Forbidden Readings

[EmpyreanKnight]

Have you performed "forbidden" readings before? For example, very specific questions about death, like if someone is going to die within the coming year or maybe the nature of your own death, and if you're good enough, when it's going to occur.

 

Or maybe you're studying how to summon demons or Enochian angels through cards, or how to make pacts with them. Or you've performed some good bit of necromancy - I've heard that you can communicate with spirits through the cards and from thence divine the future, altho I'm not familiar with the specifics.

 

I'm just curious about anyone's experiences regarding these.

[EmpyreanKnight]

Nobody here has performed readings which they knew or felt were verboten?

[Raggydoll]

This subject is a bit taboo and I can imagine that it also makes some people uncomfortable. That is probably the reason that people are not quite sure how to respond. But I will try my best  :)

 

Some of the things you mentioned, like asking specific questions about death, also requires that you believe that these things are predetermined and that tarot cards knows the answer. A lot of us believe that destiny changes constantly due to different circumstances, like our and other people's actions.

 

I have never asked questions about death, due to fear and not actually wanting to find out. I have, however, had premonitions and forewarnings (not connected to tarot cards) regarding other people's health and sometimes even death. This is not something that I am happy about, I would much rather have not known since there really wasn't anything I could do to intervene.

 

I have never tried to summon spirits with cards, but I did try to summon some spirits (of people that we knew) with my friends when we were teenagers. That proved to be a very scary experience and we stopped doing it.

 

I know that some mediums talk about the difference between low level spirits and those spirits that has moved on, and that you should be very careful when it comes to the former. You really can't trust anything they say, so it probably would not be helpful asking them questions. Also, if you get answers about death -how would you know who (or what) is providing you the answers? And what type of agenda this entity has. To me, this just sounds like a bad idea all together. But I definitely respect your wanting to know more. Hopefully someone else will provide a more informative answer for you.

[Starlight]

I've never done a forbidden reading as you've defined it in the original post. However, I once had the most confused reading come up for someone else. I couldn't make head nor tails of it. A young woman was asking about her father. There was nothing but confusion in the cards and no reference that I could see about him.

 

I was terribly apologetic but she said she had an idea it would happen. Her mum refused to tell her anything about her dad and, being a card reader herself, her mother said that any reading the girl attempted looking for info on her dad would lead nowhere.

 

A bit eerie, I have to admit.

 

So it was a 'forbidden' reading in one sense...

[gregory]

I didn't post because I haven't,  but it's a great topic for discussion...

[Esk]

I've never read about death. Once i was afraid of the Death+ 5 of cups meaning the death of my grand mother (she was 97). I thought to ask more information but gave up because I was too scared to know. (It wasn't about her after all, she's still alive :) )

But i have once asked about terrorrism during a specific event if it counts as "forbidden" questions. It was a disaster. Cards like tower and 10 of swords came up. But nothing happened. I think I wasn't in a good state of mind to ask this. Or maybe the cards played with me for asking such a question. I don't know, but I don't plan on doing it again.

[EmpyreanKnight]

This subject is a bit taboo and I can imagine that it also makes some people uncomfortable. That is probably the reason that people are not quite sure how to respond. But I will try my best  :)

 

Some of the things you mentioned, like asking specific questions about death, also requires that you believe that these things are predetermined and that tarot cards knows the answer. A lot of us believe that destiny changes constantly due to different circumstances, like our and other people's actions.

 

I have never asked questions about death, due to fear and not actually wanting to find out. I have, however, had premonitions and forewarnings (not connected to tarot cards) regarding other people's health and sometimes even death. This is not something that I am happy about, I would much rather have not known since there really wasn't anything I could do to intervene.

 

I have never tried to summon spirits with cards, but I did try to summon some spirits (of people that we knew) with my friends when we were teenagers. That proved to be a very scary experience and we stopped doing it.

 

I know that some mediums talk about the difference between low level spirits and those spirits that has moved on, and that you should be very careful when it comes to the former. You really can't trust anything they say, so it probably would not be helpful asking them questions. Also, if you get answers about death -how would you know who (or what) is providing you the answers? And what type of agenda this entity has. To me, this just sounds like a bad idea all together. But I definitely respect your wanting to know more. Hopefully someone else will provide a more informative answer for you.

