Tarot Demystified

Why some readers dress as gypsies to read

I chose this topic this month because it is something I have always been curious about. Some readers just dress as they normally do to do readings, and some seem to dress differently: from more elaborate and huge jewellery, to cloaks, to turbans. Someone I spoke to referred to it as "gysying it up" I even heard once of a reader who read in a wizard hat.

Although I don't read in person, if i did I know I am not the type who would do this. In my mind, not to sound judgmental or anything or to say one way is better than another, but in my mind to me I have always felt that that doing that separates. To me, it says to the person you are reading for "I am different from you, unlike you"

To me, the point of a reading is to connect with that person, not to separate. Also, in my eyes, Tarot is a skill anyone can learn, just because I have taken the time to learn it, practise and study, and devote myself to it, does not make me different. The other person could do the same thing if they chose to. And last but not least, I don't like to see Tarot "mystified" and to create a lot of mystery around it, when to me it is a perfectly normal skill that anyone can learn. Which of course is why I write the Tarot Demystified section, to undo some of that.

That was my thinking on that, but I have often wondered why other readers do dress the part. So what I did this month is I asked a number of others readers if they did dress up to read and why. The "why" was really the part that interested me.

I had the chance to talk to between 10 and 20 people. The answers fell into all the categories. Some always did dress that way to read, some never did, some did on occasion if they were reading in a place where they felt it was expected and some said they did dress that way to read but that they usually dressed that way in their everyday life as well.

I had the chance to read lots of answers, all of them interesting. So as to why some readers choose to "dress the part", here are some of the things that came up:

• Some readers just did it because they felt it was expected of them. It's just a matter of giving the public what they want. And I know that expectation can be there at times. Once, when I first met the boyfriend of a new friend, he had been surprised when he met me that I just dressed like everyone else. So. I know there can be that expectation
• One person said that dressing differently helped them to read better. It sets a mood within them. The act of doing something different, dressing differently, puts then into a different state of mind.
• One reader told me that when she dressed that way it inspired more confidence on the part of the querent (person having the reading done for them). Their belief was that in the same was as a patient may have more confidence in a doctor dressed in his white jacket than in one wearing sandals and a tie dye shirt, that when a professional dresses in the way the public expects them to, then that inspires more confidence.
• A number just found it fun to dress up. And there certainly can be fun in that.ll the accouterments,
• Another said that "dressing the part" furthers the stereotype and that that felt unprofessional to them. Not that there is any right or wrong here, these are all just different opinions and ways of viewing the issue, but my beliefs come close to this. I am not for the stereotypes of readers.
• A number just found it fun to dress up. And there certainly can be fun in that.
• That and that those who read at Halloween parties, will also read dressed in any costume that calls to them. :-)
   

So, those are the basic answers I got. There's not right or wrong to it, of course, just personal opinion. But I was curious and that was what I found out. :-)


Coming next month: The kinds of relationship questions that will work and the ones that won't