Some of you reading this book may be contemplating the possibility of becoming a professional Tarot Reader. This may be because you fancy the idea, or because you have been reading cards for your friends for a long time and are now being asked by strangers if you would read for them. You may decide to take up a career as a Reader because you are short of money and on the lookout for some additional form of income, or there may be any one of a number of other reasons. The first point I would like to make here is that it's perfectly all right to offer Tarot readings in exchange for money—you won't be punished by some kind of unseen force for doing so. However, for the sake of both your clients and yourself, you must know what you are doing, so therefore do make sure that you are as confident as possible in your reading skills and that you can cope with the people and the problems with which you will be faced. It might be helpful to take a course in counselling techniques, even if you don't actually use these during your readings, and it's always worth visiting a few other Readers to see how they go about things.
If you are only going to give a few readings here and there, you won't need to worry about the following advice, but if you are considering making Tarot reading into a career, you should listen.
First, you will need somewhere to give your readings. Your own home is the cheapest place and, if possible, you can set a room aside for the purpose and decorate it in any style that you deem appropriate. If you cannot spare a room, at least make sure that the area that you do use is tidy, warm, and pleasant to look at. I have found that people are usually so keen to have their readings that they will put up with almost anything. When my office-cum-consulting room has been inconvenient for some reason, my clients have happily had their readings in the kitchen, the garden, the bedroom, or the hallway. Noise and interruptions are a far greater problem than the actual location of the reading, so try to keep the area as quiet and peaceful as possible, with pets and children kept out of the way. You will also need somewhere for clients to wait, especially if two people come together. A couple of chairs in the hall may be suitable for this, but don't forget to provide a magazine for the client to look at while waiting.
You will need some basic business equipment. Whether you advertise your services or not, you will need a telephone and an answering machine. The answering machine is not only useful for those occasions when you are out, but can be switched on while you are with a client in order to prevent interruptions. If you become busy in your new career, you will find it a great relief to be able to switch the machine on when you don't want to be bothered by calls, because the public doesn't stop to think about the time of day before picking up the phone. A desk calendar is also a must, as are printed business cards and/or information sheets, which can be handed out by your clients to their friends.
If you don't want to work alone from home, you could get a booth at psychic fairs and festivals. In this case, you will need decorations for your stand and information about who you are, what you do, and how much you charge. One good thing about working at these festivals is that you meet other Readers and can exchange ideas and information.
If you become fully professional, you will have to use a sensible system of bookkeeping and keep receipts for all expenses. Don't forget that, as a small businessperson, you will be allowed certain expenditures against income tax. These allowances vary from one country to another, but there are professional people who can advise you on them. You will also need a separate bank account in order to keep your working income separate from your household income. It's a good idea to talk to other small business owners and see how they manage. (I remember that my own excellent bookkeeping and tax advice came from a lady who ran a beauty parlor for dogs!) Make sure that you inform the relevant authorities of what you are doing, and use an accountant or other qualified professional to audit your books once a year.
You may consider giving readings by phone or email, in which case you may need to buy a computer. One thing you will almost inevitably need is a tape recorder or a digital voice recorder. Most professional Readers make a recording for the client to take home with them. A good tape recorder will pick up your voice even from a slight distance and tapes can be bought fairly cheaply in bulk.
Unlike psychotherapy, medicine, chiropody, hairdressing, or any other personal service, Tarot Readers have to work with their chakras open—whether they realize this or not. This is like going out into cold weather without a coat on. There is not much you can do about it, but your preparation and blessing of the cards when you first obtained them will probably afford you all the protection you need. You can always ask your spirit guides for extra protection if need be, simply by sending out a mental request to them, even in the middle of a reading.
Most clients are perfectly well-meaning, but the odd one may leave you feeling uncomfortable after a reading. If this happens, close your chakras, strengthen your aura, and ask for cleansing and protection. A good shower and hair wash will get rid of any unpleasant vibes. You can always prepare your pack of cards again as if they were brand new. In the extremely unlikely event of your premises being invaded by something strange and unseen, which may have been dumped out by a client, ask your guides to clean and protect the place and then mentally fill it from the ground upwards with imaginary clean, clear water. If you are ever worried by any of this, you can also consult a good spiritual medium for advice. It's unlikely that you will ever have to go to any of these lengths, but at least you now know how to deal with these problems, should they arise.
