Looks Are Deceiving: What a Tarot Reader Really Looks Like

See the differences above? People are often surprised when they see me for the first time when they come to me for a reading. Maybe it’s a mix of misconceptions of what a tarot reader looks like. I don’t look like Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die, nor am I old and wizened and looking like I’m dripping wisdom out of my wrinkly pores. Perhaps some people are looking for theatricality and are disappointed when I show up in jeans and a blouse instead of a long flowing dress, headscarf, and gold hoop earrings. Who knows?

Here’s some misconceptions about appearances and how I’ve handled them in my tarot career:

• “You’re so young!” Sorry to disappoint folks, but I’m really not THAT young. I’ll be turning 31 this year, but I’ve been blessed with really good genes. The women in my family don’t look their age. So though I am in my third decade of life, to some people I look like I’m still in high school. The misconception of youth is that I don’t have enough wisdom to “properly” do what I’ve been doing since sixteen years old (reading tarot cards). To that I say I’m one of those “old souls” and at sixteen had wisdom past my age bracket. Past that, I let my readings speak for themselves.
• “You are dressed so normally.” Yes, I’m most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. Do I look like a new agey flower child sometimes? Sure, when the mood strikes me to wear a sundress. Do I dress up for formal occasions? Hell yes. I clean up pretty well. But I don’t have a “uniform” when I meet a client to read their cards. I don’t even own any hoop earrings! Some tarot readers don’t don a costume for parties because they think it’s demeaning to do so. Well, they’re right, not to mention associating tarot cards with gypsies is an historical inaccuracy to begin with. Why am I dressed in a gathered blouse and long skirts in the above photo? Halloween costume. I dress the part when it’s appropriate, just like everyone knowing that when you dress up like a sexy kitty on Halloween, you don’t dress like that at your office on a regular spring day. Halloween just happens to be my favorite holiday, so I would be dressing up in costume on Halloween, whether reading tarot cards or no.
• “You’re pretty!” Okay, once again, kinda subjective, but it leaves me wondering what my client expected. But where is it writ that a tarot reader fit to the same physical stereotypes as a wizened witch? And being both a tarot reader AND a witch, does that mean I should have the double-whammy of the uglies? Methinks not.

Photographs courtesy of Karen Ringen (Halloween photo) and George Courtney (tarot party photo).

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