Nothing beats experience when it comes to Tarot reading and everything we learn is a valuable part of our development as Tarot readers. That smooth, blissful and entirely spot on readings are the ones that build our confidence, but the readings that go south, the difficult clients and the blank moments also play a fundamental role in our growth as Tarot readers!

So this post is meant to help you see the silver lining when a reading don’t go as good as expected, to bring you some reassurance and show you how this mishaps actually have a positive impact on our skills as Tarot readers. At the end of the day, you need to remember that at one point or another, it happens to the best of us!

8 situations that you have to go through before going pro.

1 – The answer that was right before your eyes.

You and your querent are sharing a wonderful moment of Tarot enlightenment, the reading is flowing, everything makes perfect sense and the outcome you see seems to be just the logic consequence to the series of events you have just thoroughly analyzed.

A few weeks go by and your querent contacts you again with a very different story. In that moment, the cards on the table pop up in your mind, with a very different meaning and showing you the events that actually happened! You spend the next few days wondering how could you miss it.

Why is this positive? Sometimes a situation has been shown in the pictures rather than by the meanings, or the cards were being too literal when you were trying to find a more intricate meaning. This teaches mainly two things: One, the answer is in the cards, even if not in the way you thought. Two: There are different ways in which the message will be shown to you, and it is a matter of practice to learn how to distinguish it!

2 – That time Death meant death.

A Tarot teacher I had once used to say that one doesn’t become a reader until they see their first actual death. Honestly, I don’t subscribe to this thought and I find it purposefully spooky. Tarot is not a showcase of dreadful events as Hollywood wants us to believe, but I found incredible value in the first of the very few times I have come across a literal death.

Let’s start with a bit of background story. It was New Year’s Eve 2008 and I was pulling a 12 card yearly reading for my father’s mother in law. The first three or four cards were about random stuff I don’t remember, and the last cards of the reading were pretty promising, however, the cards in the middle, the ones that belonged to spring and summer were pretty ominous. Death was there, right in the fifth position, Four of Swords right after and a Six of Swords completing the combo. Immediately, I had the feeling that those cards where not talking about those months, but something else, as a whole. As well, I had a really uneasy feeling and the word “cancer” started screaming inside me.

What did that fifteen year old me do? I silently freaked out, ignored it, made up the rest of the reading, freaked out a tad bit more , and tried to forget about the whole thing.

Fast forward a few months, she was diagnosed with an early stage of colon cancer, she underwent surgery, the cancer was removed and that very night, the stitches opened inside her, she had sepsis and technically she died. And then she was brought back and all of the promising cards in the reading made sense. That whole reading wasn’t about the year, it was about the event of the year.

Thankfully, she’s alive to this day and going strong.

What did I learn from this? A variety of things.

– Trying to silence your intuition doesn’t make it wrong.

– Death, sometimes means death.

– Not everything that you see in a reading needs to be disclosed.

– You may feel guilty for not having said, for not having tried to change it. Release that guilt, you did what you thought best. Do your best, if you see something concerning, recommend a visit to the doctor without freaking your querent out.

Disclaimer: Please, bear in mind that this does not happen often. Making such a prediction can cause a terrible state of anxiety and fear that is completely counterproductive. Don’t go into the mud and predict death, seriously, don’t. If you are alarmed, recommend a visit to the doctor just in case, and do not freak out or sound ominous. Remember that a Tarot reading is always meant to make you feel better than when you arrived, this does not mean sugarcoating or telling a fairy-tale, it means that you need to find a way to offer alternative ways to your client, to make them feel in charge of the situation.

3 – The time the reading was just perfect.

I guess we all remember the first time we were actually readers. That reading where everything went smooth, you felt connected AF to the querent, the question, the Universe and the Divine Source of Tarot Reading Mastery . A few weeks later your prediction came to happen and you felt like this:

Why is this important? This is the kind of event that builds up your confidence. That lets you know that you know your thing, even if you’re not entirely sure of how did you make it happen. When time goes by, you will look at this moment and you will see how far you’ve come. As well, it will serve as reassurance when you have one of the readings we are going to see next.

4 – The most terrible reading.

You’re far along in your Tarot journey, the birds are singing, the butterflies are batting their colourful wings, you feel confident in your doing and you start pulling your cards and begin with the reading. Nothing makes sense, your querent is staring at you wondering if you have the minimum idea of what you are talking about. The situation becomes, tense, very tense. You don’t know if you should pile up your cards and start all over again, apologize, meditate, try again later or cry in despair.

