Using Props / Tools During Readings

[Doktor_Zeus]

I had an unusual thought today about using a Jewish Yad to indicate specific cards to a client, rather than pointing or touching them directly. (For those who aren't Jewish, a Yad is a short stick, usually silver, often with a small hand on the end, that is used to point to words in the Torah so that the reader can keep their place without actually touching the book, which is considered disrespectful.)

 

Maybe this would be a touch performative, but for some reason I like the idea - although I think something less obviously Jewish and somewhere halfway between a wand and a teacher's pointing stick would be more appropriate. Has anyone else tried this? What do people think?

 

Also, what other tools do people use during a reading, either for effect, or for practical or spiritual reasons? I quite like my little Tibetan finger cymbals, for example, and I expect most people use a cloth or mat for laying out the spread.

[gregory]

I use exactly nothing. Well, a cloth if I suspect the table is mucky - like the time some of us were reading in a pub.

[Natural Mystic Guide]

8 hours ago, Doktor_Zeus said:

I had an unusual thought today about using a Jewish Yad to indicate specific cards to a client, rather than pointing or touching them directly

Well this certainly is an unusual idea -- one that has never occurred to me.  I have a beautiful altar table right in front of where I do my readings on a different table.  For a long time I had a beautiful hand blown glass yad from Florence on the altar.  My poodles have since become larger and more rambunctious.  Nothing is safe from them.  So the yad is safely resting in storage right now.  I do have an entire copy of the Torah -- it's a small scroll in a brass case and it sits on my altar.  So my altar with the many sacred objects, crystals, fresh flowers and burning incense on it are the tools that I use when doing a reading.  I have lovely tablecloths that I lay the cards on directly.

 

As for my thoughts on using a yad for this purpose I would not go there personally for 2 reasons.  First it just seems to me that the yad is a sacred tool specifically designed for reading the Torah.  However much I love my many decks and see them as sacred tools -- I do not equate them with a Torah scroll, so it just doesn't feel right to me.  Second, when I am reading for a client I am picking up the cards all of the time for a closer look and to point out things to the client.  I encourage the client to pick up the cards and study them too.

[Doktor_Zeus]

@Natural Mystic Guide, I don’t think I’d use an actual yad either, to avoid offending people. That’s just how the idea came to me. Something like a small wand or even an ornamental chopstick or hair stick seems more appropriate. Besides, I don’t like the little hands they put on the tips of most yads.

 

 My thinking was more along the lines of not obstructing larger spreads, as well as indicating vertical and horizontal lines by lying them flat (I mostly read Lenormand, which has some pretty big spreads). Although I have known some readers who liked to minimise contact with the cards for not dissimilar reasons to the ones behind the use of the Yad.

[Morwenna]

I never thought of such a tool, but I can see the advantages. A smaller tip than a finger could point out details on a card, some of which are pretty small. I can see using a hair stick for such a purpose; I used to buy Mei Fa sticks but my hair is now too fine for them to hold it, so maybe I could repurpose a couple for this purpose. And they're quite pretty too. 😊

[FindYourSovereignty]

I got some chopsticks from the grocery store and painted them for this purpose. It was great fun.

[katrinka]

30 minutes ago, Morwenna said:

I never thought of such a tool, but I can see the advantages. A smaller tip than a finger could point out details on a card, some of which are pretty small. I can see using a hair stick for such a purpose; I used to buy Mei Fa sticks but my hair is now too fine for them to hold it, so maybe I could repurpose a couple for this purpose. And they're quite pretty too. 😊

In Malkiel's old videos, he used a crystal pointer of some kind. Not to point out details - he was using Lenormand, mostly. But just because it looks classier than jabbing your fingers all over the cards. A couple of my hairsticks are made of glass and I remember thinking they would be great if I made videos, but I don't fool with that. And my in-person readings tend to be very informal. No pretty glass hairsticks required. But others who make videos could make good use of things like that. I'll keep mine in my hair, thanks.

