Group Readings at the Winery

This past weekend, our winery group had our first outing of the season. The weather was refreshingly cool. In fact, a little too cool, as we quickly migrated from a picnic table outdoors to an inside table. Others must have felt the same because before long, the inside was packed.

My readings have become a popular part of the winery events. So, what decks (or other reading tools) to take, and what format to use?

I settled on the Tarot of the Magical Forest, and the Gilded Reverie Lenormand. I originally had bought the Gilded Reverie with the winery in mind, although I didn’t use it last year. The images are attractive to the non-reader as well (the Gilded Tarot is always a popular deck), the box is especially sturdy and so are the cards themselves. Everybody loved both decks.

For the format I decided to try a round-robin group reading. Everybody could ask a question, or at least indicate a topic of interest. I would give a one-card reading with the tarot to answer the question; and then pull one Lenormand card to suggest some advice. Of course, in practice there were a couple of people who got two tarot cards where it seemed appropriate. And some of those tarot cards had inherent advice to share as part of their answers!

This format worked well. I didn’t have to go off with people to do longer, private readings; everybody got a reading; and the group all enjoyed hearing the readings of those around them, especially where they knew the situation around a question that I did not. I tried to keep the readings light. Interestingly, only one of them had a difficult card (5 of Cups), but I did my best to be constructive.

The main downside was that we were in such a noisy indoor environment. I have a hard time being heard in that situation in general, and all of the talking (reading and otherwise) left my throat a little sore afterwards. Even a bottle of water couldn’t compensate for that!

The funniest moments were with the Lenormand advice cards. Two people, both of whom had difficult work situations, each got the Clover. (They were at opposite ends of the table so neither heard the others’ readings.) I told each of them that they needed to basically smile and put on a happy face. It resonated with both of them, and apparently one of them had already gotten the same advice from his boss. How funny is that?

Overall, everybody appreciated the readings, and enjoyed having a little magic in their evening. A couple of people would like to get full readings as well. I will continue to use this reading format for the winery visits.