What do you learn from this? At the beginning it will be no fun. You will be wondering about this, in shame, for days, wondering what could have happened. At this point you may start considering if you should have believed in the whole “gift” thing or if you have bragged too loud about your reading skills and you have pissed off the God of Tarot. However, there’s a silver lining. You will know it is not the end of the world. You will know that no matter how good you are, you are always susceptible to having a bad day and a bad reading doesn’t mean that you are a bad reader.

5 – The time you were overconfident and the s*** hit the fan.

A variation of the last one, but worse. Here we are talking about a reading that didn’t really go bad, you felt like a spiritual guru on steroid and you started giving advice as if it came directly from God’s Whatsapp. Your querent followed it blindly and ended up in a good mess.

You were screamed at, yelled at, and you were basically crying under a blanket for a week.

Why is this important? In the future, you will find that there are some clients that just won’t listen to you no matter what. But there are some others that actually listen, that believe in you. People trust you. This is a valuable lesson! It will teach you to measure your words, to be able to foresee the impact that your words may have in your client, and it will also help you calibrate your client and determine a way you can deliver your news and advice taking into account the person you are dealing with. This way, you will know how to better convey your message without catastrophic results.

6 – Your first psycho.

At one point or another, we all find our first creepstalker! When you look back, you will laugh at it, but while it lasts, the thing gets pretty damn scary.

It usually starts with you being a good soul, wanting to help the neighbour and offering good guidance and a shoulder to cry on. And the querent starts to cross the line. First, it is an unannounced reading because it is so urgent. Then, it becomes a text at 2 a.m. updating you on their last break-up. It progressively evolves into a very annoying situation, where this querent will behave as if you were a Zoltar machine without even inserting a quarter. And they will get mad if you don’t answer straight away. And they will yell, make drama and appeal to emotion to make you feel a terrible human being.

Bonus tip: Run for your life.

How does this help you? In a variety of ways. First of all, it teaches you to set healthy boundaries for you and for your clients. It may take a few weeks of exhaustion, but you will eventually stand up for yourself and realize that you are not a NGO. This kind of experience helps you realize your value as a reader, and gives you quite a few skills to deal with this so it doesn’t happen again in the future.

7 – The day you were reading for a wall.

In this case scenario, you are reading for someone who, no matter what you say, has already decided that you are wrong. Words just don’t make it to their brain, as if their earrings were blocking the signal or something.

Let me tell you this real life experience from many years ago.

Client: “I had a friend who passed away. I would like to know how his last moments were and how is he doing now.”

Me: “I see that for this person, his death was a release. I see that he was under an incredible pressure, and although he knew he was going to die he felt pretty lonely during the process. You didn’t really get to say goodbye and that haunts you. As for your friend, I see that the moment of the death was pretty traumatic but also relieving, and that right now he feels entirely free and aligned with his spirit.”

Client: “Bulls***! None of that is true! You have no idea what you are talking about!”

Me:…

Client: “Indistinct rant.”

Me: “May… May I ask what happened to your friend?”

Client: “He committed suicide.”

Me:…



Why is this a good thing? Because when you deal with this kind of client in the future, you will know that some readings don’t go south because of you. Sometimes, people is just decided to making you wrong, or are expecting to hear things phrased in a particular way and everything else will just be inaccurate.

Extra validation points: With a certain frequency, this kind of clients come back to tell you that you were right.

8 – The time you weren’t wrong.

This one is similar to the last situation with an slightly different nuance. Part of the reading was great, the outcome was unbelievable and your querent didn’t leave the place very convinced. The whole thing left you feeling uneasy about your reading skills, considering whether you were mistaken or not. Your client said “This cannot happen, it is impossible.” And you basically couldn’t say much more than mumble “Yet it is what I so clearly see…”

Time goes by and you receive a call. Your prediction was, against all expectations, right. Congratulations, you have won a client for life.

How is this beneficial? With time and experience you will learn to discern when you were wrong, when your client didn’t want to listen or when what you said would happen will only take a little extra time to happen. As you grow as a reader, your confidence will grow as well. All of the above-mentioned experiences are meant to shape you as a reader and to give you a thick skin! Whenever you have a not so pleasant experience, seek how to turn it in your favour. There’s some lesson in all of them!

How did you live your first Tarot experiences when you were a beginner? Do you think there is something left? I would love to read your experiences!

I have gone through all eight shit-uations myself, so you can book a reading with me and be in the clear!