Making the Most of a Psychic Reading
A few things to consider before booking a reading
If you’re thinking about having a reading with a psychic practitioner, whether this is a tarot card reader, clairvoyant, palmist or astrologer- regardless of their discipline, to get the best from the experience, there are a few things to think about before you go ahead and book.
What are you really looking for?
Why do you want a reading? Is it ‘just for fun,’ or are you looking for specific extra ‘intel’ or guidance at this time? Hopefully any reading will be fun; an enjoyable and fascinating experience. However, the reader will be taking it seriously, and even if you may be approaching the experience as a bit of fun, they will, if they are good at their job, and probably they are, or they wouldn’t have the confidence to put themselves out there, they may still pick up on serious issues, delivering feedback that is more than you were expecting, or were prepared for.
How do you choose your reader?
You could simply go and see a local reader if they have a good reputation. It all depends on what we are looking for in a reading. Some psychics work as traditional fortune- tellers and this kind of reading include predictions. Others work as psychic advisors, offering a more interactive discussion and this may or may not include predictions. Others specialize in medium-ship (readings about the dead) or they may focus on finding lost property or missing people, or they may specialize in animal communication/ animal ‘whispering’.
How do they present their services? The reading you get depends on your chosen reader; their skill sets, their approach, their personal experience and their educational and employment background, all in addition to whatever is the degree of their psychic ability or intuitive talent.
It’s one thing to be psychic. Knowledge and understanding, knowing how best to apply any psychic insights- this is something else. The best readers do both, first in accessing, and then in presenting that feedback creatively and constructively, while never losing sight of the ‘so what?’ in helping someone weigh their options, moving ahead with greater clarity.
A lot of people still find readers by good old fashioned word of mouth, and this probably remains the most reliable way of finding a proficient reader.
Does a reader have a website or an online presence? Study this carefully. Do they use a real name? Take your time to read what they say or do not say.
How do they explain their service? What do they offer, and what do they not guarantee to offer? Do they inspire confidence? When you contact them, are they professional, friendly and easy to speak to? Do they respond quickly by email, telephone, text or whatever? Professional readers welcome genuine enquiries without any pressure or obligation to proceed to a booking.
Can you find any reviews or testimonials on their web page or anywhere else? If they are new to this, or they do not use the internet they may not have any reviews. This doesn’t mean they’re no good. Even excellent readers may have the odd negative review if they have been reading for any length of time. That’s pretty much to be expected by the very nature of the work they do.
If they have a lot of negative reviews, and you can see it’s not just because they are dealing with harassment or trolling, you will obviously proceed with caution. The odd negative review is probably only to be expected. This need not put you off. Go by the overall picture.
Many readers will not read for clients under 18 and in some states or countries this will be stated as a legal requirement.
During the Reading
A psychic reader is using a different mode of thinking, in trying to understand the situation of the person they are reading for, aiming to shine new light on whatever is pressing and important, yet confused, unclear or hidden.
Everyone wants good news. No-one wants bad news but you need to be prepared for this possibility, and don’t shoot the messenger if you ask a question and don’t like the answer.
The reader needs to be free to say what they see without fear or favour, though always within ethical limits. No responsible reader will ever frighten you with dire predictions, especially ones you did not ask for. And if they do, they are probably wrong. Likewise, if any reader suggests you are cursed, hexed or bewitched, and that you need their help to remove the curse, this is a scam. This is not to say that ill wishing doesn’t happen, but if we feel that is what’s happening, we can defend ourselves without needing to pay someone else to do it for us. Psychic self-defense is ultimately about visualization. Picture yourself, for instance, surrounded by a bubble of golden light. Nothing can reach you unless it has your permission. Most such ill wishing is probably unconscious on the part of the sender. But if active malice is sensed, and we know by whom and we want to up the ante, then we can visualize a mirror facing outwards. Anyone sending ill-will gets that message reflected straight back at them.
We all possess psychic agency, and we do not need an intermediary to do these kinds of things for us.
Readers however, are proceeding from a basis of divinatory knowledge, skill and practice.
The best questions give us extra tools to work with. For instance you could ask questions starting:-
‘What….?’
‘Where…?’
‘When…?’
‘Why...?’
‘How do I…?’
‘What if I…?’
This last one can be particularly informative in weighing your options and exploring the possibilities, weighing one course of action against another, e.g.:-
‘What happens if I do this?’
and/or
‘What happens if I do this instead?’
