From Alley Valkyrie: "my polytheism"

Alley Valkyrie is an artist, activist and an excellent writer. She's written a wonderful piece on polytheism. Her perspective reflects my own views on this. Visit her blog The Scallop and the Dusk for more personal and poetic posts. Below is a passage from her article on polytheism:

 I don’t think anyone has the right to gate-keep or dictate what polytheism is. Polytheism is not a new concept. Those who are attempting to control the meaning of ‘polytheism’ seem to have forgotten that this is a concept that goes back thousands of years and spans across cultures all over the world. To define it in a way that excludes more ideas than it embraces is a form of cultural erasure. It is colonialist, and it is abusive. My polytheism begins and ends with “there are many gods and they are real”. [Alley Valkyrie,my polytheism – the scallop and the dusk]

In the Biz, What to do When You Mess Up

Doing readings for clients is simply an amazing thing! I love it. Sometimes it's frustrating for me, the reader. Those of us that do readings professionally sometimes get stuck. It happens. Sometimes the client is the, er, issue. They're a skeptic/debunker and are out to "prove" you're a fraud, they're under the influence, they want to argue, etc.






But sometimes, it's you, the reader, who just, simply, messes up with a client. I am embarrassed and sorry to say this happened to me recently.

I had a returning client who left me a not so hot rating because I had not responded to her request for a reading, nor refunded her money, which she had paid for back in April! I have NO idea what happened, none, but for whatever reason, I had no idea this order was pending.

Naturally I felt awful. And the client --who could blame her for never coming to me again? All I could do was apologize profusely, refund her money, AND, here's the thing, offer her three readings using any decks, any type of reading, for free. That's the least I could do.

It's important to be honest with clients, and do what it takes to make things right. This is not the same as letting clients take advantage, that's a different scene. But in this case, I was dismayed to find I had let things get spacey and took this as a message to stay focused on my goals. Which, by the way, a recent reading I had done for me pointed out! Hmmm…

Tarot readers, psychics, etc. are human, just like everyone else. We make mistakes, goof up, -- we're not pure and magic and above making errors. But if and when we do, it's important to own it and do what we can to make it right.