Ur wrote:Tarot and magic always confuse me. Surely you are either actually reading Tarot in the spiritual sense, or giving cold readings and using general or vague statements.
Tarot even in the world of trickery isnt ever anything but tarot is it? Obviously some here might doubt the authenticity of Tarot all together. I guess I dont know what I am trying to say, just that it confuses me to see it on a magic forum.
You are expressing common ignorance when it comes to this topic.
Anyone can learn to READ the Tarot or Runes, etc.
they are all a "language" of sorts and there is a literal science behind how one is supposed to interpret the information found in a spread. In the magician's world there has been a ton and a half of misinformation put out on this and related issues by opinionated cynics that want to do away with it altogether as well as those that simply want to make a quick buck giving you guys an "instant" method of supposedly replicating what it is a Reader does at the table.
I'll not give you a free study course at the moment but I will try to point you in a couple of directions that are a bit more "correct" than what you'll find in the magic shops (Richard Webster & Ron Martin's materials being an exception).
The famed "COLD READING" format that everyone thinks they know all about is only a foundation layer to an over-all reading; the true Reading has several layers to it and the more studied you are in this world, the more layers or "resources" you have for adding to and tailoring the Reading.
OBSERVATIONAL FACTORS are the next layer in a Reading... I'm not talking about the garbage you find in a Sherlock Holmes novel but rather what we know via "science" such as the Somatotypes introduced by Dr. Wm. Sheldon in the 1940s and related "Face Reading" factors -- the physical traits of your sitter and what body, face, hand shape, skin tone, hair & eye health all tell you. Yes, you are compiling niche material and adding it onto that foundation template but that's part of the art.
ESOTERIC FACTORS are your next level; discovering the sitter's astrological sign and/or birth date is one small key... learning their birth date and the spelling of their names is, for me at least, a greater key in that it allows me to exploit what I know about Numerology and superimpose that data into the rest.
Numerology & Color Psychology can be sewn into a Reading via several "cue" sources i.e. the clothing a person wears, the color correspondences to the numerological vibration of their name (see either my own EASY READING or Richard Webster's book on AURA READING)... Speaking of Mr. Webster and your client's name... Richard's book "PSYCHOMETRY FROM A-Z" will lend to you some serious advantages as well, in the earlier stages of a Reading Session.
As to the numbers & colors... look at your Tarot Cards as they are spread on the table... you can add numerological meanings based on the card's own value as well as color related significance...
... the deck I use (Tarot of the Old Path) is filled with accurate herb-lore as well as Ogham references through the art work which allows me to gain even greater specifics that can be sewn into a Reading. Knowledge that has nothing to do with the Tarot and a lot to do with knowing the craft and lore; both at the mundane & spiritual levels, around such things.
All of this gets combined so as to create a complete and PERSONALIZED Reading free from all that silliness the magician world likes to believe is being used or even the psychological B.S. so many keep using to explain it all away... forgetting, I might add, that most of the Human Behavior field of study got its impetus from the Gypsy's art of being a sounding board, counselor & guide. They are doing much of the same thing the Reader does, just using different tools, terms and what has become a white washed approach for selling drugs for the most part. Thankfully, Readers tend to be opposed to drug dependence for people though many are actually certified in the counseling fields now days.
The deception or immorality of doing Readings is not innate to the art but rather, a matter of who is doing the work and the kind of human being they are. Same goes with those seeking to learn how to be a pick-pocket or gambling hustler within our world... and I know for fact that many have played the pea & shell or tossed the cards so as to make a quick buck, not to mention those who set up bar betchyas... con games, some of which are even outlined in the Mark Wilson Course...
In other words, the blood of innocence is on the hands of many outside the Psychic realms and we need to look at the TRUTH as to where the fault really lays... that is, unless you want to list some of the greatest names of Mentalism history into the ranks of being crooks and con men??? Countless early year Mentalist actually have office hours if not a store front in which they did private Readings as a means of supplementing their free cash flow as well as building their reputations. Then again most up-starts in true Mentalism have the Robert Nelson Home Astrology Parties book to thank followed by similar encouragement in latter years by Webster, Hillford, Kross, Martin, Strivings, Flora and many others.
This bias and the arrogance attached to it by so many in today's magic world, blinds folks as to what Mentalism really is as well as what it means/ what's involved with doing genuine Readings.
I'm certain Rev. Lewis will be able to add to what I've said... he might even be willing to share a little formula about doing Readings that I know he's published in other forums of the past... it will certainly lend to many of you perspective you do not have at present. Though we don't use the same exact formulas, the philosophy remains close to being one in the same.