The problem with prediction
Prediction is part of the tradition of having a psychic reading and is not only fascinating, it can be very helpful, even useful, offering a clear sense of the odds when we are faced with a crossroads, or providing an externally sourced validation and confirmation of our own deepest feelings e.g.; yes, this is going somewhere or no, it isn’t. Accurate predictions, if they are sensibly acted upon, have the potential to save us a lot of wasted time, effort, heartache, even money.
But there are a few things to be aware of:
-A prediction might be plain wrong or the timing might be way out. How long do we wait to find out? Do we just sit there twiddling our thumbs? A prediction might trap us into waiting for something that was predicted but may never actually happen.
-This takes away our power, putting us into a position of waiting. Or it might steer us in a particular direction, forcing the issue so that the prediction becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, when we might not have made that decision had we not heard that prediction.
-A prediction might worry or frighten us. Yes, we asked that question. But are we really sure we want the answer?
The Curse of Cassandra
Cassandra, tragic seeress-princess of Troy, had the gift of clairvoyance. She saw truly and clearly, and yet was disbelieved and heartily mistrusted, doomed to see and yet be unable to escape the terrible fate she saw coming down the track for herself and all of her people. She warned her people against that wooden horse. Is it any wonder she is tearing her hair out, while behind her, Troy burns? But the Greeks have only just got started. Just wait till Ajax gets hold of her.
Painting by Evelyn de Morgan
Some people go from reader to reader, or keep asking for readings on the same question until they get the answer they want. This doesn’t help anyone, neither the client nor the reader. For some people it may even become an obsession but not only will this prove expensive but it undermines the value of having a reading which is to:-
-Obtain greater clarity, seeing things in a new light or from a fresh angle
-Support our planning, getting a clearer sense of the odds of there being outcome A, B, C etc (whether we like the predicted outcome or not)
-Access insights that help us move forward, freeing ourselves from something that is keeping us stuck.
-Access insights and guidance that may offer support, comfort or peace in respect of those major life events we can’t change, e.g.; the death of a loved one.
There is a wise old saying, “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Sometimes we only add to our load by seeking to know the future. Foreknowledge can be a sorrow and an added burden, and the writer is speaking from personal experience. Yes, the future is shaped by luck to a very great extent - those things beyond our direct personal control, like the weather. But we have agency. We have power. We are active in our own lives, we’re not objects that things happen to, and our future is shaped to an equally great extent, or perhaps greater by our actions, initiatives, choices and responses.
As another old saying goes, the only things certain in life are death and taxes. It’s more proactive, and potentially more helpful and productive to ask the reader questions such as:-
-Where is this situation going- if I don’t do anything to change it?
-What do we see as the most likely outcome if I do A or B?
That’s still got an element of prediction going on, but it is not putting ourselves into a position of powerlessness, asking, ‘what is going to happen to me?’
The buck stops with us, when it comes to how we will handle the cards we’ve been dealt.
A psychic reading is not a ‘pseudoscience’ as some skeptics describe it. This is hardly reasonable. How can it be a pseudoscience when it is an Art? Do we call poetry, painting or music a pseudoscience? Do we call conversation a pseudoscience? Or psychology? Psychic reading is an interpersonal exchange of applied psychology enabled via symbolism. It works on a mixture of instinct, intuition, social skills and associative thinking.
However, it has to be stated, that a psychic reading is not a sensible substitute for suitably specialized professional medical, legal or financial advice.
What a psychic reading can do is offer new insights, ideas and added clarity, helping us get a clearer sense of where we’re heading on our current path. It can identify our best options when our heart does not agree with our head, or at a time when we are struggling to see the wood for the trees, and have become too close to the problem to see it clearly.
Does it make sense to you, what the reader is saying?
Does it feel right? Does it chime with your own feelings about the matter, even if you don’t like the answer?
If it does, the chances are, this reader is probably right in terms of any forecasts, but it’s up to you what use you decide to make of the reading, and whether to use that reader’s advice or not.
Genuine readers expect to get it right far more often than they get it wrong. They will expect to do far better than 50:50. You can reasonably expect them to say things which
a) are meaningful and verifiable
b) which they could only know psychically
But readers are only human and fallible, and however powerful their intuition, things can change, and this still does not mean they will always get it right.
Genuine readers, however gifted they are, will understand this perfectly well, and any psychic reader promising just a little too much…you will be wise to give them a miss.
Thank you for reading.
Until next time.