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BTP79: Ask Brigit: How to Read Tarot for Others

how to read Tarot for others

How To Read Tarot For Others

Today's episode is a special “Ask Brigit”, where I dive into the questions our community has been asking about Tarot.

We're focusing today on questions that involve reading Tarot for others. We often see the same themes coming up in questions, so in today's episode, you'll learn:

  • Is it OK to ask your client questions?
  • How to keep your personal energy out of a reading
  • How to stay true to your style as a reader when your client has a different style or expectation
  • How to deal with nerves before and during a reading
  • How to communicate what's coming up in a reading, specifically as messages come up psychically

These are all skills that are important in learning how to read Tarot for others, with confidence.

Additional Resources

Online Tarot Course: Read Tarot with Confidence

Podcast Transcript

You’re listening to the Biddy Tarot Podcast, and this is Episode 79: Ask Brigit – How to Read Tarot for Others.

Welcome to the Biddy Tarot Podcast, where you’ll learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition and live an empowered and enlightened life with the Tarot cards as your guide. Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you read Tarot with confidence. And now here’s your host, Brigit Esselmont.

Ask Brigit: How to Read Tarot for Others

Hello, and welcome back to the Biddy Tarot Podcast. As always, I’m so excited to be talking with you about Tarot. Today’s episode is another one of those special ones with “Ask Brigit,” where I dive into the questions that our community have been asking us about Tarot.

Specifically, today I’ve been looking for questions that are around “How do you read Tarot for others?” Now, I think you’ll get a lot out of today’s episode, because these questions are probably questions you have asked yourself when it comes to reading Tarot for others.

You don’t have to write everything down, because if you head on over to BiddyTarot.com/btp79, you’ll find the show notes and the PDF download of the transcript for today’s episode.

Let’s get into it. I have 5 questions for today, and I think we’ll just get straight into it.

1. “Is it OK to ask the client questions during the reading?” – Julie

Oh, I can’t tell you how many people ask me this! In fact, so many Tarot readers are incredibly nervous or worried about asking the client questions. It’s as if there is this feeling of expectation that as a Tarot reader you are the one that does all of the talking, and you are the one that must know all of the answers. But I don’t think that can be further from the truth.

I would actually strongly encourage you to be asking questions during a Tarot reading, because what it does is it allows you to co-create this reading experience. It’s not so much you as the reader being the expert and the client listening to what you tell them to do, but instead it can be this beautiful flowing conversation between you and the client. Instead of you telling, you are opening up a space for your client to come to their own realisations and their own answers, because when we actually ask questions of our clients, it encourages them to take some responsibility and accountability for the choices that they make, and also to understand that they have the answers inside of them.

Yes, they’re coming to see you as the expert, as the Tarot reader for all the answers, but what if you're able to turn the tables around and show them that they are intuitive as well? They have this beautiful untapped source of wisdom inside of them, and you are simply the facilitator of that beautiful occurrence happening.

Julie, you’re asking “Can you ask questions during a reading?” Yes, yes, yes, and yes! I definitely recommend doing that. You’re allowed. I give you permission to ask your client questions.

Maybe you’re seeing a sister or a brother in the reading, but you're not sure, so it’s OK to say, “Do you have a brother or sister? I’m seeing this in the reading, but I just want to check in before I go further with this.”

Or “I’m seeing that you are in a long-term relationship, but before I talk more about that, I just want to check in. Are you in a long-term relationship?” That’s OK, right? That is way better than you getting into the reading and talking about a long-term relationship and them turning around and saying, “No, that might be my friend, but it’s not my lover. We’ve only just started dating.”

You just don’t want to get to that point, so it’s OK to ask questions to validate what you are seeing in the reading as well.

In order for this to be a nice smooth process for you, here’s what I also recommend:

Before you do the Tarot reading, explain up front that you may ask questions as you go and that that’s part of the experience and the value of having a reading with you.

I remember having a chat with one of my friends who had her very first Tarot reading, and she came back to me and said, “Brigit, I had this Tarot reading, but I don’t think she was very good.”

I said, “OK, why? What happened?”

My friend said, “Well, she just kept asking me questions. I thought I would just sit there and just listen to her, and she would tell me what’s going on in my life, but she asked me all these questions. I don’t think she was very good!”

