no, I can't read your mind...

Something I have always found a little disconcerting is the number of people who think that I must  be all-knowing if I’m an effective card reader/spiritual counsellor.

Recently, I went to my hairdresser and after I’d been there a while, a woman and her sixteen-ish daughter came in. My hairdresser - Tanya, God bless ‘er - runs a very successful home business from a cosy room under her house and when other clients come in, everyone talks to everyone else. It’s like a tea party only with one very chatty woman wielding scissors.

So, everyone was talking to everyone else - except for Ms Sixteen. She was NOT talking to me. In fact, she was noticeably uncomfortable and refused to meet my eyes, though she seemed quite fine with everyone else.

After a while, she began to relax and then someone mentioned my car which has my logo - a big pair of eyes with That Tarot Lady written above them - out and proud for all the world to see parked in front of the house. I told them that I’d decided to apply modern marketing methods to my work as a reader.

This opened a whole lot of questions from our little tea party.

Did I think that commercialising in this way goes against the spiritual principles of helping others? In a word - no!

Do people stare at my car? In a word - yes!

But, as always, it’s from out of the mouths of babes that the most honest questions and answers come. Ms Sixteen, with her facial piercings and her purple hair, leaned towards me suddenly and said, ‘Can you read my mind?’

I laughed and looked at her for a long moment as I decided whether to screw with her head or not, and then said, ‘No, I can’t read your mind.’

‘Are you sure?’ she said suspiciously.

I laughed again. ‘I’m sure. And you’ll find that most other successful card readers can’t either.’

She looked relieved. I’m used to that. Some people think that even if I could read minds, I’d have nothing better to do with my time than to invade the privacy of their head-space.

Look, the honest fact is - I don’t want to read your mind. I have enough trouble with my own crazy thoughts without yours and those of every other passing Tom, Dick and Harry as well, thank you very much!

I said to Ms Sixteen, ‘Think about it - how on earth would I be able to function normally if I was going down the street hearing everybody else’s thoughts as well as my own? I’d be a basket case!’

I explained to her that we humans come with a built-in sanctuary that is ours and ours alone. No-one else can go there without our permission. It’s called our own mind. You will notice that most readers take the time to ‘tune in’ to their client one way or another at the beginning of a reading. For me, it is while I’m shuffling the cards. 

I believe that the increased intuition common in successful readers is a result of the ability to lower our own guards rather than the ability to penetrate the guards of others. I like it that way! Imagine shopping and being able to hear the check-out chick think about the great sex she had with her boyfriend the night before or the guy in front of you thinking about how much he hates his wife.

There are some people who are so sensitive and their psychic boundaries so minimal that they can in fact ‘read thoughts’ - but the truth is this state of receptivity is often so painful and frightening that they find it difficult to function in the real world where they are constantly bombarded by the troubles and sadness of everyone they meet.

A good reader has many skills at their disposal - intuition is just one of them. There are also empathy, experience, humility and a full knowledge of what the cards mean so that you can interpret what serendipity is trying to tell you instead of imposing your own opinions onto the reading.

But I guess the main thing I want you to understand here is that you really really don’t have to worry about your privacy during your average reading - I don’t know what you got up to last week at the office party and I don’t want to know in graphic detail; that’s between you and the photo-copier. 

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