Q&A with Joy: Reading About Other People

The following is a transcript, edited for clarity, of a discussion we had in my Magician’s Tools Intermediate Tarot Class this week. One class participant asked about reading about other people.
Here’s her question and the discussion that followed:
Class Participant: Can you do a tarot reading about somebody that for instance has a serious illness and you’re concerned about them and so can you do that?
Joy: This is how that kind of stuff works. You can do a tarot reading about anything you like. There’s no limitation. It becomes an ethical question.
Class Participant: It’s a close relative.
Joy: Yeah, a close relative. So is it right to do a reading? Because then what comes up is if you do a reading and you see something relevant and you didn’t ask them if you could do it, now do you tell them? And you hadn’t asked them permission in the first place then that becomes a really gray area. And the best thing to do is–
Class Participant: Ask them–
Joy: Ask them. But the other thing you can do is actually say, considering that this person that I love is having this illness, what can I do to help. What do they most need from me? And that might be a more productive way of approaching it. It puts it back on you, not on them. And will give you that insight into: do they need you to leave them alone, do they need you to be there for them, do they need you to call or to give money or whatever the heck it is.
Class Participant: In this case, I know the answers.
Joy: You know the answer to that one? Ok. I recommend not doing readings for people without either asking their permission or without them knowing about it.
Class Participant: That makes sense.
Joy: As a side note, if you do do a reading about somebody, I think that to a degree if they don’t want you to know about them, the cards will come up really weird. It might be kind of weird-negative and you might say, this is going for a bad turn, when all it is is the cards are saying no, don’t ask. Does that make sense?
Class Participant: Yeah.
Joy: Then you might get a false answer, that can be misleading. But yeah, you definitely can. Just being careful with all that different stuff.
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If you want to ask a question about any tarot or Reiki technique or metaphysical philosophy, please feel free to ask it in the comments! You just might see an answer from me in the very near future!
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Joy Vernon has been studying and teaching energetic and esoteric modalities for more than twenty years. She is the organizer of the Denver Tarot Geeks, Denver Tarot Meetup and Denver Traditional Reiki Meetup, and she served on the faculty of Avalon Center for Druidic Studies. She is one of the psychics at Isis Books and is a Certified Professional Tarot Reader and a member of the American Tarot Association and Tarosophy Tarot Association. Joy also teaches Traditional Japanese Reiki. For information on upcoming classes or to schedule an appointment, please visit JoyVernon.com.
© 2015 by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved.