Interview with Tarot Card Reader

Rebecca MacBride

Question #1:  Rebecca, your specialty is reading Tarot cards. How did you learn to read Tarot cards and how long have you been reading for others?

Throughout my childhood, I often had precognitive dreams. When I approached my teens, there were a variety of external factors that resulted in making me feel very uncomfortable about my intuitive and precognitive experiences. I felt very scattered and had difficulty focusing on the information that seemed to be coming through to me when I would meet someone or be in a place with a heavy psychic imprint. I had visited a few psychics, but they never were able to do accurate readings for me. Finally, one gentleman I visited was very accurate and recommended that I try reading Tarot. He suggested that the images on the cards might help me to focus my thoughts and receive messages more clearly. It was a basic Rider Tarot deck and I was 16 years old.

I began reading different books that interpreted the cards' meanings, but I also noticed when I was reading the cards that I would get different messages from them based on certain small details of the illustrations and these impressions were not listed in the descriptive meanings found in various books on how to read the Tarot. However, my impressions were correct when I took the risk and voiced them to the people for whom I was doing practice readings.

Within that year, and probably 20-30 different readings for people, I began reading "professionally", in the sense that I received a donation when the reading was finished. We did not have much income at that time. My father had died and my mom and I received survivor's benefits from Social Security because I was still a student, so the money was helpful. Still, I hated taking money for readings. Many times I used the barter system for readings. If I did a reading for my hairdresser, they would do my next cut, etc. Sometimes, if people came repeatedly, I would just tell them to bring a bottle of wine. My income was low and I could not afford things like that, so this way we had those little luxuries around. One woman's mother was an amazing cook (she was Italian) so I asked if she was interested in a trade. I did her reading and her mother's and they had me over to their home. We spent the afternoon and evening cooking and I went home with a huge lasagna, meatballs and sauce. That was one of my favorite trades. We both shared our respective gifts with each other.

People were very satisfied with their readings and the barter system. It was important for them to know that I was not just reading for monetary gain. To me, that is a real conflict of interest. I didn't want to NEED their money. I gave each person a printed chart with their cards outlined on it and notes on the session on the back. Some people chose to tape their sessions. I even did readings for some people in England who heard of me via a relative I had done readings for. I didn't know if it would work, but we arranged a special time and place to focus on each other and I did the reading on my end and sent them the information. They responded and, apparently, it was very detailed and accurate - so you can read for people who are not even sitting with you. Also, my readings were not brief. They averaged no less than 40 minutes, but sometimes over an hour. I made a point of explaining to people why the cards were in a certain order and how their reading might change if a certain card was in a different place in the spread. I really wanted to demystify the experience for people.

I stopped reading Tarot regularly in my early 30's. It was a difficult time in my life and I did not feel I could focus on others' needs when my own life was very emotionally chaotic. I still do occasional readings, but now I have the person shuffle the cards and think of their questions, and I take the cards away with me and do a very in depth chart which I, then, present to them within a week. If they have any questions about the information I've given them, they can ask them at that time. I have not taken money for readings for many years.

Question #2:  It seems that by using the Tarot cards, you were able to channel your intuitive and psychic energies to allow for a more focused experience. When you are doing a Tarot reading, where do you feel your information is coming from?

I feel the information primarily comes from the person seeking the reading, or the Querent, in the energy that surrounds them (almost, in a sense, within their auras). They have spent some moments holding and shuffling the cards, infusing their energy into the deck as they think of their questions, and then choosing how to cut the cards (I ask people to cut the cards into three stacks). I do believe that the information being sought is available to the Querent at all times. They are just not versed on how to access it and that's where the Reader comes in. The cards channel the Querent's energy and issues into tangible, symbolic images, which we can then interpret for them, but the cards are directed entirely by the Querent.

I believe the cards help each Reader to make a connection with the Querent and with any Guides or spiritual beings accompanying this person. Some people who regularly meditate might be able to make the same connection for themselves with some practice. Some psychics achieve this by touching the person or something they have worn. The information we each receive, though, is still contingent on the energy of the individual. There is also a channeling aspect to reading for me in the sense that while I am doing a reading, I am aware of certain sounds and words and voices that I believe are either my Guides or the Querent's Guides. I also, sometimes, feel a certain pressure in my hands when I touch certain cards and, again, I feel this is energy that comes from the person who has held the cards and shuffled them and/or their Guides in alerting me to specific images.

