A Reader's Manifesto of Ethical Concerns

It’s been over twelve years now since I picked up the cards the spring before I turned fifteen. I have practiced a lot though often inconsistently. I have done many readings for other’s and myself. People always tell me I am among the best readers they have had work the magic of interpreting those beautiful mysteries conveyed through picture cards. I have been having numerous financial troubles for years, and they just compounded by moving, a necessary move. I decided that I must at last be a hard ass about charging.

Thing is you have to be a hard ass because people never want to pay for tarot if they can help it. They want the benefit of a skill only a few have honed to any real level, and they want fun from the novelty as well as life changing advice. They don’t want to spend the years of countless hours with false readings as you learn the nuances of the cards to the extent it takes to read for oneself. To learn to be skilled with the cards to the deepest levels is in ways harder than many degree programs and can take longer.

It’s not merely learning to recite by memory interpretations or even story telling with symbol cards. It is fundamentally a process of deep spiritual purification. You have to let go of bias and projections that we all tend to harbor by nature. You have to learn to open your mind and let truth come in. Bear in mind that, people will lie to a reader. Some test you with their lies and some are afraid to be honest with you, thinking they will go undetected. If they do go undiscovered the reader has failed. You must know that the seeker may lie to you directly or indirectly via lying to themselves or be in the position of having been deceived themselves. You must not fall in the trap of using logic. Logic alone will fail you in readings oftener than not.

The energies of the cards may also make you too open to other energies in time. You may find yourself growing to empathic and too washed out or wishy-washy. These effects must be countered. There is great self control necessary in learning to read cards. It is not a mere novelty act. It is true power when treated with the respect that soothsaying deserves. It is not a game and it is not to be treated as a parlor trick. It is not to predict even a predetermined fate but rather to shape the fate you are best suited for. It is a tool of transformation and its gift is thought. Its gift of analysis can change ones state of mind and with that your life.

I have had some interest in my readings already. I am sure that with time I will have substantial income from this endeavor. Mind you substantial is in the mind of the beholder, but for me the potential is clearly there.

I have been reading for money for less than a month and already ethics has come into play. Never let the issue of ethics be downplayed in psychic pursuits. Be ever mindful of virtues of truth, love and loyalty. You must have honesty for everyone who you take on for a client even if there is just one reading to be done. You must do so even if you dislike the querent. There are very few cases where dishonesty is remotely acceptable but alas there are possible scenarios and then let love be thy guide. Don’t mistake love for coddling the querent and don’t mistake love as something that has to be given to specific people rather than simply respecting life. Love all those in which you come in contact especially when delving into the psychic.

Horrible things await those who delve in too deep and too dark. Depth in light will make you powerful, wise, and noble. Depth in darkness steals the spirit from your soul and lets it seem as though it were sold slowly. It can’t be bought back. It can be won back through difficult change and returning to the light. However, many get lost in the dark.

Loyalty comes into play when you show respect to not pry into things that are neither your concern nor the seeker’s. You know the certain kinds of spying. I used to spy much with tarot and would always get scolded with the 7 of swords which has as one of its meanings certain types of spying. It was no matter to me who my love was with or what his thoughts were. The dance we did was painful but it took real growth for tarot to stop being detrimental to my psyche. The ever so common heartbroken person who just can’t let go so asks the tarot the same question again, again often right in a row is familiar to every reader that has publicly announced perhaps too loudly that yes I read. They will go from reader to reader to quench their thirst of a glimpse of a future they desire, never seeing the more they chase it the faster that possibility flees them. Such people must be made to obey limits on readings. Perhaps therapy of one sort or another is in order. It is however a very common affliction amongst the soft hearted and sentimental when they turn to the psychic for answers.

Regret and craving for someone to fill that place that is empty inside and a refusal to let go of a failed promise is the cause of such states of mine. The promise may not have been broken but both parties have failed. It is best to accept our role and change that role in the future. We could ask the tarot, “What lesson do I most need to learn from this situation?” Many questions may be helpful but prying into the lives of others who felt the need, for whatever reason, to distance themselves from the seeker is not to be allowed nor is it ever justified. If for no other reason it harms the mind of the seeker to yearn and grasp and reach to such an extent.

One must show loyalty to all life and you will find many more will show loyalty you when they see you showed it to them first. Most dogs don’t bite when left un-harassed. That loyalty includes not being a psychic voyeur or a stalker of the unseen realms. Those pursuits don’t further anyone. Most morals suit well those who hold them. So great is the issue of ethics in reading for ourselves and others that I have already had my metal tested.

I desperately need funds and a couple I know are having marital issues, both have come to me for readings. Do I read for one and not both? I chose to accept both offers of payment. I will, however, not convey knowledge of one session in the other and I will not play one for the other. I will spy on neither. If either party becomes immoral in requests they will be denied all further readings if it passes beyond the territory of a simple warning. I will not be repetitive in my warnings. I lay down the law for I am the one who will do the looking and seeing. It is also I who has detachment. That makes me in many ways most karmatically liable. I could almost dismiss them prying but my allowing it, that is dirty.