"Should you charge for Tarot readings?"
Jan replies:
My response to this question is a resounding "Yes!!" Here’s why...
If you are going to spend years of your life learning about the cards, their levels of meaning, their differing interpretations, the working peculiarities of different layouts, you will spend many many hours in study. Of course, a great deal of this will be fascinating, enlightening and will assist in your own development. But some of it will be very hard work indeed.
Think about the permutations on a theme that you will have to understand completely - 78 cards, each with several layers of meaning. Several types of layout, every one with its own quirks and oddities, every one demanding that you comprehend its working thoroughly. Each layout having different placements for the cards, each of which will slightly alter its meaning - if you regularly read with - say - a ten-card layout, then you will need to know the ways in which a position affects every one of the 78 cards - that’s 780 slightly different definitions. You’ll also need, if you are to be a good reader, to understand how each of those 78 cards acts upon each of the others!! That’s 6084 possible combinations. And of course certain layouts demand that you read one or more card positions against each other... starting to get the idea??
Then if you are to read for people, you will also, to a degree, have to counsel them. You can’t go telling a person to alter every single aspect of their life without both relating to their personal needs, and giving them support. You’ll need to outline important options for them, approach telling them difficult things carefully, help them to think of themselves as adequate and worthy human beings. So you’ll be needing to understand quite a bit about how people work, what they need, and how they can get their needs fulfilled.
Then there’s the psychic development you will be needing to do. If a person is willing to put in the dedicated study to understand decks and cards, they WILL be able to read Tarot. The difference between the good Tarot reader and the great Tarot reader is entirely dependent on their psychic ability.
To read Tarot is NOT a gift. It is a hard-earned and responsible skill. It takes years to develop to the extent where you are able to read efficiently. At that point, you do have the right to call yourself a professional. And, like all other professionals who have trained in other areas, you therefor have every right to charge a fee for the service you perform!!
Loadsalove
Jan