I have often asked people to re-shuffle the cards once their reading is finished. It is really interesting how often the second card spread contains 75% or more of the cards from the first spread. When you consider the number of cards in the deck and the different meanings when they appear inverted, the shuffling and cutting of the deck, for the same cards to appear a second time, indicates to me that the Querent's energy is really driving that reading. It helps to show people that the cards in the spread are not just random with different information cropping up every time they shuffle. I want them to know their energy is responsible for the cards that are present on the table. They are choosing the cards - not me.

Many readers will choose a card to represent the Querent, or the person seeking the reading. I don't do this. I like to see what card falls in that very important first place. I find that card really represents the Querent better than any card I could choose for them and really sets the tone and direction for the reading.

Question #3:  Are there people that you have come across that are impossible to read for, or nearly so? If so, why do you think this happens and how do you handle a situation like this?

I have definitely dealt with people who are very difficult to read for. Sometimes, the readings are salvageable experiences, but not always. I have had days when I am just off - when I have a migraine or feel there is a cloud hanging over me. When I have that inner feeling, I have to take responsibility for the inconvenience to the person. I would never accept a payment of any kind for those readings. That way people know I have integrity. Fortunately, this hasn't happened more than a handful of times in 30 years. Even on some of those occasions when I feel I have not done a very strong reading, the individual might feel fine about it. While that's reassuring to me on one level, I know what I am capable of and I feel obligated to give each person the most complete experience I can offer. I have occasionally asked a person to come back and allow me to read for them again. If I don't ask them to come back, as an alternative, I will revisit their card spread and maybe do a chart for them. I keep a record of all readings I do for two years.

Sometimes people are living in a rut and they just do not have a lot happening in their lives during the period of time covered by the reading. I think most people appreciate when you are honest with them and say you do not pick up anything of worry or concern, but you also don't see much change from their routine. If they are looking for change, perhaps the cards are suggesting that the next three to six months is not the best time for it. If they are intent on change, then the cards may be focusing on what is holding them back from embracing or initiating it, and we can then explore that avenue in the cards.

For me, one of the main factors that creates a positive Tarot experience is having people who are interested in self-reflection or who are interested in learning something about their lives through their reading. They are open to the experience of allowing the Reader to make a connection with them in order to see what might lie ahead or what past events are holding them back from achieving something. Not all readings are event driven - some are about emotional journeys. Sometimes people acknowledge deep-rooted fears for the first time in the course of a reading when they realize they are not being judged. It can be very exciting to be a part of a "lightbulb moment" for a complete stranger.

Some people have never had a reading before and are not expecting anything profound or deep from it. Their readings tend to be more general. Not every experience or relationship is going to be life-changing, some are just entertaining. They are happy just seeing that a stranger can actually tell them private life details and validate what is happening in their lives. If they are satisfied with that, then I can be also.

I ask people not to give me information about their lives or even tell me outright what their questions are for the reading. If I am on the right track or they can relate to what I'm telling them, I appreciate it when they acknowledge this, but only to let me know my focus is accurate. At the end of the reading, I do ask people to assess my level of accuracy. Sometimes people have very specific issues they want to address and once I have established that I am connected to a certain issue or event or person, it is fine if they want to acknowledge that this is important to them and ask me for more detail which I can then try to give them. In every case, however, I make an effort to give the person as much information about the phase of their life being addressed by the cards before they participate with questions or tell me I am right about the past and present information I have given them.

However, some people are like stone and they are intent on making it as difficult as possible for me to make a connection to them. They have a closed body language and hardly make eye contact. I am never looking for a person's reaction to lead me on, but a reading is a mutual experience to a certain extent, and if the person across from me has the psychic gate closed and figurative barbed wire around them, it limits my ability to read for them because I can't tap into their energy - especially when their energy is decidedly negative or obstructive.

I recall one young woman who challenged me to do a reading for her (she had come with a friend.) I accurately gave her names of people she was involved with and even gave her information about her mother which she was unaware of, but which the mother later substantiated - very intimate information I could not possibly have known without making a connection to her. Still, she said that I was just making lucky guesses and she did not believe I could actually "know" anything about her future. People like this are just in denial, and often, this extends to other areas of their lives. When I do a reading, I am trying to sincerely assist people. If they are only interested in approaching the reading as a joke or a challenge to test me, then the experience is going to be as superficial as they generally are. They may feel that is my failure.

Early on, I would have felt very defensive about their attitudes. I would have felt I had to prove something to them, but I learned to just wish them well in their lives and thank them for the challenging opportunity they brought to me. I don't take any donation from them because I am already uncomfortable with the money exchange and I feel their energy is misguided or chaotic, so it is best to just end the interaction as soon as possible and as pleasantly as possible.

