Q5: When and where did you give your first reading?
Well, I’ll have to think about that one. I did some readings for friends and family when I first started in the 1998–1999 time frame, but I don’t remember which was the first one. I mostly read for myself at that point.
One reading from that initial period that stands out in my mind is one I did for my ex-husband (when he was still my husband, or course!). Don’t remember all the particulars of the reading itself except, like most of my readings for others, the accuracy of the results and the flow of the interpretive process surprised me. It was just done at the dining room table in my house back then.
I was actually surprised that he wanted a reading; he’s a very intellectual scientist and I expected him to poo-poo the whole idea. So I still give him kudos for keeping an open mind. 🙂
I do free readings for the Tarot Association of the British Isles, and my first one of those was in March of 2013. It was a bit scary being responsible for someone’s emotions doing readings for the general public. I do have ethics to consider like making sure the querent knows that they are empowered to decide/change things based on the reading and that fate is not a rigid, predetermined thing.
The lady asked about a common issue, love life: “What do I need to know about a possible relationship in my future? (my future love life and a new love, or past love, who may enter my life)”
I do try to strike a balance between a practical, “fortune-teller” answer, and a psychological approach that focuses on the querent’s feelings and mental attitude. I don’t remember if I got feedback from this querent, but it was interesting to deal with these practical questions after being mostly about the spiritual journey with my Tarot readings.
And, just for fun, the first professional (paid!) Tarot reading I did (in 2016, so it took a while to get started) was seriously overwhelming, and I had to put on my spiritual “channeling” self to come up with a final message for it. Another relationship question, but this time the querent was quite familiar with Tarot and as it turned out, Lenormand reading methods but wanted an “outsider” view on their situation. I wasn’t expecting to be doing a Lenormand Grand Tableau (!!!) as part of the reading (client did pay for a long session, though), so I felt like I was scrambling to come up with a good interpretation with that system after covering the Tarot territory. I still consider myself primarily a student when it comes to the Lenormand. I did learn from that session the importance of getting everything from the querent about what they expect so I can prepare properly for the reading.
So, baptism by fire on the professional front, but that’s my set of stories about first readings.
______________________
I found the questions for this series at a Tumblr account that no longer exists. A lovely person named Rhee started the thing. These are great prompts for telling stories about one’s journey through the world of Tarot, so I’ve started the series again on a weekly basis so you all can get to know me better, and also share your own answers to the questions in comments or links to your own posts. I’d love to hear from you!
Leave a Reply