Liz Worth ~ Tarot

A few years ago, I was hired to teach a few private classes to someone who had just started reading tarot. She had bought her first deck a few months before she booked on for some lessons.

After our fourth lesson together, I got an email from her: “I forgot to ask you something in our class today,” she wrote. “How much do you think I should charge for my readings?”

I was surprised.

Our lessons at that point only totaled up to about four hours of study. This student had also only ever read tarot for herself.

Given what we’d covered in our classes so far, I knew she still had a lot to learn.

I wrote back an honest response, telling her it was way too soon to worry about charging for readings. “Focus on learning how to read tarot first,” I said.

Practice, practice, practice is always my mantra with new students.

This wasn’t the first instance I’ve had this question, and it wasn’t the last.

There are a lot of reasons why I...

When I decided to commit to becoming a tarot reader, there was one thing I really wasn’t expecting:

How much suspicion people have towards practitioners in this industry.

When I was growing up, my mom loved getting readings. She liked to host parties where she would hire a psychic to come over and do group readings.

My mom bought me my first reading – a palm reading – when I was around 10 years old. As I got into my teens, we would go to psychic fairs together.

It was fun! Those experiences also normalized the psychic industry for me.

But when I got into this business myself, I started to see another side to it that I hadn’t been exposed to growing up.

And one thing I’ve had to come to terms with is that there are a lot of people who are highly suspicious of this kind of work.

Even the most open-minded believers can be skeptical for a variety of reasons.

Which is why I feel it’s so important to take yourself seriously as a tarot reader by being...

The spiritual community at large (including the tarot community) often has a poor relationship with money.

This isn’t a blanket statement, of course: There are always different ends of the spectrum in any situation.

But having been working in this industry for years now, I’ve heard and seen enough critiques of money to know that this problem is pervasive and ongoing.

I’ve even seen some practitioners who are running businesses of their own complain about having to pay for someone else’s course, training, or book.

You’d think business people would want to support each other, right? Apparently, that’s not always the case.

But why does this matter, and why am I bringing it up in my tarot newsletter?

Because tarot readers’ attitudes towards money can influence those they seek to support.

Whether you read professionally or just for fun and practice, the reality is that the people you read cards for have financial concerns.

Your querents might...

Occultist Éliphas Lévi (1810 – 1875) wrote that tarot is “the most perfect tool” to understand life.

He believed that "an imprisoned person with no other book than the Tarot, if he knew how to use it, could in a few years acquire universal knowledge."

But whose knowledge would we be acquiring?

Human history is ever-changing, and tarot changes with it.

Tarot dates back to the 1400s, when it humbly began as a card game. It wasn’t until 1909 that the Rider-Waite-Smith deck made its debut.

This was the deck that popularized tarot into what we know it as today. Many of the decks that have been published since, along with the meanings that we associate with each card, have been inspired by the RWS.

But 1909 wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things.

And yet despite its youth in comparison to other systems like astrology, tarot’s potential never ceases to amaze me. The cards work. I still have moments where I find the...

One of my best pieces of advice for tarot readers who want to read cards for other people is this:

Listen to your querents.

Like, really listen.

Listen to what is they want to know.

Listen to what they’re worried about.

Listen to what they have to teach you.

As tarot readers, we aim to step into the role of teacher, guide, or mentor. We want to be the ones leading querents to clarity and insight.

But our querents are our teachers, too.

No matter our experience level with tarot, people bring all kinds of questions to tarot readings – questions that you might have never imagined you’d have to answer.

And you can soon realize that as much as people are similar, we are also all on different paths. Eventually, you will have querents whose life experiences are vastly different from your own.

These moments can be challenging, and exciting, for us as tarot readers. They are challenging because they push us to stretch our own language and interpretations of our tarot decks. You are...

What do you when you’re reading tarot for someone, and they want you to just tell them what to do?

This can be a challenging situation for a tarot reader to be put in.

You might feel put on the spot, or pressured to provide an answer that’s not actually in the cards.

It can also be that your style of tarot reading does not fit such a prescriptive approach.

Many tarot readers aim to empower through tarot by encouraging querents to make their own decisions and take control over their lives – which is the opposite of telling them what they should or shouldn’t do.

Reading styles aside, there are fine lines to walk as a tarot reader when it comes to supporting your querents. Tarot readings don’t replace a querent’s personal responsibility over their own lives.

But if you’re perceived as someone who has all the answers, it’s easy for some querents to try to put that onus on you.

I’ve had tarot clients flat out admit that they want me to...

One of the most daunting aspects of building a tarot business is figuring out how to get clients.

I understand the personal frustration, discouragement, and fear that comes with not knowing if you’ll make it as a tarot reader.

There’s a particular level of disappointment that comes when you eagerly check your email hoping to see an influx of new clients and instead, you hear crickets.

It doesn’t matter if your goal is to be a full-time or part-time reader: Either way, you need to be bringing clients onto your schedule on a regular basis if your business is going to become sustainable.

Being hired for your tarot services is the crux of a tarot business: It’s the reason you set up shop to begin with.

But finding those clients isn’t always as easy as it might look. Tarot is as competitive as any other industry, and while there is more than enough business to go around, sometimes it seems like everyone else is succeeding while you’re stuck at square...

One thing that many tarot readers have in common is how much time we’ve spent developing our skills.

It’s not unusual for spiritual practitioners of all types to spend years training. Many of us consider ourselves life-long students of our craft, always learning and going deeper into esoteric studies.

It’s also not uncommon for us to invest heavily in programs, courses and trainings over the years. If we can’t always afford to take a class, we make up for that in books, blogs, podcasts, and more.

Of course, we know it’s not really about the monetary investment behind a skill set that adds value to the work.

The value comes from practice, experience, and ability. Which often is gained from the sheer amount of time, energy, and practice that goes into learning and then integrating acquired knowledge.

There are a lot of amazing tarot readers out there who are walking around with priceless spiritual knowledge within them.

But when it comes to building a tarot...

A lot can happen within the span of a tarot reading.

Like any conversation, a reading might cover all kinds of territory within a short period of time. You might start out with one question, and then quickly move to another once the answer is clear.

Or you might meander along the same discussion from start to finish, digging deep into a single issue.

Sometimes readings offer so much information that it’s hard to keep up. Other times, the message might be succinct but circular, as though all signs lead back to the same answer.

When you’re on the receiving end of a tarot reading, the experience can be exciting and fascinating, but also overwhelming.

When you’re the one delivering the reading, you might feel a lot of pressure to capture every detail there is, and to be as clear, helpful, and relevant as possible.

And all of those are good, important aims when we’re reading for others.

It’s also important not to lose sight of what your querents –...

At my last day job, I worked with a woman who would sometimes pause our conversations and say, "I know it’s off-topic, but can I talk about your tattoos for a second?"

"Sure," I would say. I’ve been getting tattooed for over 20 years. People often have questions.

One day, my colleague finally told me why she was so curious about them. "I really want to get the name of my son tattooed right here," she said, pointing to a spot on her wrist. "But I’m afraid it will hold me back if I ever want to move up in my career."

"It sounds like you’re making decisions for people you haven’t even met yet," I said. "And maybe you never will. Who knows where you’ll be working, or who you’ll be working with? They might not mind."

Though I could relate to her worries. After all, this story isn’t really about tattoos.

It’s about the ways fear of judgement and lack of acceptance erodes joy, confidence, and self-expression.

It’s about the ways we...