Doing celebrity Tarot readings is a popular practice and all done in a spirit of ‘good fun’ so why is it I get increasingly uncomfortable as I watch more and more of my colleagues get on the media bandwagon with this?
Am I just being a Saturnine (Mercury in Capricorn) wet blanket or could there be some sound spiritual and philosophical reasons not to go there?
1. A third-party reading is a third-party reading. If someone hasn’t asked for a reading we shouldn’t read for them. Being in the public eye shouldn’t mean that you have no right to a private life. Countless celebrities have died because of being deprived of their privacy, driven to death by journalists and paparazzi, looking to satisfy our inner hyena. You may argue that’s a fair price for fame and fortune. I would argue against you. Because…
2 Remember the Golden Rule? I will treat others the way I want to be treated. I assume that celebrities have a heart. I believe that they worry about their future just like you and me. I want everyone to know that the spiritual guidance I give, is the sort of spiritual guidance I would want to receive. I want them to know that a Seeker’s privacy is sacred. Always. Period.
3. Oneness is the next step in human evolution. I believe that we are all equals, all sparks of the Divine. I believe that seeing this spark in everyone, including celebrities, is an important premise for Oneness. Readers who follow a spiritual path and admire the teachings of some of today’s Spiritual celebrities like Wayne Dyer andDeepak Chopra would never dream of invading the privacy of one of them in this way, yet they are willing to treat other celebs (who may be no less spiritual) as if they have no right to privacy at all.
Just because media portrays someone as fair game doesn’t mean they are! We need to learn to use our discernment better than that. We need to understand the true meaning of Oneness.
4. Doing unsolicited third-party readings for sensationalist purposes lowers the vibration of the reader. And no, I can’t prove this to you. But ask yourself this: Do you feel more uplifted after reading a good book or after reading a tattle/gossip mag?
5. Celebrity readings demotes the Tarot in the public eye. If this is all they come across in media, it gives people the image that the cards are primarily used for spying on people which might put them off – or it might if they are halfway decent. All the hard work we have done to promote the Tarot as tool for spiritual development and healing will be for nowt. Who will take us seriously?
I believe that reading about a public political event that will affect us all is different to spying on the private life of a celebrity. Political readings will include the tactics and strategies of individuals but in this case we are reading on the power moves they are using to manipulate us which, in fact, makes this other than a third-party reading.
Spying on matters of the heart that is none of our business is no better than eavesdropping, curtain twitching or other forms of sticking our noses where they don’t belong!
Angel Blessings
Lisa
Comments 19
Agreed. The only truly helpful reading, from the perspective of the Higher Self, is the one where the seeker understands that they alone are the source of their happiness and future success.
As a professional Reader myself i have always been against and never will do Celebrity Readings – or any other 3rd party Readings. You might think im being extreme but i liken it to psychic rape. I mean that in the sense that Whatever you use for a Reading – whether Tarot, Oracle Card, Palm or Clairvoyant/psychic you are working with a person's energies – their essence, their mind, body and soul.
With a Client it's clear that there are boundaries and they have given their consent and they are in your office face to face for a Reading – that is clearly ok.
But to Read for someone completely without their permission or knowledge is psychic rape – you are messing with their essence, their inner being without their knowledge or even their consent!
When i get asked to do third party Readings i always explain this to the person who asks. I explain to them – imagine when you're out at work and someone has let themselves into your home, and has been eating your food, drinking your tea and coffee watching your tv, trying all all your clothes on even as personal as your underwear and using your toiletries plus reading all your diaries, emails, and personal post and then trying to access your thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears and influence your choices without asking you – now multiply that by 100 – that is the equivalent of Reading for someone without their consent! That is psychic rape. When i explain that to people they go "oh? i never thought of it like that." I remind them that a Reading is all about them – there special sacred time with me and them in that Reading.
You know i was even approached by a company who asked me to do some Readings and Birth Charts for the "Im a celebrity" TV show contestants to pry and be nosey on them – they would have been posted on a website – but i said no thanks. Never.
Im completely with you on this Lisa! To me this is one of the core values of being an honest and ethical Reader.
Yes
From my perspective, celebrity readings or reading for anyone without their permission is an invasion of privacy. It seems simple doesn't it?
Thanks Satu. Fictional characters work just as well for practice/sample readings! 🙂
Well said. I started a blog doing celebrity readings an stopped doing it and deleted the blog for the exact same reasons. In my defense I have to say that my readings were very general not too prying or sensationalist. Still, somehow I felt it wasn't right for me. So now instead I do readings for fictional or historical characters if and when I want to do sample readings "for fun".
