Conducting the Reading

Before we start

A reading has a shape

An amateur reading wanders. It starts wherever the first card sends it, chases whatever the client reacts to, and stops when the time runs out. The client leaves with a pleasant hour and nothing in their hands.

A professional reading has a shape, and the shape is the same every time, whoever is in front of you. That is not rigidity. It is the thing that lets you relax, because you always know what happens next even when the reading itself surprises you.

This module is that shape, and the four moments that most often knock a reader off it.

Lesson one

Opening, and agreeing the question

In module two you learned to settle them and find the real question. This is the bit immediately after that, and it is one sentence long.

You say the question back to them, out loud, and get them to agree it before a single card goes down.

Three things happen when you do that. They hear their own situation said back clearly, which is worth the fee on its own. You have a target, so you can tell whether you have answered it. And if you have misread them, they correct you now, at minute four, rather than at minute forty when it is too late.

Say it, get a yes, then lay the cards.

Lesson two

The shape of the session

Tap each part to see what belongs in it and what usually goes wrong there. This example is a forty five minute session, but the proportions hold whatever length you work.

The part everybody underestimates is the last one. Readers give away the whole of their closing time by running the middle long, and then hurry the ending, which is the bit the client actually remembers.

Lesson three

When you go blank

It happens to everybody. You look at a spread you have read a hundred times and there is simply nothing there. Your mind is empty, the client is waiting, and the silence is getting loud.

New readers panic and start talking, which makes it worse, because now you are saying words you do not mean in front of somebody who can tell.

Here is what actually works.

1. Say out loud what you can seeNot what it means. What is literally there. Three cups, a wall, somebody facing away. Describing brings the mind back into gear almost every time, and it sounds to the client like you are working, because you are.
2. Hand the silence to themAsk a question. What has been going on with your sister lately. Their answer gives you somewhere to stand, and it buys you thirty seconds.
3. Admit it plainly, if you mustI am going to sit with this one a moment, it is not giving me a straight answer yet. Said calmly, this reads as care. It only reads as failure if you look frightened while you say it.
4. Never fill the gap with flatteryThe blank moment is where readers reach for you are a very strong person. It is filler, they know it is filler, and it is how a reading turns into a horoscope.

Lesson four

Being tested

Sooner or later somebody sits down with their arms folded to see what you have got. Sometimes it is a sceptic dragged along by a friend. Sometimes it is a person who has been badly burned by a reader before and is braced for it to happen again. Occasionally it is someone who just enjoys being difficult.

Whichever it is, the worst thing you can do is defend yourself, because that makes the session about you and your credibility rather than about them.

That answer takes the whole argument away, because you have not claimed anything for them to argue with. Most sceptics soften within ten minutes once they realise there is no performance to puncture.

The test that trips readers up more often is the trap question. Somebody withholds an obvious fact to see whether you will produce it. Tell me something about my family. You do not play. You say what you do.

And if somebody is genuinely rude, you are allowed to end the session. Say it plainly, refund or do not refund according to the terms you will write in module seven, and let them leave. One bad hour is cheaper than the version of yourself you become after three of them.

Lesson five

Closing properly

Most readings end by fading out. The time goes, the reader says something warm, and the client leaves holding a vague feeling. A week later they could not tell you one thing that was said.

A close is four sentences and it is the same four every time.

1. Say the question againRemind them what you both agreed to look at. It frames everything you are about to summarise.
2. Give the answer in one sentenceNot a summary of the cards. The answer. If you cannot say it in one sentence, you have not finished the reading.
3. Name one thing to doOne. Something small and actually possible this week. Readers who give five actions give none, because nobody does five.
4. Hand it back to them, with their nameThe last thing they hear should put them in charge of it, not you. Their name goes here.

Then stop. Do not add a bonus card. Do not soften it with a lovely closing flourish. The sentence lands or it does not, and adding to it always takes weight away.

Practice

Twelve awkward moments

These are the ones that actually happen. Think what you would say first, then tap to see how I handle it. Mine is not the only right answer, it is a starting point you can make your own.

Worksheet

My session shape

Write your own version of the four moments. Learn them until they are automatic, because none of them can be invented on the spot.