When the reading is wrong

[Xtof]

I know this is an increasingly nuanced question, but…what do you do when a reading (or your interpretation of it) doesn’t turn out? What do you learn? How do you deal with the feeling of (for lack of a better term) betrayal?

[2dogs]

It just didn’t work that time. Maybe I need more practice, a rest, inspiration, a different deck or technique or just do card of the day for a while. I’m currently practicing card combination of the day with no question just as an exercise in interpretation and to bond more with the decks; maybe the reading will resonate with something and then again maybe it won’t.

[gregory]

Maybe it isn't wrong.... Wait a while. A BIG while. There's a post somewhere where the sitter had blasted the reader big time - and I think it was 5 years later had to eat their words when everything panned out just the way the reader had said.. Tarot is no respecter of clocks - or even calendars.

[DanielJUK]

ooooh this is a big question!

I think it so depends on the question. If it's predictive and you are asking about will something happen and then it doesn't, well, predictions go wrong for all of us! Try again!

Apart from that, I believe the message that comes up in the cards (if properly shuffled) is the right one for us but like learning another language, we have to decipher it. That's the part that goes wrong. To learn from it, is there something you need to change in how you are doing it? Worth thinking about. I have changed my view on some cards over time. It's not betrayal but getting experience, all of us have had readings go wrong

You get better at it with practice 🙂

[Misterei]

12 hours ago, gregory said:

Maybe it isn't wrong.... Wait a while. A BIG while. There's a post somewhere where the sitter had blasted the reader big time - and I think it was 5 years later had to eat their words when everything panned out just the way the reader had said.. Tarot is no respecter of clocks - or even calendars.

LOL I try to get timeframes in my readings ... but along these lines ... sometimes I look back and see the spread was spot-on but my interpretation was off ... and it only becomes clear in 20/20 hindsight.

12 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

... If it's predictive and you are asking about will something happen and then it doesn't, well, predictions go wrong for all of us! Try again!

Predictions go wrong ALL the time. Look at weather predictions ... a heatwave or rain storm that never comes.

 

It amazes me that some guy with a suit can make predictions about the economy or stock market ... be TOTALLY WRONG ... and everyone shrugs.

But a Tarot reader makes a wrong prediction and suddenly it's proof that Tarot is nonsense and Tarot readers are fakes.

Double standard much?

Anyway ... climbing off my soap box.

Errors are part of the learning curve.

[Saule]

2 hours ago, Misterei said:

It amazes me that some guy with a suit can make predictions about the economy or stock market ... be TOTALLY WRONG ... and everyone shrugs.

But a Tarot reader makes a wrong prediction and suddenly it's proof that Tarot is nonsense and Tarot readers are fakes.

Double standard much?

Anyway ... climbing off my soap box.

Errors are part of the learning curve.

Omg this is the best thing I've read today. So many people from my past looked down on my Tarot hobby because it's "bs", yet took Elon Musk and other CEO's predictions for the future as gospel. Turns out I was more right than them ;) Glad you were able to put this into words - totally using this when some know-it-all tries to insult me :D

Edited October 16, 2023 by Saule

[AlbaTross]

The reading is never wrong IMHO.  My interpretation can be wrong though.  I could fail to consider some nuance or other, or fail to look at a card from the correct angle.  I could fail to consider the impact parameters have on a reading, or misinterpret how to approach the reversal of a card.  I might get too hung up on book meanings to approach cards with a healthy dose of intuitive interpretation.  I might miss patterns, numerical or suitwise, or in some other capacity.  In all such cases, I'm the problem, not the reading. 

 

It's also easy to fall into the trap of thinking a reading is "wrong" because the desired cards didn't come up and/or undesirable cards did, or in a much more neutral sense, maybe the cards that came up were unexpected rather than the ones that were expected to show up.  If anything, I think that's an indication of the importance to clear one's mind and leave any expectations or desired outcomes at the door, and to just let the cards do their thing.  

 

Methodology could be part of the problem too.  I have a bit of a pet peeve with this trend that so many seem to follow of drawing "clarifier" cards.  I use air quotes because I find these additional cards often add to the confusion of readings rather than clarifying anything, and so many people on Reddit seem to run to their Tarot communities for help, and that's especially prevalent among those who draw clarifier cards for clarifier cards.  If drawing a single card doesn't seem to provide a full and proper picture on its own, I think a better method is to just draw three cards and have them comprise the reading together than to draw one card, then a clarifier, then a clarifier to that.  I suppose the singular Oracle card I often draw to accompany readings might function in a similar manner to a clarifier card, but if I use an Oracle card I will draw it with the initial reading rather than after the fact, and treat it as part of that reading.  

[gregory]

Totally agree with @AlbaTross. We so often miss the message, especially when it's unwelcome. And years later, when you realise the relationship really WAS going nowhere and you are with someone else entirely, there's that lightbulb moment out of the blue - "wait a sec, that's what I was TOLD when I so much wanted it to work...."

