The Ethics of Divination
With great power comes great responsibility. How will you do divination responsibly?
A long time ago, back when rocks were soft and I was young, I went to law school. My ethics professor made the case for why lawyers, doctors and others in the "professions" needed to have a code of ethics and a body that would enforce the code. When you are in a position where you have access to a body of knowledge or a necessary set of practices that ordinary folk do not have, you have an obligation to use that access, that knowledge, and that practice fairly, equitably and with a high standard of integrity.
Lawyers have access to the courts, specialized knowledge of the legal statutes and the procedures by which they are enforced, and ordinary folks who want to access the justice system must have a lawyer to do so. Because lawyers have a kind of monopoly on that access, it is right and good that we be held to a code of ethical behavior that governs how we provide that access to members of the public. The same goes for doctors and other medical professionals, who hold the keys to access medical treatment. Because not everyone can do what you do, but needs access to the practices you perform, you have a duty to be ethical in how you practice your trade.
There is no requirement that those who practice divination must be certified, and there is no universally recognized code of ethics for tarot readers, palm readers, mediums or other folks who provide divination services to others. I worked as a professional tarot reader for many years. I was never once asked about certifications. There are any number of organizations now that will provide you with a tarot "certification" if you pay them some money and do their coursework. (I did have a certification I think it was through the American Tarot Association.) And I am sure that there are similar kinds of organizations that will provide certifications for astrologers, palm readers, any others who use divination tools and offer readings to the public.
All that said, it's still basically a lawless jungle out there for tarot readers and other divination practitioners. While there are plenty of reputable folks offering certifications that have substance, and many do require the applicant put together a code of ethics before they are certified, there isn't really anyplace you can go to require a reader to abide by their code of ethics. As a lawyer, I needed a license from the state to practice law, that license was conditioned on my adhering to a very specific code of ethics, and I could be fined or even lose my license entirely if I didn't abide by the code of ethics, and anyone could file a complaint against me with the authorities if they found me doing something unethical.
I'm not saying that tarot readers and other divination practitioners need to be registered or have an enforceable code of ethics that is managed under state or local law. That's probably a bridge too far. And I'm not saying that what I offer here ought to be a definitive statement on the ethics of divination that governs everyone everywhere. That's not a power I am willing to wield, and I don't think anyone person should have that power either.
What I am willing to say is that anyone who engages in a divination practice, whether it is for money or not, needs to give a thought to the ethics they want to adhere to as part of the practice. You are providing knowledge that comes from the application of skills that not everyone possesses. And given the personal nature of the information, and the fact that people will be impacted by the information and how you deliver it, it behooves you to have some boundaries as to what you will and won't do.
And if you are hiring a reader of any kind, you need to ask about their code of ethics, and think long and hard about working with anyone who either can't or won't provide a code when you ask for it.
A good code of ethics for divination practitioners should cover certain topics. In listing those topics, you'll find that I'm not going to tell you exactly what your ethical limitations should be. I do have opinions on what ought to be mandatory, and I'll share those. But the full line and shape of what you will and won't do is a personal matter. And you owe it to yourself, and to whoever you read for, to thoroughly consider the line and shape of your ethics, and articulate it on your own terms and in your own words. So, bottom line, what I'm offering here isn't a code of ethics so much as a list of things to consider that you can use to construct your own.
A good code of ethics for people engaging in divination practices ought to include the following:
A statement about confidentiality. When a person is coming to you for a reading, they are usually looking for insight on a personal matter, something they are feeling uncertain about. Sometimes the question is about something deeply serious, sometimes it is just for fun. But in every instance, the querant is coming to you with something personal, something that is about them, and is not meant for public consumption. They are trusting you with information that is often sensitive. Questions can include medical information, financial information, personal information.
The question they have is about their life, and the answer you give them is about their life. Sharing the content of their question or your response with anyone else is divulging information that is not yours to share. Even if you think you're sharing a story with someone who's "safe" because they aren't related to the querant in any obvious way, you never know who knows who, and who might overhear or pass it on. Betraying a querant's confidence is ugly business.
Also, while it's highly unlikely, you might want to consider what happens if you suddenly find yourself receiving a subpoena from a Court asking you to divulge the contents of a reading. (maybe you did a reading for someone's spouse about the affair they were having?) Under what circumstances will you divulge the contents of a reading? How far can a querant rely upon your keeping your mouth shut? You might think you want to tell your client you'll never divulge the contents of a reading, but the truth is you might not have a legal basis upon which to do so.
A statement about safety. This is another issue that shows up because of the sharing personal information. Because the querant is telling you their business, there is inherent vulnerability on their part, and that can make a querent feel uncomfortable, exposed and even unsafe. Add to that your querant might not have the same comfort level with occult based practices that you have, and their sense of safety might definitely become eroded over the course of a reading, even if you're doing everything you can to reassure them. Are you prepared to allow a querant to end a reading if they are uncomfortable for any reason? If they've paid for that reading do they get a refund? How will you communicate to your querant that their sense of well-being and safety is important to you?
Then there's the matter of your sense of safety. When someone makes themselves vulnerable to another person, it tends to produce a false sense of intimacy with the person they are sharing their business with. Do you have boundaries you need to enforce to make sure you feel safe with your querant? What are they? Make sure you're up front about what you might need to do to protect your boundaries.
