Can You do a Tarot Reading for Yourself?

[Mark Foot]

I am wondering whether this is possible or the outcome of the spread is too biased, as long as the querent and the reader is the same person... 

[Pixie]

Yes, you can. But you are right, it's difficult to be impartial. Depending on how important the reading topic is and how impartial you are when reading for yourself, I would recommend getting a reading from another reader in an exchange as opposed to reading for yourself. But really, it just depends on the topic. I read for myself everyday, but some things I would worry about my ability to be impartial reading for myself. It is very rare that I feel I would not be able to be impartial enough to read for myself.

[LeFou]

Just personally, I feel that reading for yourself is how you learn.  Lots of trial and error.

 

Reading for others is (for me) much harder.  Also, people can often respond to their own cards and work things out for themselves.  But ultimately, try it all different ways and use what works for you.

[Guest libra]

I read for myself all the time. It does take a bit of skill to differentiate between seeing what you want to see in the cards and what they are truly saying (and quite frankly sometimes, my cards come through literally just showing what I'm hoping for!) but it really is something that you can feel out. 

[gregory]

I CAN. But I don't. I know I cheat. If I don't like what I get, I can always find some other aspect of my life that fits....

[ilweran]

I can and do, but usually not divination so much as to give me a different view of the situation. I've found it really helpful for seeing where I may not have helped things, however inadvertently. 

[ashjey]

I could... but im a bit iffy about it, similar to @gregory I would say. 

[Grizabella]

Gosh, I just got the Thoth-based Zillich the other day and in doing a general Celtic Cross included in the little booklet just to try it out, I surprised myself with being able to do a clear reading for myself with this deck! I've been reading cards for 21 years and this is the first time I've been able to get a clear reading for myself. I don't know what worked the charm, but I'm very pleasantly surprised with it. 

 

I posted the reading in the Thoth section asking for input and LeFou gave me some very good input on the reading just now, too. LeFou, you read beautifully for other people. You should have more confidence in your ability to do that. 🙂

[BlueRoseBobbie]

Hi! I read for myself often, but I do my best to be honest about it. As someone else said it’s really easy to interpret the cards in a way that suits me, but I stick with my first interpretation, my gut feeling, of the cards even when I’m being reprimanded. 😆

[loveheartlight]

Hello there, Mark Foot! I read for myself whenever I need to. Sometimes Intuition does tell me to reach out to another reader, often a friend, for a reading. Sometimes I just simply ask a friend, "Draw three cards for me," and I read those cards they drew and say thank you. When I do read for myself I disassociate. I pretend that the cards are another person doing the reading for me. Or I pretend to be the reader reading for someone else. If that makes sense.

Edited September 18, 2019 by loveheartlight

[stephanelli]

Most of my reading at the moment is for myself.  I'm evolving spiritually at the moment and using a couple of decks to help me explore what's going on.  That said, there are some topics I would never read for myself on and will always get someone else to do for me - relationship readings and career readings are two that Spring straight to mind.  Anything where my happiness is heavily invested in it.

[Saturn Celeste]

I can read for myself but I won't.  I choose not to go there with my cards.  I really know myself and have no interest in the cards for myself, only others.

[Eric13]

I only do weekly readings for myself, which I like doing and then I only do deck interviews for my cards if I buy a new deck or pull one out if I haven't used for a long time.

Oh, and, I also do the full moon readings for myself. 

Edited September 18, 2019 by Eric13

[Grizabella]

When learning the cards, reading for oneself is just something we do to learn sometimes. I don't read for myself normally and never have. Like Saturn, it's something I do for other people and that's my calling.

 

I did read for myself with the Zillich the other day to try out the deck using the spread included and that worked out amazingly well. I was shocked. Will I do it again or start reading for myself with other decks? No---it's just not something I do with my cards. It works well for some people but not for others.

 

[bookshop]

I read for myself really infrequently, and it's more of an emotional barometer for me than anything. 

 

Usually the problem with reading for myself is i feel very called out by the cards because I know exactly what i'm projecting into them, haha, and they don't have anything to tell me that I don't already know. sometimes another person's perspective is good! 

