What questions do tarot readers get asked?

[Orchid]

I hope I'm asking this in the right topic. 
 

I'm wanting to practice reading I'm wondering if others would share with me what questions are often asked from other people when reading for them. I think for me having some general ideas of what people ask first and practicing that way would be better for me first rather than asking friends and family to do readings for them. 
Thank you

[Guest]

I rarely read for people aside from family and close friends, but from what I've heard you better brush up on your love/romance card interpretations.

[DanielJUK]

I think people ask the most about love and matters of the heart, questions about finding love, getting married, meeting a soul mate and also break-ups, ex's, is it over?

The trick to these questions is posing the question correctly, will I find love? is so general and yes / no, but what about what do I need to know about X finding love? you can even do a specific timeframe.

Also you have to handle it sensitively, if it's really negative and there is no chance, give them something positive? Maybe they will make a nice new friend 🤷‍♂️😆

[Misterei]

The Mejicanos have a saying: Besos y Pesos.

This is normally a new year's toast to: Love and Money

But as a reader over 43 years I can say that 90% of readings relate to Besos y Pesos.

The other 10% ?

Everything under the sun. Spiritual stuff. Bizarre stuff: the client is getting a reading b/c the situation to too bizarre to explain to a Psychologist or their friends and family. Sometimes the bizarre stuff is just their delusions or imagination. But sometimes it's real.

Some situations are heartbreaking or tragic.

[Raggydoll]

It depends a bit on your clientele. Some tarot readers mostly read for the witchy community and that means they’ll do readings on all sorts of spiritual and magical topics, plus shadow work and deity worship etc. For those that aim to the wider audience (basically, those who read for mugglers 😊) , yes it’s a lot of love topics but also work and friendship drama, and sometimes it’s about lost items or mediumship readings. 
 

If you want to practice, you can exchange readings with people here. It’s good to not know the person you read for too well, because most of your future clients will likely not be friends or acquaintances of yours. So a forum is perfect. Learn to design spreads but also to interpret and sum up a reading in a reasonable amount of time. Also, what type of readings do you like to do? It’s not necessary to offer everything, you can create a successful niche. The most important thing is that you like what you do! Otherwise it won’t last and you’ll struggle to compete with the other readers who love their job. 
 

Best of luck! 

[Mister]

7 hours ago, Misterei said:

Love and Money

Yep.

2 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

It depends a bit on your clientele.

A bit!?

If you read at a spiritual center, you will get the according questions.

If a client of yours is angsty, most of the readings for that one will be a form of stress-relief. ("Are my worries truly unfounded?")

 

Also, the region you are living in.

Ten years ago, I relocated to a rural place, which did change my perception on how to read.

Elder people from this region tend to be less concerned about themselves and more about their relatives. Most personal concern is actually health.

Also, Yes/No is appreciated here, they do like a clean cut answer.

Psychological stuff, on the other hand, does not fly well. They are a bunch of people who do not like others meddling with their heads, so I have to be extra careful when pointing out internal issues if present.

Predictions on a base of "If things are handled like they are now" (basically, non-determinated prediction, changeable by course of action) are well liked.

At my old place, I once got shown the door after reading that way, despite it beeing requested.

 

2 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

The most important thing is that you like what you do!

I feel so too - for example, I heavily prefer face-to-face reading. Reasons beeing eye contact and disclosure of details. And so that is the thing I do.

[Raggydoll]

42 minutes ago, Mister said:

A bit!?

If you read at a spiritual center, you will get the according questions.

If a client of yours is angsty, most of the readings for that one will be a form of stress-relief. ("Are my worries truly unfounded?")

 

 

Maybe it’s just me, but I find that most of my sitters are complex individuals. I have met lots of folks in the spiritual community who wanted to know about love or business or lost objects, and sometimes those mugglars can be rather curious about magic or spirituality. So it’s not entirely cut and dry. But yes, there is a certain predictability there 😊

[Mister]

1 hour ago, Raggydoll said:

So it’s not entirely cut and dry.

It never is, and I would not recommend using copy&paste on readings either.

Still.

1 hour ago, Raggydoll said:

But yes, there is a certain predictability there 😊

There certainly are tendencies.

😉

[Raggydoll]

10 minutes ago, Mister said:

It never is, and I would not recommend using copy&paste on readings either.

 

I was going to write, yeah but who would ever do that. But then it sprung to my mind that I have actually heard of tarot readers who sell copy-pasted written readings 😅 Totally off topic, but still. I do agree with you ! 😄

[Misterei]

6 hours ago, Mister said:

Also, the region you are living in.

Ten years ago, I relocated to a rural place, which did change my perception on how to read.

Elder people from this region tend to be less concerned about themselves and more about their relatives. Most personal concern is actually health.

Also, Yes/No is appreciated here, they do like a clean cut answer.

