Primum Non Nocere
In the work Complete Book of Tarot, Anthony Louis has a, beautifully explained and written, section on how Hippocrates’ oath, that doctors abide by, also applies to Tarot readers. It is the first book where I find this analogy and it makes so much sense.
To be clear, I am not equating doctors and tarot readers, they are very different professions, but the impact they can have on patients, respectively querents, is very powerful.
As sometimes the universe wants you to dig deeper into something, after I read that section in the book, I saw in the Irish Independent, in the QA section, a question from somebody who had had their future foretold as a young person. The reader, was in jest, the father of one of her friends and he foretold just bad things for her future.
The impact was so great, that the poor woman had been haunted all her life by those predictions and now, all grown up, with a beautiful family, she was seized by panic attacks worrying something might happen to them and she was unable to rejoice in the life she had built.
See what I mean? How it can affect your querent and they will carry that information with them when they leave the reading table.
Readings should empower the querent to choose their path in life, they should not condemn them to years of rumination and anxiety.
This is a danger often with readers just starting out and unsure of how to interpret the cards. It happened to me too and I think it was one of the reasons I walked away from tarot for such a long time.
Tarot is not easy to learn if you want to do it properly, or at least it is not for me. Around 20 years ago, when I was 20 years younger than now, I had some cards and I had 1 book I had read from. I was fascinated by the tarot, but I did not know too much about it, just that it was something I enjoyed doing.
During that time I was living in student accommodation, something like a super packed hive of young people, and I would play around with the cards doing readings for those around me. Nothing fancy. Just a bit of fun…
At some point, some of us went to a medieval festival, where people dressed up in costumes, the food was olde worlde, the activities, a lot of fun! Of course, I took my cards with me. If not there, where?
I had my long black nails, the works. I did readings to a bunch of people and most of them were good, nothing extraordinary. I was using the Marseille Major Arcana. Then, one of the girls I was with was next.
As it happened, all the ‘dark’ cards appeared for her, and no matter how much I tried I could not make a good reading. She saw the cards, she saw The Tower, Death, The Hangman. I saw how it affected her and I felt so bad that I did not know enough to guide her through the cards. I felt like a sham.
I have kept tabs on her and I am happy to report she is doing great.
Other ethical considerations when reading are related to reading for children. A reading should only be done if needed and in the presence of a significant adult, also using cards appropriate for children. Or when we read about a person that is not present, we should not disclose something that can harm that person that is not present. Also, we should not use the tarot to control or frighten somebody, or impose our own view of the world on them.
The power the cards hold is given by those that believe in them, and used wisely they can be an enriching tool that supports life and living it beautifully.
I think not just Tarot readers should follow the First, do no harm principle, but all of us as humans should internalize it and apply it in our day to day.