1: Insufficient Study

If you wish to be a Tarot Reader, you need to understand the Tarot. While you may work with them intuitively or clairvoyantly, the title "Tarot Reader" implies to your client that you understand the Tarot. 

If while you’re reading for someone else, you still refer to a book or other resources during the session, a lot of clients may not wish to pay or come back. Take the time to learn Tarot, as it pays off professionally in the long run.

If you’re still in need of books, there is no shame in that, but do inform your client of this before they book in, or pay, so they can decide what they want to do beforehand.

More: Understanding Tarot

 

2: Not Open About Their Current Level of Development / Understanding of the Tarot

This links to the first problem above; new readers can feel a need to pretend to be all-knowing about the cards, yet if you’re new, then you’re still learning. 

Yet if you’re struggling with the basics, have only been doing it a few months or even a few years, and struggle due to stage fright, confidence, or forgetting what things mean, then be honest with yourself as well as your clients. Tell them you’re still quite new, or still working it out, or that you sometimes feel stuck as you’re trying to work out how to fully connect to your cards and a client at the same time. Just be honest. You will feel better as they can adjust their expectations and not make you feel worse with impatience. As a result, you can often find that you get a better connection to it all as a result of not having to try so hard.

 

3: Not Relaxing with their Tarot Wisdom

This, too, links to the above two issues. Maybe you have studied very hard and grasped the cards really well, but when it comes to doing a reading, you freeze up. When we sit down to read, we realise that it is all one big jigsaw puzzle. You have the cards and their individual meanings, then how they relate to the positions in the spread, and then in relation to each other, and of course to the client’s question. We can be too rigid and stop the flow if we panic.

Tarot, once all that wonderful learning of the cards has been lodged into the mind, is a very intuitive process – regardless of whether you’re working spiritually or not. Learn how to let it all go, as that way what you need to know from each card will come forward and mix with what you feel more readily and smoothly than if you feel like a rabbit caught in a car’s headlights.

 

4: Misrepresenting What They Are Offering

There can be a big area of confusion over what we, as individual Psychics and/or Tarot readers, do. If this confusion starts with the Reader themselves, then it can cause issues with expectations from both the reader and the client.

It is worth looking at what you are providing in terms of your own Psychic abilities or approach to the Tarot. If the reader does not know the difference between a Clairvoyant and a Medium it can cause clients to come to them, who are then disappointed. I often see new readers who say that they are a Medium (connecting to loved ones in Spirit) yet are Intuitive and do not understand the difference in names, which is one example. The same as if you have no interest in the Psychic or Spirit side of things and you’re a Tarot Reader – be upfront about what you provide. If that means you have to find out more about who you are from a psychic perspective, then take that time to learn.

While your current level of development may change, if you dedicate yourself to development, be open about where you are right now with others rather than titling yourself for what you want to become.

If you pick up on energy in its many forms as a Clairvoyant, be honest about whether you’re a developing Clairvoyant or a developed one. The reasons for this are to avoid those horrid, weighty expectations which can hold you back within yourself, as you’re then hoping your abilities will not leave you during the reading, and it gives clients a view of what to expect. Even the most experienced can have it leave for a while, which is where the Tarot comes into its full power, held within your own practically studied interpretations of them. Whether new or experienced, there is a firm need for honesty within a session, as if it cannot be seen or gained from psychic means, then it simply needs to be stated rather than panicked about. Although a lot of clients will view us all in the same light, with all the same abilities, you may, at times, have to educate your clients.

To the outside world, being a Tarot Reader implies Psychic abilities, yet they are not necessary to read Tarot, as Tarot is a system. A tool that can take you down that path if you choose it.

READ MORE Clairvoyancy: The Clairs / Psychic Titles

 

5: Not Rewording the Clients Question and Discussing It with Them / Badly Wording Questions –

Badly worded questions are a common issue with new Tarot Readers as well as new students.

Avoid double questions, such as ‘what does **** think of me and what does he want for our future’. Just ask one question.

Avoid questions with the word ‘ever’ in them, such as "will I ever be happy?" Give time frames to your questions, such as, "Will I find happiness in this coming year?" "Ever" is an eternity. Do not think of the Tarot as a tool to look at the next 70 years of your life, but at your here and now. Timewise, keep it local. With such questions, you may also need to define what you believe happiness to be, so be specific with your questions.

If the wording of a question is confusing, vague, or you’re just randomly throwing anything out there, then expect a confusing answer. Take a look at the wording of your question and take responsibility for those things you ask about. If your question is open to interpretation, so will your reply be in a lot of cases. The answer to your question stems from within your own mind, so direct it well, so that it can be easily reflected back to you within your chosen Tarot spread.

