She Didn't Tell Me Anything I Didn't Already Know

“My reader was telling me what I already know.” What is going on here and why does it matter? Below are 4 reasons why a client might be getting known information from a reader:

#1 It takes far more skill for a reader to confirm what a sitter already knows than it is to make up some malarkey about what may or may not happen 5 years from now.

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If the reader is sharing things with a sitter that are immediately untrue or totally off- base then that is a sign that there is a mismatch or misconnection between two people, or possibly, an experience with a reader is not very skilled. Unskilled or mismatched readers will not produce the "I already knew that" experience.

It is extremely, unbelievably, frighteningly, easy to give “predictions” in the long term or about things that are impossible to verify. While the sitter is waiting for a husband with a first letter of “J” to show up 4 years from now the sitter will be long gone in most cases. If a reader tells a sitter that she has a purple giraffe as a totem animal, how can the sitter ever verify that information?

However, a reader who is talking about immediate issues: the micromanaging boss, the still living at home adult child, the husband who has been distant-- these things, while they may be “what I already know” can be instantly confirmed for accuracy illustrating a clear connection between the reader and the sitter. Doing this without being vague takes far more skill and confidence on the part of the reader, and in my mind, is the most accurate way of illustrating that the Tarot is in fact speaking to the sitter’s life and not just making up a bunch of you know what.


#2 There is a mismatch between sitter expectations and the experience being offered by the reader.

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Sometimes a “what I already know” experience means that the expectations of the sitter (that I have a mysterious/spiritual experience, that I will be told things about the far future, that my angelic guide will come, that my Grandmother who passed over will stop by for a visit, that I will get my soul purpose or learn about a past life, etc) are not in alignment with the type of reader they have hired to conduct the session. 

In a larger cultural context, there exists a kind of showman style of some intuitives that has largely dominated the popular imagination and expectation about what one should expect from a reading session, “I feel someone over here in this corner, a purple sweater and a daisy, who is this message for?” if the sitter has an expectation that this style is the norm, that they will be wow’d with information about the mystery of their lives, then a reader who is verifying known information may not live up to their presession expectations. Does that mean the reader is bad or perhaps just a bad fit for what the sitter wanted?


 It is important for the sitter to research what the intuitive does and how she does it. Read her reviews; what do they say about her reading and intuitive style, these are often clues to see if her style is a match. Just like with any other service practitioner, as the consumer it is important to find out if the provider will meet our base expectations before we buy.


#3 The sitter has specific expectations about the session.

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Some individuals carry expectations about what they think will occur in session and may feel disappointed if she doesnt hear what she specifically was coming to hear. It’s like going to the doctor about a sore wrist and having him remind you about your blood pressure, you already know it is an issue… but you are not paying attention to it, and it is important, in fact, it is more important than the thing you actually came in about.

Occasionally, what we want from a session will be nothing like what we get, an intuitive session being...well, intuitive...means that the sessions are going to spontaneously unfold from a number of sources, least of which what we may be consciously thinking about and certainly not what our ego demands. 

Sessions come from a conversation between our higher selves, our God principal, or subconscious and our own inner knowing- we cannot possibly dictate to all of Them what we want as often They have their own ideas about that and that idea is to get the sitter to pay attention to certain known aspect of their lives.


#4 The current situation is emphatically more important, it is the lynchpin unlocking everything else.

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In some sessions, what is currently going on is so very important that clarity in the current situation (and how the sitter should handle it) is all the session is going discuss. Nothing is clear or decided until that current situation is handled. 


For example, a sitter might ask, “Will I ever fall in love and get married?” and the Tarot, completely seeing that question as irrelevant in this moment responds, “Let’s look at this jerk guy that you have been seeing on and off for the past 2 years, when are you going to end that?”

That right there is a Spiritual Intervention, sure it’s all stuff the client knows but her Higher Self is so absorbed with looking at the current issue that She absolutely ignores the stated question. Her future lies directly within the resolution of a current scenario and her Higher Self is far more motivated in helping to resolve an urgent issue than alleviating anxiety about the future. An unscrupulous reader in this scenario would just give the sitter what she wants, “I see that in 6 months you will find the man of your dreams, he will be tall, he will be accomplished, he will love you, its coming for you!!!” 


O, how much easier it is to be a reader to tell sitters what they hope/desire/wish to hear! So much more spiritual labor goes into being a conduit for truth, delivering the tough news, the news that will hurt and be unremarkable and necessary and needed and ultimately transform a sitter's very life. It is tough being the "bearer of bad news" or telling the client that the session will not be about what she was hoping for-- making people take their spiritual medicine is tough work! I get clients who have seen a string of readers before me, “But they said he will come back but he never did.” How hard it can be as a reader to state the obvious and the painful, “Darling heart, he is not. Let’s look at healing that heart of yours.”


Sometimes a reading that speaks to “what I already know” will be the most honest and profound reading a client has ever had… if she can check her assumptions at the door and open to the incredible mystery/ordinary that is a good Tarot session.