New EU legislation came into force on Monday requiring Fortune Tellers to display a disclaimer: “For entertainment purposes only”.
I only learnt about this by chance a few days earlier (for some reason the UK Government does not see this as important as the 10p tax debacle, rampant fuel price rises, fighting crime etc, so maybe they do have a sense of perspective after all). When the law banning smoking in public places came into force, I received my information pack a few days earlier with instructions about the signs, what to say etc. With this legislation, I got nada, zilch.
EU legislation is a touchy subject in the UK at the best of times. This legislation is supposed to protect the public from dodgy commercial practices, such as high pressure selling techniques and making outlandish claims.
From my perspective the new rules are an insult to my clients, none of whom are in any way stupid. They want answers to their situation, which is often complex and does not fit into neat little boxes. After all, if they could have got answers from friends, family, colleagues or the medical and legal profession, they would have done. In reality, my clients have come to the point where they realise that the advice they are given is pretty useless, so they need to turn to someone who is nothing to do with their usual circle. They want someone who does not have the agendas from the people they see daily.
When idols fall there is a crisis of confidence. If the people they relied upon can no longer be trusted, then they doubt their own judgments, which can be catastrophic. The true work of the Tarot reader is to rebuild the inner faith and trust and judgment so they can renew their life with an inner conviction. As a Tarot reader people do not want me to come out with the trite boilerplate answers they can get from anyone else. They want someone who can see their life from their perspective. These days people who come for a reading want choice. They want to know how to change their lives. They want to see alternative directions to their future. It is not my job to say that ‘This is your future…’.
One Comment
I absolutely agree with you. What are they thinking of? EU politicians just cannot think in other terms than in strict political terms, it seems – this is probably why EU is hitting a wall in many policy areas. The expenditures of CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) is still running wild, just to take a rugged example…
When it comes to the view of tarot business, I would really like to see more flexibility from tarot critics. It would be nice to have an affirmation on the fact that we need to separate the wheat from the chaff here, meaning, that the tarot service world might store ’some crooks’ but far away from all of them are dishonest or incompetent. It is kind off unfair that those people should define all tarot consultant among which many are truly great, doing an exceptional job. // Many greetings.