scared of tarot

[adament]

would love to begin tarot readings...but am terrified!...what if i find out something i don't want to know?...is it better to start by doing readings on yourself first?..or on a volunteer?...

sign me "wanting to know" but chicken!

adament

[MidnightSun]

MM :)

If you are afraid to give people a tarot reading, yes it's a good idea to start on a volunteer :) I started with my family and close friends. :)

[Mithrea]

IMHO

You can't learn Tarot if you are afraid of it. It won't work for you because you won't be open to the messages.

If you don't want to know, you probably won't see it anyway. :)

[Flaire-FireStar]

I agree with Mithrea on this one.


is it better to start by doing readings on yourself first?..or on a volunteer?...

I started doing readings on myself for a long time before I did my first reading for someone else. However, it's different for everyone - you might not feel that you can read for yourself where as the next guy over might. ;)

[cherrywind]

Mith is right, you absolutely cannot learn from it if you are scared. The tarot is there as a tool, if it tells you something that isn't particularly nice that doesn't mean it's written in stone, you can always heed it's advice and change that thing that isn't particularly favourable.

Your view of tarot has to change first before you can start to learn it, otherwise it is not going to benefit you or anybody else.

[tarotbear]

Yeah- I think we all stand behind Mithrea on this one - if you are afraid of something ( for whatever your personal reasons are) , it can't work for you.

Tarot is not like " I'm afraid to ride a bike!" and someday you find out you can ride. Tarot is not like trying to use a recipie book to make food you've never heard of or never tasted.

If you don't trust it because you're afraid you're going to predict someone's (or your own) death, you have no clue what is in your hands.

It you don't trust it because your religious upbringing taught you all 'this stuff' is hocus-pocus, you'll never believe your answer even it it is staring you in the face.

If you don't trust it because it's not something you can pick up and learn in five minutes, and might actually require some study and patient understanding...you're in for a big disappointment. I have been studying tarot for a mere 12 years, teach it , and am writing books on it. I learn something I didn't know every time I pull those cards out.

If you're afraid of something, walk away from it.

[Ganga]

I don't quite agree that we should walk away from everything we are afraid of. It is much better to get to know the object of "fear" and face that dragon. Like in so many older stories, the hero didn't actually kill the dragon, but only bravely faced it. Often, the hero learned the dragon to be his greatest ally after that.

But coming back to tarot cards, they are not dangerous and don't make things happen. That's all you need to know now. If you are intrigued, go ahead and get a library book about tarot. See if you are still intrested after reading it. And when and if the time comes to get your own deck, look at a variety of them. Many are very gentle and positive, such as the Hanson-Roberts deck I have. I started (and still continue) by taking out a card per day. I read about it, meditate on it while having my cup of tea, and prop it up on my altar/ bedside table. Nothing scary in that :)

[tarotbear]

Yes, Ganga, but you and I are not 'afraid' of Tarot; we probably both enjoy the challenge it presents us. We probably both have had joys and been dismayed by what a reading told us and taught us.

You and I both know that tarot is nothing more than a tool unto itself; it cannot cause things to happen merely because it predicted them. An inept reader is not going to see cards that mean the world will end in the next five minutes if they 'come up' with the wrong answer, nor will seeing such a prediction mean that it will come true.

If you are afraid of your deck because you think it's like "radioactive" or something...by all means walk away from it because you are not ready for it. Read Runes, use a pedulum, look into something that doesn't 'scare' you, for as long as you are (rationally or irrationally) scared, tarot is not for you.

Tarot cards are paper, ink, and a thin plastic coating; if this frightens you...find another method of divination.

[Silver_Alhena]

Originally posted by adament
what if i find out something i don't want to know
adament [/B]

Generally people only ask questions they want to know the answers to, but these answers are sometimes not what they want to hear.

The greatest skill needed is tact, and to alert people to potential problem areas without being alarmist.

[Silver Venus]

There is nothing scarey about the tarot, its how your mind interperates it, if you are scared, ask yourself why? Is it of the unknown? Tarot is just a window, a showing of one path.. Ive been reading for years now and never seen anythign scarey.
If you want to leanr more, Id suggest, llok through this forum and read up on some of the dicussions and see if you are still curious about the tarot. If it is trying to tell you something maybe its to work on this fear?

[Eeluna]

I was a little leery of Tarot too at first. But I was also fascinated, and I couldn't just forget about them. So I started reading books about Tarot, and I learned a lot before I even bought my first deck. I came to realize that Tarot readings aren't written in stone, that the cards aren't always meant to be taken literally and, that for me at least, they're more of a tool for self-discovery than for fortune-telling.

The Tarot does help guide me in making decisons for the future and also helps to make clear trends in my life. I think it shows things I know on some level but haven't acknowledged conciously. My advice is to begin reading about it and when/if you feel more comfortable, get a deck that isn't "scary". Start with simple daily readings of one or maybe three cards. Things should progress naturally from there.