Ten years ago I designed and taught an Advanced Professional Tarot Reader program for students who had completed both of my 6 week Introductory and Intermediate reading classes. I formatted the advanced to be a series of twelve workshops which ran typically for an all day Saturday and led to Certification as Tarot Master (CTM) recognized by certifying bodies in Canada and the US.

The topics for these workshops included what you might expect: Tarot reading for particular questions like health, relationships and spiritual direction; interpersonal topics related to psychology, psychic ability and several more relevant areas to an initiate advancing to professional readership.

One of the workshops that was terrific fun to do was teaching students how to cope effectively with difficult clients.  Everyone’s notion about what makes a difficult client differs slightly but there are common themes.  Everyone knows what you mean when you say you have a tough boss, or scary in-law or annoying neighbour.  The content might vary slightly but the dynamic is universally understood.  So who is the dreaded client? 

The Stoic, Silent Type

These clients expect the reader to tell all. They sit across from you or on the phone without uttering a single word after a perfunctory, “Hello”.  They don’t understand the process or benefit of interactivity.  The more deeply I get to know them and their situation the more accurately I can read for them.  For most, this is just logical but for some this is mysteriously counter-intuitive.  These clients I liken to being sentenced to hard labour.

The Fearful Ones

I’m certainly guilty of praying fervently that the cards will be ever and always lovely but at the risk of sounding cliché you read the cards you’re dealt and go with your intuition.  That’s what I do and that’s the way it is.  So when I sense that a client wants assurances, I say the news may not be all cheery but the guidance and suggestions the Tarot offers IS likely to be elucidating.  Some clients will just say they don’t want to hear bad news. Usually while I’m eying cards like the Tower, Mourning and Poverty.  I have to be mindful about how I’m going to relate this information and hypervigilant with my facial expressions as well.

The Confessors

The Tarot stimulates thoughts and feelings in people that they often have never expressed aloud to anyone.  They burble over with long explanations, reflections, ruminations and excitement.  As a psychological tool, that’s what makes the Tarot so powerful but the problem for a reader is that people do expect to learn something from the readings that they didn’t know before. It can be challenging to effect just the right degree of give and take in the Tarot reading whereby both parties have enough time to garner what they need to produce a helpful, and informative reading.

A tarot reader must work on a schedule therefore it rests with the reader to establish limits for reading and for sharing.

The Liars

Sometimes clients lie.  They refuse to tell the truth because they want you to psychically know the truth.  They are testing the reader’s intuition or they simply don’t want to tell anyone their truth out of embarrassment or shame.

Some clients just resist every statement a reader makes because they are in denial about the issue.  When a client claims that I haven’t hit on anything – it’s time for interaction.  What is going on in their lives?  Sometimes the timing of events is off (I might be seeing something that isn’t in their lives yet and this happens frequently).  The oracle typically speaks a language that’s difficult to translate into the physical mundane universe particularly when it comes to the question of WHEN which is what many are the most keen to have answered with some accuracy!

The Bargain Hunter

This whole issue of money for readings can represent a frightening challenge especially for new readers.  Most clients understand that they are being charged a fee for a service and they don’t make an issue about it.  You want a plumber to fix your faucet, you want someone to sell your house or you want someone to read your cards, you pay for the service and that’s it, plain and simple.

When you first begin in this crazy business you discover there are some who resent paying for a reading that hasn’t offered what they wanted to hear.  Seriously.

Some are just bargain hunters by nature and apply this approach to a reader.  They will say they can get a reading from someone else for less hoping to inspire you to be more competitive.  Some simply believe that because you are performing a spiritual service it should be free.  I have no idea how these people expect me to eat and remain alive to do readings for them again in the future.  Spiritual people don’t need to eat?

Along for the Ride

Some arrive with a friend in tow who isn’t keen on having a reading themselves.  In fact, they aren’t keen on the whole process. They laugh, make fun of, and often complain about price, your style, and are anxious to point out how silly their friend is for being so taken in by such ridiculous practices as the Tarot. Sadly (and somewhat hilariously) this has caught more than one, unsuspecting client completely by surprise.  They were misled into believing their hand-holding friend was curious, open minded and had only a desire to be the note taker!

There is typically an hidden agenda present that a reader must quickly assess.  For example, it might be that the guest has been giving their friend advice that they are ignoring, and they are resentful that when you’ve offered the same advice in a reading the friend/client takes it more to heart.

Everyone faces these types of challenges (and more!) when they begin their journey as a professional reader. We learn the most as we go.  This work has changed me more profoundly (for the better) than anything I’ve ever done in my life.

I’m much better at setting boundaries, asserting my voice and listening into the silence for nuance and feeling than I was ever able to in the past. My psychic ability has increased exponentially with all the use I’ve put it to and this has helped me tremendously in my own daily life.

I consider it a privilege to have been invited so intimately into so many people’s lives. To laugh (and yes I’ve cried too) as they bravely face the suffering life inevitably plants on their doorstep, to be there to admonish them to love themselves more and hold their hand as they stare that wall of denial into oblivion. For all its tests and difficulties, it remains the best job ever.

Articles Published in September