I said, “OK, that’s interesting. Do you know that it’s actually a good thing she’s asking you questions and that that’s part of the experience?”

She said, “Oh my goodness. Oh, I didn’t know because I thought a Tarot reading was someone would just tell me my future.” Her expectations weren’t aligned with what the Tarot reader had to offer. For her it wasn’t the most engaging experience.

Now, does that mean that you shouldn’t ask questions as a reader? No, but what it does mean is that you should clarify those expectations up front. Just say, “I’ll be asking you questions during the reading, and that’s part of the experience. That’s what makes this a special experience, because I want to help you get to your own answers, instead of relying on other people to tell you what to do.” That’s way more empowering. I hope that helps, Julie.

2. “How do I keep my personal energy out of a Tarot reading?” – Kenya

Oh, really good question! This is interesting when you're reading Tarot for others, because certain things can come up. Let’s say you’ve had a really terrible day, you’ve had a fight with your best friend, you have run your car into a lamppost, your car is a little bit broken, maybe you’ve stubbed your toe – the worst day – and you’ve got a client turning up for a Tarot reading, and you’re thinking, “Oh my gosh! I’ve got all this bad energy around me, and somehow I have to do this Tarot reading.”

The other thing that can happen is sometimes you're doing a number of readings for others, and you're finding this same card keeps coming up for you, and the messages that you're getting in the reading, you think, “These are messages for me, not the client!”

Here are some things that you can do in order to get some separation between your energy and the energy of the client’s reading.

I think a lot it has to do with the preparation that you do before a Tarot reading, and this is all about creating the space. In my online training program Read Tarot with Confidence, we spend time on “How do you create the space?” because this is a really critical part of the Tarot reading experience.

Some really simple things:

  • Meditate
  • Breathe
  • Clear your mind
  • Let your personal energy go
  • Tune into your client

Set an intention for that session together. Your intention may simply be that I put my concerns, my day-to-day issues to the side, and I focus 100% on my client. This reading is about serving my client.

Another thing that you can do before that reading is really focus on your client. Maybe you’ve got a picture of them, maybe even just their name – something that connects you to this person. You might visualise them sitting before you, and your focus is 100% on them and not yourself.

Now, when you're in the reading and you find that your personal energy is mishmashing with their reading, then it’s really important to just take a moment to take a deep breath, and think about your client. What is going to serve your client right now? All of your stuff, again, can go to the side. You might have in your mind’s eye a little box, and you put your stuff into that box, and that’s your issues. You can deal with that later, and you focus on your client.

Here’s another thing that can sometimes happen. Your personal energy may come through as judgment in a reading, and maybe your client is asking about an extramarital affair, and your personal energy comes through and says, “As if! That’s disgusting! I can’t condone that!” And yet you need to show up to this reading to support your client. You have to leave your judgments and assumptions out of the reading and focus, again, purely on your client.

If you do find some messages coming up that seem confusing, you need to just check in and say, “Is this message for me or for my client? If the message is for me, can we just park it for now, and I’m going to focus on my client.”

Then after a reading, you can energetically release the client. Something I really enjoy doing is seeing all of the energy of that reading, and I put it into a big ball, and then I hand the ball back to the client and let it go and say, “Thank you for sharing this with me, but I’m handing you back your energy,” and then I turn around and I walk away. That’s in my mind’s eye. That helps me to give some separation from the client’s energy.

3. “I am deeply spiritual and so are my Tarot readings; however, my clients are more interested in practical things. How do I pitch my readings?” – Elise

This happens quite a lot, particularly in our free Tarot readings. We have many people from all around the world, and the kinds of questions that are asked are just so diverse. Some ask, “What’s my soul purpose?” but then others ask, “What should I wear to the big event on the weekend?” I can understand, Elise, where you are coming from – that’s for sure!

One thing that’s really important is to get very clear on your dream client. If you're a deeply spiritual reader, then your dream client is likely to be someone who values a deeply spiritual reading and who needs deeply spiritual insight in a Tarot reading.