[ShadowMoon]

In an effort to learn, I read for myself. But then I talk to myself as a third person. Example "it feels you are at the edge of changes..."

I even pretend there is someone sitting opposite to me, even though no one is really there. 

 

Have to agree, my readings for myself aren't that accurate. I have a learner friend, and we do better when reading for each other. 

[katrinka]

I virtually always read for myself, the only exception being if I'm profoundly rattled over something. Then I'll ask a trusted friend to pull a few cards for me. But 99% of the time, I read for myself and it's perfectly unambiguous. 

 

The trick is to "de-blur" your cards. That means having clear positive, neutral, and negative meanings for them. None of the fuzzy stuff. 😉

[Flaxen]

I read for myself a lot. If something is particularly highly charged for me or if I feel I’m going to struggle to be objective, I’ll ask someone else to take a look for me. 

 

The forum is a great place to practice reading for others but I really learnt by reading for myself - Internet forums weren’t such a thing when I started. 

[Symph]

Most of my readings have been for myself, and I've tried to be unbiased, but something that I found interesting is that even when I would let my bias cloud the reading?  The reading's true meaning would still come through later.  Like maybe I'll get a reversal but think "oh that probably doesn't mean anything quite as negative as it sounds, maybe it means more something like THIS" even though my FIRST intuition was the negative interpretation.  Then later in the day or week, life would hit me or my shortcoming would come into play and I'd be like "holy crap no, it actually meant what it said, I AM now dealing with a 5 of swords situation" etc etc.  So yeah I'm trying to learn how to just go "It said what it said, gotta deal with it" instead of going "well maaaaybe it's not so baaaad" LOL  

[erratictransparency]

I don't like to read predictively, and so most of my readings are for myself. My attitude is less 'tell me what will happen' and more 'let's look at things in a new way', and while I find it very helpful I have noticed most other people want hard answers. 

[katrinka]

On 10/7/2019 at 11:16 AM, Symph said:

Most of my readings have been for myself, and I've tried to be unbiased, but something that I found interesting is that even when I would let my bias cloud the reading?  The reading's true meaning would still come through later.  Like maybe I'll get a reversal but think "oh that probably doesn't mean anything quite as negative as it sounds, maybe it means more something like THIS" even though my FIRST intuition was the negative interpretation.  Then later in the day or week, life would hit me or my shortcoming would come into play and I'd be like "holy crap no, it actually meant what it said, I AM now dealing with a 5 of swords situation" etc etc.  So yeah I'm trying to learn how to just go "It said what it said, gotta deal with it" instead of going "well maaaaybe it's not so baaaad" LOL  

Yes to this.

Accuracy requires a somewhat jaundiced eye, because, well...LIFE is jaundiced.

Edited October 13, 2019 by katrinka

[Symph]

19 minutes ago, katrinka said:

Yes to this.

Accuracy requires a somewhat jaundiced eye, because, well...LIFE is jaundiced.

Absolutely, I haven't done any readings for myself in a while since I'm actually being given the opportunity to read for others now but I'd like to keep honing in that ability to be impartial.  Seems like it would bleed into my ability to just be impartial with myself in general.  

[Arch]

I mostly read for myself, I can read for others, but find it harder.

Reading for myself I find that I get to explore my inner world very meticulously.

Which is very important if one wants to grow spiritually.

Of course others can chip in on that, but unless one has some arrangement,

getting the amount of readings needed to ascend to new levels, could get prohibitively expensive.

[Symph]

3 hours ago, Arch said:

I mostly read for myself, I can read for others, but find it harder.

Reading for myself I find that I get to explore my inner world very meticulously.

Which is very important if one wants to grow spiritually.

Of course others can chip in on that, but unless one has some arrangement,

getting the amount of readings needed to ascend to new levels, could get prohibitively expensive.

