Do You Want to Read for the Public? Tarot with Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
My darlings, I have a very serious question for you as you walk your path of being a Tarot reader.
Do you want to read for the public?
Because not everybody does.
Currently I am enjoying the peace of a sabbatical from doing so. As a matter of fact, I’m enjoying this so much, I don’t know when or if I am going to do so again.
Why?
Because I just don’t know if I want to do it anymore. I spoke with one of my magical brothers this past weekend. He flat out said he won’t do it. I know him to be one hell of a good witch, a good Priest, and a fabulous teacher. He is not required to read for anybody at any time for any reason, and you know what?
Neither are you.
Just hear me out.
Being a reader is an honor, and something you may choose to offer to people to aid in their spiritual growth, healing, and guidance on their lifepath. If you do this, you will hold many hands, dry many tears, give many people permission to walk away from toxic relationships or situations, and you will reveal many many hidden truths. You will teach others how to read, encourage them to develop their psychic abilities, and influence them in ways you never imagined.
That I admit.
But that doesn’t mean you fucking have to.
Even if you decide to offer your abilities as a psychic and a reader, that doesn’t mean you have to do so publicly. There is a difference in reading for select people and reading for whoever comes your way. Some people are built to work with the public. It requires the ability to alter your approach for each person who comes to you. It requires a whole lot of patience. It also requires a touch of political correctness. If you don’t have, that people are going to have social protests against you and you have to think about whether you want to entertain that or not. You might be one of those people who does not care what other people think. I really can’t say I blame you because neither do I. Unfortunately, I have learned the hard way that when you don’t care what people think, it pisses about half of them off. If you think that doesn’t matter, think again.
Your number one best form of advertising is word of mouth. All it takes is one angry customer to cut back on your business. If you decide that you’ve want to read for the public as a way to pay your bills, it’s going to be very difficult for you if you repel people. Truthfully, you’re going to have to work a lot more hours to earn as much money reading Tarot as you would at a conventional job at an office, a medical facility, or even in retail. It might take you a very long time to build up that amount of clientele. If you have a significant other who works and can afford to pay all the bills, you might not mind making that your day job.
I just don’t want you to be too disappointed because of the fact that it takes so many years to earn a decent amount of money as a Tarot reader. You might dream of having your own shop or being on staff full-time and a shop, but I’m telling you right now that does not pay very well. I do not know any shop owners who do not have a spouse that has a conventional job and can pay all of the bills when business is bad.
So, you’re probably not going to be reading for the public as a way of supporting yourself. You will probably have a regular job and then do this during your evenings and weekends off. It might be the most enjoyable thing in your whole life, and you may look forward to it. Until you don’t. The psychic community changes constantly. Politics change things. Neighborhood shifts change things. The economy changes things. As you get older, the young clientele is going to react differently to you. You may be seen as a great sage, or you might be seen as an old person who is out of touch.
You will change. If you’re working a regular job and doing this on the side, and you start a family, guess what? You might not have time anymore. You might move out of town and have to start all over again with a brand new psychic community. That can take time. You might not like your new psychic community, or they may not like you. Your expertise level might make inexperienced people uncomfortable. They might not like some of the things that you have to say, and they might get angry when you speak the truth, especially if it conflicts with their beliefs.
You might get tired of dealing with so many different personalities when you read for the public. Again, when you are a public reader, you don’t necessarily get to choose who your clients are. Whoever walks through the door might sit at your table. You might not like their attitude. You might not like the way they smell. There might be disrespectful to you and handle your cards in a way that you find upsetting. They might flirt and make you uncomfortable. If you are in a group of psychics, you can say something came up and refer them to another reader. If you are the only psychic in the house, you are stuck with them.
The last straw for me came when I was working at a location where a good percentage of the people who came through the door were trying to replace psychiatric consultations with Tarot readings. So basically, I was getting paid fifteen dollars to sit with a psych patient for a half hour. I have done mental health before at a clinical setting. I actually did it for 12 1/2 years. From assisting to administration and direct care I can tell you right now it pays by the hour. If you are the Tarot reader on hand, you don’t get one red cent unless you get a reading client, and then you’re going to split the cost of that reading with a shopkeeper.
