Professional Tarot Card Reading—8 Signs You're Ready

So you want to be a professional Tarot card reader. Using your intuition to help people gain perspective and understanding around their most challenging concerns, and to find direction, is your ultimate goal. You’re even considering ditching that day job in favor of a grind that allows you to take on clients. You’ve pulled, you’ve interpreted, and The Magician is telling you that it’s time to make your daydream a reality.

But are you really, truly ready to translate your skills from hobby to job? Here, eight signs that you’ve made the leap from novice to pro.

You know the meanings by heart.

Being able to read each card without hesitation or looking in a book is essential for a professional reading. Your knowledge base and unique relationship with the cards has blossomed, and you’re able to understand the nuances of meaning for each card in different placements and in relation to different topics. Knowing the meanings allows you to easily interpret—and gives you room to use your intuition. Read me: This Tarot Card Speaks of Love in Its Highest Form

You rarely draw a blank when doing a reading.

Hey, sometimes even the best of us are stumped to make a connection between cards, or we might use a card the wrong way. It will happen, but before you start reading professionally, you should be beyond the point where it happens often. You have techniques and strategies that you can implement when those blanks do occur.

You have three spreads to work with—at least.

It isn’t enough to just be familiar with the Celtic Cross—a single spread isn’t appropriate for every situation. You have a bevy of spreads in your Tarot portfolio, from involved layouts for longer readings and complex questions to short, three-card spreads for 15-minute readings. And you’re able to quickly identify which spread makes sense for a given client.

You can comfortably practice with strangers.

You don’t just read for friends and family. Whether you’re promoting yourself through social media or from a seat on a park bench, your aim is to share your skill with the world at large. You have an understanding of people’s questions and reactions and confidence in your own intuition.

You can synthesize the cards.

The true magic of Tarot occurs when the reader takes all the cards, in all their respective positions, and interprets the complete layout in relation to the question. After all, rattling off the meaning of each card separately isn’t a reading —it’s a laundry list. Synthesis allows your intuition and practice with the cards to come together—and you’ve mastered the art of this brand of storytelling.

You know how to do an entire reading.

Seems obvious, right? But even the most skilled Tarot reader can forget that a reading begins the moment your prospective client visits your website or makes contact with you. You’re a professional, and have your own means of enrolling clients and engaging their initial questions. You have a process and treat your practice like the business that it is. What’s in the cards for your love life?

You know how to handle difficult or disappointed clients.

No matter how skilled you are, if you’re pursuing Tarot as a business, you will have troublesome people pass through your practice. This is a vulnerable arena for clients, attracting people in sensitive spots, as well as skeptics closed off to new information. Likewise, some seekers are looking for validation, and will not be satisfied with an answer that differs from their desires. You have your own methods for remaining calm and diffusing volatile situations.

You know what kind of Tarot reader you are.

You have a fundamental understanding of your relationship to the cards. You know what kind of readings you tend toward, whether that’s a complex, in-depth undertaking or a quick and dirty analysis. You have a personal philosophy around Tarot, centering on fate, will, or some combination of the two. You may even specialize in certain topics. Self-knowledge is the goal for readers and seekers alike—play to your personal strengths.

Originally posted on Keen.com