Oh absolutely!  That was one of the biggest surprises I experienced with Tarot.  I first had to let go of my fears that this was bad, and once I did? I found it to be like... this therapeutic, eye opening method of self examination that brought insight after insight into why I am the way I am, what things I tend to ignore about myself, the nature of life and it's cycles, and so much more.  It blew my mind that this thing I had feared for so long, was such an obvious tool for growth and bettering myself!!  It has deepened my relationships, helped me be more patient, caused me to make a bold decision in my work life that I wouldn't have made otherwise, and just become a way of life.  I feel like the only danger in self reading is deluding yourself into hearing only what you want from the cards, but as I stated earlier, my personal experience is that when I try to do that, life steps in and goes "WHAP!  Sorry bud but you knew what the cards were saying you just didn't listen!"  And it just further solidifies my ability to be objective with myself through trial and error.  So I'm all for it, I think many people could benefit from frequent self readings.

 

I do wanna add though, I think there is a big difference between openly and honestly examining yourself and your life through the cards, and trying to get the cards to tell you every little decision you should make.  I think if one becomes dependent on the cards in a way that's like, "Should I do this?  Should I do that?  What is this person thinking about me?  Should I go this direction or that direction?"  I feel like... that could get... not so beneficial, and actually stifle growth as any addiction would.  I don't know this from experience it just seems to me that like... as with anything in life, the attitude behind it is probably key.  And if one is just trying to get the cards to make all their decisions for them or comfort them all the time, that would probably have negative results.  If one is honestly and sincerely trying to learn how to be a better person and what they should work on/focus on for self growth, that's probably gonna work out well every time.  But that's just how I view life, others may disagree.  🙂

 

[Arch]

1 minute ago, Symph said:

I feel like the only danger in self reading is deluding yourself into hearing only what you want from the cards, but as I stated earlier, my personal experience is that when I try to do that, life steps in and goes "WHAP!  Sorry bud but you knew what the cards were saying you just didn't listen!"  And it just further solidifies my ability to be objective with myself through trial and error.  So I'm all for it, I think many people could benefit from frequent self readings.

 

This reminds me of a book I read

Quote

"...the choice of consciously traveling the Paths, one by one, has the effect of speeding up what would otherwise be a normal course of development.

It also has the effect of speeding up the course of karmic action, so that one who becomes involved with the Tarot for the purpose of learning

about himself and his universe, may suffer some serious personal problems at the onset. The reason for this is that a number of karmic debts

are paid off at once and the "board cleared" of some major impediments to understanding."

Robert Wang - The Qabalistic Tarot

 

1 minute ago, Symph said:

 

I do wanna add though, I think there is a big difference between openly and honestly examining yourself and your life through the cards, and trying to get the cards to tell you every little decision you should make.  I think if one becomes dependent on the cards in a way that's like, "Should I do this?  Should I do that?  What is this person thinking about me?  Should I go this direction or that direction?"  I feel like... that could get... not so beneficial, and actually stifle growth as any addiction would.  I don't know this from experience it just seems to me that like... as with anything in life, the attitude behind it is probably key.  And if one is just trying to get the cards to make all their decisions for them or comfort them all the time, that would probably have negative results.  If one is honestly and sincerely trying to learn how to be a better person and what they should work on/focus on for self growth, that's probably gonna work out well every time.  But that's just how I view life, others may disagree.  🙂

 

Yes, I do try to not ask my cards what to do too much, though sometimes I can't help it.

But then the cards tell me what I don't want to hear, so I ignore it to my double peril.

Cause now I know what I should have done, and I get to see how much I messed up ignoring it too,

which of course is doubly painful, because I knew.

 

I can see how following the cards like a slave would be just as bad as ignoring them when one ask them what to do.

Tarot is very much connected with the intentions and spirit one brings to the reading.

Tarot isn't anything at all without someone to interpret and interact with it.

 

I do agree that focus on growth can be a good frame, up to a point, it depends on a persons history and balance.

What is good for one person can be harmful to another.

This is a major reason why others advice can seem totally off base, because everyone is assuming that everyone else is like themselves,

while actually they are not, and much of the advice if followed, would really mess up things for them.

The nice thing about Tarot is that it is designed around this problem, as it attacks the problems from another level.