A client in an emotional state may give you a mess and muddle of a situation, so it is up to you to think about the question that needs to be asked. The client is in need of clarity, so for that, clear questions need to be posed. You may need to talk to them about words such as "ever" as mentioned above, and to think about time frames, to think about specifics, and to be honest with themselves about what they really want to know about. Take control of what is asked, as someone in an emotional state may not always be able to put it all together for themselves. Don’t be afraid to discuss with them the sometimes a subtle rewording of their question or the complete rewriting of it.

 

6: Not Setting Question Boundaries

There are some issues that can be emotional minefields and which, if you’re new, you may wish to avoid. What they are will be known to you. These may come from the bitter experience of trying to work with an issue like this or that, or because you just don’t want to work with them. State these from the start with people.

The issue of question boundaries also arises in the form of a client asking the same question from different perspectives or with different wording. Take control of this and inform them that the question has already been asked. If it is a vastly different perspective that they pose, then use your judgement. Clients will do this as they are upset, not wishing to hear the truth, or scared, often all three. This can often occur within an email reading setting as well. They will message back with questions on the same theme, and again for the same reasons. This can often leave you repeating yourself, yet if a reading is recorded or typed, you can then refer them back to the original words given. If you get caught up in trying to reword or rework their questions, then you’re feeding into their insecurities while they try to find an answer they can accept, as they are not ready or able to hear what has been given.

7: Not setting time boundaries

At some stage, you will have a person who thinks that a 30-minute appointment is for 2 hours, or who has an Email Reading and is still messaging you daily after two weeks with different questions, or the same ones but from different perspectives.

At times, the client is so happy to be able to talk about a problem that they just cannot stop. Yet, we need to think of our own lives, our own energy and time, and how to be firm with these things.

Clients can see us as a friend, yet we are not – we are Psychics and/or Tarot Readers. Once we step into the ‘friend’ category over that of therapist and guide, the dynamics change. Blame can often become a part of that scenario from the client, so this is something to try to be firm with as well as diplomatic with.

Some readers have time buffers to allow for some extra time with clients, so they will give 40 minutes for a 30-minute reading but not make it known to the client, as it then gives the reading wiggle room. Even a professional counsellor ends a session at its end time, it is done that way for a reason – it informs the client that this is a professional service you’re offering, and they now need to go and work on what is at hand.

 

8: Not Being Confidential and Judging

These are cardinal sins. If a reading is free, or paid, what is spoken about during that time, be it with a friend sitting on your sofa, or within your professional space – it is private.

A lack of confidentiality is often done out of judgement, as a way of telling others about this and that from someone else’s life to gain an ego stroke or to simply get some juicy information talked about.

As a Tarot Reader, or any kind of psychic you will read for people with a whole array of personal issues, some of them will be sad and life-changing, others mundane, and some quite titillating. Some will press your buttons if you have prejudiced, negative, or false beliefs as they will be triggered. If this happens, and you see the clients' issues as something to talk about, please stop reading for people. If you have these triggers, see them as a reg flag for yourself about YOU and work on it. The client does not need your judgment, they need the support which the Tarot, or your Guides and energy which you see or feel can give them, our egos are not welcomed in such situations.

 

9: Thinking Clients Are Coming to See Them

This in a way links to the above issue. When people come to see us, we can, at the start, be filled with ego as "They are coming to see Me."

Sadly, this is not the case. If you work with Spirit or are Clairvoyant and work with energy, they will be coming because of your time and dedication to that skill set, your reputation, and the same with Tarot. They will be visiting you due to what you can do. Who you are as a person is not relevant at all. When we realise this, it can be quite humbling. We are just the postmen who deliver the information with all our communication, compassion, and delivery skills. Clients may ask how you are and this and that, but they are there for them and their needs, wishing to access all those skills you have honed for their own problems.

 

10: Concern About Charging Money

There comes a time in all new readers' lives when they reach this fork in the road – to charge money or not to.

Some feel a great deal of confusion as to how much to charge, or even if they should. Is it right to change for what can be perceived as spiritual work by some? Of course, it’s OK.

Just do some research on what others of your level of experience charge and go from there. You can also, in this digital age, ask for feedback as payment at the start. Just go for what you feel comfortable with. As you grow and develop, you will start to get a better idea of your own worth as you find your feet more. I started with a gift for a gift. People would bring me cat food!

More: Why Psychics SHOULD charge

 

Those new to performing readings, Tarot or otherwise, can get put off by some of the hurdles above. I have seen many wonderful readers abandon their development and work due to not having enough skills in the art of communication and confidence to take control of their readings, as well as those who have been taken off the path with fears, superstitions and other people's attitudes and feedback.

Stay grounded, keep your common-sense hat on and reach for the reins. 

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