 

And yes - "clarifiers" are No Help At All. The other cards in the spread do the clarifying. "Clarifiers" are almost always drawn to try and shoehorn the cards into the result you wanted.

[DanielJUK]

11 hours ago, Misterei said:

LOL I try to get timeframes in my readings ... but along these lines ... sometimes I look back and see the spread was spot-on but my interpretation was off ... and it only becomes clear in 20/20 hindsight.

Predictions go wrong ALL the time. Look at weather predictions ... a heatwave or rain storm that never comes.

 

It amazes me that some guy with a suit can make predictions about the economy or stock market ... be TOTALLY WRONG ... and everyone shrugs.

But a Tarot reader makes a wrong prediction and suddenly it's proof that Tarot is nonsense and Tarot readers are fakes.

Double standard much?

Anyway ... climbing off my soap box.

Errors are part of the learning curve.

 

I guess weather and financial predictions are based on the best progression from the data they have. But things can change fast!

Did you know there is a whole field of readers who are paid huge sums of money for financial predictions. I presume with tarot as well but there are specialist financial astrologers. I found this out a few years ago and they are paid a lot of money to advise companies in future plans and investors in stocks and shares. But I think you can get good at predicting with experience but I don't think anyone can guarantee it! Some people have prediction blogs and some of them edit or delete posts when it doesn't work out their way. I guess people who are paid to predict or have an online following, are under pressure! I love this area of divination personally and still they can go wrong, it's a good thing to own up to it.

[Chariot]

On 10/16/2023 at 1:46 AM, Xtof said:

I know this is an increasingly nuanced question, but…what do you do when a reading (or your interpretation of it) doesn’t turn out? What do you learn? How do you deal with the feeling of (for lack of a better term) betrayal?

I have this happen to me A LOT when doing Lenormand, which is probably why I still don't trust it.  I mean VERY wrong, even when I look back on a journaled reading, after the event has happened.  Nope.  Didn't work like that at all.  It's like the Powers That Be are having a lot of fun at my expense. I'm happy to give them a good laugh, but really....🙂

I've found tarot is VERY reliable for me. I guess it's just a matter of practice and getting know your medium? I've been working with tarot since the late 1970s, and still have much to learn ...and am learning constantly, and changing a few things I do. But it's never led me astray, even when I was a rank beginner.  I guess it responds well, for me, to whatever level of knowledge I have at the time I do the reading.  It knows what 'vocabulary' to choose to make its advice clear to me.  It's one of the reasons I have to be very cautious when asking questions—because if I'm not prepared to hear the full truth about an issue, I can get fairly knocked back.

I do use the occasional clarifier card, by the way—maybe once in every third or fourth reading.  They help solidify an aspect of the main card that could be interpreted in a number of ways.  I wouldn't dismiss clarifiers altogether.  I do carefully consider the original cards in the spread positions before adding in a clarifier ...this seems to be the best approach for me.  But these clarifiers have saved me a lot of guesswork. They certainly do no harm if they get me to the most accurate interpretation more quickly.

I'm very new to Lenormand—just discovered Lenormand a year ago-ish—so that might be my problem.  I love the idea of Lenormand, but the system hasn't clicked for me yet.  For me, it tells a very lucid story ...but then the story doesn't actually happen!  😞

Edited October 17, 2023 by Chariot

[Misterei]

13 hours ago, AlbaTross said:

The reading is never wrong IMHO.  My interpretation can be wrong though.  I could fail to consider some nuance or other, or fail to look at a card from the correct angle.

Actually I have had straight-up wrong. Yes, most times I would say the cards were right but my interpretation was off.

Still, I predicted T's granddaughter would be a boy ... no way to dress that up as anything but a fail.

Most times I'm right ... missing persons and gender reveals are NOT my speciality and I don't claim them as such.

I do much better with real estate, college choices and admissions, family dynamics, medical ... things of that nature I'm usually accurate.

9 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

Did you know there is a whole field of readers who are paid huge sums of money for financial predictions. I presume with tarot as well but there are specialist financial astrologers.

Yep. Kings have always had their astrologers. Those folks are wrong sometimes too ... like one YT astrologer who lost his a$$ on bitcoin };> But some astrologers have a special talent for it and are good at it.

LOL wish i was one of them! I do well with real estate readings ... prolly b/c I have a feel for it in the mundane world.

I think some of our mundane skills bleed over into our Tarot or Astrology practices.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Misterei

[Laurelverse]

The other day, I was bringing the dogs in from outside to the elevator up to the condo.  Just before I pushed the button, it lit up.  That meant someone from one of the 3 floors of condos above me had pressed it and was probably coming down.  At that exact moment I had the overwhelming sense that it was my friend Scott who was leaving to go to work.  It was the right time of day for him to do that; he'd been in the shower when I left with the dogs 20 minutes earlier. 