When you're clear on that, then you can start to communicate that through your marketing materials. When you are giving information about a Tarot reading and what you have to offer and about who you are and your services, then you want to make sure that you are clear about who you serve best or who is going to get the most value out of a reading with you. That way you're attracting your dream clients, but you're also repelling the non-dream clients, the folks who might be asking you things like “What colour socks should I wear?” “Oh my gosh, that is not me. I wish you well. Cheerio!”

Sometimes when you're building a business, you think, “What?! Repel clients? Are you kidding me?” But trust me – in the long run it is for the best, because you only want to attract your dream clients, and those are the people who you do your absolute best work with.

Now, in the odd occasion that sometimes you get clients who are not exactly your dream clients, and maybe they are asking you questions of more of a practical nature, I think it’s important to meet the client where they are at. Instead of trying to rush down into the depths of spirituality and use complex esoteric language (which is fine in the right context), I think it’s better to actually go where the client is. If they’re in their practical mindset, then go to the practicalities of their situation. Talk about the practicalities first, and then, if it feels right, gently ease into the deeper elements. It’s important not to leap off into the deep end straight away.

You want to also think about how you can be of service to your client. Even though you might want to go deep with your Tarot readings, ask yourself, “What is in the best interest of my client here? Is it that we go deep or that we stay on the surface?” Treat just the practicalities, instead of the deeper elements.

I think it’s important to experiment with how you can express your spiritual ideas but in a simple-to-understand way.

For example, something that I really like to do is try to express quite deep spiritual concepts to my kids. I have a 5- and a 7-year-old daughters, and sometimes they ask about death and what happens after you die. I try explaining what I believe in the simplest terms as possible, but without sugarcoating it or changing the idea of it, being true to what my beliefs are but conveying it in a simple way.

Now, Elise, you might do the same. If you’re a deeply spiritual person, you might understand things at a deep level, but I encourage you to translate those deeply spiritual concepts into something that’s more simple to understand as well. That way, when you're connecting with your clients who want to deal more with the practicalities, it’s a lot easier, and they can actually understand what you're talking about. Again, it’s that meeting in the middle and meeting them where they are at. Elise, I hope that is helpful.

We’ve got two more questions to go here.

4. “I get nervous before a Tarot reading. How can I manage this?” – Anita

Oh, Anita – don’t worry! I can totally relate with you. I’ve done a lot of readings online, email readings, but I hadn’t really done many face to face.

Crazy me thought, “Oh, I’ll sign myself up for the Mind-Body-Spirit Festival in Melbourne”. This is a festival that attracts tens of thousands of people over a long weekend, and they have this big reading room filled with about 60 readers, and you all sit in these lines at your little table, and you have clients all day.

I thought I’d sign myself up for two days of nonstop Tarot reading, because I hadn’t really done many face-to-face readings, and I wanted to give it a go. Boy, was I nervous at the start, jumping on the tram and going to the festival centre and thinking, “Oh my goodness, Brigit! What have you done? Why have you done this? Maybe I could just ring up and say I’m sick! Oh, it’s so crazy!”

But I got through it. I sat down. In my first reading, I was very nervous. In my second reading, I was a little bit less nervous. And then I tell you – by the seventh or eighth reading it was easy-peasy. I think sometimes you have to put yourself through it and just acknowledge, “Yep, I’m feeling nervous. It’s OK. Just get through this.” It will be fine, and every reading after that will just get better and better.

Now, I do have a few strategies to also help you manage your nerves for your readings.

Before the person arrives, it’s really important to clear the space. Create that sacred spaces. Meditate, breathe, even just take a shower sometimes if you're reading at home, because that can just release you of some of your nervous energy, and clear your space. I find that just getting away the clutter just helps me calm down and stay focused.

You can also visualise sitting with them in the Tarot reading.

In your mind’s eye, imagine yourself and the client sitting together with the Tarot cards laid out in front of you, and inside of you, imagine this big ball of radiant white light around your heart centre, and that ball just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and you can feel that white energy radiating through your body, energising you.

Then look over to your client and look into their heart space, and you start to see the same thing. They have this white light, and it’s getting bigger and bigger, and radiating out through their body. Then what you start to see is your two white lights start to meet in the middle, and there’s this beautiful flow of energy and connection that happens between you and your client. Then visualise yourself actually doing the reading when you are union and connection with your client.

Experience what it feels like right at the end of that reading. What is your client saying to you? How does it feel? What’s been created as a result of your Tarot reading? Do all this visualisation.

