Are You Ready to Read Tarot for Others?

So you’ve been learning tarot for a while, and you’re getting some good results when you read for yourself. Now you have a queue of friends and family asking for readings, but you’re nervous about reading for others. How can you tell when you’re ready to take that step and read the cards for someone other than yourself?

Check Your Motives

With tarot, as with any other kind of spiritual work, it’s important to leave your ego at the door. Ask yourself why you want to read for others. Is it because you want praise, or worse, money? Is it because you feel under pressure to do so, although you’d really rather not? Or do you genuinely want to help other people find insight through tarot in the same way you have done? Your motives matter, and will affect the energy you bring to a tarot reading for someone else. If you’d really rather not read for others, you don’t have to; there’s nothing wrong with keeping tarot reading as a personal spiritual tool, so don’t feel that you have to take this step now, or at all. On the other hand, if you’re raring to go, that could be a sign that you’re in this for the wrong reasons. The ideal time to start reading for others is when you feel a mixture of excitement and nervousness about doing so.

Check Your Ability

It’s not enough to just recognise each tarot card and have a vague idea of its meaning. Certainly don’t consider reading for others if you’re still using a guidebook to help with your own readings. In order to read for others with any degree of confidence, you need to have begun to develop an intuitive relationship with the cards. You must be able to see meanings beyond the most superficial, basic level, and have begun to make instinctive connections between groups of cards in your own readings. It’s simply not fair on your “client” if you’re not yet at this stage. Keep practicing on yourself until you get there.

Are You Ready for the Responsibility?

Tarot reading, along with any other kind of divination, mediumship or psychic reading, carries a huge weight of responsibility. The person you are reading for is likely to take your words seriously, even if they know you’re still relatively new to tarot. Before you read for someone else, make sure that you’re able to deliver positive messages, and that you know how you will handle sensitive questions, or difficult cards. As a responsible tarot reader, you need to be able to leave your client feeling empowered, not frightened or worried.

Build Your Confidence

Although it’s normal, natural and actually a good thing to feel nervous when you first start to read tarot for others, you must be able to mask your nerves. A good tarot reader inspires confidence in others – if you give the impression that you’re not sure what you’re doing, you’re going to leave your client feeling unsure themselves. All this is easier said than done, of course, but done it can be.

Choose Your First “Clients” Wisely

Close friends and family members, surprisingly enough, are not your best guinea pig clients. People who are too close to you will feel obligated to give you good feedback even if they didn’t have a clue what you were on about. Besides, if you already know all their issues, your reading will comprise more of what you already know and less that you’re getting from the cards themselves. The very best first clients are people who already have some understanding of tarot, but who you don’t know particularly well. If you can join a local tarot group or psychic club, its members would be perfect. If your guinea pig already has some tarot knowledge, they will be able to give you constructive feedback on the spread and how it applies to them, which will help you enormously.

Just Do It!

If you do feel ready – confident enough but not over-confident, ready to take responsibility, and in it for the right reasons, then you have nothing to lose by starting to read for others. If you don’t have any suitable clients, ask your local hairdresser or beauty salon if they would like you to give free readings to their waiting clients. This usually works well – the salon will be delighted, the clients will be receptive, and it will hopefully be a good environment to take your first steps. Don’t panic if you get things wrong in your first few readings. Like everything else in life, the people doing the most make the most mistakes. If you’re not making any mistakes, you’re not reading often enough!