But there are 64 condos and over 120 people living here.  My intuition told me that it was Scott.  So I moved the dogs back out of the way and predicted out loud to them that they'd be seeing Scott and no, we weren't going on a car ride with him.

The doors opened.  It was Scott.  The dogs got hyper excited to see him and lunged.  It was a good thing I'd tightened my hold on the leashes.   I told him "I knew it was you" and we laughed.  He went to work. I went up and made breakfast. 

If I'd been wrong and it was someone else?  I would have laughed at myself and gone on with my day.  I have had that kind of strong feeling about other things and especially when I'm stressed out or anxious?  I've been wrong. 

Tarot readings can be like that for me too.  There's times when I'm sure about an answer I'm giving but most of the time, it covers a spectrum.  I try to be clear with myself and other querents when I am feeling something strongly or when I'm just making an educated guess, based on what is most likely given experience and context. 

And sometimes I'm spot on.  Sometimes?  Sometimes there's something I missed when talking or looking at cards.  Sometimes I give an interpretation that comes from a place of judgement vs. a place of intuition and I spout an opinion rather than discerning and giving my impression.  There's a lot that goes into being a tarot reader and just like everyone else, we have off-days and what mood we're in, what is going on with us personally at the time we're doing a reading can impact the quality and accuracy of the reading. 

What I personally have learned is to keep all of that in mind and be an sincere with people I'm reading for and to not read cards for people when I'm not in the right head space or something about them makes me judgy or anxious.  I can't be fair or accurate while I'm being judgy or anxious.  

[tetragrammaton]

There might be several reasons for me.

 

1- It was not at all, wrong, and it needs more time to come true. Maybe it has come true and I can't see it yet.

2- I needed to cleanse the area and I didn't, so trickster entities messed with the reading.

3- If I was doing a reading for myself and/or a loved one, I was not being objective due to wishful thinking. The cards were right, I wasn't.

4- I was not focusing on the question at all and reflecting my own mood onto the cards instead.

[Chariot]

What helps me a bit is to set up a reading layout (Celtic Cross is good for this) which contains a past and present element.  If those make sense—as I know my past and my present—then even if the immediate future and eventual future don't make sense to me, I assume the reading is correct and more needs to happen before I 'get' what the cards are telling me.

This doesn't always work, but it usually does. There have been occasions when the cards don't want to deal at all with the subject I asked about, and instead give a very accurate reading of something else.  That's where journaling every reading is a good idea ...when the situation you didn't know about at the time actually does pop up, you can revisit the reading and act accordingly.

Once in a while, the reading is meaningless to me.  I'm experiencing that a lot with Lenormand, but it has been ages since a tarot reading totally went off the rails.  However, sometimes I just don't click with a particular deck and it gives muddy results.    That deck and I usually part company at some point.

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Chariot

[Arania]

When my readings are totally off is either when I am supposed to be doing something entirely different and use tarot as an excuse not to, as in a different sort of magic or even *gasp* some housework, or when I read for someone else and they are not supposed to know or even get another reading.

[elsol]

I take it as my interpretation was wrong not the cards were wrong; when I first started taking tarot seriously and was journaling 9/10 times if I recorded the reading and the "answer" came up wrong Ill go back and look at the cards pulled and suddenly the true answer becomes obvious-this method helps you shift into the right mindset for reading. If I miss usually its because I read multiple cards too literally not reading them like a visual story. Usually in a 1 card per question pull the answer is literal in some sense; multiple card per question pull usually the position and order of the cards form a sentence or concept. 

[cyberpunkkitty]

Energy changes, people have free will. Maybe at the time of the reading it was the correct outcome and that later changed. It happens

[Eugenie]

I am totally confused. In a three card spread, the second and third cards look like they need to be swapped. Then they will make a perfect sense because this is not a 'cold' reading and I know the situation full well. How is this even possible? Of course I can't swap them. I concentrated, I was thinking about the spread, I was thinking about the person and my questions. Goodness! these things are not easy! I am off to dig further, what else can I do.

PS Well, I have only now read the thread, lol, so let's keep this nagging here for history. It is okay, I will understand this if I try. 

 

PPS I think I made it. And in the process it downed on me: what's the point in only getting the obvious cards? The obvious things I already know.  

 

Edited January 6, 2024 by Eugenie

[Wyrdkiss]

This is a indeed a big question as DanielJUK pointed out, and I'm enjoying the responses. I'm too fatigued to elaborate much, but let's add yet another layer to the depth of this inquiry: Some people do not prognosticate with Tarot, or rarely.  They examine in the moment, to guide their choices.   Just want to add that in the mix, and then bow out to soak up the discussion again.