The Reader: Zhanya (from Keen)
When I was looking for a tarot reading service, I was most conscious of not getting scammed. The website Keen, kept coming up. It’s a website that was founded in 1999 and aims to “connect people to psychics”. The reviews were mixed, some found it a great service and others not so much, but with huge websites like this you should always be wary of the fake reviewers.
There was a wide variety of psychics, tarot card readers, mediums. Every type of soothsayer, at every type of price. Some at a humble dollar a minute, or less, some at a startling $48.99 a minute. For someone to do me a tarot reading and charge me almost $50 a minute, the deck should be made of gold and I get to keep it at the end.
For this part of ‘The Good, The Bad and The Expensive’ of Tarot card readings, we are exploring the bad. So I went on the hunt for the least expensive, but most legit looking I could find.
The Reading
I picked a profile that went by the name Zhanya, the profile picture was an animated character. Zhanya cost me a dollar for 4 minutes, and started off with a little small talk, thanking me for choosing them and then asking me to clear my mind.
When I asked a question I was made suspicious of their answers as the grammar made the sentences make little sense, yet the spelling was perfect. A usual tell-tale sign of a bot. Or could maybe be someone whose first language isn’t English but has the help of autocorrect. I asked how this would work and could I ask a specific question? The reader I guess ignored my question and started naming cards.
They said, “the first thing that comes up on you is Justice”. That card actually once I read into it, completely spoke to me, and related to the question I had in mind, but that I never got to ask. The Justice card has a lot to do with moral sensitivity and telling the truth. The person on the card usually holds a scale and a sword. The scale represents the importance of the greater good against competing needs. The sword, representing the precision needed when telling the truth. Telling you to tell the whole truth, this card apparently is clear in its message of not making the mistake of telling half-truths. This law of karma is represented in this card and during the reading I didn’t buy into it at all but once I researched this first card I was taken aback at just how relevant this card was to the question in mind which revolved completely on whether I should tell someone the full truth or not, and when.
The second card was the Chariot, which after researching a little bit also made sense to me. The card in its most basic meaning, represents victory and overcoming obstacles. Other descriptions of this card said it signified a triumphal feeling of freedom, this phrase spoke to me a lot too. Again, I never was able to tell this person that my question was about telling someone the truth, but a feeling of freedom is definitely something someone feels after telling someone a long-awaited truth.
The third card was the Two of Cups, and often represents a romantic relationship which also was very relevant to me. It can represent other types of relationship, but no matter what relationship is relevant to you, it is signifying that all those types depend on a deep mutual understanding. It is a positive card that shows harmony, unity and basically just two people seeing each other for who they are and supporting them.
All these made sense to me, even the order of them made sense. It was somehow such a clear message, tell the whole truth, once you have you’ll finally feel free, and your relationship will be fine and even strengthened by it. This reading despite being a bit strange in communication, cheap as hell and possibly a scam, ended up being incredibly pertinent to me and brought me a lot of comfort.
The Reader: Jim Stone (from Keen)
For the expensive part of the series, the second reading I sought out was $10 for 4 minutes. I was hoping for a lot more, as I was paying more, $2.50 a minute to be precise. Which, I know doesn’t sound incredibly expensive, but for a stranger with no accolades to potentially pretend to look at cards, I think that’s pretty pricey. I also did not want to risk paying a lot more on this site, just to fill the pockets of someone using a beautiful and respected form of divination for selfish monetary gain.
The Reading
This reading was slower to get to the point, which was annoying as I didn’t have long. He also did not name the cards he was apparently pulling, which again was annoying as I thoroughly enjoyed interpreting the cards the previous reader pulled. He asked me my name and the name of the person I was thinking of. I said I’d rather not give his name, and he said that made sense why he was struggling to connect. I did also get the opportunity to actually ask the reader my specific question. He then gave me specific advice of waiting 3 weeks, which I appreciated at the time, but upon reflection realised that’s not really the sort of message Tarot Cards would give. The last thing he said was that there would be bumps but it would “smooth over beautifully” and there would be “no long-term repercussions”.
This experience taught me a lot, I need to not accept my own first judgement of something or someone as absolute. When I finished both readings, I saw more value in the more expensive one. Firstly, because it actually was more valuable I suppose. Secondly, the person had a full name and profile picture, this added a level of authenticity to me. Now that I think about this, it might actually be the only reason his reading cost more. The website would obviously be aware of the fact that customers will be more drawn towards profiles that appear more ‘legit’. The website might reward those willing to put a face on their profile, by letting them charge more. Thirdly, I did not have any understanding of the meaning of different tarot cards.
After spending time comparing and evaluating the two readings, my opinion did a whole 180. I laughed at the first reading and straight away assumed it was a scam and after taking the time to understand what the cards being pulled represented; I consider that reading miles more profound and valuable to me than the other. If you choose to go on a path like mine, clueless about tarot cards and where to find a reading, ensure you go into it with a more open mind than I did. I feel I came away with a meaningful experience and I almost didn’t.