 

You have presentiments about someone's death, but I guess you don't know exactly what form it would take? Did you try to warn them?

 

And thank you for warning me about contacting wayward spirits. This reminds me of the Biblical story about what happened to Saul when he approached the Witch of Endor.

[EmpyreanKnight]

I've never done a forbidden reading as you've defined it in the original post. However, I once had the most confused reading come up for someone else. I couldn't make head nor tails of it. A young woman was asking about her father. There was nothing but confusion in the cards and no reference that I could see about him.

 

I was terribly apologetic but she said she had an idea it would happen. Her mum refused to tell her anything about her dad and, being a card reader herself, her mother said that any reading the girl attempted looking for info on her dad would lead nowhere.

 

A bit eerie, I have to admit.

 

So it was a 'forbidden' reading in one sense...

 

Ah, I didn't know that this is possible! Really? I'm so curious as to how her mom did it.

 

I've never read about death. Once i was afraid of the Death+ 5 of cups meaning the death of my grand mother (she was 97). I thought to ask more information but gave up because I was too scared to know. (It wasn't about her after all, she's still alive :) )

But i have once asked about terrorrism during a specific event if it counts as "forbidden" questions. It was a disaster. Cards like tower and 10 of swords came up. But nothing happened. I think I wasn't in a good state of mind to ask this. Or maybe the cards played with me for asking such a question. I don't know, but I don't plan on doing it again.

 

Lol decks can be so sarcastic sometimes. But I'm glad that your gran is still alive. 97! She lived through the Great Depression! :o

[EmpyreanKnight]

I wanted to tell of a forbidden reading I perform around the same time every year, but prudence dictates that I must not so I deleted my comment. I won't be surprised if a few readers conduct it too tho.

[Starlight]

I've never done a forbidden reading as you've defined it in the original post. However, I once had the most confused reading come up for someone else. I couldn't make head nor tails of it. A young woman was asking about her father. There was nothing but confusion in the cards and no reference that I could see about him.

 

I was terribly apologetic but she said she had an idea it would happen. Her mum refused to tell her anything about her dad and, being a card reader herself, her mother said that any reading the girl attempted looking for info on her dad would lead nowhere.

 

A bit eerie, I have to admit.

 

So it was a 'forbidden' reading in one sense...

 

Ah, I didn't know that this is possible! Really? I'm so curious as to how her mom did it.

 

 

Yeah, strange. No idea how she did it. Maybe she said just enough to her daughter to confuse any reading around that topic? I dunno. Kinda sad, too. Whoever the dad was, perhaps the mum was protecting her kiddo.

[DownUnderNZer]

I did when I first started out with the Tarot, but back then I did not know it was "forbidden". Not until years later when I started learning the Lenormand, and this combination for death came up in a GT, only then was I given the dos and donts and why death should never be touched on.

 

With the Tarot, I told my flatmate that there was going to be a death in his family, and we all took it with a grain of salt. All the readings I did that night with my new deck and a library book were not taken so seriously. There was about 4 or 5 of us in the lounge and it was just to see what would come up. I think I did from current to about 3 months. The things is - each reading did happen and within a short time frame. Not the full 3 months.

 

For G it was death, for T there was a small win and upset in the family plus a loss, and for H there was theft.

 

 

G lost two cousins to a freak wave that took them off a rock whilst fishing. Both cousins drowned. That was about 3 weeks after the reading.

 

T won about $20 to $40 in lotto or a scratchie and back in her hometown there was a problem with her younger sister, J, and a house fire broke out. That happened around a month or so from the reading as well. The one "family member" that was affected the most was their "cat". T actually drove home which was 4 to 6 hours away because of the "cat".

 

H had a brand new mountain bike her parents had bought her for Uni/College. That was stolen from the campus. That also happened around the one month mark.

