When someone other than a friend sits at the table to have a reading with you, they are going to come in with their own expectations of what a card reading is or isn’t. Actually, your friends have expectations too, but they are also more likely to be good sports and forgiving. When someone wants a more or less professional reading (whether you get paid or not) they are going to be pissed if what you provide isn’t what they expect.

Some querents lie to you, either to prove you wrong or to put you to the test. The cards can detect this, but it is obviously easier to conduct a reading with a well-meaning querent, especially because it’s easy to misread the cards on the background of what your querent tells you. It’s like going to the doctor insisting your leg hurts even if it doesn’t. Sooner or later you are going to have something prescribed for it regardless of whether it’s good for you.

Some querents lie to themselves, and this makes matters even harder, because the cards have a way of being brutal. When I notice that the querent has decided in advance what truth they want to see in the cards, my rule of thumb is to drop hints. While the great benefit of divination is that it affords us a dispassionate bird-eye-view on our life, it is not the reader’s job to yank the querent kicking and screaming out of their delusion, especially because we, as readers, can be deluded too.

Some readers will sit across from you, cross their arms and wait to be astounded. Sometimes they don’t even do it out of spite–they genuinely think that’s how you behave during a divination session. While it is possible to give a reading in this situation, I always prefer for there to be an exchange, especially because I have better things to do with my time.

So, let me reassure you that it is within your rights to torture your querent for all the information you need and to ask them for feedback at every turn of the reading. This is not called fishing for information, it’s called saying “ouch” when the doctor touches you where it hurts.

It is your right to demand that the person sitting in front of you respects you and keeps an open mind. Your mileage may vary, but my rule of thumb is, if you antagonize me, you can read your own cards.

It is your right to say “I don’t know” if you don’t know and “I’m not sure, but…” if you are not sure, but…

It is your right to refuse to answer any question you don’t feel like answering, for whatever reason. Just be kind and tactful in refusing, as sometimes questions are asked out of despair.

It is NOT your right to demand that the querent hangs off your every word and accepts everything unquestioningly like a divine revelation. A healthy dose of skepticism is natural and to be expected in sane individuals. It is not true that the cards will only work if the querent believes in them. I don’t believe in many of the predictions I make, both for myself and for others. What is true is that if the querent unnerves the reader with his skepticism, the reading may be less than optimal (see the paragraph on antagonistic questioners). If the querent starts off with “I don’t really believe in this stuff” you can say “me neither, let’s see what happens”. Even if the reading goes south, I swear you won’t find your face on national television with the title “Fortune-teller gets it wrong”.

Finally, let me say that the measure of a good reading is not whether the querent instantly believes what you read “resonates” with them. Sometimes you are reading along and everything seems to be going smoothly and then when you ask for feedback you get a big fat nope. At other times the querent leaves scowling at you like you’re worse than an amoeba, but then when you hear from them again they are delighted. I find that the easiest way for me to give a reading is just to surrender control over it: it will go as it must.