Then open your eyes, take note of how amazing you feel, and then go ahead and do the Tarot reading. I think you’ll find it’s a very different experience, because you’ve created a very safe space energetically before you’ve even done the Tarot reading.

On a more rational level, I want you to know your clients are coming to you, because they know that you have something important to offer them, so know that you are being of service to them. This isn’t about them evaluating whether you're a good reader or not; this is about you serving them. It’s about them; it’s not about you. Just sit with that.

When you're actually doing the reading, if you find your nerves are starting to rise up again, just picture that white light again. Take a few deep breaths. Slow down with your Tarot reading. Again, remind yourself that you are here to be of service to your clients and the people that you read for.

Beautiful. We’re on to our last question.

5. “I often see things beyond what’s in the Tarot cards. Is it OK to communicate this to the client during the reading?” – Ashita

I think what Ashita means is that she’s not just getting messages from the cards, but perhaps she’s getting them on a more psychic level. I think this is really exciting. I know a number of readers who read like this. One of our previous endorsed readers, Sherry, was telling me, “Brigit, I really only have the Tarot cards to help my clients feel OK about the session, because it’s something real and tangible in front of them. But really when I’m reading for someone, I am working with my upstairs and my psychic abilities, and it’s all being downloaded to me through my psychic sight versus the actual Tarot cards.”

Ashita, you might be in a similar position where you’re actually getting a lot of psychic download versus reading the cards per se. Now, I think this fabulous, and this is your true strength and talent, so use it! Don’t try to fight it. What might happen is you're seeing cards in front of you, you recall what each of those cards mean, but then you're getting a psychic download, and it might be a completely different message. That’s OK. Pay attention to both or whichever one is coming up stronger for you intuitively. Don’t be worried about “The card means this, but now I’m seeing this, and they’re completely different! What do I do? Am I wrong?” You’re not wrong. It’s important to trust your intuition and really go with that.

Now, you might also want to explain to your client that when you're getting more of this psychic download or psychic insight, you might say to your client, “This isn’t in the cards, but this is what my spirit guides are telling me,” or “This is what I’m feeling intuitively.” Then you can convey that message.

Sometimes what can happen is people have a Tarot reading with you, they seem to remember every card that you laid out, and maybe you had the Death card (change and transition), but then your psychic insight started talking to you about needing to move, and then your client goes and looks up Biddy Tarot and goes and looks up what the Death card means and says, “But that doesn’t mean X? What were you talking about?” You might want to make that differentiation between the card of change and transition, but on top of that my intuition is telling me “moving.” Just map that out for your client when you’re switching in between one and the other.

All right, my lovelies, that is it for today. A number of questions around “How do you read Tarot for others?” Remember, we talked about:

  • Is it OK to ask questions? Yes, it is
  • How do you keep your personal energy out of a reading?
  • How do you stay true to your style as a reader if you're deeply spiritual when your clients just want practical Tarot readings?
  • How do you deal with nervousness before a reading?
  • When you’re seeing psychically what’s going on, how do you communicate that in a reading?

Read Tarot with Confidence

These are all skills that are important in learning how to read Tarot for others, and if you want to know more about how to read Tarot for others and yourself, then I invite you to check out my program Read Tarot with Confidence.

It is a complete start-to-finish training in how to give readings that people rave about. You can read Tarot in a way that has a lasting impact and inspires deep transformation, and you can discover how to do a Tarot reading naturally and intuitively in your own unique way every single time.

This program gives you powerful skills in how to ask the right questions, how to choose the right spread, how to weave storytelling into your readings, and how to connect deeply with your own inner guidance. I’ve designed this course to solve these pressing problem that I hear from most aspiring Tarot card readers: “How do I get past my fears and self-doubts once and for all and become a confident and talented Tarot reader?”

In Read Tarot with Confidence, I’ll not only show you how to give fabulous readings for yourself and others, but I’ll also share some of my favourite insider Tarot practices and rituals.

Now, to find out more about this program, you can go to BiddyTarot.com/RTWC – that’s short for Read Tarot with Confidence. I hope you’ll check out the program, and I hope you have an awesome week ahead, and I look forward to connecting with you again in our next podcast episode. Bye for now!

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