 

 

None of us ever spoke about it nor did we ever bring it up. I ditched the cards not long after anyhow because the last straw was T's friend, C, that wanted me to read for her sister that was a skeptic and in front of about 4 to 6 close friends of hers. She wanted to prove that the cards were nothing but cards and that nothing could be brought up of relevance. Fortunately, she swore at the start that if anything did come up, she would not lie about it.

 

It came up she was having an affair in her marriage and that she was pregnant. Also, that she would make a decision to stay or leave the marriage.

 

The only thing I did not say is this:  That the choice for her would be the "other man".

 

It was not like I was guided by anyone or told not to, but I felt it had to be her choice with no biases.

 

The room went silent that day and she was truly shocked, Not one friend knew she was mucking around in her marriage and neither did her sister, C, who was there that day as well.

 

I do not think it was easy for her to fess up, but fess up she did and also that she was a few months pregnant and that it was unlikely her husbands.

 

Months later C told me that her sister left her marriage to be with the other man.

 

 

After that reading - that was pretty much when I stopped with the Tarot all those years ago because it went against the grain for me knowing things I did not want to know about and it was just too heavy.

 

 

As for the Lenormand -

 

 

It brought up death with my first partner for the GT actually. But as luck should have it - the partner knew who it was already so it wasn't a shock as such.

 

I also saw it with one of my beloved mentors who taught me never to say anything if I saw death. That was really hard for me, but I did it. I only told my sister and then years later my mentor's husband. He agreed that it was the right thing to do so no hard feelings.

 

Another time I did it, although it is something I would not usually do, was for a friend who was over her ex-husband not dying, after being diagnosed and outliving the time he was given. She was not asking from a bad place, but because of their daughter and having to be there to pick up the pieces constantly. I told her August/September because of the COFFIN card coming up after TREE and also because she asked for timing.

 

In October of that year, after she returned from abroad and interstate I think, she told me he died on August 26th or the 28th. It was definitely near the end of August, but not in September.

 

Recently, I saw it in a GT that was done by someone else for me, she never saw it but I did. But then she was not so learned. In a day or 2 of it my cousin died quite unexpectedly. I saw a serious illness or death and everything to do with my mother and family only I knew it was not quite my mother. And I did not think it would be that quick although those cards were in the near future so it was quite clear-cut.

 

Interesting because in that GT we were looking at other areas in particular and yet death was right there area/topic or no area/topic.  I still have not told her, the one that pulled the GT, and I will not because some things are not meant to be known.

 

Death is not meant to be known because sometimes readers get it wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Raggydoll]

EmpyreanKnight: it is different from time to time. I have had very specific premonitions, for example I saw a person close to me having a stroke - and the person did, a couple of days later, but they survived. At other times I just know that something really bad is going to happen to someone. I had that very same feeling about my dad a couple of years ago, and I promptly told my sister about it. We agreed that we would talk to our mom and try to get her to book a doctors appointment, just in case. So I called her the next day. It turned out that he already had a doctors appointment (yearly checkup) the next week, and since he seemed perfectly fine, I did not know what else to do. Sadly, he died suddenly from a heart attack later that day. It is still a greatly traumatic experience for me. But I don't know what else I could have done. Doctors told me his heart was in such a bad condition that there was no way he would have made it even if they had tried to operate on him.

[Alta]

I read a book by Duquette some years ago, and it certainly put me off summoning demons or demonic spirits of any kind.  His descriptions were toe curling and the results of some ill thought out summoningd would put most people off.

[DownUnderNZer]

Wonder if that book is still in print. Will take a look.

 

I talked to a Demonologist a few times a number of years ago and at the time did not really believe in them at all although I was aware of things like Amityville and the Incubus. Mind you, I thought those were evil spirits, not demons.

 

Now I am a bit more open-minded about things like that and especially after watching this series back to back about 2 or 3 years ago made in the USA called "The Haunted" - I think that was the title. I own the first 5 seasons only they are packed away somewhere.

 

Some of those stories were enough to make the hair stand up on one's head and in a number of those stories the demonic possessions occurred without the person having to lift a finger really!  That easy.

