Can I Read for Myself?
This question is asked so many times and causes headaches for such a lot of people, including professional Tarot readers that it deserves a full page of it's own, not just a section in the FAQ.
The answer to this question is Yes - and No. Everyone has to read for themselves to some degree, otherwise how can you ever learn the cards? You must be very detached to do a reading for yourself. Try to read them as if you were reading for a stranger, someone you have no emotional attachment to. Be honest with what you see. Sounds easy doesn't it?
But wait … Our professional resident reader here at Magician Tarot openly admits she just can't read for herself. When reading for other people the reading is usually crystal clear but when she tries to do her own, she says the cards make no sense at all, she is looking at them but there is nothing, no connection, no pictures coming to mind, zero! And many other professional Tarot readers find the same. But why, we hear you ask!
And we shall tell you. It is very difficult to read for yourself, because we are never as brutally honest with ourselves as we are with other people, especially if it is something we didn't want to see. We stop seeing what the cards are trying to show us and instead try to make them fit what we want to see. This works both in the positive and the negative, depending on whether you are the half-full / half-empty glass personality type. Some people refuse to see the bad in their own readings, and some can't even see the good!
Another problem is because you know yourself and your life inside out, you can relate the cards you pull to almost any area. Where another reader will get a "feel" about which problem is most pressing and coming through for you, it's not really possible to get that "feel" about yourself.
Anyway, to get familiar with the cards you still have to try. Rather than tackling great big issues when you first start reading for yourself, consider doing a small three card reading every day and writing the cards in a notebook. Note down your impressions and how you think your day is going to go. In the evening, compare the cards with how your day actually panned out. How accurate were you? If you were a bit off, take another look at the cards and see which of their meanings did fit the pattern of your day.
A slightly different way of going about the learning process but still allows you to get a reading now and then is to join a forum for Tarot development, and offer to do a reading exchange. There are a number of good forums where people will be happy to let you read for them, and equally as happy to read for you.
This question is asked so many times and causes headaches for such a lot of people, including professional Tarot readers that it deserves a full page of it's own, not just a section in the FAQ.
The answer to this question is Yes - and No. Everyone has to read for themselves to some degree, otherwise how can you ever learn the cards? You must be very detached to do a reading for yourself. Try to read them as if you were reading for a stranger, someone you have no emotional attachment to. Be honest with what you see. Sounds easy doesn't it?
But wait … Our professional resident reader here at Magician Tarot openly admits she just can't read for herself. When reading for other people the reading is usually crystal clear but when she tries to do her own, she says the cards make no sense at all, she is looking at them but there is nothing, no connection, no pictures coming to mind, zero! And many other professional Tarot readers find the same. But why, we hear you ask!
And we shall tell you. It is very difficult to read for yourself, because we are never as brutally honest with ourselves as we are with other people, especially if it is something we didn't want to see. We stop seeing what the cards are trying to show us and instead try to make them fit what we want to see. This works both in the positive and the negative, depending on whether you are the half-full / half-empty glass personality type. Some people refuse to see the bad in their own readings, and some can't even see the good!
Another problem is because you know yourself and your life inside out, you can relate the cards you pull to almost any area. Where another reader will get a "feel" about which problem is most pressing and coming through for you, it's not really possible to get that "feel" about yourself.
Anyway, to get familiar with the cards you still have to try. Rather than tackling great big issues when you first start reading for yourself, consider doing a small three card reading every day and writing the cards in a notebook. Note down your impressions and how you think your day is going to go. In the evening, compare the cards with how your day actually panned out. How accurate were you? If you were a bit off, take another look at the cards and see which of their meanings did fit the pattern of your day.
A slightly different way of going about the learning process but still allows you to get a reading now and then is to join a forum for Tarot development, and offer to do a reading exchange. There are a number of good forums where people will be happy to let you read for them, and equally as happy to read for you.
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