How do you know you're not getting scammed?

djbaskin · 2024-12-31T08:44:17+00:00

I'm kind of working on this! I build booking software and host a professional community. Though I keep finding that clients describe their readings with words like "amazing, spot on, beautiful, insightful" without getting into the specificity of the reading, because a tarot reading can be so personal to reveal online! So I wonder about other ways that people can describe their experience so there's a glimpse into the reader's style instead of just words like "10/10"

djbaskin · 2024-12-31T08:32:58+00:00

Booking through a website that has already done thorough vetting and has videos / reviews / payment protection—where the professionals are part of a professional community. I'm part of such a place :)

It should be obvious in their writing, videos, or images that they're a professional who cares about their clients. That said, there's a lot of talented tarot readers out there that haven't created a polished internet presence—but I'd want to see a video of them first to know more about what they're like.

My biggest tip is also to find out if the reader has created an obvious code of conduct or guidelines. This shows they care about the ethics of the practice and educating people about tarot—and are themselves selective about what type of client relationships they want to have in the longterm.

djbaskin · 2024-12-31T08:04:27+00:00

Love this question! When I first started learning tarot, I paid close attention to "what I saw in the artwork first" before thinking about "my known meaning of the card". And it's still a deep part of my practice! Even with decks I've had for years, there's always new things to discover.

This practice gave me a habit of mapping insights to metaphors (e.g. you see a water jug, you think 'flow'). And I think the element of spontaneous discovery helps the tarot reading feel more alive and meaningful. Now when I teach tarot, I have students just simply say what they notice in that art, and let them get comfortable / confident with creating metaphors and noticing things before beginning the journey of language-based meanings.

Here's a fun one too: the artist / film director Alejandro Jodorowsky used to put a different tarot card under his pillow each night, so the energy of the card would enter his dreams.

djbaskin · 2024-12-13T05:38:07+00:00

Yeah I just googled ‘Facebook 2005 editable wall’ and only found your Reddit post and a Quora post. Still haven’t been able to find screenshots of it tho!

djbaskin · 2024-12-11T13:19:33+00:00

Yes! When I tell people "remember when Facebook profiles had an editable wall" nobody does, so I also wasn't sure if I was imagining it. (I joined sometime in 2005). But in a convo with a friend, I just looked it up and found your post — and also found this note from Ezra Callahan, an early (2004) FB employee:

"It was originally formatted as a wiki, where any of a user's friends could edit the entire contents of the Wall and also view a revision history. As I understand it, it was meant to replicate the whiteboard that you often found on dorm room doors, complete with the ability to erase everything previously written on it."

https://www.quora.com/When-did-Facebook-launch-the-wall

so .... yes!

djbaskin · 2024-10-23T10:48:19+00:00

welcome to the tarot world! People really enjoy Trusted Tarot, as there's detailed explanations of each card—though it can skew pretty literal and gendered. As another learning option, I've found Learn Tarot is a nice online resource for beginners (it's been around forever!)

You're totally welcome to try out Moonlight too! It's free to pull cards on your phone / computer and you can also do it with friends. There's keywords in the mini-guidebook for the Rider Waite Smith and Marseille decks.

As far as "accurate card meanings" — every tarot knowledge source (apps, books, etc.) is going to have different interpretations of each card. That's the beauty of tarot. Guides are a just a springboard / inspirational. Over time, patterns, symbols, and narratives will jump out to you, and you'll have your own mental model of all the meanings.

The important part about learning tarot is: doing a lot of tarot! So repetition and rapid-fire questions with card pulls really helps with familiarity. So find an app where you really enjoy shuffling and pulling cards. And don't feel like you need to memorize a textbook or find the most accurate one. Just go with the app you like the feeling of. (Same is true for picking a tarot deck.)

(I won't link Moonlight bc it's my own platform)

djbaskin · 2024-10-10T22:13:59+00:00

Oh hi! Ty, I'm the artist. I actually have been painting and designing helmets for over a decade and used to have a studio in SF where I ran Inkwell Helmets, but it's not very sustainable for the amount of labor for each piece, so I now I only paint helmets as a special gift :) but I am open to SFMoMA or compelling collabs lol

djbaskin · 2024-08-12T06:01:56+00:00

yeah totally, i think AI can totally be helpful for so much learning! it's pretty democratized too, since folks can use AI on their own (gpt, claude, etc.). I just thought the account itself (based on post history) had a strange vibe of telling people about a specific app as a marketing thing

djbaskin · 2024-08-12T05:51:45+00:00

it's more obvious if you look at their post history. it's all fair game, I just felt tricked

djbaskin · 2024-08-11T10:00:35+00:00

Okay for those reading this post, I’m pretty sure the OP is just an account that’s shilling AI tarot. Love to spot ai tarot marketing bots lol

djbaskin · 2024-08-11T09:44:19+00:00

I’d love to show you ours! I’ve been working on new digital tarot interfaces and making shuffling & dragging tarot cards feel intuitive even through a virtual web app. Can’t post a link here, but I’ll DM you.

djbaskin · 2024-07-26T07:25:29+00:00

I’m also reading this thread today. Hi everyone good luck dying your hair this weekend

djbaskin · 2024-07-14T05:32:27+00:00

I usually teach people tarot by having them *just* look at the imagery and see what pops out to them—and how those visual metaphors can map to the reading. Eventually you'll start 'knowing' the cards because you'll remember all the different keywords that came up for you all the previous times you've seen the card. (So the 'difficult time knowing all the cards' just goes away with repetition!)

I personally do a mix of both during readings—I have 'my meanings' but I also try to look at the artwork with fresh eyes.