 

A) One woman climbed up into a barn loft and saw the devil worship sign and that is all it took for it to overtake her and it almost cost her her life. She worked at times with the Warrens and did the kind of work they did. Ed and Lorraine Warren.

 

B) A teenage boy was in a cemetery with his mum doing a Paranormal investigation and that is all it took for him to become possessed. Poor kid! The torment he went through was unbelievable and the physical attacks on him. Wow!

 

C) A woman visiting her murdered ex-boyfriend took an Ouija board to his grave so as to communicate. She opened up a portal that followed her from home to home. Whatever had it in for her was absolutely brutal and it was not the ex.

 

Toe-curling is right!

 

I read a book by Duquette some years ago, and it certainly put me off summoning demons or demonic spirits of any kind.  His descriptions were toe curling and the results of some ill thought out summoningd would put most people off.

[Esk]

 

 

I've never read about death. Once i was afraid of the Death+ 5 of cups meaning the death of my grand mother (she was 97). I thought to ask more information but gave up because I was too scared to know. (It wasn't about her after all, she's still alive :) )

But i have once asked about terrorrism during a specific event if it counts as "forbidden" questions. It was a disaster. Cards like tower and 10 of swords came up. But nothing happened. I think I wasn't in a good state of mind to ask this. Or maybe the cards played with me for asking such a question. I don't know, but I don't plan on doing it again.

 

Lol decks can be so sarcastic sometimes. But I'm glad that your gran is still alive. 97! She lived through the Great Depression! :o

 

Yes she did. However she doesn't talk a lot about her childhood. I only know she comes from a relatively wealthy family, so maybe the depression didn't affect much her family. Actually she speaks a lot more about the times when she was with my grandad. It's like her life really begun  when she met him. Quite romantic  ;)

[sandrang123]

Butting my nose in here, but I feel strongly that it's important to stay AWAY from certain things, like Ouija boards, people who practice black magic, etc. I learned this in my youth but was luckily protected. In my adulthood, I do everything I can to only let in light and also (really important) to protect myself from negative attacks.

[EmpyreanKnight]

I read a book by Duquette some years ago, and it certainly put me off summoning demons or demonic spirits of any kind.  His descriptions were toe curling and the results of some ill thought out summoningd would put most people off.

 

Wow. You're talking about DuQuette's My Life With The Spirits book, right? I've heard that he has already written a sequel to it.

[Ephemeridae]

This seems like a very leading question, lol

 

I've never done any kind of reading that went against my own ethics, but I have had some spooky experiences. I did a lot of ancestral work during Hallowtide, but I don't find work with the dead to be taboo at all. It's pretty commonplace, actually. People frequently speak to their dead loved ones, pray for them, preform rituals that center around them like placing flowers on graves, etc. Why should a tarot reading be any different?

 

I have had tarot related premonitions, too. Most recently I drew a reversed ace of cups during a "week ahead" reading and I got such a strong and ominous feeling from it that I refused to even interpret the card in the spread. On that predicted day, someone very close to me had a massive heart attack. They are in hospice care now and are not expected to make it much longer. I am having a difficult time processing that one right now.

[Raggydoll]

Ephemeridae: Sending you lots of love. Such a tough thing to have to go through!

[Mi-Shell]

Well, in my shamanic practice I have a lot of clients and their loved ones, who are -bravely or fearfully facing terminal cancer and “end of life situations”

So I often do shamanic journeys with them and for them into the realm of Death and try to haggle with Spirits about terms and conditions/ contracts to /for an extended period of life.

The question ” How long does he/ she  - or do I have”  inevitably comes up.

And my Miahanits and also often the ancestor spirits of the client or sometimes even the living spirit of the disease answers......

 

It is more often than not rough, exhausting, depressing and discouraging – and sometimes gentle and enlightening, bitter sweet.....

 

In terms of reading the cards – I am often confronted with the same question – especially by people that know about my “work” but are a bit too skittish to ask for a shamanic consultation and rather come in for a reading.