Psychological stuff, on the other hand, does not fly well. They are a bunch of people who do not like others meddling with their heads, so I have to be extra careful when pointing out internal issues if present.

Predictions on a base of "If things are handled like they are now" (basically, non-determinated prediction, changeable by course of action) are well liked.

At my old place, I once got shown the door after reading that way, despite it beeing requested.

I prefer the type of reading you describe above. It's more "old school" ... before things went all dime-store psychology in Tarotlandia.

 

In this digital age of zoom and facetime readings ... "branding" can replace geography. I brand myself and my website to attract certain types of clients. They may already be into Tarot or Astrology but they still want practical readings on their real lives.

 

Love and Money to me is not so limited.

For example questions about your family (parents, children, siblings) and family dynamics all fall under "Love". Not just romance. My branding is designed to filter out romantic obsessives ... so the clients I get will ask about their romantic life AND their ageing parents, their kids, their sister-in-law, or whatever

Likewise questions about right livlihood, career change, work life balance also fall under "money".

 

I find this across the board. So I don't draw a distinction as "muggles" vs. "witchy".

 

But if your branding is different ... you may get a very different clientele than i do. For example if you WANT to attract romantic obsessives ... it's pretty easy to do ... just look at all the YouTubes and websites that cater to that demographic.

Edited November 30, 2022 by Misterei

[Mister]

Just wanted to clarify, Love&Cash did not come across as limited, at least here.

It is just that most readings actually do fall into those two categories.

[Chariot]

I think age and situation have a lot to do with what kinds of questions people ask of the tarot.

I think about the kinds of questions I used to ask the tarot back when I was in my twenties and new to tarot.  I was still not sure what direction my life was going to take, or who my significant other would be, or even IF I was going to find a significant other.  Or if a love that wasn't working out was going to get easier, or if a lost love was going to return.  The last thing I was concerned about was finance!  Money wasn't the focus of my life at the time ...I was getting by just fine, had a secure work record, with quite a bit of give in it.  I was a lot more concerned about my love life.  'Is he the one?'

People who are older and have found happiness as a single person, or who are married to the love of their life—or who maybe have lost the love of their life and are not interested in another romance—will be more likely to ask other types of questions.

 

As they get older their career options may have hardened, or perhaps they are actually retired and work no longer concerns them. They might be concerned about finances, in terms of 'Should I be worried about my financial situation?'  The scope of their questions will likely be more practical than they were in their younger days.  'What should I consider about downsizing to a smaller house?' 'How can I help my friend, who has just lost her husband?' 'What am I missing regarding my neighbour's unfriendly attitude towards me?' 

Older people may also be concerned about health issues ...either their own or that of somebody close to them.  (That topic is tricky for a tarot reader, to not attempt to give medical advice or insight, even if you think it is there in the cards.)

In short, I think younger people are more concerned with 'the future' while older people are more concerned about handling 'the present.'  That's been my experience, anyway.

[dippingin]

The questions on this site seem to include learning.  There was a reading circle about the new moon, and I'm on my phone so not easy to look. I thought it looked interesting and it wasn't related to love or money. 

[Mister]

49 minutes ago, Chariot said:

I think age and situation have a lot to do with what kinds of questions people ask of the tarot.

They do!

I'd like to add 'geography', too. Wait, isn't that included in 'situation' already?

 

49 minutes ago, Chariot said:

Older people may also be concerned about health issues ...either their own or that of somebody close to them.  (That topic is tricky for a tarot reader, to not attempt to give medical advice or insight, even if you think it is there in the cards.)

You may safely recommend a medical checkup.

That is in and of itself "the advice to get medical advice", and should be considered a sane thing altogether.

And legally secure.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Mister

[Chariot]

50 minutes ago, Mister said:

 

 

You may safely recommend a medical checkup.

That is in and of itself "the advice to get medical advice", and should be considered a sane thing altogether.

And legally secure.

Totally agree.  But it's so important to phrase this right, though.  You don't want to appear casual or noncommittal if something looks bad, but at the same time you don't want to scare them shitless by telling them they should get a medical opinion.  It's tricky.  People often hear what they want to hear, or, conversely, hear exactly what they are afraid of.  

I think the best way to deal with this kind of question is, frankly, NOT to deal with it.  If they ask any question related to health, you tell them you won't do a reading based on that question—and that they need to get a medical opinion instead.  Otherwise they'll be all panicky because of what they thing you 'saw' in the cards.

I think the real dilemma happens, as a tarot reader, when you clearly see a health issue arising in a reading that wasn't supposed to be about health at all, but something else instead.  Yikes.

[Raggydoll]

7 hours ago, Chariot said:

I think the real dilemma happens, as a tarot reader, when you clearly see a health issue arising in a reading that wasn't supposed to be about health at all, but something else instead.  Yikes.