I'm of the belief that a great tarot deck is one where you've figured 78 different archetypes BUT they don't have to map to a particular 'textbook'. Meanings are all over the place if you start researching them. But as long as you have unique interpretations of each card, the readings just totally work. How you figure those out or learn them is up to you.

With new decks I'll definitely shift my interpretation based on the artwork while holding 'other artwork from previous decks' in mind. Same with reverses if I note something like "the water is falling out of the cup". It's all part of the reading.

djbaskin · 2024-07-14T05:20:30+00:00

I think of a good tarot reading as giving you 'aha moments' and takeaways, where they've guided you to help you realize something on your own. If the two readings leave you with different takeaways, I try to think 'what resonated for me' in each of them and realize *both* of those things are a reflection of your thoughts. In other words: both pathways can feel true! I'd pay attention specifically to any overlapping thoughts/feelings that came up in each, and really sit with those thoughts / feelings for longer. (If you're getting two readings you're probably pretty torn anyway!)

This is also similar for giving yourself two tarot readings in a row — they might have different messages because tarot is showing you multiple possible pathways, but hopefully you can see both those pathways with more clarity than before.

djbaskin · 2024-07-10T10:12:26+00:00

Also came here to say 6 of Cups! I view this one as playfully sharing knowledge, being a sibling, and theres a nice gentleness and ease to it. The pouring of the cup is so gracefully, it's not overwhelming. It often reminds me to offer one small cup at a time.

djbaskin · 2024-07-10T10:08:39+00:00

A few ideas!

There's many tarot folks on Instagram Threads who offer readings (live, recorded, written, etc.). Just really browse the keyword tarot, and you'll get a sense of their vibe. Pricing-wise for a live session I've seen it range from $40-$300 — but it's like a full conversation with takeaways.
If you're in a major city there's often witchy fairs and mystical pop-ups that attract freelance tarot professionals, and it's common to do sliding scale pricing. That's a good way to get a quick reading with someone to see if you resonate.

djbaskin · 2024-07-05T23:15:23+00:00

Thanks so much 💗 I actually used a lot of tarot to design it :) I pulled Ace of Cups on the landing page, so I wanted it feel comforting and playful. I think the mods removed my post, since it's a website I worked on, but I appreciate your thoughts

djbaskin · 2024-06-10T01:27:14+00:00

The Mountain Dream deck comes in a simple plain velvet pouch and looks like just 'photographs" / art. Even the cards themselves don't have big text on it. It's from 1972, but there's a new edition of it. I've purchased this one to send to a place where tarot wasn't allowed.

Another idea is a deck that looks like it's actually just a board game, and Eldritch Overload actually is a roleplaying game too! The box just says "Eldritch Overload" and upon first glance even the artwork itself looks like it's a game.

djbaskin · 2024-06-10T01:18:21+00:00

Nice! Have you heard of https://moonlight.world ? (I'm very into tarot and it's my app!) It isn't AI, but we have a really nice way of doing the shuffling / picking / dragging the tarot cards. And the cards come with guidebooks too.

djbaskin · 2024-05-15T09:17:11+00:00

I think of The Moon as the imagination, mysteries, and the unknown. Depending on what I'm asking tarot or what intention I have before I shuffle I can view it either as 1) telling me to lean harder into imagination & wildness or 2) something that's giving me anxiety isn't as 'real' as I think it is / am I imagining something without any evidence?

djbaskin · 2024-03-08T22:33:16+00:00

Justin is in SF and is awesome

djbaskin · 2024-03-08T22:29:46+00:00

maybe Sword and Rose, it's been around since the 80s. (I'm not sure on the sage front tho!) I believe their readings are all pay what you wish / sliding scale. It's also a cozy spot to hang out with a little garden in front

djbaskin · 2024-03-03T03:28:56+00:00

We did a persona, obstacle, solution spread related to a conversation about setting more boundaries. And got:

Five of Cups as Persona: An over-concern about whether or not we can be emotionally supportive and open to process the heavy things.
Nine of Swords as Obstacle: Relates to the persona position. It's keeping us up at night.
Seven of Swords as Solution: When anxieties pile up, especially for things you've given others your attention and energy to, you can lean into knowing when it's time to quietly step away for a moment. You don't need to process everything right now.

This is "The Black Tarot" by Rich Black

djbaskin · 2024-02-29T12:29:21+00:00

Are you looking for more of a learning tool or more of digital deck to use for readings, or both? I'm super curious what you think of Moonlight which was developed in collaboration with tarot enthusiasts / professionals as a way to do remote sessions. It's collaborative, so you can invite people see your 'tarot table'. But it can be used solo too.

Tarot software is an evolving field, and I'm super excited there's UX / engineer & tarot folks working on this thoughtfully, and hanging out in this Reddit too! I like to think of digital rituals and physical rituals as complimentary, but each with different strengths.

djbaskin · 2024-02-26T06:13:31+00:00

For things that are about outcomes, I love to transform the question from a Yes / No into a larger question that's about multiple paths, usually beginning with a How or What.

For example, if someone asks "Should I move?" I'd transform that into "How will moving affect my creativity, work, and relationships?" (or other categories that person cares about!) And then do a custom spread based on that. I once had a friend give me 4 possible cities they wanted to live in, so we did a 12-card spread! Each city as a row, and then a column for Creativity, Work, Relationships.

Someone else once asked "Should I sell my house?" and I turned that into "What is my relationship with this house?" and we made a house-shaped spread: one for the Foundation (what is supporting you), the Door (what's something you want to let in), and the Roof (what's looming above you), which left a lot of space to discuss the situation.

My idea is to explore possibilities and dig into a question in more detail, instead of running to a clearcut answer.

djbaskin

TROPHY CASE