacation?"
"Should I stay in college or work in a business?"
"Will I get married?"
All of those questions were asked by different people. They are boring, dull, and pointless to even take the time to do a reading on them. But even if we (or mainly me) think that, it is important to them. Now we all have a choice to say no but you can still get some experience in giving the reading.
Not only that but you may get a lot more boring questions in the future. You can try to ask them for a better question or explain to them how to best use the cards, but a lot of those people don't care about how to use the cards.
I am not saying you will get the majority of boring questions. I have gotten more interesting questions in my years than boring. Also try to remember, you will always do better in a interesting question than with a boring question.
P.s. if you are thinking about doing online readings or going to a place to do your market, you may get more boring than interesting.
