Tarot readings tending to be negative??

[farafina]

Hi

I have noticed that many Tarot readers tend to have negative interpretations of the cards. Friends of mine have also confided in me that they find that tarot readings tend to always deliver bad news to them or talk about the negative aspects of things.

Today, I asked an acquaintance of mine to interpret a simple spread that I had already interpreted with the same question. Next thing I know, all the cards are being interpreted as being about a negative future...
For instance, the question was about my distant cousin who is about to get married.

The future card was the Emperor:

He interpreted it as meaning that the relationship was going to turn out badly because the husband would prove to be controlling, emotionally distant and authoritarian. The relationship would be completely emotion-less.

I interpreted this card as meaning that as a couple they would be builders. They would be very practical in their endeavors, get involved in property building and that they would both be a solid foundation for their future family.

I am bringing this up because I have noticed that many Tarot readers (thank God not here on Mystic Board) tend to keep reading the cards in such a negative light... that many of the querents come out feeling hopeless.

Why this phenomenon? Has anybody else notice this?

[Montauk109]

I am big believer that there are really no negative cards at all..just lessons to be learned. Once the querent has learned the lesson..the Universe will give them the next step. For example take the Rider/Waite The Tower card in which the destruction and rebuilding of everything that we hold near and dear-most happens. Many, many times " break-through " moments in life happen after someone has gone through a " dark-night of the soul experience." One can point out to the querant that a dark-night of the soul experience or the aspects of The Tower card happens when they least expect it and without warning. Once the person understands why they hurt so much or why everything is going wrong for them..that's when change for the better happens.

As you say, and I agree with many who do tarot readings tend to be very negative. Perhaps this is just inexperience with the reader, I don't know. If I can use the cards to point to querent to how to create the outcome that they are wanting..really no fortune-telling takes place on my part that's because they are creating their own future which the decisions that they are currently making.

I hope this makes some sense.

rich/

[cedars]

Farafina
I have had that experience myself too, so many times. Whenever I have had readings and they have used purely the tarot cards, I have had negative interperetations, unlike clairvoyance or mediumship. That is why I always ask them if the reading is going to be purely based on tarot cards or mixed with clairvoyance/mediumship. Those who intuit with the tarot and go on with their other skills, usually deliver it differenlty - more positive.
My experience so far even though I love the tarot.
Cedars

[farafina]

Waw so both of you Montauk and Cedars have noticed the same pattern with many Tarot readers.
I wonder, why is it that people who base their readings on Tarot only are often so negative in the interpretations? What makes them do that? What makes them see the cards as negative rather than positive?

It really is a mystery to me...

[Rising Sun]

I think it is because of the reputation of tarot. So many new readers expect doom and gloom and that is, to be fair, the scariness and grandeur and theatre of tarot isn't it lol.

What I don't like is the way some readers give information. As if it is the only truth and it WILL happen and they are right. That to me is totally wrong and a misuse of the cards.   Tarot is more about helping provide information, support, guidance and empowerment.

[kybunker]

I don't know about anyone else,
But I do know that I love to have The Emperor as my husband.
It means to me that all will be taken care of, All is in control with this one.
A nice smooth ride.

[farafina]

That's how I felt it on this one. But then some people also view the Emperor as being insensitive and controlling.

I don't get that sense at all. I feel like the Emperor is more of a down-to-earth guy and who is not too talkative but takes actions. Walks the walk. Takes care of his family and doesn't care what other people think.



But then, again, some tarot readers only see drama and death everywhere, so...  :smt017

[kybunker]

I've found that depending on the person I'm reading,, Their thoughts, energy vibes will dictate which way the cards will be read.
I had one lady tell me she hates the readings she gets from me because they are so negaitive, Not all the readings I give are, But if you are living a lifestyle with nothing but dread, dread is what comes out in the energy field,
When people go in for a reading, They should go in with love in their heart, Readers are very sensitive to what others put off.
I had another lady I did a reading for, on the internet,, My throat got sore real fast, I began coughing, I told her that she's sick and should realize that the sickness is not hers but it's from the drama of a female family member,
Then asked her why there's a dead bird above her right shoulder?
She verified that she was sick, down with streph throat and the cold on top of that, Yes her daughter is having abuse problems with her husband and she wants to step in but wasn't sure if she should or even what she should do if she did.. Slam There's the streph throat,, Communications at a stand still,, there for effecting her throat,, which she projects,, which I took on as a physcial manifestation, After she realized the cause of her illness she was able to let it go.
The dead bird, That astonished me,, She said her husband was going down the highway, and a bird hit their driverside window,
So that thought was still in her field,
So my point to all this is that The readings come out according to what is being put off in the field, Maybe the reader was getting negitive vibes, therefore the Emperor came out as a negitive influence.
does this make sense?

[farafina]

Absolute sense!!

I feel EXACTLY  the same.

Usually as I am  focusing on someone during the shuffling and spreading of the cards on the table, I even know when I'm connected because of some strange vibrations I get in my body coming from the cards... something vibrating...

That's when I know, I am in touch with the person's energy. So then I start drawing the cards with my questions.
As I turn the cards over, it's like they are talking to me, and it's not always matching with standard meanings for the cards, but it's just like words, images or feelings I get.