That is indeed the real dilemma. I remember that this topic has been discussed here in the past, and that discussion highlights the potential issues. It’s not always so easy for a sitter to check out anything specific that the reader has seen health wise. Doctors will typically not run tests or do scans without proper medical grounds for it. But sometimes the sitter is clever and can find a way (grandmas story that she shared in the thread below is a good example). I don’t believe in sugarcoating or withholding information. I won’t go into it all here because it’s off topic but my reasons for this are stated in the link below. 
 

 

[Mister]

13 hours ago, Chariot said:

But it's so important to phrase this right, though. [...]

It's tricky.

Yes, it is.

It becomes less of an issue when trust has been established.

Less of an issue here does not mean No issue.

 

13 hours ago, Chariot said:

I think the best way to deal with this kind of question is, frankly, NOT to deal with it.

That certainly is one way to deal with it.

It does not suit me, but then again, it does not have to, as it is still you doing your readings - as such, it stays your decision on what to read and what not.

 

13 hours ago, Chariot said:

I think the real dilemma happens, as a tarot reader, when you clearly see a health issue arising in a reading that wasn't supposed to be about health at all, but something else instead.  Yikes.

At times, there are questions like What do I have to be cautious about.

"It" can well pop up then. Personally, that did not yet pose any problem.

When I said "take things slow, you might not be as fit as you want to be", it was appreciated.

It gets harder when the question was What will happen to me during the next three months, and you see a stayover at a hospital reflected in the cards.

Then again, I make it pretty clear that whatever I predict is not subject to predetermination but rather hinges on the course of action the individual chooses to take. The follow-up is most of the times some variation of What can I do to circumvent the crisis/How can I best change my course of action.

 

While writing this, I realised one thing, which might be critical: I can not picture myself doing the reads I do in an online format.

It has to be face-to-face for me.

Otherwise, I feel like I might well screw up badly.

[Chariot]

@Raggydoll - That link to the Saturn Celeste thread was pretty scary, wasn't it?  I guess I'm not confident enough in my reading ability to say for sure that I 'saw' something like that ...so I probably wouldn't bring it up, for fear of being wrong.  But yikes. To find out later that you were right?  No wonder the poor woman felt guilty.  
 

This story brings home how much responsibility a card reader can be stuck with.  Some issues are incredibly serious, and anybody who does readings for others should certainly give thought to how to handle a situation like this.  What do you do if you THINK something bad might be happening or about to happen, but aren't sure?

[Raggydoll]

3 minutes ago, Chariot said:

 

This story brings home how much responsibility a card reader can be stuck with.  Some issues are incredibly serious, and anybody who does readings for others should certainly give thought to how to handle a situation like this.  What do you do if you THINK something bad might be happening or about to happen, but aren't sure?

For me, it would depend on how strongly I feel something will happen. If it’s a fleeting thought, I would not mention it. But if it’s a persistent, deep dread, I would find a way to share the message without making it sound like a doomsday omen. 

[dippingin]

How do you prefer questions to be asked? As general or as yes/no?

[Mister]

35 minutes ago, Chariot said:

Some issues are incredibly serious, and anybody who does readings for others should certainly give thought to how to handle a situation like this.

Some issues certainly are.

However, they do not make up the majority of the reads, at least here.

I'd imagine that might be different if you'd read in/for someone inside something like a psychatric ward, for example.

Also, there is a world between reading on health-related matters and giving medical advice.

'Fitness' can be viewed as health-related.

 

44 minutes ago, Chariot said:

 What do you do if you THINK something bad might be happening or about to happen, but aren't sure?

 

23 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

For me, it would depend on how strongly I FEEL something will happen. If it’s a fleeting thought, I would not mention it. But if it’s a persistent, deep dread, I would find a way to share the message without making it sound like a doomsday omen.

 

Yes.

"If I had drawn those cards for myself, I'd be on the lookout/wouldn't go there."

[Raggydoll]

38 minutes ago, dippingin said:

How do you prefer questions to be asked? As general or as yes/no?

I feel that there is a middle ground between those two types of readings. Let’s say that your sitter asks whether they and mr H will get romantically involved. Some readers may then suggest a general love reading, but that could pose potential issues. For one, it wouldn’t be entirely certain that any male cards that come up are referring to mr H, so it could make things more confusing.
 

To ask a straight yes/no would not provide any details, and it is my experience that most sitters welcome a detailed interpretation. So one possible solution would be to ask ‘What will happen between you and mr H (and perhaps add a timeframe)? That question wouldn’t presume that something romantic would happen, and in case the answer is that ‘nothing much will happen’ then the cards are perfectly able to indicate that. When a whole scenario is shown it is much easier to understand the reasons for why things may turn out a certain way, and it also helps pinpoint any follow up questions that the sitter might have.