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	The Tarot Not Always in Good Hands Reflections from a Reader's Table by Ruby Tuesday
Astrology, Tarot, and Self Improvement for the New Age.

The Tarot
Not Always in Good Hands
Reflections from a Reader's Table
by Ruby Tuesday

Recommended Book from Amazon

Mary K. Greer's 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card
By
Mary K. Greer There are probably as many ways to read Tarot cards as there are readers. And the lack of standards -- and consistency -- bothers me. In fact, the fact that this bothers me ... bothers me. I can't think of many other things in my life about which I feel such ambivalence -- and affection, all wrapped in a single issue. There are as many ways to paint a picture or write a song as there are artists and composers. I've dabbled in both those fields, and yet I'm fine with that fact. I relish the creative variety. I wouldn't change the degree of freedom in those fields for anything. That's the essence of its magic.

But something about reading the Tarot is different. Maybe it's because credulous people rely on it sometimes for very important decisions and information ... and the potential for harm if a reader "gets it wrong" for whatever reason ... seems so high -- to me. I'm not sure I would trust my serious health decisions to someone with no credentials to practice medicine, no body of work on display to show his competence, whose only virtues were his willingness to take my appointment -- and the recommendation of a friend of a friend of a friend to put me at his door in the first place.

But from what I see in my work and experience, that's how it goes with Tarot readers all the time. Sometimes, there's not even the safety net of a recommendation guiding the choice. It's chance -- and desperation -- and maybe a silent prayer thrown in for good measure -- pure and simple.

I've heard perfectly bizarre readings -- suggestions, information, statements, declarations -- come from the mouths of people I'd have to call "my fellow participants" at various psychic fairs where I did work -- years ago. I don't do them any more -- and some night when there's nothing more pressing on my mind to write about, I'll sit here and describe the reasons why.

I've had to sit with my lips sealed and my hands almost literally tied behind my back while I watched and listened surreptitiously to readings unfold at the table beside me that I believe down to my bones were going terribly awry. No real way to know of course. Except for my knowledge of what the cards in the layout meant versus what was said in the reading interpretation. This ... and my intuition. This ... and what I'd have said if the reading had been mine to render. But it wasn't.

(And someday I'll do an entry on the very convoluted reasons why that's all right with me, but the "lack of standards" isn't. I make no claim this line of reasoning will be easy to follow. I get exasperated with me myself.)

It's the fact that the cards on the table said one thing to my mind ... and the words dancing lightly on the air said something else that bothers me. Was the reader incompetent? Was the reader lying? Was the reader ignorant? Was the reader a fraud? Was he reading "from his intuition" ... and would that intuition so blatantly contradict what the message of the cards put out for me to see?

Deep in my heart I believe it's scenes like this that give Tarot readers who do take their craft seriously and try to render a legitimate and reliable result from the work they do a very hard (and understandably so) uphill climb to gain acceptance with a public suspicious and hostile to the very idea it could be legit.

It's due to the "roadwork" laid down ahead of us by scenes and events like this. It's hard to undo that kind of history and recoup the Tarot's lost reputation. Again, understandably so. Maybe it should be. No one deserves to be duped and misled like that under the guise of "guidance." Yes, I know it happens. That doesn't mean I'm easy with it and that certainly doesn't make it right.

One particular instances sticks in my mind more than a decade after the event, because the questions being posed in the reading were serious -- and it was clear the querent was apt to make choices based on what was being said. I'll write about it someday -- maybe as a cathartic exercise to try and purge myself of the toxic residue that still remains. Clearly something about it sticks in my craw.

That the tool itself was mishandled doesn't detract one bit from its wonder and value. I know what it can do. I take the Tarot's advice seriously myself. I wish I believed that finding a competent, knowledgeable reader by chance was more likely than not. But the fact is, I don't. And I hate the fact that this adds plenty of legitimate fuel to the critics' scorn, because mostly they don't condemn the "average reader's" less than stellar skills, they condemn the Tarot itself. And that's not fair a bit.

So it galls me to have to agree with their conclusion, even as I disagree with the reasons why they are right. I can't think of another place in life where I feel so strongly -- and so torn. I know not all cooks turn out masterful meals. I know not all doctors are noble healers. Heck, I even know not all house-painters turn in a bang-up job at what they do. But people don't blame the makers of cookware or medical science or paint manufacturers for their bad experience -- when it happens.

The Tarot deserves the same benefit of the doubt. And I hope someday my intuition assures me there's a fair chance that on a level playing field it can count on exactly that.

(c) 2009 Ruby Tuesday and Enchanted Spirit, Inc., All rights reserved.

Go to: Tarot, Beginning Tarot Class, Tarot Articles, Tarot Lectures, The Tarot Blog, New Age Blogs, Ruby Tuesday's Tarot Blog, Being a Tarot Reader

Ruby Tuesday is a staff writer for Enchanted Spirit.
Her specialty is discovering and teaching creative uses of Tarot.

Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.
~ B. F. Skinner ~
Born March 20, 1904

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Last updated April 29th, 2009

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Real Astrology ...
for people who take
their lives seriously.

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Premium Membership
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