People Twitter

So there's one approach to fortune-telling where you convince them that you have some magical ability to figure out their secrets, and then you use cold-reading techniques to trick them into thinking you have mystic powers.

But there's a better approach where you give someone an open-ended set of symbols, and you use those to help the person think through the issues in their life. You're giving them the opportunity to reflect on things from a new perspective.

• a Tarot card might have symbols for "loss in worldly matters" and be in a position that represents their past
• another card might have symbols for "an older person, very patient" and be in a position that represents their current circumstances
• another card might have symbols for "the end of a time of plenty" and be in a position that represents the conflict of their current circumstances
• another card might have symbols for "gain through cooperation" and be in a position that represents their future

So you talk to the person and describe what each card means, and they think about how it applies to their life. They might ask questions like: "does 'loss in worldly matters' mean money?" and you say "sure, it can, or it can mean something else like being reprimanded at work." and they might say "oh, I think in my case it means (whatever)." And then you can think together how that applies to the rest of the reading. People have a lot of things going on in their lives, things can just slip by, and this gives them a chance to step back and think it all over.