A statement about consent. Similar to the above discussion around your ability to share the contents of a reading that "belongs" to the querant, consider carefully if your querant is asking you to read for someone who's not in the room, and what that means. If a woman comes to me asking me to do a reading about what's going to happen to her boyfriend, my response is that I can't do a reading for someone who isn't available to consent to the reading. If she wants me to do a reading on what she needs to know about her relationship with her boyfriend, that is still a reading about her situation, her relationship, her reactions. That I can do. But I can't do a reading where I tell her what's going to happen to him, about his situation or his reactions. Not unless he is there to consent to sharing information that is about him. That would be using divination to "spy" on him. I find that most of these kinds of issues can be resolved by keeping the focus of the inquiry on the querant. But every once in a while, I have to tell a client no.
Consent is further complicated when you're dealing with minors. Legally in the United States the age of consent for contractual obligations is 18 years old. That's the age at which a person is no longer a "minor" subject to the control of their parent. There are a lot of things minors can't consent to without their parents' agreement. That said, children participate in paid entertainment all the time, and in many jurisdictions, divination offered to the public is legally required to be considered entertainment. What will you do if someone who isn't 18 comes to you for a reading? Will you take the risk of their parent finding out about it and potentially being unhappy with you? Do you think that readings require adult consent? There isn't clear law on this point, so it's really up to you. If you think that consent is required, at what age is that consent okay? Is the consent of an 8 year old as valid as the consent of a 17 year old? What limits are you going to set, how will you communicate them, and what are you prepared to do to enforce them?
A statement about free will and honesty. One of the biggest problems I saw when I was a professional reader with paying clients were the clients who had been to readers in the past who used their position as a reader to create a sense of dependency in the client. One client had been told by a reader that he was "under a curse" and as a result he religiously kept going to the reader every month to get guidance so he could avoid the "curse." Obviously, that reader was being dishonest and manipulating the client, delivering information to them in a way that would keep them coming back, keep them spending money.
A client is a human being endowed with free will, and when a reader makes a client feel "trapped" by the result of the reading, that's a problem. How will you avoid that? How will you communicate to your querant that no matter what your divination says, they are still a being with free will who can apply their own choices to a situation? Consider how you present information in your divination practice so that you can empower your clients to make their own choices, rather than take choices away from them. This is their life, not yours, and they should be making their own decisions about what they do.
Then there are the clients who try to use you as a security blanket, and want multiple readings on everything from their job search to their boyfriend to what they will cook for dinner this week. That kind of dependency is absolutely unhealthy. Will you set limits on clients who try to delegate all their decision making to your divination?
The flip side of this problem is honesty. Sometimes you will get information in the course of a reading that is undeniably hard to deliver. How do you tell a querant that their parent is going to die? (First of all, is that really what's being said? The first issue here is that you want to be absolutely certain of what the message is, if you think it might be something devastating like that.) You don't want to hide information, but you also don't want to devastate your querant. How will you handle bad news so that you're being sensitive to the situation without being dishonest?
A statement about competency and limitations of practice. People want to participate in divination because they want clarity about a problem, and they want to know what to do about it. They want advice. The problem is, some types of advice really need to come from specialized sources. Legal advice should come from a licensed attorney who's practicing in the type of law you're dealing with. Medical advice should come from a board-certified physician certified in the area of medicine you're dealing with. Psychological counseling should come from a licensed counselor. Not only is this good sense, this is the law. Failure to recognize that limitation can open you up not just to doing something unethical, but something illegal for which you can be prosecuted.
For your own protection, it's vitally important to understand those boundaries. Include in your code of ethics some understanding of how you will handle things when advice crosses the line from being appropriately within your expertise, to being the kind of advice that should come from a licensed professional.
A statement about money. As I mentioned above, some readers will manipulate situations with paid clients to try and extract as much money as possible from them. It is sadly a very common practice for unethical readers to "upsell" clients in the middle of a reading, telling them that they are "under a curse" that they can remove -- for more money, of course. Some will withhold part of a reading, claiming that the client needs to pay an extra fee to receive the extra knowledge. It's important if you're charging a fee for your divination work, that the fee is a fair one for the service being offered, and that the fee structure is transparent from the outset. How will you make sure that your paying client feels they got their money's worth and were dealt with fairly and honestly?
Even if you don't plan to charge a fee for sharing your divination practice, you still want to think about what will happen if someone offers you money. Are there situations for which you cannot accept money even if it is offered to you? Some types of divination don't vibe with commerce, and accepting money will anger the deities involved. Sometimes you want to make sure you are in right relationship with money for other reasons. I stopped doing paid public tarot readings out of a desire to help dismantle some of the structures that create inequity for the Romani people, many of whom rely on tarot reading for their livelihood, and if I receive money for teaching tarot, I put a portion of the proceeds to the European Roma Rights Centre. The answers to these types of questions are often nuanced and highly individual. What is right for me might not be right for you. But you'll want to know your answers in any event.
Whether you're just mucking about with tarot cards with your friends or hoping to do professional readings out of your local witch shop for the public, being someone who uses divination to help people with their problems makes you powerful. And that power must be used responsibly. Part of being responsible is thinking ahead, identifying potential pitfalls and situations where there might be ethical problems, and doing the hard work of figuring out what your response to an ethical challenge will be.
While I can't guarantee that you'll be prepared for every potential problem, the energy and thought you devote to your ethical code won't go to waste. The right answer is not always the easy answer, to be sure. But wrong answers are often come too easy when one isn't thinking things all the way through. And wrong answers will cost you -- they can take your money, your peace of mind, your relationships. Not practicing divination ethically can lead to difficult consequences that would have been easy to predict, if you'd just taken the time to think. And it doesn't take being a reader or a seer to know that.
Blessed be, witches.