Have you ever disagreed with a tarot reading done for you by someone else?

[littleredcourgette]

I am really talking about disagreeing with someone else's interpretation of the cards that they pulled for you.

 

Say you have a different relationship with a card which would lead you to a different outlook, would you accept the other person's view as gospel because that is the situation you put yourself in? Or would you appreciate their perspective but ultimately go with your own reading?

[gregory]

If I had asked for a reading, I would go by their interpretation. We each draw the cards which the mystery of tarot (whatever it is that does this stuff !) tells us we need to draw. The other person's view of those cards will not be the same as yours. But if you had pulled cards for the same question, to get the same response that the tarot needs you to hear, you'd have pulled different cards because you are a different reader.

 

MANY moons ago on AT, we did an experiment - each of us pulled cards for the same person with the same question, to be read using our preferred method (I pulled three cards; someone did a celtic cross - all sorts). We all pulled quite different cards which we read in our own way. The messages we all got were startlingly similar.

 

If you are going to question the person reading for you - do the reading yourself. If you don't agree with the message delivered - look at what YOU are missing, not what YOU think the cards said.

 

Not that I accept any reading as "gospel". Here we run into "what is accuracy" ;) But I would take on board the message as delivered, not try to mould it to fit what I wanted - which is almost what you are saying.

[EmpyreanKnight]

I have, but this happens very rarely. I tend to respect a reader's interpretation of her own cards, except if it is truly, unbelievably what-the-heck-ish.

[littleredcourgette]

Thanks for the responses.

 

This isn't based on a specific personal situation, it's just that in some cases when I have seen readings being done I note that I would have read differently. I also find that the phrasing of a question (negative or positive) can seem to influence the way a person reads the cards. I wasn't talking about wanting a different reading - it's not about desired outcomes -  just what do you do if someone reads for you and your feeling is either "this is not how I would have read those cards" or "uh, that's not what's happening". Then there is a disconnect. If Tarot wants to tell the querent "bad idea" when he reads for himself about a plan of action but tell him "go for it" when someone else reads for him then what do you trust? Please don't say not to ask the same question twice as I am talking about taking a cold, clinical approach.

 

I like that you respect the reading you have received from another person, however.

[gregory]

Yes - you would have read the cards other person drew differently. But the point is that if you had been DOING the reading, you would also have also drawn different cards  which that other sitter would have read differently from what you saw in them. Something in tarot gives each of us the cards that will deliver the message we need to hear/deliver through the way WE read.

 

I pulled 10 Swords for a happy marriage once. Bet you wouldn't have read it that way. :D But in the context of the reading I did, reading the way that I do, it made sense - and with the other cards, also made sense to my sitter.

[Trogon]

I have only had Tarot readings from some folks here. In the readings I've received here, I have been open to what the reader has given me. As others have said, we all read the cards differently to one extent or another, so I try to let the other reader do their reading. If I'm having someone else do a reading for me, I would expect it to be different from a reading I would do for myself. This would be especially true if I were going to a professional. I'd have to respect their abilities and hence, their interpretation of the cards ... otherwise, I'd be doing a self-reading. ;)

 

Now, if I had someone doing a reading and it just didn't seem to hit any marks at all AND their interpretations seemed to be way off for the cards pulled, I might question it. If it's someone who is really new to Tarot and they were doing the reading for feedback (such as in the exchanges here), I would let them know where they were off the mark and suggest some alternate interpretations which occurred to me. But I would not offer suggestions to that aforementioned professional, though I would provide the feedback about nothing seeming to fit.

 

On the other hand, I have done readings for people where things have not seemed to fit, only to have the querent come back later and say that things changed and the reading now did fit. So, even with a pro, I would discuss it, respectfully, with them and watch for things to change.

[EmpyreanKnight]

If the reader is someone who's personally vouched for by someone whose judgement I fully trust or if I've proven just how accurate her readings were in the past, then I'd take note of any discordant interpretations in her reading but I'd be inclined to believe it nonetheless. I'm open to interpretative differences, so I won't sweat it.

 

But if she's a newbie or she hadn't read for me before then I might take it with a grain of salt, altho again I shall respect her reading and heed her words. If the other parts of the reading are also out of whack, like her handle on past and even present events and situations are just objectively, factually wrong, then I think I may be forgiven if I don't set great store by that reading. I would say where she got the facts wrong as politely as possible, and as Trogon suggested, I shan't offer alternative interps to her face because that betrays a plain lack of manners. But I don't think I shall be visiting anytime soon, and if her predictions turn out to be duds - well as they say: fool me twice, shame on me.

[Saturn Celeste]

 

 

MANY moons ago on AT, we did an experiment - each of us pulled cards for the same person with the same question, to be read using our preferred method (I pulled three cards; someone did a celtic cross - all sorts). We all pulled quite different cards which we read in our own way. The messages we all got were startlingly similar.