I do remember the one time, when I was reading on the Market and a lady, that I sometimes read for, brought her friend. The friend wanted to know about “health issues concerning their family”. Something right away felt ominous.... I laid out a 6 card spread and when I turned over the first card, the 3 of Swords with 3 loooong knifes piercing a bleeding heart the sitter broke down in sobs.

I had not even spoken a word.

Sobbing she told me, that her husband was diagnosed with virulent cardiomyopathy and was currently in the hospital for tests to see, if he would maybe still qualify for a transplant.

I stared at the rest of the spread cards still backs up on the table and “knew full well” that the very next card that lay there would be Death – and then the Tower.  I decided not to continue the reading, but talk with the client and her friend and recommend that they go back to the hospital right away to be with the gentlemen.

Then her cell phone rang with a nurse on the other side – she should come right away, something happened and .......

They just barely made it back to the hospital. During the procedure the catheter had pierced the weak heart and he passed a few hours later.....

[Guest]

yes

[Trogon]

As Ephemeridae already mentioned, I won't do a reading that goes against my ethics. This does not ban me from doing readings about death. Though, at this point, I have had a couple of people jokingly ask if they were going to die. When they do the smart-ass in me usually answers; "yes, we all will - it is the end result of living." I have not yet specifically predicted a death (that I can remember), though have predicted a couple of bad car crashes.

 

As far as summoning "spirits", yes, you have to be very cautious about this as it is possible to open yourself up to some unpleasant entities. I don't do summonings either. I do call on my Spirit Guides to bring me truthful and loving messages for my querent. And I have, on a number of occasions, received messages for qurents from the spirit of someone who has passed. I have also done a couple of readings now where I have asked for and received messages regarding, and from a querent's Spirit Guides. But these messages are almost always carried by my own Spirit Guides or Spirit Animals. The difference here is that I ask for the messages to be filtered by my Guides whom I can trust to bring truthful messages from a place of love and healing.

 

I am finding the discussion quite fascinating. And it has given me a thought for a new topic.

[EmpyreanKnight]

yes

 

And now I'm curious, whatsawhosit. Would you like to expound?

[High Priestess]

I truly believe there is no limit to what the Tarot can do and show us, only the practitioner is limited in what they can interpret and thus not all readings on a subject will be correct.

 

I feel that I myself have a rather grey ethics code compared to other readers I've been able to gain insight about for my personal readings and magickal practice -- for others I try to practice white/light magick and positive outlooks in my readings while remaining truthful. If my intent does more good than it does harm, I see no problem exercising (or at least attempting to exercise) power over a situation to gain knowledge or control. Do I believe myself perfect at this or even the proper authority to judge right/wrong or good/evil? No, not at all, but I'm willing to give it a shot in an effort to comprehend the extend of my abilities. It is always my intent to remain in range with what I believe most people would deem morally correct (though this has proven to me to fall outside of what people tend to do more often than I would have originally thought!).

 

In general, I think it is a good idea to warn new readers away from the "forbidden" topics in tarot readings, but also believe that transcending these rules and shedding fear of the knowledge that can be gained from the tarot in itself is an initiation to having stronger abilities in the arcane arts.

If you're partaking in a practice/ritual/reading/etc your moral compass warns you away from, I don't believe it will be carried through in a way that benefits you at all. But if you feel morally at ease with what you're doing, there's a reason for that. Others may pass judgement, but I don't find most other people's judgement more worthy of consideration than my own.

 

Really interesting to read others' opinions on this subject.

[Padma]

I have read on my own death, yes. I have used my cards to talk to my deceased family members. I have seen physical deaths in my card readings for others, and for myself. Death is a necessary part of life, and is not evil. I see nothing forbidden about it.

 

But I would never attempt to summon any kind of spirit. That's just playing with fire, for the hell of it, and burning along with it when it becomes a truly hellish thing. In fact, I spend some of my energy daily on warding spells, to banish anything that might think about moving in :p ugh! No thanks!

 

I have never allowed any dark decks into my home, nor Ouija boards, nor anything else of the kind. Call me narrow in my views, if you wish. One has to draw a line somewhere, and that is my own personal line. Only the light may enter, and goodness. The Dark can go take a flying leap off a short deck!