The Secret to Creating Accurate and Insightful Tarot Readings

Are you struggling to create a real connection with your Tarot reading clients? Are your clients walking away thinking, “That reading could have been for anyone”? Anyone can lay out a handful of Tarot cards, look up the meanings in a book and deliver a basic Tarot reading. However, if you want to deliver highly accurate and insightful Tarot readings, you need to be able to tell the “story” that sits behind the cards.

In today’s blog post, I share with you my personal secrets to creating accurate and insightful Tarot readings, by developing the storyline that is tailored towards your clients’ specific needs and situation. My tips will help you move beyond simply regurgitating the traditional Tarot card meanings in your readings, to creating meaningful and personalised ‘stories’ within your Tarot readings, ensuring that your clients keep coming back to you.

Start with a Point of View

Before you even start writing or talking about the Tarot cards in front of you, you need to be very clear in your own mind about what your unique point of view is going to be. Is he going to leave his wife or not? Is the decision to move interstate really a viable option? Is the job offer going to come through or not? Be ready to articulate to your client whether the Tarot cards indicate if the client will achieve their aspirations or not, and if not, why not. While not every situation is going to be 100% black-and-white, you need to have a solid point of view about what you see in the cards. If you go into the reading not really knowing what your point of view is, you will likely end up with a wishy-washy reading that will only lead your client to walk away feeling short-changed.

So how do you quickly work out what your point of view is going to be?

• Trust your intuition. Pay attention to the images, messages or feelings that you get when you first look at all of the Tarot cards in your reading. Ask yourself, if I had to provide a yes/no answer right now, what would it be? Often your immediate reactions to the reading will be the most accurate, particularly if you are able to quieten your critical mind. Read my previous blog post to find out more about how you can learn to trust your intuition.
• Look out for the Major Arcana cardsthat appear in the reading. These cards point to significant life experiences and changes and provide vital clues as to the prevailing influences in the client’s life now and in the future. Often, by concentrating on the messages within the Major Arcana cards, you will have at least half of your story already.
• Look at the critical positions in the Tarot spread that you’re using. For example, in a Celtic Cross spread, look at the past, present/significator, future and outcome cards. As you work more closely with your Tarot spreads, you will become increasingly familiar with the positions that provide the most telling information.

As you are quickly scanning the Tarot cards laid out before you, let your client know that you are using the time to digest the key messages before walking him/her through the reading. This will help to avoid any uncomfortable silences and will give your client a sense of confidence in your abilities.

Tell the Overall Story

Once you have formed a point of view about what you see in the Tarot cards, you are then ready to begin to tell the ‘story’ behind the cards. This is your moment to provide an integrated view or overall summary of what’s happening in the client’s life, based on the Tarot cards laid out in front of you. Take your client on a high-level journey of where they’ve come from, where they are now and where they’re heading. Try to summarise in one paragraph or a 60-second spiel what you see in the Tarot cards overall and what your answer is to your client’s original question.

The important thing when you are first telling the story is not to go through each Tarot card – at least, not yet. This is like jumping into the detail without having any real context of what you’re talking about, and can end up with your client feeling confused and overwhelmed in the detail.

Delve Deeper into the Tarot Cards

After you have provided an overall summary of the Tarot reading, you can then start to move through each Tarot card, one by one, explaining in more detail what each card means for the client. The key here is to avoid using generic Tarot card meanings and instead tailor the message of each Tarot card specifically to your client’s situation. By now, you already have a point of view and an overall story, so you should be well-prepared to personalise and customise the Tarot card meanings  in your reading, rather than just reciting the standard meanings.

As you go through each card, keep listening to your intuition and allow your inner voice to guide you to the most meaningful interpretations and messages within the cards. Look for Tarot card combinations and keep relating your interpretations to the other cards in the reading. For example, I recently did a reading for a client where I had the Queen of Wands and later the Six of Wands – both indicative of the need to believe in yourself and to be confident in your abilities. In the reading, I made a special note that the messages of these cards were similar, and thus a strong theme was beginning to emerge.

Similarly, look for patterns across the cards – is there a higher proportion of Major or Minor Arcana cards? Reversed or upright Tarot cards? Does one Suit or number feature more prominently? Do you notice a common theme in the colours or symbols of the cards? These patterns will provide a telling story as to the general theme of the reading.

Using these simple Tarot reading techniques, you will very easily move from a reading where you simply recite the individual Tarot card meanings to a reading that provides your client with an integrated view of the Tarot cards and that is specific and personalised to their needs.

Extra tips to help you tell the Tarot story…

Before I conclude, I want to share with you a couple of extra tips to help you become an even more accurate and insightful Tarot reader who excels at telling the Tarot story:

• Use a customised Tarot spread. Tailoring a Tarot spread that is specific to your client’s needs will not only make your client feel valued and special, it will help you identify the key elements that will eventually create the personalised story for your client. Learn more about designing your own Tarot spread here.
• Or, get to know one Tarot spread inside-out. Get to know one spread really, really well so that you are completely comfortable with the various positions in that spread and how they interrelate. This will provide an excellent platform for generating integrated stories for your clients. I recommend starting with the Celtic Cross.
• Don’t be afraid to divert from the traditional meanings of the cards. While it takes a lot of courage, there are times when you are better off going with your gut instinct about a Tarot card, rather than sticking with the traditional meaning of the card in front of you. Your intuition may be calling you to look at the card from a completely different angle. It might be completely different to the book, but that doesn’t matter. It’s probably a whole lot more accurate than you realise as you are now drawing on your psychic / intuitive abilities.
• Practice makes perfect. Telling the story to create accurate and insightful readings can be hard. So, practice, practice, practice! Whenever you get a chance, pull three cards from your Tarot deck and start creating various different stories using those three cards. Imagine you were doing a relationship reading, what story would you tell? And what about for a career reading? And a spiritual reading? Don’t be afraid to let loose and come up with elaborate plots, twists and turns! This is your chance to get creative and practice those story-telling skills!

By now, you should be well-equipped to tell the ‘story’ behind the Tarot cards and to provide your clients with highly accurate and insightful readings!

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