I have had people bring friends with them to a reading and had the friend ask me to read for them and "prove" that I can tell them information about themselves. One man offered to pay me $100 if I could tell him anything about his future than came true within three months. I told him I considered his offer offensive and a waste of my time and his. I had nothing to prove to him and no interest in connecting to such negative and combative energy.

I have also read for a few people who have lied to me about what is happening in their lives. Some just want to see if I will back down and change what I am saying. Some people with severely traumatic past experiences do not want to acknowledge what they have lived through. I have read for people who steal, who have drinking and gambling problems, who have received news of terminal illnesses, a Holocaust survivor and a few people who had attempted suicide multiple times. I read for one woman who was being abused by her husband and I could see that he was going to turn his anger from her to their children. She was outraged and indignant and swore that I could not be more wrong, that her husband was a gentle, loving man who would never be violent. I asked if it was another male family member, but she said I was completely wrong. Everything I tried to tell this person was refuted as me being wrong. Finally, I just told her that I could not connect to her and I was sorry to have offended her, but this is what I saw and all I could ask was that she please not leave me any money for the reading, but if she was just not wanting to admit that what I was telling her was accurate, would she please consider getting help because I most definitely saw her two children being in danger (and at that point, she even denied having two children). She left the table in a huff and then came back a few minutes later, crying, saying that she had kept this domestic violence hidden from her family for years and no one would believe her husband could be capable of this. She swore, though, that he had, to that point, never hurt their children. I finished the reading for her, covering other topics, but asked her to please consider what I had said about her children's safety. She did contact me a few weeks later because her husband had lunged at their young son in a fit of rage, something she was very convinced he would never do and, at that point, she realized she had to leave him.

I have had coworkers who have asked me to read for them and I have declined while offering to put them in touch with another Tarot Reader. Some were offended and I told them that I felt uncomfortable with the idea that I would possibly learn intimate details of their lives and then have to work with them every day. When I put it to them that way, they didn't mind my refusal to read for them.

Question #4:  You mentioned that you are able to have a person shuffle the cards while thinking of their questions and you can, then, take the cards away with you to do an in depth chart without that person being present. What does this chart entail and how long does it take for you to complete?

The chart has a diagram of the card spread I am most comfortable using and, in the boxes, I record the cards that present themselves in the reading. I, then, proceed to either type out or tape record the reading. I set aside at least two hours to do some mental and emotional preparation for reading the cards, so it is very much like doing a reading when the client is with me and watching. I probably spend a longer time on a chart, but only because I am reading at a leisurely pace.

There are a few reasons why I like doing charts. One simple reason is that it eliminates the performance anxiety I would experience when I was reading for people. I would always struggle with the worry that the intuitive thoughts just were not going to happen. This anxiety would usually subside soon after the reading began, but it was very hard for me.

Secondly, when I was a university student, I also worked at the university and some people learned I read Tarot. They would ask for readings. By doing the charts, I was able to bring the cards to the person, have them prepare the cards for the reading, and then still do the reading in the privacy of my home without having to constantly invite strangers in. I wanted to maintain some distance from having people I knew in a different social context from necessarily being a guest in my home. I still reviewed the reading with them when it was delivered, so the personal interaction was still possible.

Another reason I began doing charts was that some people were not interested in taking notes, but then would call me after a reading and ask me to repeat things, or even within the course of the reading, they would paraphrase something I had said and take it out of its original context. I did not want my meanings to be misconstrued or lost. Some people really do not understand that doing a reading can really take a lot out of a reader emotionally and even physically, so I didn't want my efforts to be a waste. I also had a lot of repeat clients and when they would come back months or a year later and want to refer to something in their previous reading, I would have a record of it and we could actually compare certain cards in their readings that might recur in a specific pattern. That was always very interesting to see and interesting for the client also because they would usually forget over the course of many months.

One of the most important reasons why I chose to begin making charts was the number of people who wanted me to read for them whom I knew as acquaintances. It is very hard for me to read for people I know, even casually. When I look at their cards, I feel like a TV station that is getting hazy reception and I would second guess myself. Sometimes we draw conclusions about people we work with or know socially and to then be in a position to be receiving impressions about their lives can be awkward. Doing the chart gave me a certain objective distance.

Question #5:  You've been reading tarot cards for a long time, Rebecca. What do you feel has been your biggest challenge in working with your abilities over the years and how have you managed this challenge?