There are other forms of danger for professional Readers that are only too obvious when you begin to think about them. First of all, if you are going to have strangers coming in and out of your home, you are in danger of being robbed, raped, hurt, or even murdered. I have never actually heard of any professional being hurt, raped, or murdered, but theft is all too common. I have lost a camera, ornaments, and other bits and pieces to light-fingered clients. One of your clients might be a burglar who cannot resist coming back while you are out and helping himself to your property; alternatively, a perfectly innocent client may gossip to someone else who is a burglar.
The only suggestion I can make is that you think about these unpleasant possibilities and protect yourself against them before you start. The chances of anything going wrong are very small, if for no other reason than the fact that spirit tends to protect its own. However, it's good to make sure that your home is secure when you are out and that the contents of your home are fully insured. Don't leave clients alone with your valuables and don't let them wander all over the house. Many clients have a sudden urge to use the bathroom when visiting a consultant, possibly due to nerves. Make sure that your bedroom doors are shut so that the client doesn't start looking around and so that you can hear if they open any door unnecessarily. If there is a public lavatory near you, it might be best to send them there. I know this sounds harsh, but you will have to work out whether you need to adopt these precautions or not based on where you work.
If you are a woman, I suggest that you see male clients only when other members of your family are around. Otherwise restrict yourself only to men that you know and trust or to women or couples. Fortunately the majority of clients are usually female. If anybody of either sex begins to talk to you in a way that makes you feel uneasy, then get rid of them fast and don't let them come to you again. To be honest, the chances of anything nasty happening are extremely remote, but, as with the problems of bad vibes and psychic attack, it is good to be aware of the dangers.
If the cards suggest that the present is all right but that there will be problems in the future, be very positive and suggest ways in which the Questioner can best handle things. Be reasonably honest, but don't leave your Questioner feeling hopeless. A health warning may save someone's life, but undue stress and worry can kill. Always take care and think about what you tell the client. If your Questioner is neurotic and negative by nature, it may be better to avoid the worst of the bad news, as this can prey on his or her mind and even turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you are unsure of what you are seeing in the cards, or of your ability to read them correctly, then err on the side of optimism. You need to strike a balance between your own credibility as a Reader and causing unnecessary suffering. Remember that you will inevitably influence your clients in the decisions they take, even if your role is only to clarify their own minds. Remember also to trust your gut feelings and your spiritual guides. The Questioner also bears a certain responsibility, in that he or she has elected to have a reading and therefore should be prepared to hear whatever is said, whether it's good or bad news. Unfortunately very few Questioners realize this. I also take the view that if I am shown that something unpleasant is about to befall my Questioner, it's essential for me to pass this on as a warning, but I would take great care while doing so.
I briefly mentioned the subject of prejudice in the Court card section and offer no apology for returning to it now. In the Court card section I demonstrated that the client's own point of view would be shown on the cards. If you remember, I used the scenario of a woman who wanted her lover to leave his wife and who considered the wife to be a hard-hearted bitch for hanging on to him. We also showed that the wife's reading of the situation could just as easily indicate the mistress as the bitch. While we must take the client's point of view into consideration, we have to leave our own outside the door and look at each client as no more than a human being who wants help and advice at that particular moment. If you become a professional Reader, you will find yourself dealing with people from every part of the world and every possible culture and walk of life. Some of these people will be on your own personal wavelength, many of them won't, but each client's money is as good as the next and each needs a sensible and unbiased reading.
If you are an amateur and you experience the strange phenomenon of giving a reading where you just can't get anything right, this may put you off doing any more. Don't let it! There are many reasons for failed readings. If you are a professional and you go through a bad patch, this can shake your confidence and even make you give up the job for good. One failure is not worth worrying about, but a series of them will require some action on your part.
