You are in a position of influence
Someone who asks you for a reading is, at that moment, unusually open to what you say. That is a real responsibility and it does not go away because the medium is cards.
Deliver difficult cards honestly and carefully
Do not hide the Tower. Do not dress it up as "a period of change" when the reading clearly says collapse: people can tell, and a reading you cannot trust is worse than no reading.
Do give the whole card. The Tower is destruction and the removal of what was false. The Ten of Swords is ruin and a dawn on the horizon. The full meaning is not a softening; it is accuracy.
And leave the person somewhere they can stand. A reading that ends in unrelieved dread has failed even if every card was read correctly.
Questions to decline
Health. Do not diagnose. Do not comment on whether someone should take a medication. Refer them to a doctor and mean it.
Death and timing. Do not answer "when will X die". There is no version of this that ends well.
Pregnancy. Do not tell someone they are or are not pregnant, or will or will not conceive. The harm potential is enormous and the reliability is zero.
Legal matters. Do not advise on a case. Refer them to a solicitor.
Third parties who have not consented. "What is my partner thinking" is a request to surveil someone. Redirect it to the querent: what do you need in this relationship, and what are you afraid of.
Never say "the cards say"
You are interpreting. Say "I read this as", "this suggests to me", "what I am seeing here". This is not false modesty. It is accurate, and it keeps the querent's agency where it belongs.
"I saw it in the cards" is how readers avoid responsibility for things they chose to say.
The line
You are not a therapist, a doctor, a lawyer or a financial adviser. If a reading surfaces something that needs one of those, say so plainly and stop reading. Knowing where the edge is, and saying so out loud, is the most important skill in this lesson.
