Today’s task is the basics in learning how to read for others. I think that if a brand-new reader were to look this advice over, they’d be disappointed because a lot of it is having the querent get you to tell you things about themselves…and that certainly takes a lot of the mystery out of the cards and out of a tarot reading. It’s like how everyone judges a psychic: “oh, they get you talking and then they piggy back on what you told them.”
I totally get that stance, and yet, I think it discounts some major value. Very few people in this world are psychic enough to be able to tell someone their entire past, present, and future course with just one glimpse or one word. The tarot, especially, isn’t a system that relies on innate psychic abilities. Rather, it gives you a set of symbols you can apply to what you know of a situation so that you can logically see potential outcomes. To do that, you need to know as much as you can about the situation at hand.
Another major important thing about getting a querent to talk is that they are not you. Without some dialogue between you to calibrate your abilities to their situation, you’ll impose more of what you think the situation is rather than what they know it to be.
Your role in this intuitive reading method is to draw the wisdom out of the inquirer through questioning thoroughly the interpretations that spontaneously occur to her. Here is how it works. After spreading the cards face down, have the questioner think of her situation and draw a single card. Whatever card is drawn, guide the questioner in making verbal associations to the image as it relates to the situation she brings to the reading.
Start by asking the questioner about imagery from the card that appears to stand out for her. Ask about colors that seem to strike her as important or relevant. Ask about features of the imagery that seem particularly interesting. Whatever stands out, have the questioner make free associations with the imagery to her own past, to dreams, to family, friends, memories, and experiences.
Listen to the themes that come up for the questioner and help her to relate her associations to the presenting situation. Your final task in this method is to draw together the dominant (or repeated) imagery and associations that the questioner has offered.
Of all the Tarot techniques, this one sharpens your skills as a guide. It also helps you to see deeper levels of meaning in the cards. Experiment with this method today and continue to attempt this method as a discipline for sharpening your own abilities in drawing pieces together into a cohesive whole.
Funnily enough, today is one of the rare days where none of my housemates are around, and I don’t really feel like bugging any of my local friends to help me with this exercise. However, this is not new information to me, and I do practice variations of it in my readings for others, so I feel I can safely bypass it now.
Three Hundred and Sixty-Six 