This actually makes sense. 😀
Absolutely, Lynniah. In my opinion, it really does come down to showing others the kind of respect and courtesy we would like to be treated with ourselves.
I think part of the problem could be that we have a new generation of celebrities who are famous for being famous and happily turn themselves inside out for the media. I'm guessing that makes some people think that all famous people are up for it.
Many really talented people who are in the public eye fight to protect their private lives. And even if they don't, their private lives shouldn't be anybody's business but theirs. Or so my personal integrity dictates.
I hope George gives you a ring, Lynnia. If he did, he'd be using the services of someone with excellent professional ethics. 🙂
Blessings, Lisa
Wow, Lisa, this subject sure got everyone talking huh? This is good! Well, I couldn't resist either so.. Here is my 2 cents too for what ever it is worth.
To me, celebrity readings are no different than butting your nose into your neighbors business without their permission. You wouldn't do a reading for someone at work you didn't know without their permission, right? And if you do, how would you feel if you found out someone was doing a reading on you without your permission, just to be nosey, or discover information you don't want them to know?! In my book, it's just a no-no, in my code of ethics.
When I worked as a medium, I would never give anyone a message without first asking their permission to do so, a matter of respect and I have no business in their energy field without asking their permission anyway..To me, it's like being in somebody's house snooping around when they aren't home and they don't know I'm in there! I do the same with Reiki and all energy healing work, so to me, tarot is no different. You are tapping into people's personal and private energies..it's not your business. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
I stick with fictional characters, or made up ones or have students use their own personal lives to practice on. It can be just as much fun if your creative!
To each his own, I'm not here to tell anybody what to do, but it just isn't something I would do out of my own personal integrity. I don't feel it is any of my business what is going on in anyone's personal energy unless they ask for my opinion- celebrity or not!
And, unfortunately,.. I'm really not feeling Sam Elliott or George Clooney will call me to ask anytime soon either… fiddle dee-dee! lol !
Have a great day ahead….
Blessings to all.. Lynniah
Thanks for commenting CosmicFaery. You've just given me a great idea for a tarot reading exercise to try with my daughter. We'll do a reading on one of the Twilight characters 🙂
I agree with you, Lisa. Great post! Celeb readings on the web make me feel uncomfortable, too, especially when their love life is being openly discussed. I'd rather leave those writings to gossip magazines 😉 Instead, literature readings are a good alternative; I once did a reading with a student of mine about what would happen to Harry Potter in the last book (before it was published). We were so astonishingly accurate…a great exercise. We also did a reading about Gordon Brown's leadership skills and potential as Prime Minister when he took over from Blair, which in my opinion was a valid question to ask, since it would affect me as an individual as well as the whole country. To cut a long story short, valid and honourable readings can be done with public figures, as long as there is some connection with the reader, i.e. official public business rather than their private lives. And literary or movie/tv soap etc. readings can be great fun, too, without negatively affecting any real people.
Good point, Catti. No feeding the troll OR our inner hyena. We all have one… and I do believe we all recognise the 'blech' we get when feeding it. Thank you for commenting!
I think Lisa has made a good point. If it is considered inappropriate to walk up to someone and read them as a psychic, why is it ok to casually read for celebrities real lives in a class? As pointed out, fictional readings could serve the same educational purpose. When Donnaleigh wrote " it feels more personal than a made up story", I think, but celebrity lives ARE a made up story. That is why they have PR reps and image makers etc.It is fantasy, but with living people.For me, the culture of celebrity is so distasteful, full of smoke and mirrors, and generally not spiritually edifying; why would one "feed the troll" so to speak?
Of course, I do respect your right to your opinion Donnaleigh, and this is in no way a personal attack. Just some tarot ramblings….
True, Trish. I think that in the case of public celebrity readings there is another dimension to consider too. They might actually be watching! So, for instance, if hearing that a new relationship they have just entered into is doomed to fail… how will they feel? What sort of psychological damage could this do to them. Or what of friends and family listening in and taking the words uttered by the psychic to heart?
This reminds me of another debate where everyone seemed in agreement that a psychic approaching someone in public and intrusively beginning to read them is wrong… If this is true then surely, media celebrity readings without the the consent of the one read for is wrong too?
The main purpose of reading for someone is to help them, whether it is by providing insights or giving them an alternate perspective. This isn't possible when we read for people who aren't there. I also think that validation is a big part of a reading. How do you validate your accuracy on what someone is thinking or feeling if they are not there to confirm?
Makes for a nice theoretical exercise or for practice, but otherwise, it's of little value.