But the thing is, a prop is a prop. The purpose of a prop is to fake something.

 

 

It's fine to have a crystal ball on the table with your cards if you can see visions in crystals and interpret them. Otherwise it's a prop.

I keep my reading table free of distractions, clutter, and things I don't use.

And I still stand by what I said here. Props are the calling card of fake readers.
 

 

[Morwenna]

Well, consider that several of us read, or have read, at places like Renaissance fairs where theatricality is expected, in fact desired. I wouldn't bother with anything like that for, say, Christmas at niece's house, or among acquaintances at a science fiction convention, or even at an esoteric conference where half the attendees are readers themselves. Still, I consider something pointed, like a hair stick, to be useful, more so than a fingertip. I'm not about to start carrying around one with a deck for impromptu readings, however. 

[katrinka]

4 hours ago, Morwenna said:

Well, consider that several of us read, or have read, at places like Renaissance fairs where theatricality is expected, in fact desired.

Theatricality, exactly. I went to one once. Once was enough. It was a long way off and it's still blistering hot here in October. (The shopping was fun, though. I got a couple of nice rings.) And yes, I did duck into the Tarot reader's tent. She wasn't very good. I'm sure there's a (very) few people at those things who can actually read cards - money is money, after all. But I suspect you'd have to travel to a LOT of Ren Fairs to find one. Expected and desired fakeness is still fakeness and these events are not something I'd recommend to someone looking for a good reader. I doubt that accuracy is "expected, in fact desired"! It's all about playing dress-up.

 

4 hours ago, Morwenna said:

I wouldn't bother with anything like that for, say, Christmas at niece's house, or among acquaintances at a science fiction convention, or even at an esoteric conference where half the attendees are readers themselves.

I work parties without any of that. I do bring a nice scarf to lay the cards. Nothing else.
I haven't had any complaints about that.

And when read at my house (I mostly stopped when that political cult started making people crazy) I always did readings on the front porch. I'm not bringing strangers inside, even sane ones. And again, no props and no expectation of props.

 

 

Edited May 27, 2025 by katrinka

[Chariot]

I don't consider a cloth a 'prop,' any more than I would consider a table a prop.  It's a necessary surface, if you want to keep your cards clean.

That being said, a plain cloth will do, and won't shriek 'woo-woo fake'.  It's also easily laundered and ironed, as needed.

My main cloth is a plain white cotton tablecloth, just over a metre square.  It's large enough to set up a spread of 10+ cards, as well as a place for the unused cards, box, to rest during the reading, but fits easily onto most actual kitchen or dining tables.  My small cloth, which I use on a lap tray for my own daily readings, is a white/yellow checked linen dish towel!

I experimented with more dramatic tarot cloths for a while, but they just made me feel silly.  It's easy enough for me to suffer Imposter Syndrome doing tarot readings for others, without the aid of black velvet, incense, dangly earrings, statuary, and what-not.  🙂

Edited May 27, 2025 by Chariot

[FindYourSovereignty]

9 hours ago, katrinka said:

they would be great if I made videos

 

This is what mine was used for. It was a gift for a friend with a TarotTube channel. Definitely was easier for her than trying to show details with her fInger. Her posts were teaching style and having a pointer was a nice touch. 

[FindYourSovereignty]

2 hours ago, Chariot said:

I don't consider a cloth a 'prop,' any more than I would consider a table a prop.  It's a necessary surface, if you want to keep your cards clean.

 

I agree. I do not think of this as a prop, but something I use as part of any of my readings. I have one with my cards.

[katrinka]

5 hours ago, FindYourSovereignty said:

I agree. I do not think of this as a prop, but something I use as part of any of my readings. I have one with my cards.

Away from home, yes. 

At home and indoors, the cards are safe enough on my tables, bed, etc. No cloth necessary.

[Chariot]

13 hours ago, katrinka said:

Away from home, yes. 

At home and indoors, the cards are safe enough on my tables, bed, etc. No cloth necessary.