Another good percentage of the people who came through the door were strung out on drugs. One client, I will never forget. Both me and another reader refunded his money and sent him on his way. I don’t know what he was high on, but he is the only client I have ever had throw something at me. He is damn lucky it was just a piece of paper, or he might have been swallowing teeth. People would come in and sit on the couch hopped up on CBD gummies, and I think I dealt with more impaired people there than bouncers deal with at bars.
It wasn’t enough money for me anymore, and quite frankly I was not appreciated.
On the other hand, I have had reading jobs where I was highly appreciated, the clientele was sober, and they were sound of mind. Both of those shops are no longer in business, and I miss them like crazy.
You don’t necessarily get to decide which shop where you’re going to read. And you certainly don’t get to decide who you’re going to read for if you’re reading for the public. There are some public readers in my town who don’t care about any of the things that got on my nerves, and they thrive in that environment. Good for them.
Me and my magical brother are not those people.
You have to decide whether or not you are.
I just need you to promise me something. If you are not, I don’t want you to feel guilty. Every human being who was ever born, who is living now, and who will ever be born will have powerful psychic abilities. Not everyone is aware of their abilities though. If everyone used their psychic abilities to benefit everybody else on the surface of the planet, and you didn’t, sure you would have my permission to feel bad about that. A majority of people in today’s world don’t even cultivate psychic abilities because they don’t believe in them. Just because you believe in those abilities doesn’t mean that everybody who is alive should have access to them.
That might not be your calling and that’s okay. As you walk your path as a Tarot reader, you’re going to learn things about yourself. You’re going to feel called to do certain things, and you’re going to feel your calling change from time to time. Go with it. Don’t let anybody dictate what you do as a reader. Sure, people can ask, but that doesn’t mean that you have to oblige. In my last article I implored all of you to think of your own comfort levels. This is a major thing that you have to be honest with yourself about.
Not every reader, including readers who read well for others, are called to work with the general public. If you are not, that’s fine. There are plenty of other readers. Nobody is going to die if you don’t read for them, but you might want to strangle them if they’re trying to force you to and you’re not wanting to.
If you were born to read for the general public, good for you. You might not make very much money with it, you might be stressed, and you might cry a lot because you worry about people so much. It might be the most rewarding thing that you do. I promise you that other people will get more out of the things that you do for them that you will get out of doing for them. No matter how good it makes you feel about yourself, they are benefiting more than you are.
So, be fair to yourself. Give yourself permission to refuse to read for other people if you want to. And listen to your inner voice instead of what other people have to say about it.
Blessed Be.
Lady Saoirse is a practicing witch, and initiated Wiccan of an Eclectic Tradition.
A recovered Catholic, she was raised to believe in heaven and hell, that there is only one god, and only one way to believe. As she approached her late 20’s, little things started to show her this was all wrong. She was most inspired by the saying “God is too big to fit into one religion” and after a heated exchange with the then associate pastor of the last Xtian church she attended, she finally realized she was in no way Xtian, and decided to move on to see where she could find her spiritual home.
Her homecoming to her Path was after many years of being called to The Old Ways and the Goddess, and happened in Phoenix, Arizona. She really did rise from her own ashes!
Upon returning to Ohio, she thought Chaos Magic was the answer, and soon discovered it was actually Wicca. She was blessed with a marvelous mentor, Lord Shadow, and started a Magical Discussion Group at local Metaphysical Shop Fly by Night. The group was later dubbed A Gathering of Paths. For a few years, this group met, discussed, did rituals, fellowship, and volunteering together, and even marched as a Pagan group with members of other groups at the local gay Pride Parade for eight years.
All the while, she continued studying with her mentor, Lord Shadow, and she became a Third Degree High Priestess in 2022 and is a Priestess of the Temple of the Goddess. She belongs to the Black Dragon Clan. She does readings, Sabbats, and classes in her hometown in Ohio. She has been with PaganPages.org since 2016 and writes for SpiritualBlossom, and Mysticsense.
