Readers Respond: Tarot Readings from Hell

Note: Remember, this is for sharing your experiences reading the cards, not having them read for you by another person.

Share Your Story

tarot gone wrong

I have been a reader for 16 yrs. Last summer I decided to start charging 20 dollars a reading to help me get through the summertime. Then I read for someone I barely knew. She was incredibly nice and very open to it, but I worked with her and I was a little nervous. I read her cards and told her that she would not have children for a very long time, if ever. I felt so bad that the reading was so heartbreaking for her that I offered to read her again since I may have been wrong cause I was so nervous. I read her again a month later, same results. Then 3 months later, she was pregnant. This happened over a yr ago and it has been very hard to get over that reading and continue to do readings. I decided to stop charging (I had not charged for 15 yrs) but I still have problems with confidence ever since. It was the only reading I had ever done that was just completly wrong.

—Guest gypsy

Very First Time

I was in 6th grade, and my sister (4 years older) were both very into our "Alternative Religious Lifestyle" as my mother would say. I had a knack for getting through with the Oujia Board where my sister couldn't so she bought me my own Tarot Deck for my birthday. So, naturally, I took my time, looking through all of the cards, getting aquainted with them, and I didn't even bother reading the spreads and the meanings in the booklet that came with the deck. My sister asked me that when I was comfortable with it, could I please do my first reading for her? Of course, I wanted to do so right away, excited at this new and exciting thing. I laid the cards out on my own, a simple three card spread. Past, Present, and Future. To both of our surprises, the cards were almost completely spot on. She looked up the meanings after I had given my interpretation, and they were almost identical. My sister was amazed and frightened, but not nearly as much as I!

—Guest Tala Tazanna

The Fool Card

A lady came to me for a reading while I was working at an Esoteric Convention. As she shuffled the cards, the fool card jumped out of the deck. She looked at it and exclaimed, It's telling me something!, it's telling me something!, I smiled and handed her the card and asked her to put it back in the deck. She said NO!! it's telling me something!. So I laid the card aside as she kept kept shuffling. Once she was finished I took the cards and was about to start the lay out when she asked "what about the Fool card". I said to her " I asked to to put it in the deck" she said "well you should have told me what to do with it". I went about doing the reading and she would disagree with everything I said. She started raising her voice to the point of being hysterical. So yes the card was saying something to her but at the same time it was also telling me about her. The Fool card described the lady perfectly, a fool.

—Guest yon

Queen of Swords Looming

When I began reading Tarot cards in my early 20s, I kept it a secret from my abusive, controlling mother because I knew she would accuse me of being some kind of evil Satanic witch and punish me quite severely for it. At the same time, I was secretly making plans to move out of her house and I was also dating a guy that she didn't know about. Every single Tarot reading I did for myself at that time featured the Queen of Swords in a position which indicated I would have to face the Queen sometime very soon. I was confused and frustrated about the Queen constantly turning up in the most trivial readings where it made no sense for the Queen to appear, until I finally realized that the Queen represented my mother, and the cards were telling me I would eventually have to face her and free myself from her control. That confrontation did finally happen, and my life is so much better without the Queen of Swords hovering over my life (and popping up in all my readings!)

—Guest LittlestWitch

Taro gone bad.

I have never learned tarot nor do I own a deck. I usually look upon divination with a jaded eye. As demonstrated in Hamlet its not allways good to know your future, and once knowing it you can often bring it about by acting on that knowledge. However one halloween I was at a party of a friend who did tarot readings. She had me shuffle the deck 7 times while concentrating on my question. Afther that she laid out all the cards in a pattern and connected certain symbols on the cards laying next to each other if there was a match. She had told me before she began that usually only 3 to 7 matches ever appeared and using these matches could determine the answer to my question. Well she started to count all the matches the cards had made and her eyes just got big and her face was so pale I thought she would faint. She had counted and I had no less than 37 matches or pairs. Then she just looked up at me and said, "What were you thinking?" Needless to say I never got an answer.

—Guest Kathy

could write a book

I cant really classify this as a reading from hell, dont even believe in that..but have been both teaching tarot & runes amongst other things for well over 30 years. One night, whe working for a company of readers, about to quit, the phone for readings rang, I was exhaused,but once the cards are in my hands it isnt *me* doing the readings anyhow, just getting the kudos and drained out feeling afterward. But anyhow, I introuced myself and got silence and then heard a small cry. I explained as I began to pull her in and keep shuffling. Next thing I knew, I was watching me, slumped over on my desk, she was having a conversation with her deceased husband thru me & she had intended to kill herself..he found me. he tucked her in, & told her "he would see her again,and she would know it was him, from the twinkle in his eyes". she kept me in this state till I fought to come back, drained & mouth was,weird, asked & found out he'd had a stroke on that side. this is not a toy.

—Manxwitch

Don't Touch!