Yeah, I agree. However, my lap tray is printed with a huge smiling face of Spongebob Squarepants, which is a slight distraction. Thus the dish towel…. 🙂

[katrinka]

6 hours ago, Chariot said:

Yeah, I agree. However, my lap tray is printed with a huge smiling face of Spongebob Squarepants, which is a slight distraction. Thus the dish towel…. 🙂

 

LOL. I'd invest in a can of spray paint.

[Chariot]

2 hours ago, katrinka said:

 

LOL. I'd invest in a can of spray paint.

Naw.  I like his cheery wee face, which is why I bought the tray!  He doesn't mind the dish towel, on occasion.  🙂

[Morwenna]

This thread is making me smile, all the same. 😊

 

The Renaissance fairs I'm speaking of are relatively small ones, and all the readers I know who go there are actual practiced readers, in fact here in the Society for Creative Anachronism there is, or was (I'm not sure if it's still active) a Soothsayers' Guild, and we've often had workshops and for a while maintained a website with history and instructions and so on. But we also know the value of theatricality; in fact so much of the SCA in general involves theatricality, to get us into the proper mindset for events, and just listen to the old-timers complain that no one has any stage presence anymore. 

 

I only mention the SCA because there at least are diviners who know their stuff and take it seriously. This doesn't mean we don't love window-dressing! And of course we cover our backs by announcing "for entertainment purposes only" (in fact some states used to require such things), and attendees expect to be amused. But they also expect some professionalism from us, and we do our best. 

 

Still, for most of us such bells & whistles are strictly for venues like that. I'm sure there are people who like certain surroundings to get themselves into a proper mindset for reading, but I'm not one; I don't even carry a cloth most of the time, unless I happen to be carrying a deck whose box no longer exists and said cloth is its wrapper. (I bet, though, that once I get my bedroom cleaned out and set up an actual reading space, I might just get a little decorative... 😉)

 

 

 

[katrinka]

12 minutes ago, Morwenna said:

The Renaissance fairs I'm speaking of are relatively small ones

Ah. The one I went to was a late 80's iteration of the sprawling Texas one. It's been plagued with scandal and lawsuits forever and I read that their "King" recently unalived himself.
 

15 minutes ago, Morwenna said:

in fact so much of the SCA

The SCA? 
I have a facebook friend in the SCA, or she was. She doesn't seem to be feeling it lately. She's always going off on archaeological digs now. She's never mentioned any card readers but she's a stickler for accuracy (historical, not the readings kind.) I mean costumes, etc. 

The Ren fair I went to was extremely sloppy in that regard. And everybody spoke with badly done fake British accents. 

 

29 minutes ago, Morwenna said:

Still, for most of us such bells & whistles are strictly for venues like that. I'm sure there are people who like certain surroundings to get themselves into a proper mindset for reading, but I'm not one; I don't even carry a cloth most of the time, unless I happen to be carrying a deck whose box no longer exists and said cloth is its wrapper. (I bet, though, that once I get my bedroom cleaned out and set up an actual reading space, I might just get a little decorative... 😉)

OK, you get a pass. You're the exception that proves the rule, lol.
I'll amend it to "With very rare exceptions, props are the calling card of fake readers." 

[Tanga]

Hmmm - I've not thought about this. But yes - particularly for teaching purposes an elegant pointer of some kind would be nicer than jabbing

your finger over half the detail in the cards...

 

Reading for others - I use a purple velvet cloth made by SulisCreations (also have a couple of purple cotton ones my mother made). This - usually if the reading is somewhere else, to be sure I'm not putting my cards on muck - and purple is my favourite colour and feels special.

Reading for myself, if I'm in the mood for ceremony/spellwork and have lots of time - I may use a tonne of props 🙃🙂 (candle, incense, crystal, etc.).

Quick readings - nothing.

And impromptu readings for clients in the therapy room - nothing, it takes too long to set anything out - I just make sure the

couch surface is clean or else spread a towel over it.