This has actually been a very difficult question for me to answer and I couldn't seem to get a handle on why I was having so much trouble with it. At 3:00 a.m., while I looked over the question yet again, I realized that my problem with answering this question is exactly the same as what I would encounter before each reading - it's the challenge to just listen to my intuition instead of my worries about whether or not my intuition is on track. I was a serious worrier for the first few years. I really take very seriously that people want to actually pay me in some way to hear my impressions about their Tarot cards and their lives. Even when some people claim the reading is just entertainment to them, that really only ups the ante for me. I want to show them that the cards are more than silly entertainment, simply by virtue of being able to outline events and choices they have already made and have yet to make for their lives. This involves connecting to people. It is an empathetic process for me. I suppose it is my choice to put myself emotionally on the line when I am doing a reading, but I don't believe the results would be as accurate any other way. With that in mind, it is difficult to read for people who do not take the experience seriously. I don't expect them to be stoic, but to respect the energy and effort that goes into the process. It took me many years to accept that my responsibility to each client is not to prove the validity of Tarot readings for them. I really felt I had to prove myself when I first started reading. I kept the charts initially more for myself than for the client. Over time, I realized my responsibility is to be as respectful and insightful as possible about their life events and choices and present this to them as clearly and compassionately as possible, but how they choose to integrate the information into their life (or to ignore it) is entirely up to them and my connection with them ends when they walk away from the reading. I don't mean to sound uncaring. It is really an attitude in the same vein as the old saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

I try not to approach the world from a cynical standpoint and to give people the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes it is challenging to meet people in a social situation and know from an intuitive level that they are completely misrepresenting themselves. This is even more difficult when the person is someone I have to interact with repeatedly, when they aren't aware that I read Tarot or have had other paranormal experiences. I try to minimize my interactions with these types of people. They are very draining to be around.

I know I have outlined situations where clients misrepresent themselves, but I feel it is important to mention that one issue I feel very strongly about has more to do with other Tarot readers. It is crazy to me, as a reader of almost 30 years, to believe that other readers feel justified in charging one rate for a "regular" reading and more money for an "advanced" reading. The information is all there - A to Z. If it's there, I'm going to tell you about it. I can't be more insightful if I am paid more. People should not stand for that. Some readers justify this by saying they are spending more time with a client and therefore feel it is okay to charge a higher fee. I strongly disagree with this. The cards present events in a certain sequence and within a certain time frame. In most spreads, the position of the card corresponds with an aspect of the client's life or a time frame for the event or person it describes. The additional time involved in doing a reading, in my experience, is usually predicated on the questions a client might have. I just feel it is not reasonable to expect to be paid more in these circumstances. It implies that a reader might be withholding information or choosing what is most important for the client to know.

I also think people should be more vocal when readers are genuinely wrong. After I had been reading professionally for over 10 years, I went with a friend to a new reader in our city. After looking over my cards for a few minutes, the woman said that my cards showed that I had a lot of natural psychic ability, but anything paranormal frightened me so terribly that, unfortunately, I would never be able to develop it. I told her right then and there that, in fact, I had been reading Tarot professionally for over 10 years. She was very agitated, visibly anxious and said she could not continue the reading. However, because she had scheduled the time slot for me, she still expected me to pay her for the appointment. I have heard many clients, over the years, complain that certain readers did not cover any of their questions or the information they received was completely incorrect. However, when I ask them if they told the reader this and did they pay for the reading anyway, they almost unanimously say that they would never admit to the reader that they had been wrong or refuse to pay them because they would be worried it would have some negative impact on them. There is still an underlying fear factor for many people concerning Tarot and other aspects of the paranormal. I think that is very sad.

In closing though, I would like to emphasize that I have been extremely fortunate to have many interesting and enlightening encounters with the majority of people I have met through my experiences with Tarot reading. The positive, exciting and moving experiences far outnumber the stressful or difficult experiences. These people have helped me become more empathetic, more tolerant and patient, and helped me learn to navigate diplomatically through encounters with people who project very antagonistic personas and are grounded in very negative thinking. I take more risks in reaching out to people without expecting "equal time" or attention focused at myself. It has helped me be a more thoughtful, self-reflective, less defensive person. I used to be a very angry person, so this has given me the chance for much personal improvement. I am also confident that I have made a positive contribution to the people who have asked me to read their cards and I appreciate the opportunity to leave them with a unique and thought provoking experience.

THE NIGHT WATCHMAN HOMEPAGE

Rebecca MacBride spent her younger years growing up in Southern California before moving to her mother's birthplace of St. Catharine's, Ontario, Canada. She now lives with her husband and son north of Toronto. Her practical work as Transcriptionist is balanced by her photography and artwork, her own line of greeting cards (Beckspapergarden) and a lifelong involvement in many areas of the paranormal, including Tarot reading and spirit communication. Rebecca is currently editing life lessons received from her spirit guides over the past 25 years with a plan to publish them.