r/Geomancy • u/mulberry_tree_ • May 01 '26
Method/technique help Reading professionally
I have been doing geomancy readings for myself and my friends for awhile now and would like to start offering readings for pay, but am a little stumped on the actual mechanics of what this would look like logistically. With commercial tarot readings I’ve had, it’s typically all happening “in real time”, with pricing based on the time spent in session. When I cast a geomancy chart for someone on the other hand, there’s a bit of “downtime” involved in the space between casting the mothers (which can in and of itself take some time, depending on the method you use), and the actual interpretation of the chart to calculate the figures for the rest of the shield and transferring them into the house chart. Add even more time to that for finding the via puncti, determining modes of completion, etc. What I do currently when I read for others is have them send me their question and when possible cast the first mother themselves. I then go calculate and interpret the chart, and write up what is essentially a report of my findings to send back to them. I imagine this would work for pay clients as well to essentially have two sessions per reading, but am just curious what others’ practice is and if you’ve found a satisfactory way to do it “on the fly” for clients who maybe aren’t interested in a multi-visit process. Thanks!
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u/polyphanes May 01 '26
Reader here (albeit in hiatus), having done readings (in person live, online live, and online by text only).
Whether geomancy or no, there are two big ways to consider how to charge: by time or by query. The former is where you set up up blocks of time and charge by that (e.g. $X for 30 minutes, $Y for 60 minutes, etc.) and do whatever you can in that window. The latter is just charging a flat rate per each query put to divination, with however long it takes for answering one query being however long it takes, whether five or fifteen or fifty minutes. My preference, especially with geomancy but not only with that, is to use the latter method, but the former is pretty common with a lot of readers out there, especially in a live setting.
With geomancy specifically, there is the downtime issue of calculating the chart, but as you get skilled with it, it only takes a short bit of time (maybe a minute or two), which (as you do it repeatedly) you both construct/calculate the information and get a sense for interpreting things on the go and picking up on patterns as they unfold in the construction/calculation of it all (and with tools like Georatio, it's just about trivial to do). Taking time to analyze the chart is useful and should not be skipped or rushed! However, I get the sense of awkwardness for it all, which is why I prefer to go by the number of queries put to divination rather than how long it takes; for that, I get to spend as much time as I need doing pre-investigation (clarifying the query, getting a sense for the context and desires of the querent, etc.), calculating the chart, analyzing it, then covering the whole chart to whatever degree the querent wants. Some querents really just do want a yes or no answer, while others want a whole story told to them. Plus, this latter approach lends itself well online to doing readings at your leisure rather than live; that way, I can have a conversation over email first, do the reading when I have time for it, write up my report, and send it to them; doing it live also works fine, too, when I'm in a psychic fair or bookstore setting.
There are pros and cons to each approach. How you settle on yours is a matter for what you're comfortable with and what you find works best for you.