Tarot & Natural Empathy

[TheLoracular]

Elsewhere, I mentioned that I am a natural empath.  I'd commented that I don't do readings for or about people I have ill-will towards and that because I'm also a practicing magician, I don't want to take on the burden of my negative energy towards them causing them actual suffering (aka black magic): too many things have happened over my life that I can't explain or pin on coincidence for me not to take what I push out into the universe really seriously.

I want to talk about this more but completely outside the context of politics or regarding any specific person. ((sorry for before!!))  I want to talk about the benefits and side effects of being a natural empath as a tarot reader.  This is so easily misunderstood by non-empaths.  Too many people talk about empathy when they are talking about sympathy. 

Natural empaths like me are people who, when someone is talking or touching them, feel that person's own emotions so strongly we have hard time separating them from our own.  If someone suddenly starts screaming at me in anger, for example, my reaction of "hey! stop that!" gets short-circuited because their rage spills into me top from bottom and I might see flashes of color, I might get really hot, I will feel this outpouring of emotions that make it hard to breath... but in my guts?  I'm feeling ice cold and scared because This. Isn't. Me.   When I'm ragey?  It burns from the inside out.  When I'm absorbing someone else's rage, it burns from the outside in.    No, I can't watch Karen videos.  At. All.  Ever.   I don't like people who mistreat people.  I really HATE people who make me experience their HATE as if I was like them.  

When someone is standing in front of a podium or webcam and talking, I can tell you if they really believe what they are saying because I feel like ~I~ am the one who's doing the talking.  And I know if the words are sincere or not.   That's entertaining most of the time.  

Watching a scene where some angry person is hitting someone and knocking them to the ground?  Never okay.  I feel both person's emotions at the same time flooding into me and I might throw up or faint.  Or I would, that is, if I don't take medication for anxiety that mutes the anxiety and eat a really good diet and do a lot of other wellness stuff that makes me a lot more emotionally resilient and able to cope with people being people.  Also?  I don't go places where there are fights and I don't watch a lot of news footage.  Actual news footage is harder than movies and I've heard other empaths say the same.  I ~think~ its because actors are acting and so I feel that underneath their performances and its all good. 

So... being a tarot reader with this degree of perception into how other people feel?  It is AMAZING when they are just a little nervous, or really happy, or suffering from mild depression and anxiety and having trouble with expressing how they feel.  I use the cards to lead me into the discussion and from there, it just becomes something really good for both of us most of the time.  The more they relax and become expressive and sincere, even talking about past pain and sorrow, there's a lot of healing for them in what they talk about.  Its why I love helping people.  So worth it. 

Empathy, true empathy, has been a very challenging life experience.   

Has it been like that for anyone else here?  Or for someone they personally know?

[Kayynicole]

Meeee...... I'm an empath and it's always been challenging. Getting better at protecting my energy and myself with how draining it is. I agree with you all the way as far as not reading for those I feel negatively towards. I've been able to cast very easily very naturally my entire life, being an empath has helped that I believe, so I have to be mindful like you. ✨

[Eric13]

Yes, you're not alone. True empathy can be a challenge in normal everyday life, especially when a person doesn't understand the gift lets say. Let alone other will not ever understand. It can be a lonely existence to one who doesn't learn this about themselves. But I have found the infinite study of Zen to be an incredible assistance to this, as well as maintaining a closeness to nature.Also, it doesn't hurt any to keep your circle small. 

[DanielJUK]

I've never forget a member on AT, the old tarot forum before this one, who joined as a beginner and did a lot of exchanges and interactions with others in the forum. About a year later she posted that getting better at tarot had opened a pandora's box and she didn't want to deal with the empathetic side anymore and wanted it gone. She didn't post anymore after that. The regrets upset me at the time.

 

Picking up and getting interested in tarot has really revealed my empath side, it was repressed for years and years before. I can't put it back in a box and bury it, it's a core part of me. Modern society doesn't really regard compassion and empathy and empaths and that is sad. It's a really positive attribute to have or a skill to improve in yourself. Yes I pick up energies with a lot of people around me, yet people exhaust me and I have to ground myself all the time. Empathy is the most important part of my readings, to understand the other person and help them with my reading. There are challenges but it is a core part of myself 🙂 . It really adds to my readings and is an asset in divination.