 

If you are going to question the person reading for you - do the reading yourself. If you don't agree with the message delivered - look at what YOU are missing, not what YOU think the cards said.

 

Not that I accept any reading as "gospel". Here we run into "what is accuracy" ;) But I would take on board the message as delivered, not try to mould it to fit what I wanted - which is almost what you are saying.

 

Wow, I would love to see that experiment run here.  I would love to participate in it.  I also agree with you about how you would regard a reading you don’t agree with.  Personally I don’t read myself, I don’t have others read me and I don’t watch YouTube readings for myself with one exception:

Nicholas Ashbaugh

https://m.youtube.com/user/NicholasTarot

I have watched a few of his Aquarius readings and I really trust him but I don’t watch very often.  I DO watch YouTube readers all the time for other signs, just not myself.

[DanielJUK]

I wouldn't take as gospel but this can be two issues. When we are learning or experienced at tarot we can look at other readings and put our own take and learning / method on it, I think you have to be so careful about doing this. When we ask for a reading from someone else or exchange or pay for a reading, we are allowing the take of a different person and so we shouldn't intervene, like gregory said. It's very easy to say "oh I would read The Sun like this" but we should at least try to follow their take on it. It's someone else's opinion and take and we have to respect that.

 

However the other issue is that some people who might be inexperienced might get cards wrong, I used to do a lot of newbie readings in AT and people really gave great readings from inexperienced people but sometimes they hadn't grasped cards and I would ask them to show how they worked out that card. Their inexperience had led to misunderstanding the cards (normally just a few of them in the reading).

 

In my early days at AT I got a reading in exchange from someone I greatly admired on the forum who was a lot more experienced than me. They gave me the most terrible reading and it was mean, like it had digs at me! I was very upset about it at the time and I went back to find (and save) the reading when AT was closing and I found it laughable as someone a bit more experienced and confident. The whole reading was never true or accurate and I don't know what happened with the reading but it just seemed to be to attack me. So I would disagree with that reading, however at the time I took it to be really the truth and just a harsh reading.

 

I think the important thing is, does the reading fit you? is it accurate? If it doesn't fit at all then I think you can disagree with the interpretations or even ask how they came to that meaning but mostly I try to let people give me their reading style and method! I have learnt so much from seeing other people's readings and their method  :) I very rarely disagree with a reading done for me but in a minority of times I have.

 

[Starlight]

I am really talking about disagreeing with someone else's interpretation of the cards that they pulled for you.

 

Say you have a different relationship with a card which would lead you to a different outlook, would you accept the other person's view as gospel because that is the situation you put yourself in? Or would you appreciate their perspective but ultimately go with your own reading?

 

I agree with the other posters. The cards that come up are the best ones for the reader to understand and deliver the message as accurately as possible. Everyone has a different relationship to the cards.

 

That said, how experienced the reader is and how accurate they've been in the past is a factor.

 

If Tarot wants to tell the querent "bad idea" when he reads for himself about a plan of action but tell him "go for it" when someone else reads for him then what do you trust?

 

Oooh, that's a tricky one! It could be as simple as the timings of both readings. When you read for yourself, the timing was not good to go ahead with a course of action; perhaps when the reader reads for you, the timing is more favourable. Maybe certain things had to happen first or certain people had to be in a position where they could be of assistance to you. Or maybe there was something you had to deal with first (emotionally or a task/duty/responsibility) before moving on with the plan.

 

Perhaps it was even as simple as coming to terms with your own reading of "bad idea" to work out how you felt emotionally about the plan in the first place. (e.g. How did it feel to get "bad idea"? Did you still want to continue with the plan, anyway? That says something about your motivation and determination and commitment.)

[Lantana]

I’ve had a few friends—who read for others far more often than I—joke that fellow readers can be the worst to read for due to the tendency for “backseat tarot reading”. These comments were facetious of course, but there’s truth in jokes, no?

 

So I’m in agreement with the others, that people’s interpretations should be respected and considered because divination and intuition can be such a personal and differing thing. Some of the best readings I’ve gotten were from trusting people who’s interpretations of cards seemed pretty out there.

 

Of course, the situation of when a reading just doesn’t land is a bit different. Sometimes readings I’ve gotten that felt wrong came true in the end, or never came true, or (yes) even did come true in a way different than how the reader interpreted it. But we usually won’t know how it’ll go until later, anyway.

 

I believe that, even if a reading totally misses the mark, that offering how YOU interpret the cards isn’t going to help. It would be better to step away from interpretations and just stick to the facts: “That isn’t what’s happening to me right now, THIS is what’s happening.” Presenting this information helps the reader make new associations with the cards (“oh, five of cups doesn’t just mean THIS, it can also represent THAT.”) while presenting your own version of the reading unsolicited probably won’t help anyone learn or develop their own intuition. Situations vary of course, but this is how I would react in most situations.