Reading for Someone Else

Reading for other people is a different skill from reading for yourself, and most of the difference is ethical rather than technical.

Positions 1 to 3 are the reading. Where they are, what is pressing, what would help. That is the whole useful content of most sittings.

Position 4 exists to be read out loud. What the cards cannot see. Every reading has a boundary, and naming it to the person in front of you is the difference between a reading and a performance. It is also the position that stops a reader inventing detail to fill a silence.

Position 5 is for you, not for them. What you are bringing to this. Readers project, particularly onto people they know, and a card that names your own investment in the outcome is worth drawing before you say anything.

The rules that matter more than the spread: do not read on someone's health, do not read for a third party who has not asked, do not predict a death or a diagnosis, and do not tell somebody something they cannot act on and will not forget. If a reading turns up something heavy, the honest move is to say so plainly and stop.