This past weekend I went to a Valentine’s Day Party. Fancy dress up, a lot of single, horny people, tons of booze. You can only imagine where MOST of us wound up that night. We went home and watched Netflix in bed.
I recently heard of readers doing Tarot at parties. THRILLED by that idea, I decided to bring my decks, sure that at least ONE person would want a reading. It would be good practice. It would be fun!
Famous last words.
I thought I would be lucky to get one person to let me give them a reading. Little did I know the SECOND I pulled out the cards, literally the entire party was piping up “me next, me next, me next!” I didn’t do anything else all night. Reading after reading after reading and by the end of it, I had nearly lost my voice.
Spiritually, I was so drained. By the seventh or eighth reading, I really felt as if I’d lost all connection to the cards. I didn’t have the energy to REALLY dig deep into the reading, and the slew of antsy people waiting for “their turn” left me distracted and nervous.
It wasn’t my best work, but people were thrilled nonetheless. Time after time they were like “oh my God, TOTALLY”. There were LITERALLY stars in their eyes they were so amazed by anything I said. I got so frustrated at one point I really just blurted out “honestly, I think the cards are telling me you’re not prepared for what you’re trying to do and you probably just shouldn’t do it” and the querent was like “oh my God. You are incredible.”
So. What did I learn this weekend?
Everyone. Loves. Tarot Cards. Seriously. Everyone. You go to the party with Tarot — YOU ARE THE PARTY.
There are VERY few people who aren’t
A.) Eager to talk about themselves
B.) Eager to know what’s going to happen to them
or C.) Eager to have their problems solved.
All things that the lay-person THINKS Tarot is for.
That isn’t my relationship with tarot. But when the people at that party came to me with those expectations, I found myself bending to their whims a little bit. I actually started predicting things – something I NEVER do under normal circumstances (my cards have never communicated to me in that way). I felt myself becoming more and more disingenuous as the night continued. By the end of the night, I really do think my cards felt a little…I dunno…whored out. We got tired together – tired of the constant “me, me, me”, tired of the “tell me exactly what I need to know”s. When I went to bed that night after I watched House of Cards all I could think was:
I have totally learned my lesson. I am NEVER reading for a large event again. It might be fun to see so many happy/interested querents, but straining my physical, emotional and spiritual relationship with my body and with my deck just wasn’t worth it.
Do you have any awful reading experiences that taught you valuable Tarot lessons?
J.J. Reads Tarot 
Talk about an Eight of Hearts situation. I too don’t find public readings very satisfying. You give so much of yourself for very little in return. (I joined a community where the only requirement was to give feedback in return for a free reading. I never hear from most of them again which demonstrates a lack of respect on their part.) And the questions get sooo repetitive. They’re not actually interested in the reading and the deeper meanings; they’re interested in being talked about.
I just prefer the Tarot blog community where the dialogue goes back and forth. The querent is someone you can have an actual relationship with and not just a consumer.
Wow JJ! I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. 😦 I think this post is very valuable for the tons of other aspiring readers who don’t know what they might be getting into when reading at large events. I myself have considered reading at parties, now I know I should do a lot of planning and get very clear on my boundaries before I do. Thanks for sharing and I hope you feel better.
Change the date, time, location, faces, and the same exact thing has happened to me, to many a bright eyed tarot reader. I wonder if it isn’t almost a sort of rite of passage.
Parties are tough. Yes they all love tarot but very few understand tarot and even fewer understand the spiritual and energetic drain on YOU. They might say gee thanks, but haven’t a clue what wind it took out of you. Tough situation you were in. 😦