What it's like to give someone a tarot card reading
Before I sit down to give a reading, I really do try to clear my mind of any of my problems or anything else I’ve been mentally carrying around all day. The next few minutes are not about me, but about the person in front of me. This is sometimes hard to do in my monthly live comedy tarot show, because it’s also a form of entertainment for our crowd, but I do my best.
I make sure I have my tarot cards, tarot book, and something to protect the cards from whatever surface I’m doing the reading on (usually the scarf I keep my deck wrapped up in). And a glass of water, because sometimes the cards are chatty!
When someone is talking to me and giving me information/a question to answer for them, I shuffle the cards while listening as close as I can. Sometimes I’ll ask a couple of clarifying questions, just to make sure I know what’s going on. It’s at this point that I become super invested in helping this person and figuring out what’s going on.
Before I deal the cards, I have the question-asker cut the deck into three stacks; they then choose which stack I’ll be doing the reading from. It almost feels like a magic trick that I’m letting them in on, even though it couldn’t be further from it. Once they’ve chosen a stack, I deal the cards into the layout that I think is best for their question to be fully answered; these are usually, 3-, 5-, or 10-card layouts.
From here, it’s all about explaining the meaning of each card and its relation to the entire reading. I’m constantly checking in to make sure everything is making sense and if any/all of it is connecting to their life. They’ll usually let me know how it’s all clicking for them, and we continue throughout the rest of the cards until everything has been discussed. This part is always a little nerve-wracking for me, because at any point, they could completely disagree with what I’m telling them. What if all the cards that were dealt won’t relate to them at all?
However, it’s also thrilling. I love seeing connections get made in their mind that I’m not told until later — you can always see “gears turning,” so to speak, and it’s fascinating. People are usually a little spooked by how accurate my readings are, and it’s always funny/nice when that happens. It’s good to be accurate! And funny to be spooky!
All in all, it’s a really interesting way to connect with other humans. It’s even a good way to reconnect with yourself! If you want to start learning how to read tarot cards, I suggest starting here: