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One organization in
particular, the Canadian Tarot Network, has incorporated the idea of
having individual readers developing their own personal code of
ethics into their certification program. All six certification
levels offered by the CTN have a requirement that focuses on the
reader developing, writing, and then expanding upon a personal code
of ethics. The purpose behind such an emphasis on the inculcation of
ethics is to instill into the certified reader a basic understanding
of ethical practices, as would be applied by a professional Tarot
reader. This basic foundation of ethical conduct is then built upon,
as the reader becomes more experienced in reading for the public,
and starts taking on ever-larger roles of responsibility in the
Tarot reading community. This, in turn, serves to improve the
reader’s reputation, as well as the reputation of the Tarot
community, as a whole. As in any other profession, the profession as
a whole is judged in many cases, by the conduct of individual
members, for good or ill.
However, there are a
large number of individuals who would protest the development of
“established certifications” and “mandatory ethical standards,” as
described by a professional organization. These nay-sayers, most of
whom claim to hail from the esoteric community, object to such
“rigidity,” claiming it would detract from the spiritual qualities
of a Tarot reading, as could only be experienced in a true “caveat
emptor” environment. Such claims may be very well true, in that
ethical standards may impose additional burdens on a reader’s
conduct towards a client. However, closer inspection of said claims
usually proves that such burdens have less to do with imposing any
spiritual constraints by the “establishment,” than with the
hampering of a practitioner’s “less than ethical” business
practices.
An example of a “less
than ethical” business practice can be seen in my recent visit to a
local bookstore that periodically offered Tarot readings. When I
asked for a reading the lady at the desk declined to do a Tarot
reading for me, and suggested that I consider an aura reading
instead. The aura reading included a mini-counseling session, which
concluded with a suggestion of which aromatherapy item I might
purchase. After listening to her pitch on the aromatherapy items, I
thanked her for the aura reading and left.
While I am not opposed
to the insight an allied discipline would have to offer, I was taken
aback by the suggestion that I needed to buy oils and/or incense
sticks. I only wanted a Tarot reading, and nothing more. I admit I
do like to shop and purchase such items from time to time, but that
would have been at my prerogative to do so when it would have suited
me. I made up my mind that day that if I were going to offer a
service to the public, I would do just that. “Baiting” potential
customers to enter an establishment by offering a service, and then
switching to something else is a tactic I would never care employ as
a business professional.
Personal Code of Ethics
to Professional Code of Ethics
With the goal in mind of creating a
guideline of ethics-based conduct, as well as the above-mentioned
experience, I began outlining what I believed would constitute a set
of ethics I would want to uphold. I wanted a Code of Ethics that
would serve not only as a personal guideline of ethical conduct, but
also serve as a public notice of what I will, and will not, do for a
client. After reading several examples, and listening to the advice
of both my Tarot and astrology friends, I put together the following
Code of Ethics:
I do not foretell the
future with Tarot cards, nor will I refer a client to anyone who
claims they can.
I do not provide advice
concerning healthcare, legal, or financial issues. These are areas
of concern, which need to be addressed by healthcare, legal and
financial professionals.
What I will do is use
the Tarot to provide insight into underlying issues concerning your
question. It is up to the client to use what we might find in our
Tarot reading to bring about positive changes in his/her
life.
My Tarot readings will
be conducted in a professional manner that is private and relaxed.
The insight provided during the reading will be about the client
only, never about other people in the client's life, including
family members.
All information,
insights or revelations brought to light during any Tarot reading
will remain confidential. The only exception will be if the client
expressly agrees to allow me to consult with my mentor on the
outcome of a particular reading.
I will encourage my
clients to ask questions, take notes, or record the reading as it
takes place; so as to further my client’s understanding of the
nature of the reading and any insights it may reveal.
I will teach my clients
about the insights and limitations of the Tarot. I will teach my
clients that they have the responsibility to conduct themselves
according to their conscience, and that the insights revealed by the
Tarot are answers from their inner-self, and may be acted upon
according to the client’s free will and conscience.
I will always endeavor
to express what insights I have been given during a Tarot reading in
such a manner as to empower my client. My clients will never be
asked to make any additional purchase of any kind, or be exploited
for personal or financial gain.
I will respect the
moral, religious and social beliefs of my clients, and will refrain
from any judgment and criticism. I will adhere to the standards set
forth by the ATA and the CTN, including the Code of Ethics of both
of these organizations.
In assembling this Code
of Ethics, I strived to include a number of elements which I believe
are essential items in conveying the professional nature of my
services to the public. Among them are the commitment to the
delivery of consistent, high quality readings, confidentiality of
the reading, an agreed upon understanding of the limitations of a
Tarot reading, and a degree of sensitivity to my client and the
problems they discuss with me. Two additional items, which I deemed
to be vital components of a professional Code of Ethics, are the
ideas of providing the reading as the primary service that I extend
to my client, and that my Code of Ethics is compatible with the
professional Tarot organizations of which I am a member. These last
two items are key elements in the development of a “professional”
Code of Ethics, from a personal code of conduct.
To begin with, the
reading, whatever its outcome, is NOT to be used or leveraged so as
to induce the client to purchase any additional services, products
or items. While I do understand that many readers may work in shops
that sell other items, such as oils, incense, etc., there needs to
be some sort of ethical guideline in place that reduces or prevents
the issue of “conflicting interests.” The inclusion of such
provisions in a Code of Ethics helps to alleviate such issues by
letting the client know before a reading, that the choice to
purchase any additional services or items should be considered
separately from the original contracted reading.
Second, the ethical
standards, which I make available to my clients BEFORE they agree to
a contract reading, are compatible with the professional
organizations with which I am a member. As a professional Tarot
reader, I support the Tarot community through my membership in
professional organizations, which support and advance the quality of
the Tarot profession. As one person out of many, I have the
opportunity and advantage of learning from the insight and
experience of other members of a professional organization. Such
organizations provide not only a forum that facilitates the exchange
of ideas and methods, but also provides the opportunity to
contribute to the profession by striving to develop and improve the
qualities and ideals that are incumbent upon each member. My Code of
Ethics may be something I might claim for myself, but it really is
the combined influence of the professional Tarot community;
examined, reviewed, and questioned by my peers with whom I claim
membership.
Ethics in Writing, Publishing, and Dealing with
Peers
The label “Tarot professional” carries with it
much more than the notion of simply being a responsible card reader.
In today’s society, more so than in any other time in history, the
written word has become the standard method of transmitting ideas
and learning, as well as conveying the thoughts and opinions of our
peers and the general public. Today’s Tarot professional must be an
expert at locating and learning from the written material available,
as well as being able to assemble his/her experiences and knowledge
into written form, to be used by the next generation of professional
readers.
Now, this is not to say
that all readers must be accomplished authors, literary critics or
experts in library science. However, a professional reader, like any
other professional, should uphold the basic ethics incumbent upon
those who create, edit and promote written materials that are used
in our profession. In short, ethical readers should stand against
the plagiarization of any materials, whether esoteric or not, and
should endeavor to maintain the accuracy of any materials being
published, properly citing references as well as avoiding distorting
information in favor of any particular viewpoint or
belief.
Much of the same can,
and should, be applied to how we, as professional Tarot readers,
deal with our peers. By giving credit to the appropriate references
in our written works, we support and encourage our peers to freely
contribute their thoughts, insight, and experiences to the overall
knowledge base of our profession. These contributions, most of which
become freely available to the public, serve to advance our
profession and help bring the benefits of our services to the
general public. It is interesting to note that many of the opinions
of our profession stem from what the curious have gleaned from the
printed materials available at local bookstores. Writing and
publishing Tarot materials that reflect the high standards of our
profession promotes the external image we project to the public, as
well as to members of our profession. Creating these materials, and
presenting them to our students and peers in an ethical manner, is
of fundamental importance.
Ethics of the Student-Teacher
Relationship
As a college instructor, I have learned
that a good teacher is NOT the chief dispenser of knowledge, but a
facilitator of the learning experience. Assuming the role as an
instructor places upon the professional reader an entirely different
mantel of responsibility. As an instructor, the Tarot professional
is in a unique position to convey the experiences and insights to
new readers that have been gained over the course of a career. Doing
so requires that the instructor approach the student neither as an
equal nor as an authority; but requires that a middle ground be
defined that allows for the learning experience to take place in a
positive manner.
The Student-Teacher
relationship is a very special bond that is created when two people
interact to exchange ideas or information. In a very real sense, we
are all both students and teachers. This relationship is more akin
to the situation of a blacksmith. Just as a blacksmith bends and
shapes his ironwork, so too does the working itself bend and shape
the smith. There are no Tarot “gurus” located in far-away places
that do not need the insight or experiences of others. Likewise,
there are no students who do not in some fashion influence the
perspective of their instructors. For this relationship to work, the
student must be honest about wanting to learn the profession he/she
is taking up, and the instructor must be honest about wanting to
really teach the student. When both of these conditions occur, a
student-teacher relationship is created.
To maintain this
relationship, the instructor must be honest about REALLY wanting to
teach the student. This can only be realized if the instructor is
careful about maintaining the proper learning environment. This is
why virtually all colleges and universities have guidelines in place
that seek to prevent behavior that may be interpreted as
fraternization, including rules prohibiting dating between the
instructor and his/her students. Such policies seek to maintain a
“professional distance” between the student and the instructor,
which allows room for the learning process to operate, free from
“outside” distractions.
This “professional
distance” is not to be taken as license to treat a student as a
number, but rather to maintain a level of compassion that will still
allow the instructor the objectivity needed to function as a
teacher. This sense of perspective is needed to successfully impart
the abilities, attitude, skills and knowledge needed by the student
to be successful in the Tarot profession. If the instructor cannot
impart these qualities, or build the confidence of his/her students,
then this relationship will fail both the instructor and the
student.
The student too, has
his/her responsibilities in this relationship. The student must be
serious about learning the skills of this profession. There seems to
be no limit to the number of “dubious” readers that are constantly
in the public eye. While some of these individuals are no doubt
products of poor training, many of these persons were perhaps never
serious about REALLY learning the craft they claim to practice.
Lured by the promise of easy money to be had at the expense of the
general public, such readers seriously impair the image of the
professional card reader, as well as the image of those readers who
may consider joining the Tarot community. Students should realize,
or if necessary be told, that the field of Tarot reading is a
profession that will require a life-long commitment to continual
learning and practicing. The appetite for learning must be present
in the student, for the instructor to feed.
Ethics for Working with Groups and Communicating
with Peers
Working with large groups of people places
an extra burden on the professional reader, in that the larger the
group, the more exposure the reader has to the public, especially
when filling the role as a group speaker. As any one will tell you,
who has a background in public speaking, group dynamics provides a
whole new set of challenges for the professional to contend with.
Groups of people increase the problem of hidden agendas and goals,
with which the reader/speaker must contend. I have personally seen
this while participating in large group lectures, where the speaker
is confronted with a wide variety of divergent views, insights and
goals. It is often difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a
professional discourse under such circumstances, especially if the
speaker is working with an adversarial group. These are the times
when a firmly established Code of Ethics will be of the greatest
benefit.
The speaker must take
considerable care to treat each individual in a group with respect
and equity, as well as insist that group members also treat each
other in the same fashion. As any group of individuals is a
collection of diverse personalities, the speaker must take care to
avoid comments, actions or behaviors that might be considered to be
offensive to any particular individual. From my own personal
experience, groups will often contain several sub-groups, or special
interest groups, with their own ideas and agendas. Many times the
agendas of such sub-groups will differ significantly from the
intended focus of the group. It is the responsibility of the speaker
to be able to address these special groups as needed, without
loosing the integrity of the group’s original focus by diverging
into unrelated topics.
In many ways, speaking
to a group of diverse individuals is not unlike trying to develop
and maintain a student-teacher relationship with several people all
at once. However, if everything works and the group participants are
not too rowdy, the speaker may begin to see a rise in the group’s
“synergy.” This is what the group participants will remember about
the group experience, and invariably, about the speaker him/herself,
even more so than what the original topic of discussion was
about!
Similar to the
challenges of working with large groups is communicating and working
with peers in one’s own field. Many readers find themselves “at
arm’s length” when dealing with their peers, or peers from other
disciplines. Many times this problem arises from the perception,
either right or wrong, on how a peer is perceived as being treated.
Some readers tend to treat others they interact with as potential
students or clients. This, in turn, may be misinterpreted as a
personal slight.
From the standpoint of
professional ethics, it would speak well for all Tarot readers to
treat their peers as equals, rather than as amateur or junior
readers. This would go far to instill a more professional image
within our own ranks. There have been many instances where I have
performed readings for others, only to learn that my clients were
seasoned readers, with many years of experience. A professional
bearing in these instances has earned for me their respect, which
has gone far in establishing my reputation as a solid
reader.
Likewise, as
professionals, we need to show common respect and courtesy to
members of other Tarot organizations, as well as those practitioners
of the allied esoteric arts. While some practitioners of other
esoteric disciplines tend not to acknowledge Tarot readers as
professional peers, members of our profession should not respond in
like manner. If we, as a society of Tarot readers, extend
professional courtesies to all other disciplines in equal manner,
then we, as a collective group, will benefit from the reputation of
being seen by our peers, as well as by the public at large, as being
a society of responsible professionals worthy of being accepted as
learned esotericists in our own right.
Conclusion
In the end, it is up to
the individual card reader to adopt and advance the idea of abiding
by a code of ethics, when working with our clients. We alone are
responsible for changing the public perception of professional Tarot
reading, restoring it to a place of honor as an ancient esoteric
discipline. Letting society slowly reverse the antiquated laws
against “fortune telling” is not enough to accomplish the goal of
restoring Tarot reading as a mature, responsible profession.
Individual readers must consciously choose to adhere to standards of
ethical conduct and accountability, and demand that their peers do
likewise. Only a total commitment to excellence will see our craft
established as a professional endeavor, worthy of the respect and
admiration that it so richly deserves. |