Thank you for commenting, Donnaleigh. I respect you as a person, of course, but still acknowledge that there is such a thing as 'right' and 'wrong' when it comes to reading the cards. Anything that could potentially harm another person is wrong. This is what I was taught in my counselling studies and it is something I believe with my whole heart. We can have lively discussions until we are blue in the face – it doesn't change that fact that as Tarot teachers we have a responsibility to guide are students away from practices that are potentially harmful.
A reading about someone's boss or spouse or mother-in-law when this is having a direct impact on the client's life is different. There is, however, a way of explaining the dynamic created between the client and the third party without going into the other person's private life. Again, it comes down to treating people with dignity – the same way I wish to be treated.
It all comes down to the golden rule in the end. It's what all great spiritual teachers have taught through the millenia.
Or is that perhaps up for debate too?
I do love and appreciate you, DL. Please understand that this won't change in spite of my firm beliefs on this.
xo
Hi Lisa!
Nice post! And sound reasons for having that belief system. I honor that.
I tend to disagree respectfully in terms of my own reading style. I don't believe these differences make one of us right and the other wrong; I just believe it makes us different, and there are different readers for every style client.
When I teach tarot, we'll sometimes do readings on celebrities for practice. New readers often have few people on which to practice and are shy with the cards, and this gives them someone "familiar" on whom they can focus and search into the cards for something familiar, particularly for advice or predictive readings — advice and predictions being more things that some also disagree with, as you know. I don't. I have used them often for myself and found them to be true, and it has helped me better my life by knowing the direction in which I was headed so that I might take action to change my course, because I believe *some* parts of the future are malleable; not everything is in my control…also something many people would argue. Some feel the future is fixed. Some believe there is no defined future. All these are personal belief systems, and we will all have validations for why we feel we are right, myself included, but no one knows for sure.
So it comes down to belief, and just like in religion, we all believe different things. No two people think alike.
I sometimes do celebrity readings and I feel comfortable doing so. Critics and fans make commentary, newspapers make commentary, and they are a part of our pop culture. They are someone who most people would recognize if we were to give a situational example. It feels more personal to some than a made up story.
That said, I recognize not everyone believes as I do. My motto is, "Just because I believe it doesn't make it so." And this is true for all of us. We all have different approaches and mindsets. And beliefs are something we have faith in, but really don't know.
One of the things I love about tarot is its diversity, both in how people can read it, as well as all the remarkable ways it can be used. I have great respect for all of the ways I have watched people enjoy tarot, whether through poetry, creative writing, soul searching, self-readings, friend readings, dream analysis, client readings, or celebrity readings. Celebrity readings are simply another kind of commentary.
Third party readings are something that could be discussed in a lively tarot forum, and like religion, most people will leave believing what they came in believing. I'll do third party readings because I have found them helpful to my clients in gaining empathy, or a wider understanding of the situation. For example, their boss is picking on them at work and they want to know why. I do a reading and I find out it is not the job performance of the client that is being criticized, but the boss's home life is in crisis. I can share with the client that it appears the boss has overwhelming personal concerns outside of the job environment and it is not, in fact, isolated to how the employee is being treated, but how the boss feels in general and therefore is acting out toward many people. These are very practical, day-to-day readings, and the nuts and bolts of why people go to a reader, more so than ever searching for spiritual enlightenment, for which few come. They want a way out of their crisis, or to find answers on situations they're walking into.
Your post brings up many excellent topics that make creative conversation and discussion between readers, and I think it's important that we have them, even though at the end of the day we each will likely still believe what we came believing. But the bottom line is "respect in differences," just as in any culture. And I respect that you read the way you do and serve your clients so well. I'm proud to know my peers are so conscientious in their readings and what they want to bring to their clients.
Thanks for making us think!
xo
DL
Hi Celeste, thanks for commenting. I suppose you could read on fictional characters instead, like Heathcliffe and Kathy…or Romeo and Juliet. I must admit, I would find it difficult to relate in a class where relationship readings were taught using celeb examples. You would have to tell me the inside scoop on each couple and I really wouldn't want to know… but to each their own.
Lisa;
While I agree with you on all your points about why not to read tarot on celebrity couples -there is a reason I do do it sometimes. And its not for any of the reasons cited. I use celebrity couples in my tarot classes as examples on how to do certain readings like relationship readings. However I do it sparingly. And I do it to save the student embarrassment at having to do a reading on thier own relationships which they may not (and often not) be ready to share with the class. After we do the celebrity reading it is quickly forgotten- the only information that is retained is the way I have taught them to do the spread -which was the whole point in the first place. Used this way, I don't see it as a negative thing at all.