Professional Tarot
by Christine Jette
It is obvious from newspaper articles, television programs, and simple Web searches, that tarot reading has found new status as a valid profession. As a profession, tarot varies as much as it does in the style of decks one can own or the way in which one chooses to read the cards. Professional readers can work locally out of their homes or at bookshops and festivals, internationally through a well-promoted web site, or by incorporating tarot into an existing counseling practice. The choices open to professional tarot readers abound, and so too do questions and challenges.
Christine Jette, popular author of
Tarot Shadow Work,
Tarot for the Healing Heart,
Tarot for All Seasons, and the upcoming
Writing for the New Age Market, is herself a professional tarot reader, who brings her background in the fields of nursing and psychology to her consultations. She is well rounded, both as a tarot reader, and as a tarot author. With the rise in the number of new tarot readers, she understood the need for a professional handbook - a how-to guide for the beginning consultant. Jette treats tarot reading as a profession. She doesn't question whether it could or should be a career option, she knows that it already is, and she shows how to make the dream a reality, addressing all of the basics in starting a new business, and answering questions specific to the business of tarot.
She begins by asking the reader to determine her motives for wanting to read tarot professionally. She insists on honesty - on taking a good look at why tarot reading is an attractive career option. Jette clarifies what being a tarot professional entails, and helps to clarify the goals of each reader. She quickly dispels myths, about tarot and about starting a business, yet she also continually offers warm hope and guidance. This warmth is present from cover to cover, as it is in all of Jette's previous work.
After introducing some "feel-good" exercises (for example, journaling to increase self-confidence, discovering one's personal tarot reading style, and accepting the idea of earning money working at tarot), Jette dives into the mundane - but crucial - aspects of starting a tarot business. She covers questions that would come to mind immediately - how much to charge? how to stay safe if reading in one's own home? what about advertising? - and questions many of us might forget to ask beforehand - how to raise rates when the time comes? how to guarantee a tarot reading? what to do about potentially suicidal clients? Her most important lesson is that tarot reading as a business demands and deserves just as much focus, organization, and professionalism as any other. Her coverage of business advice is impressive. She shares ideas on registering a name, designing a logo (or having one designed), promotion, organizing a home office, and setting up a web site. There is a wealth of information in the book, including lists of valuable resources - online and off. A bonus for those who consider
Tarot Passages the best tarot site on the Web is that Jette includes an interview with webmistress and tarot author Diane Wilkes, as well as Diane's own tarot consultant's code of ethics. Another great bonus is the thorough section on teaching a tarot class, complete with ideas on scheduling, course plan and structure, and dealing with a variety of students.
Professional Tarot is an informative and compassionate guide that clearly reflects the experience and expertise of its author. It will most certainly serve the needs of tarot readers who are just starting their business, as well as those who have been doing it for years, making a place for itself among the "must-haves" on the modern tarot bookshelf.
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Illumination Tarot has been publishing articles, reviews, tarot spreads, and personal reflections for tarot enthusiasts and followers of alternative spirituality online since 1999.
All writing and photography © N Levine - Illumination Tarot, unless otherwise noted. 1999-2021
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