Reading Tarot For Yourself: Objectivity

One of the biggest lessons I've learned about reading tarot is it's much more difficult to read for yourself than it is to read for others.

I never thought that would be so; it seems like it would be easier to read for yourself because you know yourself. When there's a message that comes through, I know whether it applies or not. When it comes to strangers, you never really know for sure if you're interpreting the cards correctly. You don't have the luxury of prior knowledge to confirm your reading.

Although I let this scare me out of reading for others for a long time in the beginning, I actually had it all backwards. It's actually harder to read for yourself than it is to read for strangers! Or, at least that's what I've learned!

You see, in order to read tarot for yourself (and get an accurate reading), it's very important that you remain objective! Every time I did a reading for myself, I had a preconceived idea of what the cards would tell me. Most of the time, I found a way to twist the message to fit my idea of what it should say. I didn't even realize I was doing it! I went through a long period where I got bored with reading tarot and gave it up because I always knew what the cards were going to tell me beforehand (or so I thought).

One day a friend asked me for a reading on her relationship. I brought out those dusty cards and did the reading. This time I wasn't going into it thinking I already knew what the outcome would be, I genuinely needed advice for her. Unfortunately, the message wasn't one she wanted to hear. The message was loud and clear: drop him now and move on.

She stared at me blankly. "So... I should give him another chance?"

She was disregarding my interpretation of the cards, and twisting the message so that it would comply with what she wanted to hear. Although I kept trying to reword the message (and kept pulling extra cards), so that she would understand it better, the message remained the same and she refused to accept it as it was. I eventually gave up, hoping I was wrong.

A mere few days later, we found out the cards were dead on. My friend's situation was very unfortunate, but I learned a huge lesson from that reading. What she did, construing the message to fit her preconceived ideas, is exactly what I had been doing in my own readings all along!

From then on, I started doing more readings for others. It helped me practice using my own intuition instead of relying on the knowledge I already had about the subject of the reading. I tried doing readings about my future; what I needed to know about the coming day, etc. This way, I could do the reading with no knowledge of what was actually going to happen, and I could go back and check the accuracy of my interpretation after the day was over.

It's still hard to stay objective sometimes, but it's the one most imperative factor in doing a reading for yourself!