It has happened to me a few times that as I am trying to draw cards for someone, I get stressed out and my heart starts beating fast and something is telling me to stop. When it happens, I just tell the person I can't read for them.

It's also because I am very afraid of bad info and also of certain energies so I always ask God to protect me against the stuff I'm afraid of before my readings.

You are right about the negaivity FROM the querent getting into the cards... For instance, I once read for someone who suffers from bipolar disorder, but I didn't know at that time that the person had this condition. During the reading, I felt like a yo-yo pull and push and started getting dizzy and confused. The cards were coming out strangely: Devil, Tower, 9 of wands, 9 of cups, 10 of swords, then back to the Sun, and then 3 of swords...  Later the person told me they suffered form bipolar...

[kybunker]

Right,
Farafina wrote "You are right about the negaivity FROM the querent getting into the cards... For instance, I once read for someone who suffers from bipolar disorder, but I didn't know at that time that the person had this condition. During the reading, I felt like a yo-yo pull and push and started getting dizzy and confused. The cards were coming out strangely: Devil, Tower, 9 of wands, 9 of cups, 10 of swords, then back to the Sun, and then 3 of swords...  Later the person told me they suffered form bipolar..."

This is why we feel so nuts when we are on our "Breaks", I call it my down time, Where I'm feeling strange but I know I've been exposed to a different situation I'll be needing to understand later,,,

You can't know what it means or what it feels like to be in a mental disorder,,, A tragdy,, A break up,, A loss of a loved one,, An abortion,, A broken leg... Whatever,, Unless you've been through it yourself,, Then you can understand what you are reading,,

If you have walked in their shoes, You can begin to read with understanding,,
If you have no want to ever encounter someone with an experience you do not want to go through, Pray that you are only sent the people that you can help. And not just anyone.

In the beginning, The energies would pick up so much that I would naturally (human) refuse them, by doing this I'd begin to shake really hard. I was always told to center myself, get grounded and just accept it,,,LOL yeah like the doctor says "take a deep breath and relax" lol right
Well there's somethings I like having a barrier against,
The shaking is my way of telling myself STOP.
We have to listen to ourselves. Or we will get sick! (go through a lesson)

[purple_dust]

Well in my country Tarot readers tell you negative things so that they can "conveniently" suggest you a "remedy" that of course they will willingly sell you!
"you will have money problems, take this..."

In this case they're businesspeople, not tarot readers.

[pirbid]

I have a different view on the matter.

I also interpret my own dreams since I was very young, so I know that both dreams and Tarot are usually there to teach us something useful, something new about ourselves. Or even some issues, not so new, that we may have been refusing to look at closely.

That is why we can get puzzling spreads that we want nothing to do with at first glance -or dreams we are ashamed to remember, for that matter-.

But I always found that, if we take the time to look at them carefully and gently, probing only so far as the querent or ourselves will allow, there is always something really useful there for us. A veritable pearl of knowledge, and it is a shame to waste it.

Of course, the real skill of the reader consists of being able to explain anything, good or bad, as a matter of possible consequences to certain attitudes or behaviors. And help the querent glean the real lesson behind the card that is giving him/her the goose bumps.

Sometimes the scariest cards are the ones with a deeper meaning in a spread. Are we brave enough to make the most of the present they offer?  :smt002

[XxLenorexX]

I've noticed that as well.
A long time ago i did a reading that suggested that my parents would break up and a friend of mine was claiming that the cards were saying that no good will come of it.
Well they DID breakup but in the long run it turned out for the best...

[pirbid]

Even when I get a truly disastrous spread, full of reversals, lots of stagnant energy and negative but powerful cards, I thank the cards for being so very sincere in pointing out my failures.

I must say the readings I do for myself tend to be harsher than those I do for others. Just as if the cards did not bother beating around the bush with poor little me!  :smt005

But even if the disastrous reading is for someone else, I get the chance to really try to help. And of course I try to be as tactful as possible. I would never say that a couple will be breaking up! I would say the cards show some tension between them and issues they should be discussing in order to get the best outcome possible for them at that moment. I am not the one to decide if they finally break up or not, but it is useful for them to know they could work on things a little -or even a lot-.

Also, think about a really sunny, cheery spread. Picture the Star followed by the ten of Cups, the Six of Cups, the 4 of Wands, the Sun... Come on, guys, it would look like Little House on the Prairie and, really, what is the interesting lesson you can give the querent? Go live in the country and raise horses and grow radishes?  

I rather like it when things start out not-so-bright and then turn better towards the future. Since the querent is asking, it probably means they are giving some thought to their problems, which is the first step towards righting them  :smt002

[cedars]

I agree with the full content of your above post Pirbid. However, even when a reading turns out to be all sunshine and hope, perhpas to the querent it is something long-awaited; something that he/she has been waiting following a long, troublesome phase in their life.

Whilst I agree to start a reading with the not so positive and lead up to a very positive or hopeful outcome, but I have had spreads in readings for others, where everything was a ray of sunshine and hope. The querent received them all with such a sigh of relief that only he/she knew how deep and heavy that sigh of relief was.

I rarely do readings for myself these days, except the occasional draw of one or two cards. I hope to change that soon.