In the case of a professional Reader having an isolated failure, the only thing to do is to send the client away without accepting any fee. Tell him that it's just one of those things that happen from time to time and that he should come back to you in a couple of months time, when whatever was blocking the reading should have gone. He should also see someone else for a reading in the meantime. You may have a friend or a colleague whom you can recommend.
Readings can go wrong for many reasons. The following list shows some possibilities:
1. You may be ill or otherwise having an off day, or you may have eaten or drunk too much. A very full stomach blocks the workings of some of the chakras, while too much alcohol can block everything. Oddly enough, one drink can be useful as a relaxant, but more than one will mess everything up!
2. Clients may have some kind of blockage around them, which neither you nor they can see or understand. Their spirit guides who don't think that they should have a reading at this particular time may cause this.
3. Clients' spirit guides may want them to have a reading, but not with you! This is very hard on your ego, but it's possible that a client's guides want him/her to be in contact with and to trust another consultant. I remember one occasion when I couldn't get anywhere with a client however much I tried and, having confidence in my skills, immediately realized that her guides must be blocking me for a reason. After this non-event reading, we chatted for a while and it turned out that the lady had seen another Reader some distance away and had been asked by her to join a psychic development circle. I myself was aware that this client was very psychic and that she should be doing something to develop her talents. It seemed as if spirit wanted her to have complete faith and trust in this other Reader, so that she would trust her as a teacher.
4. There are people for whom you will never be able to read, either because you are completely out of sync with that type of person, or because you dislike each other on sight. We have discussed personal prejudices earlier in the book, but, even with the best will in the world, you cannot always set these aside.
5. Another problem is that people who seek readings may be in a distressed state of mind, which may make them angry or hostile. They may take out their anger on you and while you may understand this and make allowances for it, you don't have to put up with it. One of the joys of being self-employed is that you don't have to take any flak from anyone, and you are perfectly entitled to show any unwelcome client the door.
6. Your client may be mentally ill. You are not a psychiatrist and you don't have to deal with this. Another possibility is that a client may be so uneducated that he or she cannot understand the reading even if it does work.
7. If you are weighed down by problems in your own life, you will find it hard to tune in to someone else's. You may even feel resentful of the demands that the Questioner makes on you. The only answer is to leave Tarot reading for a while and do something completely different. Take a vacation, if you can afford to, and come back to work when you are feeling better or happier. This happens to us all from time to time. We are not machines; psychic work takes a great deal of effort, and this may be your guides' way of making you switch off and take a break.
Be prepared to suggest that your client visit his or her doctor or dentist, insurance broker, or bank manager. You may wish to refer a client on to a counsellor or psychotherapist, a woman's group, drug center, or any other help agency or self-help group. It may be useful to keep a list of such groups handy, but if not, suggest that clients start by asking their own doctors, who usually know where to refer people for more help.
Keep your readings to a fairly rigid timescale of no more than an hour. One way of doing this is to book all your clients in on the same day, so that each one is aware of the arrival of the next one. This prevents clients taking advantage of your good nature and staying too long. It's also easier to open your chakras, do a day's work, and then close them again for good rather than open them for an hour or so here and there.
If clients try to phone back and discuss their readings in great detail after the event, tell them that you cannot remember the details. The chances are that this will be the plain unvarnished truth, because as you close your chakras and get on with your own life once more, a good deal of the content of the day's readings will be erased from your mind. Many clients will ask you questions when they inquire about readings. Most of these questions are quite reasonable, such as how much you charge and how long a reading is likely to take. Some people, also quite reasonably, will ask how far into the future you can see. However, there are some people who will begin to discuss their problems and try to push you into giving what amounts to a free reading there and then. Remember, if you are in business, you will need to be businesslike. This is your job and nobody should feel that they are entitled to freebies. If you decide voluntarily to give a free reading to a friend, then by all means do so, but you must protect yourself from those who drain you.
The answer to this is simple. Find out what other Readers in your neighborhood charge and charge the same. You may wish to charge a bit less than the average while you are building up your clientele, but once you have got going, you can raise your prices. I have always used my own patent “hairdresser” scale, which means that I charge roughly the amount a woman (most clients are women) is prepared to spend at a good hair salon.