Here… grab yourself a glass while I let my thoughts snowball…
So… Chances are that you will at some point or another have come across this phrase…
Tarot is For Entertainment Purposes Only…
Yeah? Well… there’s been suggestions for quite some time for readers to use it…
And I really don’t want to enter the great debate as to the rights and wrongs and is it acceptable or isn’t it etc etc etc… My dainty hands don’t like to juggle hot potatoes…
But… recently, someone asked me how I felt about that phrase and if I thought it was demeaning to my work.
And I told them… you know what… actually… I rather like that phrase!
Now this surprised them…
And a few years ago, that answer would probably have surprised me also…
But… I find instead of it being restrictive to how I work, it allows me more freedom to express myself…
Spiritually I laughingly describe myself has having no fixed abide 😀 so to call myself an entertainer… well that bypasses very quickly all those questions that I get about what my beliefs are etc… what are my rituals… Before where I may have stumbled and mumbled and tried to swerve an answer and over think what to say… Now I can reply with theatrical aplomb! Sweety! It’s entertainment!
Yeah… these days, I think more and more of reading tarot as being a performance art… And I don’t think that that diminishes it in the slightest…
Because… let’s have a look at the word entertain and see what it actually means…
- provide (someone) with amusement or enjoyment.
- receive (someone) as a guest…
- give attention or consideration to (an idea or feeling)
Yeah… they all work for me… and there’s nothing frivolous about that… as when we engage and give others attention and consideration… then we create a space to learn more about each other…
And really… is it such a bad idea to view your clients as an audience?
Ok… if you push me on it… I’m not so keen on the ‘ONLY’ word… and when I quote the quote… I often add on the end… and you just may happen to hear something that may change your life…
Is that boastful? I think not… I think it’s fair to say that the majority of people feel that they have had their life changed in someway by entertainment… sport? art? literature? music? surely one of these has touched you and I think that’s why the ‘only’ is unjust…
And when I think of Tarot as entertainment, not only does it allow me to enjoy what I do more by making tarot more accessible to people who may never have considered it… Well… it also opens it up for me to enjoy other people’s ways of working much more… Because Tarot is such a wide and varied practise… and there is no right and wrong way to do things… it’s a vibrant, expressive form and I want to be able to enjoy it in many shapes and forms alongside people who see things in ways that differ to mine.
How many musicians do you know who only play one instrument or only listen to one genre of music?
How may chefs do you know who refuse to eat food cooked by anybody else?
So… I’m pretty cool with
Tarot is For Entertainment Purposes Only…
Well… for all of the above… but also…
Come on! People will always come with their own ideas… And people want to believe in the possibility that there just might be something in it…
And I don’t see anything wrong with that… I mean… after all… Take a look around you… things are being sold all the time… And take this example in particular… Not far from where I live there was some disused ground and it went up for sale… Now the sales people didn’t take photos of the weeds and rubble… They sold the ground by using Artist’s impressions of what could be built there… They sold the POTENTIAL of the ground… Now whoever bought that had the choice then to build or leave it as rubble… And I can draw a fair few parallels there between that and a reading… Describing the potential… though your reading should come in at a considerably cheaper price!
But also… I think… there are far worse labels that could have been slapped on us by the red tape brigade if they’d chosen to be particularly offensive…
Let me think… how about being forced to display…
Licensed to flog fear
or
Accredited Pusher of Pipe Dreams…
Yeah… Ok… I’m being facetious! 😀
But Sweety!!
I AM…
AN ENTERTAINER!!
M’wah! M’wah!
The pure and blessed way 
I LOVE this post! I really needed to read this. It speaks to me of freedom and a release from the need to be serious in a traditional way, which is exactly what my Maverick Bluestocking journey is about. And you have opened up a window for me in how I see my writing, which I hadn’t really properly defined until a moment ago when I was reading this. I have felt compelled, not necessarily in a good way, not necessarily led by my heart, to take the things I have felt inspired to write and turn them into serious products. In a commercial sort of way. And then the material seems to lose its magic. Right now I set the intention to remind myself that I am writing to entertain and delight people, to strike a chord, and to let go of that impulse to control and manage. Thank you, thank you 🙂
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Thank you Harriet! Just because you’re having fun doesn’t mean it’s not serious 😀 It’s always hard to know what will ring a bell for people… I always write as though I am having a conversation with a very dear friend of mine 😉 (That came about after I sent an email of epic proportions to him saying help me!! I have writer’s block…. He replied… Karen start each page with Dear…. write your socks off and then go back to the top and delete my name… 😀 )
Recently I wrote some material for a 3rd party and had some SEO guidelines, format etc to follow… it is really hard to make that sparkle and not sound like churned out marketing…
I think you just have to treat it all as work in progress and evolve along the way 😀
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Wow! I also find this liberating. I did not realize you had to put “For Entertainment Purposes Only” on a reading. Good to know.
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It depends where in the world you are…
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