True story. A couple of years ago, a woman client contacted me and requested a reading regarding her relationship. She was married, and she suspected that her husband had cheated her. Normally, I would decline this kind of reading politely, but she insisted. As always, I have explained to her that I can perform a general reading regarding her relationship and if there is something she should know, it will most likely reveal itself. I did the reading, and I told her that I do not think that her husband is cheating on her, there was no card or combination of cards indicating anything of that matter. She was not satisfied with my reading, and she called me names. She called me a conservative, misogynist, unprofessional – only to mention the kindest ones.
After about two years, she contacted me again. She told me that she reached out another card reader and her suspicions were confirmed. She kicked out her husband from the house they were living together and filed for divorce. After some time, she eventually finds out that her husband was actually faithful and a female friend of her who was interested in her husband has planted the seeds of suspicion in her mind to get her off the way. However, it was a little bit too late, she already divorced, and meantime her ex-husband has found another relationship.
I truly appreciated her honesty and the strength to admit that she was wrong, not for my ego, but her own good.
Quite often, the clients are looking for confirmation of their hopes or fears. ‘Truth’ or facts are irrelevant when one is confronting or experiencing its own emotions. Can not reason with one’s beliefs. Truth is rarely comfortable. However, it is the responsibility and duty of a genuine cartomancer to read and interpret what shows in the cards and not to confirm their clients what they want to hear. Some may consider this is a moral or ethical dilemma; I think it is purely a practical, and therefore, a professional matter. As you aspect your doctor to be straightforward, no matter how serious health issue you have, similarly, the cartomancer has to present what the cards show. Obviously, everybody wants to be constantly happy, healthy and wealthy, but this is not always the case. How the message is delivered depends entirely on the talent, skills and education of the cartomancer. Cartomancy, and especially Tarot, is a permanent challenge; it is an ongoing and never-ending learning process. Nowadays, intuition is overrated, and studying is underrated.
Reading cards is not an act of entertainment. Therefore, I do not recommend public performances cause reading is a very intimate matter: like a confession or a therapy session. Each reading should be performed individually, even, or especially when partners claim that they do not have secrets. Everyone has something to hide. Although advanced readers, in a well-determined and preset framework, can perform special couple-session.
Cartomancers have serious responsibilities, and their readings can have dramatical consequences. It is essential to understand that the cartomancer only will present the available options, but the decision is exclusively for the clients to take. The cartomancer does not have the ‘privilege’ to discern what information to present or what to hold back from the client; she or he must reveal all of it unaltered and should trust that the client has the wisdom to make the best decision for itself. The cartomancer is not some superior, almost divine spiritual being, but only a humble servant.
(Imagine: Fortune teller by Albert Anker.)
