Why (not) to pay for a tarot reading

Why should you pay for a tarot or rune reading? Let's look at some of the reasons why you should...or shouldn't...pay for a reading from an experienced practitioner.

1) "Why can't I just read for myself?"

For a lot of people, it really doesn't make sense to pay for another person to read for you because you can damn well do it yourself and do just as well! I read for myself all the time. If you're comfortable with a form of divination and are getting good results reading for yourself...rock on with your bad self!

But if you find your readings are coming up short, or if you've never picked up a deck in your life, you may want to turn to someone with some experience while you get the hang of it.

Divination is more than just asking a question, drawing some cards, and looking up the meanings in a book. For a reading that really resonates, a reader needs to know how to tap into the energy that's influencing a situation. That's what we're really reading. Without that connection, we're just drawing cards at random.

Once we've made that connection, our intuition comes into play. An experienced reader knows the meanings and the symbolism in the cards or runes well enough that they can see beyond the textbook meanings. They can gaze at a card and see what images jump out at them, shading their interpretation of a card one way or another. An experienced reader can sense how multiple cards interact with each other, like words strung together in a sentence hold different meaning than just a jumble of individual words. And an experienced reader will likely have access to multiple modalities or decks that can provide answers in different tones and with different slants, and will be able to intuit which to use for each reading.

These are absolutely skills that you can learn and develop yourself (and getting good quality readings while you're learning can help you to know what you're aiming for)! But if you're not there yet, or if you just lack the time or the interest to get there, working with an experienced reader may be a really good idea for you.

2) "Ok, but I am legitimately awesome at this."

That's awesome! High fives to you! You're probably going to be reading for yourself a lot, and that's great. If I may, though, there's one more reason you might want to work with an experienced reader who isn't you, on occasion...

Objectivity. Even for someone as seasoned as I am, there are certain situations, and certain questions that I'm just too close to to interpret the cards reliably. Maybe I really want a certain answer. Maybe I'm just too anxious and worked up about a situation to be able to see anything clearly. This isn't the norm, but it does happen, and when it does, it's really valuable to have another experienced reader to turn to. Which brings us to...

3) "I don't know what I'm doing, but I have a friend who's great at this."

If you have a friend who gives awesome readings and is happy to do so for you for free, that's a beautiful thing. It can be really nice to get a reading from someone who cares about you and who really knows you. Some of the best readings I've ever gotten have been from close friends.

Sometimes, though, you have a really sensitive issue that you need some insight into. You may have some feelings of insecurity surrounding a situation that prevents you from being fully forthright with a friend. In such cases, it can help to have someone with a little bit of distance to bounce your issue off of.

4) "Doesn't charging money for a reading dissipate the power of the reading?"

I've heard lots of variations on this. "No true witch would charge money for their services." "Exchanging money interferes with the energetic connection and negates the power of the reading." I have feelings about these claims. Those feelings boil down to: that's fucking bullshit.

Look, I'd love to offer my services for free to those I encounter who truly need them. But we live in a capitalist society, and we can't just change that by wishing it weren't so. A girl's gotta eat, and there are only so many hours in the day. If I am to make this service available to people beyond my immediate circle of friends, whether I like it or not, I need to have something to show for it that helps me get by in a tangible way.

That's not to say I always charge money. I do still offer readings for free on a limited basis - to people within my community or limited free offerings based on my availability and bandwidth. But capitalism gonna capitalism, my work has value, and I like food.

As for the claims that money somehow negates the power of the reading, that is energetic hogwash. There is just no truth to that. I have both given and received readings for free and for money, and friends, this line is just bullshit. Look for its origins in spiritual purity culture, or in a culture that wants to keep fringey people on the fringes and lacking security. Or perhaps it's a manifestation of a very legitimate concern...

5) "Sasha, how do I know you're not a scammer?"

Oooooooo, this is a good one. I am, after all, a Stranger On The Internet (TM). And in this field, there are a lot of scammers.

It is really easy to churn out fake shit and call it divination. This, sadly, is where money really can corrupt the quality of a reading for some. I could write up a handful of pre-baked "this will tell them what they want to hear" answers to common questions and just start sending them out without ever cracking open a deck.

This copy, found on Etsy, was not written by a human.

Or worse...I could have AI do it for me! If you type "tarot readings" into Etsy, you'll see a million listings for "incredibly detailed," "in-depth" readings that you can get "same hour" for like...$2 a pop. Really??? How do you think they're managing that? These same listings have images that are obviously AI-generated - tarot cards that don't exist with names written in indecipherable AI-non-letters. Now that isn't to say that just because someone's using AI art (which is its own ethical can of worms), that their readings are also AI-generated. But "in-depth" readings performed same-hour for $2? It doesn't pass the sniff test.

There are some red flags to look for. Does an offer seem too good to be true (see above)? Does everything on the site seem to be AI-generated? Does a reader advertise readings that sound kind of bullshitty ("Find the name of your true soul-mate!" "Which celebrity were you in a past life?")? Or do many of the listings look kind of the same ("Deep Insights Tarot Reading," next to "Ultra-Detailed Tarot Reading," next to "Psychic Tarot Reading," next to "Extremely Exact Tarot Reading")?

There are also green flags, though. A reader should have blog posts or other copy on their website that appear to be written by a human, and/or a social media presence that features a human. That social media could include demonstrations of readings, so you know that there really is a person doing a thing. Repeat customers should never receive the same reading twice. Even if they happen to have the same card drawn for a 1-card read twice, the interpretation and explanation should not be a copy/paste job!

At the end of the day, though, I can't prove to you I am who I say I am. Well...I mean I can, but I am 1000% not going to show up at your door and show you a copy of my ID. Jesus! You have to trust your bullshit meter. And to be honest, this is one reason I offer a very cheap 1-card reading option. People deserve the opportunity to check me out without going all in on an expensive reading.

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If you're still reading, and I've not completely talked you out of paying for a tarot or rune reading at some point in the future, then I invite you to give my services a try. Give that $5 1-card reading a whirl, or reach out with questions you may have about my process. I promise you'll hear back from a real, live human!