I started reading for friends in high school, and I have to admit that I was inexperianced and stupid. There was a friend of a friend who wanted a reading. Back then I let people touch my cards, to get their energy into them. I still do this with people that I trust, but I learned the hard way what someone can do to my cards. The first reading I did for him was all swords and wands. The second was more swords, plus the devil and the tower. I cleansed them as best I could, but it took over 6 months for my cards to stop giving me mostly swords in every reading. I have since found out that that guy landed himself in prison for drug trafficking and assault! Scary! Never again!

—Guest MorningStar

Tarot Readings from Hell

I once had an invitation to read for a group of friends of one of my clients. There were approximately 6 girls who wanted readings...and one (an Aries) who ADAMANTLY did NOT. The others cjoled and prodded and so she agreed to get a reading. I tired to explain to the girls why it wouldn't be a good idea....they just kept at us both. Finally the girl sits before me (arms crossed too!) . As I laid the cards, no lie! they were saying how she would be swept off of her feet by a man she would literally just bump in to. He would be tall and dark hair. She would also be married within the year. Yeah.........sounded like the stereotypical gypsy wishwash right? I now will not engage in any back n forth to read for one who is not happy to have it for themselves! The Aries?!? never called me to tell me herself, but my client told me that she was engaged to a man who she collided with at their gym,,,,yeah he was tall and dark and the Aries friend was head over heels about him.

—Guest subtlewitch

Double Trouble

I do readings where I work for fun. I have one Co-worker that I had to stop reading for everyday she would be asking for a reading.. She drained me so much that I stop showing up early and wearing my stones to work! So she started staying late everyday! I finally starting leaving my cards at home.. about 2 months out I left the need to carry my cards with me.. But I didnt want to read for her, but did anyways.. Man my cards taught me a lesson that day.. I got sick, and the energy lvl went haywire.. I shook from head to toe.. NEVER again will I read when my cards tell me otherwise!

—Guest Sliverwaterbear

Reading for a know-it-all

I've done several online readings over the years, but the third one I ever did will always stick with me. A woman purchased a reading and inquired about a recent break-up. I had been reading personally and professionally for about nine years at this point, and am very apt to interpreting the cards by my own intuition rather than what A.E. Waite might have seen in them. I did the reading for her, using a three card spread I created, called 'The Crossing.' A week later she emailed me saying I knew nothing about reading tarot cards. She "re-interpreted" my three card spread as a past-present-future spread, using LWB definitions (literally, she told me that she read cards and this is what they meant...according to the book that came with her deck) and then proceeded to tell me that "the cross" spread is "The Celtic Cross" and has ten cards, not three. After this she proclaimed my re-interpreted past-present-future spread to be completely inaccurate.

—Guest Iago

A Warning

I was doing some readings for myself seven years ago, and the Three of Swords kept appearing. The card seemed to make no sense in the context of what I was asking, so I put the deck away, thinking that maybe the cards needed a rest. Less than a week later, my dad died of a heart attack. I didn't think about those readings until a few days later. The cards were trying to tell me something about this, even though I didn't get it at the time.

—Guest Jennifer

Suicidal

The first time in quite a few years that I picked up the cards "professionally", rather than just for friends, I had a woman come in who just had this dark cloud around her. Without going into too much detail, she was pretty much on her way to go commit suicide when she saw the sign for readings and stopped in- probably hoping I'd say something to help justify it. I ended up talking her into going and doing something she used to enjoy but hadn't done in a while (most suicidal people WON'T make an attempt if they just get past that one really bad day), and she left feeling better. I think everything turned out okay, but yeah- NO PRESSURE THERE........

—Guest Mike

Beginner Reading for Friends

I did a few readings when I was first starting out, and I was pretty spot on. My very first reading was perfectly true, and ended up making her cry >.< Felt bad for that but amazed at the same time. But in any case, I was reading for a different friend, to show her that "this Wicca thing" wasn't as crazy as she thought it might be. I read her, and apparently, it wasn't right at all. But then, I was also getting really negative vibes from her, so that was probably why.

—Guest Azaurmyth

Tarot Story from hell

I had been reading only a couple of years at the time, I had the cards laid out and I could clearly read but it was awful awful news and I just couldn't bring myself to read them to her so I just kind of made up some advice putting a positive spin on things. I felt bad for doing it then when within 10 days or so what I saw came to be freaked me out, I quit reading for nearly 5 years in that time growing and learning about life I started reading again.

—Guest Patti

When I say don't gamble

A man came to my table for a reading. He had recently decided to start day-trading. A national Drugstore was going down the tubes and he thought if he bought low he would be in the bucks soon, because the chain would rise up from the ashes and be strong once again. The was death next to the wheel of fortune with loss to follow. I told him NOT to spend money that he didn't have because this would only result in a big loss. Of course he would'nt be told no and borrowed against his paid for home. To make a long story short the stock slipped down the toilet and Mr. Know it all lost everything. And then he called me and said I should have stopped him.

—Jheree